Home : World War II :

The Army In WWII

The United States emerged from the war with global military commitments that included the occupation of Germany and Japan and the oversight of Allied interests in liberated areas. Almost 13 million Americans were in uniform at the end of the war; over 8 million of them were soldiers. But the impulse was strong to follow the patterns of the past and dismantle this force. Families pressed the government to "bring the boys home," and soldiers overseas demanded the acceleration of the separation process. American monopoly of the atomic bomb seemed to furnish all the power that American security interests needed. Some air power advocates even argued that the bomb made armies and navies obsolete.

President Roosevelt had died in April 1945, on the eve of victory. The new President, Harry S. Truman, and his advisers tried to resist the political pressures for hasty demobilization. Truman wanted to retain a postwar Army of 1.5 million. But neither Congress nor the American public was willing to sustain such a force. Within five months of V-J Day, 8.5 million servicemen and women had been mustered out, and in June of the following year only two full Army divisions were available for deployment in an emergency. By 1947 the Army numbered a mere 700,000 - sixth in size among the armies of the world.

Yet too much had changed for the Army to return to its small and insular prewar status. Millions of veterans now remembered their service with pride. The beginning of the Cold War, especially the Berlin blockade of 1948, dramatically emphasized the need to remain strong. The Army had become too deeply intertwined with American life and security to be reduced again to a constabulary force. Moreover, the time was not far off when new conflicts would demonstrate the limits of atomic power and prove that ground forces were as necessary as they had been in the past.

Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, Office of the Supreme Commander

The keynote of success of these forces was Allied unity of thought, purpose and deed in all ranks and echelons, without which the utter military defeat of Germany could not have been achieved. I must pay equal tribute to every soldier of the United Nations who fought with me, Great Britain, Canada, and her other Dominions, France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Norway and Denmark …

To this fine fighting team the American soldier brought the best American traditions both as representatives of our nation and as fighting men. Moulded by long months of varied and arduous training in the United States, he has been tried and tested in all aspects of combat under the most rigorous conditions of weather and terrain against a vicious and fanatical enemy. He repeatedly demonstrated a high degree of individual initiative, resourcefulness, energy and physical and moral stamina until now he has emerged victorious.

The success of our Armies would have been utterly impossible without the magnificent support of the American people in supplying an almost insatiable demand for the sinews of war. For they made our country the "Arsenal of Democracy" and made good our boast as the best fed, best clothed, best equipped, and best medically cared-for Army in history. Equally impossible would this feat of arms have been without complete cooperation on land, on the sea, and in the air. Through the combined and coordinated efforts of all arms and services the final goal was achieved. Commanders, staffs, and men are worthy of the highest praise which can be paid them. And to those who died that this great victory might be won, we can repay them only by ensuring that the peace will be as surely won as the military victory for which they gave their lives.

The keynote of a successful peace is teamwork and unity of purpose among the free nations of the world; that same teamwork which brought us through the dark days of Nazi triumphs to the final defeat of Germany.

General Headquarters, Southwest Pacific Area, Office Of The Commander-In-Chief

Words alone are inadequate to describe the noble heights to which our fighting men have risen in the campaigns culminating in Philippine liberation. Of a peace-loving race and stranger to the sword, in our Country's cause they have perfected mastery of the sword. Through a valor unsurpassed in military annals and with an unconquerable spirit which is the very cornerstone to our country's greatness, they have forced the enemy relentlessly back to his own Empire fortress or destroyed him where he elected to stand. Neither the worst of Nature's barriers, deadly disease and pestilence, nor the defensive dispositions of a fanatical enemy could halt them in this resolute forward advance.

These men from every state in the American Union - indeed from every city in every state - are a cross section of our people. In theirs, the future of our country - in peace or war-rests in strong and reliable hands. On their record, written unforgettably throughout the Far East, all Americans may find justifiable pride - on it Our Flag has been enshrined in new glory, new dignity, and new honor.

The United States Department of War (sometimes also called the War Office) Washington, DC

We have deep and just cause to be thankful to a beneficent Providence on this day - thankful for the strength and endurance of our Allies, thankful that we have been able to raise up a mighty Army in time to meet the dangers that confronted us, thankful for the skill of our commanders and the courage and initiative of our soldiers that have brought to successful conclusion one of the great military feats of history. We should be deeply grateful also, that science, industry and labor have wrought the wonders of production that have allowed our fighting forces to confound the enemy with speed and fire power at sea, on land, in the air.

We have won a mighty victory in less time and with less loss than we had any right to expect. And as we pay solemn tribute to those who have died to save our civilization we thank the God who has blessed our cause to this present victory and pray for His continued help until the task is done.

The German nation united science and industry to the cause of degenerate barbarism. They turned their full manpower, long trained to war, to the conquest of the world that they might banish from it all the higher aspirations of mankind. Their vile ambitions are shattered. Their leader is no more. The savage ambition he taught them is defeated. But the void in their character and the infection of their depravity still abides with them. They must be watched lest they again poison civilization.

On the other side of the world the Japanese have likewise taken savage conquest and brutal rule as a national aspiration and justified it, like the Germans, by a self-adjudged superiority. Hirohito follows the downward paths of Mussolini and Hitler. His fading power for evil must and shall be utterly destroyed.

We are fighting one vast war for a decent world. We shall continue that war wherever it has to be fought with all our righteous might until the last sign of power in our enemies has disappeared from sight.

Historical Record Of Secretary Of War Henry I. Stimson's Statement To The Nation Over The Radio On V-E Day.

Francis Trevelyan Miller. History of World War II. Special Armed Forces Edition. Riverside Book and Bible House, Iowa Falls, Iowa. 1945.

---

Patton and the Battle of the Bulge Follow every detail of Patton's actions during Germany's famous WWII counteroffensive. From the attacks of the 5th and 6th Panzer Armies at Schnee Eifel and St. Vith to the 3rd Army offensive that forced the Rhine River, the authors capture all of the critical actions of both Allied and German troops, focusing on the famous general who led the American forces.

---

top of page

back a page