Cigarettes and Matches

Cigarettes were an integral part of World War II, with possibly up to 75% of soldiers taking up the habit. Tobacco was a military staple, and American soldiers received cigarettes in their rations — typically a mini-pack of either three or four Old Golds, Chesterfields, Lucky Strikes, or Camels, along with a fold of waterproof paper matches. Soldiers were encouraged to smoke to relieve boredom and raise morale — and for a moment of respite before or during the chaos of battle. Cigarettes were also used as a form of currency — so much so that even nonsmokers carried some smokes. 

The popularity of smoking also meant that many soldiers carried matches or lighters in their pockets. Zippo lighters, in particular, became a near-essential tool for many fighting men and women during the war. 

Local Money and Special Military Currency

Soldiers used various goods as trade items during World War II, including cigarettes, chocolate, and alcohol. But their pockets might also have contained actual currency. Troops overseas were normally paid in native, local currencies, because the foreign nations in which they were stationed didn’t want an influx of dollars disrupting their local economies. 

Apart from local currencies, there were two types of paper currency produced by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing specifically for use by U.S. and Allied forces overseas. Special Currency was produced for use in U.S. areas under threat of invasion or in enemy-held areas about to be invaded by Allied forces. Then there was Allied Military Currency (AMC), created to supplement existing local currencies abroad and printed in their respective monetary units — for example, francs for France and marks for Germany. 

Reading Material

Reading was a good way to alleviate boredom during long stretches of downtime, while also offering a much-needed form of escapism. Bulky books, however, weren’t practical for carrying around during a war. Publishers decided to help the war effort by printing miniature paperback books that were small enough to easily fit in a soldier’s pocket. The books — more than 122 million of them — were printed on delicate paper and would last about six readings before falling to pieces. They included an array of literature, from Dickens and Shakespeare to mysteries and Westerns. 

Another common type of reading material was the pocket guide, issued to soldiers before they went abroad to an unfamiliar country. These guides explained the customs, geography, language, and cultural quirks of each country, helping soldiers to navigate foreign surroundings without upsetting the locals.  

Handkerchiefs

The humble handkerchief was standard issue for soldiers in World War II. A handkerchief was easy to carry in a pocket and could serve numerous practical purposes, including for personal hygiene, as an emergency bandage, as a sweatband, as a dust mask, for signaling, for straining debris from drinking water, and for wrapping up food. 

Handkerchiefs also played a more secretive role, sometimes serving as clandestine maps — known as “escape and evasion maps” — which were printed onto both sides of cloth handkerchiefs to be used by Allied troops in case of capture behind enemy lines. 

Some soldiers also carried embroidered handkerchiefs in their pockets, made of durable cotton or nylon that wouldn’t fade or disintegrate like paper. These keepsake handkerchiefs were embroidered with all kinds of messages and pictures, and were kept as reminders of family, souvenirs, or gifts for sweethearts once the soldier made it home. 

Religious Items and Lucky Charms

Before deploying to fight in World War II, U.S. soldiers of the Christian faith were issued a pocket-sized volume of the New Testament and Book of Psalms. Jewish service members, meanwhile, were given an abridged National Jewish Welfare Board pocket-sized prayer book to take with them. Some soldiers purchased steel-covered New Testaments before going off to fight — designed to be carried in the pocket over one’s heart as both spiritual and physical protection. Rosaries were another common religious item found in the pockets of Catholic soldiers. Many other soldiers, whether religious or not, carried lucky charms, which could have been anything from a rabbit’s foot to a lucky coin or bullet. 

Small Notebooks and Pencils

Communication and record-keeping were crucial in the field. Officers typically carried a notebook and pencil to record orders, map coordinates, mission objectives, and other tactical observations. Some regular infantry troops also carried a notebook and pencil (which was more reliable than an ink pen) for writing letters home, sketching, or making a record of their experiences. 

Diary writing, however, posed a potential security risk, as sensitive information could fall into enemy hands. American combat personnel were officially forbidden from keeping diaries in World War II, but that didn’t necessarily stop them from doing so. And that’s a good thing for military historians and anyone trying to understand what life was like for these soldiers, as pocket diaries offer some of the most intimate and immediate portrayals of life for a soldier during the war.  

Still, drinking torpedo juice was dangerous, as not every distilling method succeeded. A Navy hospital corps member named Norton Lund told the Anchorage Daily News, “We had guys drinking [torpedo juice]. We got a couple of guys that got the wrong stuff. You can go blind from it and you can die from it. We had that problem.” During a 1943 tour of the war’s Pacific theater, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt observed, “Last night, four men died from drinking distilled shellac,” likely referring to torpedo juice. And in an interview with the Armed Forces in Oklahoma Oral History Project, veteran Thomas Duncan recalled a time when a 22-year-old soldier died in his sleep after drinking torpedo juice. In his telling, it’s unclear whether the death was caused by unsuccessful toxin removal, or simply alcohol poisoning from too much of the potent cocktail.

Ultimately, what spelled the end of torpedo fuel was the introduction of the Westinghouse Mark 18, an electric-drive battery-powered torpedo. The battery power meant no need for fuel, so there was no alcohol to harvest from the weapon. This didn’t necessarily mean the end of military moonshine altogether, however, and illicit alcohol of dubious origin was referred to as “torpedo juice” long after the last torpedo-derived cocktail was consumed.

Toothbrushing

Oral hygiene existed in various forms for centuries before World War II, but most Americans started brushing their teeth daily only after soldiers brought the habit home with them after the war. During World War I, poor dental care contributed to health problems on the battlefield: Soldiers suffered from "trench mouth," a painful infection that caused sore and bleeding gums, and, in more serious cases, fever and fatigue. As a result, the military emphasized stricter hygiene routines in World War II, including mandatory toothbrushing at least once a day for soldiers. Troops were supplied with hygiene kits containing a toothbrush and toothpaste (or tooth powder, which turned into a rather abrasive paste when mixed with water). By the time the war was over, the habit was ingrained with returning soldiers, and in 1950, when softer nylon toothbrush bristles were introduced, toothbrushing became a daily routine in many American households.

A Clean Shave

In the years following World War II, American lives were shaped by a sense of relief and optimism. The country’s postwar economy surged back to life, and consumerism was not only expected, but encouraged. These changes coincided with new habits among returning U.S. soldiers. Along with having clean teeth, they were also accustomed to being clean shaven — and having easy access to the products needed to stay that way. Razor company Gillette had been providing shaving kits to soldiers since World War I, and in World War II, it also made covert shaving kits for prisoners of war, which contained miniature tools such as compasses, maps, and money. Following the war, the company was eager to capitalize on this brand awareness while meeting new consumer demand as soldiers transitioned back into civilian life. The clean-shaven look remained popular until the beatnik style emerged in the 1960s. Women had also been encouraged to shave their legs since the 1930s, and due to the World War II nylon shortage, smooth legs — with painted-on hosiery — became the norm by the 1950s.

Blue Jeans 

Blue jeans were already starting to seep into U.S. culture by the time soldiers reported for duty during the Second World War. Denim dungarees and coats had been worn by the U.S. Navy since the early 1900s, and by the 1930s, jeans were the de facto pants of Western movie stars — a symbol of the romanticized American cowboy. During World War II, however, blue jeans went global. U.S. soldiers stationed overseas were often from working-class Western families, and they wore their denim — some of which was made specifically for soldiers — with pride. By the early 1950s, the style was undeniable: The newly minted “teenager” demographic had adopted blue jeans as counterculture cool. Other developments on the homefront also helped pave the way for the American denim boom. The rise of women in the workforce during the war, symbolized by Rosie the Riveter, positioned the workwear as practical, durable clothing that was both essential for industrial roles, and a staple of postwar women’s fashion.

Red Lipstick

Throughout World War II, American women were encouraged to maintain a polished appearance, and lipstick in particular became a powerful symbol of patriotism. As slogans such as “keep your beauty on duty” reminded women that their appearance could boost morale at home and abroad, red lipstick emerged as a defiant beauty staple. When women in the Allied countries learned that Adolf Hitler had a dislike for the look, they embraced it. British women even went so far as to stain their lips with beet juice if they couldn’t find or afford the real thing. Red lipstick became a powerful symbol: The U.S. Army commissioned its own shade, "Victory Red," for women in uniform, and in 1942, cosmetic powerhouse Elizabeth Arden’s "Montezuma Red" became standard issue. It was available as a lipstick, nail polish, and blush that perfectly matched the red piping and chevrons on the women’s Marine uniforms. 

Orange Juice at the Breakfast Table

It wasn’t just hygiene habits and fashion trends that came out of World War II. America’s wartime focus on health and nutrition led to food and beverage staples that resonated for decades — the orange juice craze among them. In order to ensure troops were getting enough scurvy-preventing vitamin C, the U.S. government worked on a viable alternative to cumbersome fresh fruit. Together, the Florida Citrus Commission and U.S. Department of Agriculture attempted to improve upon canned orange juice, which already existed but was not yet popular. Their collaboration led to a breakthrough: evaporating the liquid from fresh juice to produce a juice concentrate. The innovation arrived too late to be utilized by troops during the war, but in 1946, Minute Maid orange juice made its way to American breakfast tables. It wasn’t an immediate hit, however — it took a 1949 ad campaign by Bing Crosby to kick-start the enduring breakfast staple.

A Vitamin a Day

In 1941, during the nascent days of the nation’s focus on nutrition, President Franklin D. Roosevelt convened the National Nutrition Conference for Defense to address concerns about national vitamin inadequacies. As the U.S. entered World War II, the focus on nutrition became urgent; vitamins were seen as crucial not just for preventing deficiency but also for maintaining peak health and morale. By the mid-1940s, the country’s so-called “vitamin famine” was being tackled with new multivitamins such as Vimms, Stams, and the still-popular One A Day. After the war, the demand for vitamins remained strong, and the habit of taking multivitamins, rooted in wartime health strategies and marketing, persists in American culture today.

Japan Sent Balloon Bombs to the U.S.

World War II was a time of unconventional weaponry experiments. There were attempts at bat bombs and rat bombs, and Japan even deployed explosives to the U.S. via balloons. The operation, known as Fu-Go, started in November 1944, when hydrogen-filled balloons equipped with incendiary bombs were launched from the north end of Japan's Honshu Island. The weapons were meant to travel across the Pacific and, upon landing in the U.S., start fires and cause panic, diverting U.S. military resources. Although more than 9,000 balloons were launched during the campaign, military damage was ultimately minimal, with fewer than 300 incidents reported. Sadly, there were a few casualties — on May 5, 1945, six people were killed while on a picnic in Gearhart Mountain, Oregon, when they unknowingly pulled one of the balloons out of the woods and triggered the explosive. 

An Unlikely Alliance

It was one of the most unlikely battles of World War II: On May 5, 1945, U.S. and German soldiers joined forces to fight the Waffen-SS, the combat branch of the Nazi secret police. The setting was Castle Itter, an Austrian fortress where Nazis were keeping high-profile French prisoners. As the prisoners sent out messages for help, a group of American soldiers approached. There, they discovered that German Major Josef Gangl, who had turned against the Nazis, was already there with a handful of soldiers, ready to protect the prisoners from the SS. The unlikely allies banded together and managed to hold off the SS until reinforcements arrived. Gangl was killed in the confrontation, but the Battle of Castle Itter, which happened just three days before the official end of the war in Europe, is believed to be the only time that Americans and Germans fought as allies during the war.

A Bear Served in Poland’s Military

It’s well known that animals played crucial roles in World War II, but one large creature in particular stands out as an unusual combat companion. In 1942, a Syrian brown bear cub was adopted by Polish soldiers stationed in Iran. The furry friend quickly became a beloved mascot; the soldiers named him Wojtek, meaning "happy warrior" in Polish. As Wojtek grew, he was officially enlisted as a private to ensure he could travel with his unit, and over time, his role evolved from being a morale booster to being an active participant in military operations. His most famous contribution came during 1944’s Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy, where Wojtek helped carry heavy artillery shells and crates of ammunition. The regiment changed its insignia to an image of a bear carrying an artillery shell in his honor, and Wojtek was eventually made a corporal. The heroic animal lived out his veteran days at the Edinburgh Zoo, where fans and former comrades visited him until his passing in 1963. 

The U.S. Navy Almost Accidentally Torpedoed President Franklin D. Roosevelt

In November 1943, the U.S. Navy was responsible for a near-disastrous incident involving President Franklin D. Roosevelt. While en route to the Tehran Conference to meet with Allied leaders, President Roosevelt traveled aboard the USS Iowa battleship. To ensure the president’s safety, his ship was accompanied by a convoy that included the destroyer USS William D. Porter. During a routine drill, the destroyer inadvertently fired a live torpedo directly at Roosevelt’s ship. As the torpedo sped toward the battleship, the destroyer crew frantically signaled the Iowa to move out of the way; Roosevelt, meanwhile, requested to have his wheelchair moved in the midst of the commotion for a better view of the action. The Iowa successfully executed a hard turn, narrowly avoiding the torpedo, which eventually exploded harmlessly in the water. 

A Young Woman’s Engineering Feat Helped the Allies Win the War

The name Beatrice “Tilly” Shilling may not be known to many, but she played a pivotal role in helping the Allied forces in World War II. Shilling was a talented engineer who, after being one of only two women to earn an electrical engineering degree from the Victoria University of Manchester, joined Britain’s Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE). It was there that Shilling devised a simple yet pivotal solution for an issue with British fighter planes. During sharp maneuvers, fighter jets such as the Hurricane and Spitfire would often stall out, so Shilling came up with a way to restrict fuel from flooding the engine. Later known as "Miss Shilling's orifice," the invention went on to give Allied pilots a crucial edge in dogfights against the fearsome German Luftwaffe. 

A Crossword Puzzle Panic

In the lead-up to the planned June 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy, the British intelligence agency MI5 went into a panic when code words related to the operation began showing up in a British newspaper. Starting in early May 1944, words such as “Utah,” “Omaha,” “Mulberry,” and even “Overlord” — the invasion’s code name — appeared as answers in The Daily Telegraph’s crossword puzzle. MI5 tracked down the puzzle’s writer, Leonard Dawe, a headmaster at the Strand boys’ grammar school, but determined the words were a coincidence. Later, it was suggested that it likely wasn’t exactly a coincidence, but rather due to the fact that Dawe and his students were exposed to U.S. troops passing through Surrey, and inadvertently absorbed their code words.

The Germans Weren’t Expecting the Invasion to Be at Normandy 

The Germans knew that an Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France could turn the tide of war, and had planned to counter such an invasion. But they didn’t consider Normandy as a particularly likely landing point. Instead, they believed the Allies would invade further north, at the French port city of Calais, which sat just a little more than 20 miles across the English Channel from Dover. The German army installed three massive gun batteries along the Calais coast in order to counter this threat. That’s not to say that Normandy was an easy target. It was defended by the Atlantic Wall, a 2,000-mile-long chain of fortresses, mines, gun emplacements, tank traps, and obstacles. It was an impressive piece of defensive engineering, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Allied invasion. 

Spies and Misinformation Played a Major Part in the Success of D-Day

The Allies did all they could to convince the Nazis that an invasion would not take place at Normandy. Leading up to D-Day, nearly every German spy in England had been captured or turned into a double agent, and the double agents were told to inform their Nazi handlers that the invasion was indeed planned for Calais. At the same time, the Allies sent out fake radio traffic to further convince the Germans that Calais was the plan. This deception was all part of Operation Fortitude, which aimed to dupe the Nazis with misinformation, including creating an entirely fake army. This fictitious force, known as the First U.S. Army Group (FUSAG), was made up of thousands of fake tanks and airplanes, as well as decoy buildings, all placed on England’s southeast coast and supposedly commanded by General George S. Patton. The Allies let German reconnaissance planes photograph the site of the dummy army, further convincing the enemy that a military buildup was being made for an invasion of Calais. What’s more, the Allies by this time had cracked the Nazis’ Enigma code, so they could monitor the success of their misinformation campaign by tapping into German communications. 

D-Day Was the Largest Amphibious Invasion in History

The Allied invasion of Normandy was the largest single-day amphibious invasion in history. The scale of the assault is hard to even imagine, as the numbers are mind-boggling. In the months and days leading up to the invasion, 7 million tons of supplies, including 450,000 tons of ammunition, were brought into Britain from the United States, and war planners created around 17 million maps to support the operation. In the hours prior to the beach landings, 11,590 Allied aircraft flew 14,674 sorties to support the invasion, and 15,500 American and 7,900 British airborne troops parachuted into France behind enemy lines. Then came the beach assault by 132,715 Allied troops, consisting of 75,215 British and Canadian forces and 57,500 Americans. Between them, they stormed the beaches of Normandy, the Americans fighting their way ashore at Utah Beach and Omaha Beach, the British at Gold and Sword beaches, and the Canadians at Juno Beach. 

Eisenhower Wrote a Secret “In Case of Failure” Message

The success of D-Day was in no way assured. In the days before the invasion, General Eisenhower secretly wrote a statement now known as the “In Case of Failure” message, to be released if the invasion failed. In the letter, Eisenhower took full blame for any such failure. “My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available,” he wrote. “The troops, the air, and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do.” 

But D-Day was a military success that paved  the way for a German surrender less than a year later. The invasion, however, came at a terrible cost. Historians are still investigating the actual number of deaths that resulted from the chaos of D-Day, but we know that at least 4,414 Allied soldiers, sailors, airmen, and coast guardsmen lost their lives, with at least 10,000 total casualties. On the German side, meanwhile, estimates suggest between 4,000 and 9,000 killed, wounded, or missing, with around 200,000 Germans captured as prisoners of war. Today, just a few thousand D-Day veterans may still be alive, the youngest now in their late 90s. On June 6, 2023, around 40 World War II veterans gathered at Normandy to mark the 79th anniversary of D-Day and pay tribute to the lives lost that day.