Watch a war movie and you'd think World War 2 was non stop hell. The reality was that most members of the military were support personnel and for them the conflict was more boredom than terror. My father was a ninth grade drop out who could do complex mathematical computations in his head. That skill got him four years in a darkened room breaking codes. He was stationed in England so he was able to get out and about, but he still spent most of his time on base. In the Pacific, the island campaigns were about capturing islands with airfields. The marines would land, fight for a few days, a few weeks, or a few months. After the island was taken, the air corp would move in. For the air crews, there were missions over Japan. For the ground crew, it was servicing the planes and waiting for the war to end. If they were lucky a USO show might come through. If not, they had to amuse themselves. It looks like these guys decided to put on a show, and in the all male environment of a Pacific island air base, someone had to play the girl.
My father-in-law had WWII pictures where some of them dressed up as women too. They needed some amusement.
ReplyDeleteWas he in Bletchley ? Did he work with Colossus (or one of them, I think there were four of them) ?
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