Bombshells & Wedding Bells

World War II was a time of intense emotions: excitement, fear, homesickness, longing, love. Young men, away from home for the first time and facing an uncertain future, sought comfort in correspondence to sweethearts waiting back home or in the arms of young women they met abroad. Whirlwind romances led to wartime weddings in rapid succession, many of which did not lead to "happily ever after." Young couples on the home front scheduled weddings around service leaves and passes, a choice that required ingenuity and flexibility.

Couples in the military had their own obstacles to romance to overcome. Enlisted women were permitted to date enlisted men, but relationships with male officers were restricted to servicewomen of higher rank. Other restrictions were imposed by the military on servicemen and women who chose to marry while on active duty. The Army would not permit married couples to serve in the same theater of operations, and split them up accordingly. The Navy and Marines allowed women to marry after completion of basic training, but would not allow a woman to marry a man in her own branch of service, a restriction that was later relaxed.

Young wives with husbands away at war struggled to maintain some semblance of normal home life for their children, while holding down jobs to supplement meager military allotments. As the war dragged on, some soldiers and sailors received "Dear John" letters from wives and girlfriends who had grown tired of waiting and had met someone new.

For better or for worse, wartime romance set the stage for both the dramatic "baby boom" that followed, and for the unprecedented rates of divorce post-war, as American servicemen returned home and readjusted to civilian life.

Citations:

• Leder, Jane Mersky, Thanks for the Memories: Love, Sex and World War II. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishing, 2006.
• Steele, Evelyn, Wartime Opportunities for Women. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1943.