"The Kid in Upper 4" is absolutely masterful. Thank you for posting it, Willbridge. Sure it's propaganda but propaganda is not a bad word. I'm preparing my Uncle Rudy's wartime letters for publication, and although I don't cry easily, I cried when he described slipping out of NYC harbor on a giant troopship, which I've identified as either the George Washington or General Gordon (traveling in convoy), seeing the skyscrapers recede into the distance. Some of the boys of the 100th Infantry ("Century") Division wouldn't see home again.One of the interesting things in old railroad advertising is how they dealt with emergency situations. Some wartime print matter is mundane:
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As you can see, my grandmother followed the government's instructions, which is why I have this timetable.
At the other end of the spectrum, artist and copy writer and the executive/s who approved the ad below produced something memorable. The ad below was widely reproduced, and a network radio broadcaster read it over the air.
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And like all propaganda it plays a little loose with facts. "Tomorrow they will be on the high seas." Um, not likely. The army assembled troops into enormous "staging camps" near each Port of Embarkation. (The two troopships in my uncle's convoy, for example, had capacities of 6,341 and 5,196 respectively. That's a whole lotta trainloads.) For a few days or even weeks, troops got their last vaccinations, sent the rest of their belongings home, were entertained by USO stars, and in my uncle's case went into NYC for the first time in his life. He was at Camp Kilmer in NJ, a small city. "More than 20 divisions with over 1,300,000 servicemen staged at Camp Kilmer before being deployed to Europe." Read about Camp Kilmer at https://www.archives.gov/nyc/exhibit/camp-kilmer.