I found this poster on a website recently. I love seeing vintage, war-era stuff like this! It really shows us how daily life must have been during this time. Americans knew they could be war for a long time so nothing was left to chance. Food was rationed, clothing designs were changed, certain textiles and car models were restricted, and according to this, free correspondence was to be limited. Spies and secret agents could be anywhere, listening.
Did you know that New York and Washington, DC had the most concentration of axis spies during the war? Also, before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese spies posed as tourists and took photographs of Battleship Row? There was also a local dentist, who was Japanese-born, who helped gain intelligence for the Japanese as well.
Here in DC, we have the Spy Museum located on F Street NW (the north west part of town). I have not been yet but I want to go! One of the many exhibits features World War II espionage! If I ever go, I will post pictures for sure.
I'm told that here in the UK, pre-war, the Germans came over as tourists and sent multitudes of seaside postcards back 'home' because more often than not the postcards had pictures of the very coastlines they were going to try to beach on. Fortunately for us, it didn't work but it was an ingenious plan!
ReplyDeleteWow, Toria! That is incredible! I had no idea! Talk about "ingenious" indeed!
ReplyDeleteUnlike the mainland US, we have no history with battles in our country. However, in June 1942, a German U-boat torpedoed and sunk two American, civilian cargo ships just off the shore of Virginia Beach, Virginia. When I was little, my family and I would holiday there during the summer and I recall seeing a plaque on the boardwalk detailing the incident.