Wartime Racketeers; stolen valor during WWII
Jilly sends us a link to the e-book, Wartime Racketeers written by Harry Lever and Joseph Young in 1945. The first chapter “Hockshop Heroes” is about some incidences of stolen valor during the war;
I was distracted by some of the fascinating stories that never would have happened in the age of the internet. In the third paragraph of that first chapter, the book claims that more than 2200 people were convicted of fraud by uniform from 1942 to 1945, including WACs, WAVs WAVES and doughnut dollies. Some of their phony tomfoolery predated the war. I’d like to see 2200 frauds prosecuted in this day and age, though.
I’ll warn you that once you start reading, it will be difficult to stop.
Category: Phony soldiers
Wow, great find.
Simply amazing reading. I know how my lunch 1/2 hour will be spent now.
This is highly recommended, but don’t start reading until you really can read it, it is addictive.
Uh, Jonn, that would be WAVES, not WAVs. Thank you.
I would like to read this book. Thank you Jonn. And Hey Jonn…It’s WAVES not WAVs. Gotta stand by my girl here. 😀
Ha-read the first chapter, one of the WWII phonies was named “Church”, someone’s grand-dad?
Looking forward to reading it after work today
As my Dad used to say… the Army spreads WACs on the floor and the Navy rides the WAVEs. (Full disclosure – my wife was one of the last WACs!) Times have certainly changed since WWII…
These kinds of things fascinate me, because it seems like so often we get a kind of “whitewashed” and overly sentimental version of WWII that simply doesn’t conform to reality.
I remember just before I went to basic training in 1980, my dad said to me, “remember, Son, there are good, decent people in the military, and there are liars and theives and swindlers. There are people who were drunks or cheats in the civilian world, and they’ll be drunks or cheats in the Army, too.”
Of course, Dad served in the draft-era Army (’59 – ’67) so he probably saw a broader cross-section of American youth than I did, serving in the all-volunteer era.
We tend to view World War II America through rose-colored lenses, but indeed there was rampant black-marketing, fairly frequent draft-dodging, severe labor strife and strikes in war plants and the mines, and deep corruption related to wartime contracting and labor-manning. To top it all off, one of the worst race riots in American history occurred in Detroit in July 1943, and FDR had to dispatch a full infantry divison then training in Texas to put down the massive violence, which left hundreds dead. Just because America was in a fight for its life did not mean that normal human impulses to cheat steal and scam did not come out of the woodwork…
Wow. Nothing really changes with these clowns. Of course now with the internet, they can’t just hop from town to town as easily. And yea, on page 11 one (Karl) William Church. I busted out laughing. Our Rotund Rangers’ Gran-pappy maybe? That would not be surprising in the least… Great reading.
Oh Fap. 68W58 beat me to the punch.
These were some gutsy SOBs.
The strikes in the mines were because the mine owners/companies were trying to get the safety regulations voided. The UMW had frought hard to win to win the safety of miners.My Grandfather Miller was a orginal union organizer. Sidenote Oompa had to work under different names and SS#s because he was blacklisted. The UMW president told the POTUS he could send the servicemen into the mines without the safety regs and they would mine. Joe
This is as fantastic read, and it goes all the way through. It’s a fascinating look at what we deal with today as seen in the fourties. Glad that this is free. Thanks, Jonn!
What paper shortage. I counted at least 7 blank pages. What publishing house decreed that during wartime, one could not print on both sides of a page. NEGAT BZ
@7, David, LOL!!
@10, CH, EEEYUP!! Black Marketing in the face of rationing stateside during WWII as well as the Black Market overseas was a slap in the face. I have the book of Bill Mauldlin’s “Willie and Joe” cartoons, and in one of them, “Willie” is ducking in a foxhole alongside a fellow “dogface” other than “Joe”, asking him “Didja volunteer for the Infantry, or get caught in the black market?”. An explanation in parentheses said that a number of troops caught black marketing had the opportunity to get sent to the Infantry in lieu of a Court Martial, the Infantry was hardly flattered, but happy to get replacements nonetheless.