Censorship ~ Did you ever wonder who blacked out those letters?
There was some censoring in the Civil War because letters sometimes had to cross enemy lines. Most of the censoring came from the prisoner-of-war camps. For example, if someone was writing a letter from Andersonville [a Confederate prison camp where many Union soldiers starved] those at the camp didn’t want people to know what was happening, so the prisoners wouldn’t be allowed to say anything bad about a camp. The first heavy censorship of U.S. soldiers took place during World War I
The censors were looking out for two things in World War I and World War II. They didn’t want the soldier to say anything that would be of value to the enemy, such as where they were. They always wanted to camouflage how strong the troops were. “Loose lips sink ships” was the phrase that was very prevalent in WW II and that was the theory in WW I as well.
Officers also were looking to see any weakening of desire among the troops. It’s very important in wartime for officers to know about morale issues.
One of our researchers recently found over 500 confiscated and condemned letters at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. They included letters that used graphic language dealing with sex. Our member also found that in some cases the same writer would keep having his letters confiscated and apparently didn’t get the message. These letters were never delivered and apparently the sender was never sent a notice of the offense.
Letters that were sent in foreign languages were also intercepted. Many members of the armed forces were immigrants or the children of immigrants and they were more comfortable communicating home in their native language. A letter written in Polish or Italian usually wasn’t delivered because the typical censor didn’t know what it said.
In general, in the Revolutionary War and Civil War the letters have much more information. The writers would say, ‘We’re outside of Fredericksburg’ or ‘I’m in the 12th division,’ and that’s important information that was often cut out in World War I and World War II.
In WW II, it’s common for a soldier to write, ‘I can’t say much or the censors will cut it out.’ Early in World War II, the soldiers couldn’t say where they were. People back home didn’t know if they were in the Pacific or the Atlantic. You’ll see letters where the soldier will say where he is — it’s cut out — and how many people are in the building — and that’s cut out too. People would do very simple things to get around the censor like write on the inside of the flap but they were usually unsuccessful. So the World War letters often just include just Mom and Pop stuff.
Who did the censoring?
The enlisted soldier was censored by an officer in his unit. It was considered an unimportant job and often someone like the chaplain or the dentist would get saddled with the job. If the enlisted man did not want his officer to read his mail — if he had been giving him a hard time, let’s say — the soldier could use what was called a ‘blue envelope.’ The writer would certify that there is nothing in here that shouldn’t be and the letter would go up to the next level where it might be looked at a little more kindly.
The officers were self-censored. They didn’t have anyone looking at their mail regularly, although the higher level staff or base censors would randomly check officers’ letters to keep an eye on them. Officers seemed to say more in their letters. Whether it was because they knew better what was allowed or whether they were more brazen or whether their mail often was not censored is debatable.
If the section they wanted out was very big, they would confiscate the letter. If it was small, they cut out the words or obliterate it with ink. If they had to use special chemicals to check for invisible writing — something they did when they suspected a spy — they would confiscate the letter because they didn’t want people to know they were doing it.
The censors returned very few soldiers’ letters. They confiscated them; they didn’t send them back. They didn’t necessarily give the word back to the soldier that his or her letter was withheld. It depended where it was stopped and how fast the troops were moving.
From the soldier’s perspective, you often didn’t know if it was going to get through. The soldiers were all given guidance on what they could say, so you would think they would know how to avoid getting their mail intercepted, but not all did.
Information is from ‘The American Experience.’
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Military Humor – Private Sanfu
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Farewell Salutes –
Louis Adriano – Albertson, NY; US Navy, WWII
Jacques Cayer – Cap-de-la-Madeleine, CAN; RC Air Force, Captain (Ret. 30 years)
Margaret Dover _ New Plymouth, NZ; WRNS # 55532, WWII
H.L. Hungate Jr. – Roanoke, VA; US Navy, WWII, USS Iowa
Ward ‘Bud’ Johnson – Idaville, IN; US Army, WWII, ETO, 773rd Tank Destroyer
Ellen Keener – Evans, GA; US Army WAAC, ETO
Jack Levin – Philadelphia, PA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, B-17 pilot
Mark Parsons – Spokane, WA; US Coast Guard, WWII, PTO
William Reinhard – Chicago, IL; US Navy, WWII, Korea & Vietnam, pilot
David Woolley – Boston, MA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 11th Airborne Division
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Posted on November 21, 2016, in Home Front, Uncategorized, WWII and tagged 1940's, Censorship, family history, History, Home Front, Military History, Pacific, veterans, war, WW2, WWII. Bookmark the permalink. 119 Comments.
Reblogged this on quirkywritingcorner.
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My readers brought this topic up and I was happy to oblige. It taught me about the subject as well. Thank you.
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Good read here… as always though 🙂 semper!
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Thank you very much for your compliment and service as well. Enjoy the holidays!
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I didn’t know that! Very interesting.
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Thank you for stopping in to read it.
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Wow never knew that WW1 and WW2 surely ha smarmy secrets in it.
Great post, loved it.
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Nowadays, no one has secrets and the wars are lasting twice as long – how is that working out for us?
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Yup so true friend.
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Fascinating subject. My father had to censor his soldier’s letters (in 1941 before capture), I know because he mentions this to my mother. He had set up a system to get the men’s letters back to Britain from Malaya using the fast, but expensive, Clipper Mail. So for a few pence his men could write a half or even a quarter sheet and he would fill the envelopes up to the weight limit, post them to my mother, who posted them on to the relatives in Britain. He was able to tell her where he was because he simply said he had visited his aunt and uncle (who lived in Singapore).
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What a terrific story, Hilary!! It’s great to have you share different aspects of the war from the British eye view!
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As always, fascinating post….I hadn’t really thought about who exactly censored letters…very interesting!
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I’m very glad you found it interesting, Kirt. I appreciate your encouragement!
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Very interesting post! Letters weren’t the only things censored. We have some photos of planes with the nose guns cut out, although it didn’t seem to be nearly as common as censored letters.
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Really? I did not know that!
I was going to make a stop at your site to ask if you heard about Frank Royal; the P-38 pilot who crashed in New Guinea, passed away at the age of 101. I believe he is from Colorado.
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Yes, we heard about his death. Glad he was able to see his plane fly one last time though.
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Very interesting (and timely) post GP. Makes you think about where we’ve been, where we are…and where we’re headed in this area. I agree we can’t put the “genie back in the bottle.” Technology and the current climate has changed the landscape quite a bit. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
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All true! I hope you and yours enjoy tomorrow and remember the veterans in your Thanksgiving!
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It’s fascinating how they censored letters during WWI and II. It seems like they were very worried that letters might fall into enemy hands.
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It’s not like we think of today by way of hacking into emails. When troops ships, etc were sunk, we picked up any papers that could be found as well. We have received information that way and assumed that the enemy could do the same.
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I can remember being told as a child that “loose ilps sink ships.” Who knows what I had said that I wasn’t supposed to, but being born in 1946, the phrase still had currency.
The letters I have that were sent between my dad and his brother exhibit a sensitivity to the censor. Expressions like, “I know you can’t tell us…” are common. There aren’t any blackouts in the text — they were pretty good at it!
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War letters were verry important but never known the letters in foreign languages are censored.Poor people
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It was necessary for a country’s secrets during wartime. In today’s world, it is impossible.
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Reblogged this on KCJones and commented:
Yes, Always Wondered
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With all you read, I would have thought you knew. Thanks again, Penny, you’re a dear!
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My boss was the guy in ‘Nam. He was an officer sso did not impact. Never mentioned.
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It was another world back then.
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I admit I had no idea about this!
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Well, today things are so high-tech there would be no way to keep much of anything secret – what people don’t write or text about, the media broadcasts and then Wiki-leaks picks up the slack of anything else and we know You Tube will have a video of it!!
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Just been reading a book on Kindle – “The Somme: Through The Eyes Of A Foot Soldier Who Survived The Battlefield May…” Written in his 70s and edited by his son it has details of his feeling about having his letters in 1916, though it didn’t stop him writing home about his disenchantment, and despite this he was still promoted when he was expecting to get into trouble.
The grandfather of a friend of mine was a career naval officer and he didn’t write a single letter home between 1939 and 1945. His reason – he was busy commanding a ship, and if there was anything they needed to know at home the Admiralty would send his wife a telegram.
There’s probably a whole book to be written about censorship and letters in wartime.
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I think the mail is important for so many reasons, at least back then when technology was not as wide-spread as today. That fella commanding the ship could have at least said, “Hi Honey, I’m alive!” I’ll look into getting a copy of your book about the Somme. Thanks for stopping in, it’s good to hear from you.
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No problem, always something good to read on your site.
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I appreciate you saying so!
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Great post…especially since we were just talking about this the other day. I love the information about how and why the censoring happened. 😀
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You know you had something to do with being posted now, don’t you?!! The subject would come up every now and then, so why not! If I don’t hear from you later this week – Have a fantastic Thanksgiving!!
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LOL…I thought I might have inspired that one! Heading out of town tomorrow to sped Thanksgiving with my aunt. You have a great Thanksgiving, too!!
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Enjoy!!
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Great post. Very, very interesting.
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Thank you very much, Jennie.
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You are welcome!
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I’m surprised your witty Dad didn’t compose a letter simply to wind up the censors – but then, perhaps he did…….:)
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If “Jungle Juice” didn’t do it… but then again his letters do have a black out here and there.
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Poor Snafu, always had to learn the hard way 😀
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Don’t you just love that poor sap?!!
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Yes indeed 😀
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Very interesting information ! So , officers self-censored ? Wow .
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That made me kinda chuckle. The enemy would have had a field day with their diaries too.
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You know I’ve never ever given a thought to the censorship, ever. But one can readily understand why it was done, thanks for givin a wake up call GP
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Some people are thrilled there is no censorship today, but I don’t know about that, Beari. Thanks for visiting!!
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Frankly, I don’t think it would be a bad idea at all to have some form of censorship. I believe it would do more good than harm for the most part. The trouble is, who would we put in chare of it? Certainly wouldn’t want anybody of the calibre of Goebbels
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With today’s civil rights, politically correct views, and technology censorship is impossible.
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Censorship today would involve confiscating everybody’s everything. Even their electric razor or toothbrush might be suss.
But some buffoon will always find a way to make illicit electronic transmissions, and possibly later on wonder why he’s dog-paddling in the middle of the night in sharky waters …
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With today’s technology, censorship (IMO) is impossible. There are even satellite images to locate you.
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How can you teach moderns not to use their blasted toys? “Just a quick text, no-one will notice” …
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Ah, but the media will broadcast it, Wiki-leaks will pick up any slack and YouTube will have the video!! But…ssh…don’t tell anybody!!
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In the book ‘Battle Cry’ the marines get sent to New Zealand as a staging post before going on to Guadalcanal. One of the guys sends his letter home, to the effect … “It’s been great to hear from you. As for us, things are good—we have a lot of new zeal and anergy …”
“PFC Jones, did you write this letter?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“You may go, Private Jones …”
Ouch …
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Some of the personal codes between family members were caught, but others were a bit more inventive than ‘new zeal’. 🙂 When ships were sunk, the enemy picked up mail bags, just as we did.
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A gentleman, Sir, does not read someone else’s mail.
Yeah, right!
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In times of war to protect the soldiers themselves – why not?
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Sadly necessary …
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That’s a really interesting tale! In WW1, the British army had postcards with set sentences and you just ticked what was true. “I am / am not well. I have / have not received a parcel.” and so on. The officers, of course, could write what they wanted.
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It seems in every Army, the officers could pretty much write what they wanted, I’ve heard. I suppose they expected them to censor themselves. Thanks for coming by, John.
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I never knew it. My only knowledge about censorship comes from Catch 22. Thank you for this very informative post – you cover every aspect of war.
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I try. This war covered the war and still affects us today, whether we realize it or not. Thanks for stopping in!!
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Absolutely agree.
Hard topic, but the truth has to be told.
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This was very informative and enjoyable. If history was taught in this way in schools we’d have a much better educated population. After all fun is better than drudgery.and in spite of the stereotyping the cartoon is actually pretty accurate about how information leaks with unintended consequences.
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These were actual training cartoons, they taught through humor. Nowadays, they barely teach history – I suppose that’s why we keep repeating it!!
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Yes and I think the servicemen and women got the point. If only our educators could (and I don’t mean teachers, they are in the trenches).
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From Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
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Talk about a personal interpretation of the rules for censoring! haha Kind of a good thing Catch 22 was a novel, eh?
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Even though the letters were censured, they served a very important purpose.
At least the recipients, usually Mom and Dad, would know that their son was still alive. Thanks for a most interesting post, CP Cox!
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That’s how I feel about it, Peter, exactly. Having that envelop show up was the main thing!! Thanks for dropping by!
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Very interesting article and good to know. I often wondered how much they edited out.
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It was generally up to the person doing the censoring. If the soldier watched what he wrote, there wasn’t much of anything taken out. There was very little blacked out on Smitty’s letters.
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Glad to hear that as these letters from your dad our priceless!
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Very interesting! And the censorship goes on with no end.
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Nowadays we don’t have any – are we in any better shape? People did what they thought needed to be done in such hard times. Thanks for visiting.
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That’s fascinating GP. I had no idea about any of this.
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Glad you enjoyed it Sue. I was hoping I wouldn’t bore everybody.
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So interesting, GP. I guess I understand the worries about intercepted information on troop movements and size, and it was interesting to me that the letters were also read to assess morale. Censoring for sexual content? A sign of the times, I guess.
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I suppose the appearance of upstanding, moral soldiers was important to some. Glad you found the article interesting, the subject has come up a number of times, so I thought it due.
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That was all so fascinating, learned a lot. Can you imagine the pain some of those Soldiers experienced when reading their letters from home, with what well may have been innocent remarks, blanked out. How Soldiers in all Wars depend so much on those letters. I take it the same applies now, censoring phone calls/internet messages.
Nothing to do with your most interesting blog, here the other day it was announced by the Government that the Queen is to receive Millions and millions of pounds to do up Buck Palace, taxpayers money. I found it so ironic just around the corner from the Palace are Soldiers from the Gulf/Afghanistan Wars – homeless, forgotten by the very people who sent therm to do their “bloody Wars”. Forgotten like Korea like Vietnam, and the list goes on.
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I’m glad you liked the article, but I’m upset hearing about your veterans. So much money going for a palace when it could be going to troops that protected your freedom – not much different here.
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Given the CYA attitude of the military, I’ll bet those who got the job of censor tended to edit out more than was necessary. But I’m not sure if that would be a boring job, or perversely interesting.
I loved the Private Snafu cartoon.
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Snafu is always a hit, just love to have an opportunity for his appearance to fit the article! I would imagine it was a rather boring job after a while, and what info to delete was basically a personal interpretation.
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This is a very revealing post! Can’t imagine how these veterans in the thick of war couldn’t send word to their loved ones. Paranoid much! Sadly, similar tactics of censorship still exists today for our vets through the information highway. Great job researching!! Excellent material.
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Well, we had broken the Japanese code rather early in the war, it was only natural for the Allies to assume the enemy was trying to break theirs. Frankly, I think too much information about our activities goes on today, letting the enemy know your location and strength?
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I definitely agree!
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I own a very old book titled CORRESPONDENCE OF CONFEDERATE ARMY in1863 (mostly sent by officers). One thing that’s striking is how much more formal the letters of the Generals are compared to letters of lower-ranking officers.
For example, a letter dated Sept. 25 1863 from a Major General to Brig. Gen. W.R. Boggs, Chief of Staff, begins: “GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the communication of the lieutenant-general commanding, 23d September, and accompanying documents.”
Compare that to this opening sentence from a Lieutenant Colonel to a Captain: “CAPTAIN: I have again to request that pay-funds may be immediately sent this post to pay off the troops of this command.” It goes on to express “the great dissatisfaction that exists in consequence of no money having been furnished for the payment of these troops for so many months.”
Thank you for a very interesting and informative post.
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No problem. Thank you for adding in the Civil War examples, very interesting!
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Very interesting! I wonder how they control these things in today’s world with instant communications by phone and email available all over the world.
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It isn’t – censoring in today’s politically correct state? What the soldiers don’t tell – the media will!
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Thank goodness for the First Amendment!
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Frankly, I think we tell too much.
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Well, these are always hard lines to draw. And the press these days isn’t doing the job they should be doing.
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It all boils down to money – as usual. They look only at the ratings, what will draw you to CBS rather than ABC, etc.
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Well, I never knew!
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You are not alone!!
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As a history buff, especially WWI & WWII, I was fascinated by your post. Great history lesson!
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Glad you enjoyed it. The subject has come up a few times, so I finally got around to it! 🙂
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Il bisogno di scrivere, anche in momenti in cui la vita è estremamente difficile
Un saluto,silvia
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The mail was very important for moral with the soldiers, just as it is today. Thank you for visiting, Silvia.
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Great post! You always have the best historical stuff…kudos….chuq
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Thanks! I try to have something for everyone.
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And you an excellent job…thanx….chuq
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What an interesting post! I had always wondered about wartime censorship, particularly who did it, but never looked into it. Thanks for the insight!
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No problem. We’ve had some conversations about it and it was about time I got around to doing a post for it!! I’m guilty of being old and slow!!
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I can only imagine how hard it is today, with all the means of communication that are available. I’m glad Smitty’s letters got through, they been fun to read.
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He had a little censorship, but not much, thank goodness! Today, how could they censor. Anything the soldiers don’t tell you – the media will!!
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This answered many questions, some of which hadn’t occurred to me till I read this. As usual, a very informative post, GP!
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Thanks, Doug. I’m glad you liked it.
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Anyone who is curious about the war from an enlisted man’s perspective should follow your blog, GP. It always is entertaining, informative, well-written, full of photos and illustrations that help you understand the circumstances described.
History isn’t boring when presented by a careful, informed, and intelligent writer such as yourself.
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Whoa! I thank you very much for giving me so much credit, Doug!! You’ve put a little color in my cheeks.
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I once read a book containing letter sent home by British officers in WW1. Many of the senders were famous writers in later life, or became so because of their writings about that war. It was remarkable how much detail they went into, and the information they were allowed to send to home.
Some even wrote to the newspapers in Britain, complaining of the conditions in the trenches, or the running of the war by the General Staff. By contrast, the letters from the other ranks mainly spoke of comradeship, managing as best they could, and urging their relatives not to worry about them.
Best wishes, Pete.
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That’s pretty much about the US officer’s letters, Pete. Guess they’re all made of the same ilk.
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Thank you.
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Thank you very much!
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