A Four-Letter Word: HOME
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I usually write about life on the Home Front during World War II. In this post, I would like to talk about that four-letter word, HOME, longed for by the millions who couldn’t be there.
The Ugly Truth of War
World War II is the deadliest conflict in history to date. Millions of victims, civilians and military personnel were killed across six continents, from major cities to the tiniest far-flung islands. With Memorial Day approaching in the USA, the ones who gave their lives fighting on our behalf are in my thoughts.
One terrible reality during the war was the death of loved ones in the military, with no way to recover their bodies. For civilians on the home front, the separation had to have been frightening. Knowing family members could be in harm’s way would have made the separation worse. One would think that receiving the dreaded telegram with news of death or missing status would have been the worst.
But what about the ones who opened these messages of regret, who were never able to receive back the body of their dead for burial? What about the ones who never even learned where the bodies were? Living with that loss, and the unknown, must have been tragic.
Kim Clarke, whose grandmother suffered this fate, wrote, “A letter written by my grandmother, which I found buried in a military casualty file at the National Archives in St. Louis, reflects the angst of families whose loved ones had gone missing in action: ‘Could you please advise me if my husband’s body was ever found and if so where he is buried?’”
The Return of the Dead
The bombing of Pearl Harbor threw the United States headlong into World War II. Every available resource was committed to winning the war, which left no resources for repatriating the dead. The War Department made the decision that no bodies would be brought back for the duration of the war, as every ship and port were urgently needed.
Families understood this decision, difficult as it was, but following the war they wanted closure. Tens of thousands of letters went to government officials, asking for information about the bodies of loved ones. In 1946 Congress approved the Return of the Dead Program.
The recovery of corpses during this Program took years, with thousands of service personnel and civilians taking part in the harrowing work. Families were allowed to choose whether to have their loved ones’ bodies returned to the US or buried overseas. As a result, hundreds of thousands were finally able to say goodbye.
Unfortunately, not all bodies could be found. Some died in locations where the bodies were unrecoverable, such as near tidewaters or at sea. Some were prisoners of war, dying in enemy territory or along the wayside on a death march. The wartime decision to bury the dead near battlefields sometimes caused burial sites to be lost, and sometimes the bodies had decomposed too much to be identified.
Soldiers & Comfort Food
As for the ones fighting, can you imagine having come from a farm, some small town or even a civilian job in a city—being quickly trained and shipped to a foreign country or tropical island under fire—and finding yourself in a nightmarish battle while also having to deal with the corpses of your fellow soldiers? In the midst of such stress, they needed familiar things to ground them to the homes they had left.
The USO (United Service Organizations) set up canteens and celebrity tours. Movie stars sold war bonds and visited the dying at overseas hospitals. The Army and Navy began the Armed Services Editions Program, which distributed more than 120 million lightweight books to service personnel. These books offered real relief from the mental strain of combat and were an enormous success.
Comfort foods became an obsession. For those in heavy combat zones, these mostly came in the form of chocolate, coffee and other items packaged in C-Rations. For others in less hostile areas, there was a greater chance of getting items from home in care packages. Also, wherever possible, the military provided menus including familiar foods from home—clam chowder, candied sweet potatoes, Thanksgiving turkey, meatloaf, and pancakes.
In Remembrance
In memory of those who gave their lives for us, I am sharing an authentic 1940s recipe for griddle cakes, aka pancakes/hotcakes. Maple syrup was available during the war but not everywhere. In particular, soldiers serving overseas would likely not have had it unless it was shipped to them in a care package.
One soldier’s letter profusely thanked his wife for the bottle of honey she had sent, as he had been eating hotcakes with nothing at all on them. So, along with the griddle cake recipe, I am including another wartime recipe for Honey Extender Syrup. It uses two other ingredients that may have been more available than maple syrup, and more than triples a cup of honey without losing its flavor.
This syrup is best after it has been allowed to sit overnight and come to room temperature. The predominant flavor is the honey, so if you make this recipe, be sure to use a variety you like. The finished syrup has a light honey flavor but is much easier to pour on pancakes or hot biscuits—with butter, of course—and a thankful heart for those gave everything they had to purchase freedom for us.
“Time will not dim the glory of their deeds.”
--General John J. Pershing
Griddle Cakes & Honey Syrup
Ingredients
Instructions
- Sift together dry ingredients.
- Combine eggs with milk, then add to flour gradually, beating until smooth.
- Stir in shortening and bake on hot greased griddle. When browned on under side, puffed and beginning to set, turn to brown second side.
- Combine the sugar and water and simmer five minutes.
- Add the honey and corn syrup and bring to boiling point. Keep in a closely covered glass jar.
References
Martin, Christopher J. “The Aftermath of Hell: Graves Registration Policy and U.S. Marine Corps Losses in the Solomon Islands During World War II.” Marine Corps University Press, Winter 2016.
Clarke, Kim. “Gruesome but Honorable Work: The Return of the Dead Program following World War II.” Perspectives on History, May 24, 2021.
Gregory, Derwin and Carola Wayne. “‘I do feel good because my stomach is full of good hotcakes’: Comfort Food, Home and the USAAF in East Anglia during the Second World War.” Wiley Online Library, 28 December 2020.
Photo Known Unto God by Yukon Haughton on Unsplash.
Lily Haxworth Wallace, Rumford Chemical Works. Rumford Complete Cook Book. Norwood, MA: Norwood Press, 1941.
Bailey Allen, Ida. Double-Quick Cooking for Part-Time Homemakers. New York, NY: M. Barrows & Company, 1943.
“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
Revelation 21:4