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Instructions for American Servicemen in France during World War II

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As the Allies prepared the European invasion at Normandy, Pentagon and OSS authors put together a small pamphlet for GIs to take with them: Instructions for American Servicemen in France. Similar pamphlets were on the drawing board for all the European countries that would be invaded, but the French edition was the one with most urgency. One million copies were printed, making it one of the biggest publishing events of the entire war.

Pulitzer Prize-winning military historian Rick Atkinson introduces this facsimile edition of Instructions. According to Atkinson, one of the Pentagon's intentions in the pamphlet was to soften resentment felt by many GIs over France's collaborative (Vichy) peace arrangements with Nazi Germany. So alongside very practical advice on cultural and geographical orientation in France--maps, simple phonetic French phrases (e.g., the French for "I want some cigarettes"), generalizations about French national character (the French are "mentally quick," consider themselves to be "realistic"--perhaps a subtle gesture at Vichy?--"good talkers," "magnificent cooks"), and all-important advice on romance customs--the instruction manual also encourages GIs to recognize that France had suffered mightily in the war, and that the sting of defeat was ever-present in French consciousness. GIs should avoid bragging. They should be sensitive and generous. They should remember (in what's really a quite magnificent line) that the French, who "speak democracy in a different language," are allies. They should, in short, avoid the temptation of behaving like "ugly Americans."

Instructions for American Servicemen in France has more than historic and nostalgic value. It's an extraordinary testimony to the sensitivity that the Pentagon once displayed in advising American soldiers how to comport themselves while in occupied countries. One can imagine that very different sorts of manuals were written during the Vietnam conflict or the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq--manuals that probably stress legal behavior, but lack the depth of empathy and good will exhibited in Instructions for American Servicemen in France.

Highly recommended.

The document's main value to the troops was as either emergency toilet paper or kindling. During the invasion and subsequent fighting in hedgerow country they were too busy to read and, once they broke clear of the German defensive lines, they moved too quickly across France to really stop and peruse the manual. There wasn't much of an opportunity to stop and enjoy the French culture - much of it having been carpetbombined into rubble - and the French were so pathetically grateful to be liberated that there wasn't much the GIs could have done wrong.

I'm told the version the War Department produced for the Italian Campaign was more successful. The Americans spent more time during the campaign interacting with the Italian people and their country wasn't quite so thoroughly devastated as France prior to the invasion.