What was the length of a combat tour in WWII? I know that the 8th Air Force required 25 missions before a crewman could return to the States. What about Infantry?
I think most of the enlistments were “For the duration, plus 6 months.” At the end of the war, they used some sort of points system to determine who could go home first, and who would be scheduled to head to the Pacific (this is the European deployed soldiers obviously).
This link has an example of someone from that era’s record.
That agrees with what my dad told me. He first fought in France, as a rifleman in the 69th Infantry. But he talked about serving with guys who’d been in it since North Africa. And I don’t think it mattered if you enlisted or were drafted; it sounded like disabling injury, death or victory were the only ways out.
But I think it would be interesting if someone knows what the official policy was at the time.
My father joined the Army a few years before the US declaration in order to get free food, clothing and money to send home (I think that the waiting list was over a year long.) After Pearl Harbor, he was in the Army for the duration.
[quote=butler1850 I think most of the enlistments were “For the duration, plus 6 months.”[/quote]
Okay, that sounds like what I thought I remembered. Thanks.
Even in the 8th AF, completing your 25 missions only meant you went back to the US. You were still in the USAAF for the duration- my grandfather was a B-29 gunnery instructor stateside after he finished his 25 missions.
it varied. Infantry, artillery, etc. units were regularly rotated out of front line duty. The longest tours in combat were in the Med where we entered North Africa in late 1942. Some units, for example the 34th Infantry division were continually in the theater from then until the war ended. Of course, they were not in continuous combat. It must remembered that the action in the ETO lasted just under one year from June of 1944 to May of 1945.
WWII was entirely different than Iraq. In WWII there was a protected rear area where people could go to rest and recouperate and the action, although continuous, was not continuous pitched battles. There was a constant need to reform and reequip units after heavy action.
In the Air Force, as was stated, heavy bombers had a combat tour of 25 missions. In the 9th AF the bomber crew tour was 65 missions. I have no idea what a tour was in fighters. After your tour you got a rest period in the US and then were reassigned, perhaps to another combat tour. For example, we had one of the Doolittle raiders pilots in our squadron.
In E.B. Sledge’s autobiography "With the Old Breed", he talks about Marines being rotated home in the Pacific after 3 campaigns. Though there’s no discussion about their duties once back home, or if they get rotated back.
In the end of “Band of Brothers” it discusses the “Point system” where some of the dudes got to get home after the war *in Europe *was over. IIRC.
i’m not sure that a point system was used to determine whether or not you got reassigned to combat in the Pacific. The husband of a high school classmate of mine was one of the 29th Infantry Division rangers who landed on Omaha Beach. After the European war ended he wound up in the Pacific.
There was a point system for determining order of discharge after Japan surrendered. You got points for each month in service, each month overseas, number of battle ribbons, etc. Those with the most points went home and were discharged first.
When I went into the Army at the tail end of WWII, it was for “the duration plus 6 months.” The trouble was, that the war did not officially end at the surrender of Japan, but quite a while later.
You may be right, I certainly remember the “point system” (I remember my Dad talking about it also) but it could have been after VJ day, not VE day. Lent my copy out, so I can’t recheck. My memory could be fooling me here.
**KlondikeGeoff ** Yep, they kept my Dad in for almost a year after VJ day. He was in from Dec 1941 through July 1946 or thereabouts.
Thanks! I’d heard the ‘…plus 6 months’ thing before, but I’d thought it was just an expression. Looks like butler1850 had it right. I knew dad had been stationed in Paris for a while after the war.
Just yesterday, I found my dad’s travel orders from when he was being shipped home; he boarded a troop train at Ft Dix, NJ on 13 June 46 and disembarked at Separation Center #38, Ft Sam Houston, Texas on 15 June 46. The orders even specify their rations on the train, and name the SSG who was in charge of my dad and another guy for the duration of the trip.