Got Any Gum Chum?: GIs in Wartime Britain 1942–1945

by Helen D. Millgate

When the first American servicemen arrived in England in March 1942, the indigenous population greeted their presence with mixed feelings. A certain level of resentment was harbored by the English and expressed by many in the in the well-worn phase of the time "overpaid, oversexed, and over here." But without the American presence in Britain and its huge military and industrial muscle, the war with Germany would probably have been lost. Using a combination of contemporary eyewitness and documentary sources plus latter-day interviews, linked together by engaging narrative, Helen Milligate examines how the "Yanks" got on with the locals, how they fit in (or didn’t), the impact on the social structure of England in the 1940s, the problems they brought with them, and their impressions of England. She concludes with the journey home once the war in Europe had ended, describing what the Yanks left behind them and the wives and sweethearts they took "stateside."

128 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2002

Reviews

[Mark Ward]

2.5 rounded up. The author has such a weird authorial voice in this.

[Camilla Tilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent little book on the friendly invasion of Britain in WWII. Only 120 pages long but still contains so much that it gives a good picture of what life was like back then for both the GIs and for the people on the homefront that had to get used to a different kind of man. A soldier wearing rubber soled shoes, walking with an easy manner chewing chewing gum, wearing a nice walking out uniform, never lacking money. A man that dared to cry, a man that showed love for children and gladly threw parties for young and old. At the end of the book it says that the GIs never forgot England and the British never forgot "their GIs", neither side want to forget. I loved the book and hated when it ended so I will try to find something thicker on the subject.