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6 ´ To Final Victory T-Sergeant Charles B. Linzy of the 459th Mobile Anti-Aircraft Bat‑ talion tried to write every day to his wife in Little Rock. For two weeks he could not find the time to communicate because his bat‑ talion had been attached to the hard-fighting, fast-momentum, 29th Infantry Division. His battalion had entered France at Omaha Beach, and when his unit finally stopped for some needed refitting and rest, Linzy wrote, “I’ll bet you cannot guess what I have been doing for the past thirty minutes. I have been listening to the Bob Hope show of all things. We do not buy anything, cigarettes to toothpaste is all furnished. If we just had anything beside this darned canned food and dog biscuits to eat.”1 As planned, when troops were in combat a small range of items normally sold in the Post Exchanges would be given to the troops free of charge. This made sense to everyone. Certainly, no one would think of a PX truck rushing from unit to unit under fire to sell Juicy Fruit chewing gum, Lucky Strike cigarettes, and Hershey bars. Just the name PX had become so ingrained in the mind of the GIs that free distribution by Commissary Sales simply became “PX supplies.” It would take the liberation of a large town or city to have a fully stocked PX established, if there were any buildings left standing. There were problems that surfaced in 1943 and into 1944 that would affect the AES and its mission to supply the GIs in the United States and overseas. The critical shortage of beer was one problem, which could be addressed over time if the War Production Board agreed to release more malt and hops to offset the 7 percent reduc‑ tion. If the beer crisis was not enough for General Byron and then 105 106 Chewing Gum, Candy Bars, and Beer Colonel Kerr and the staff to fret about, there emerged a shortage of ciga‑ rettes, a problem that would greatly affect quantities and brands for the troops. To complicate the picture, the patriotic outpouring of support for the troops waned as the war went into its third year. There were complaints, usually from local merchants and their business associations, that PXs were selling goods to unauthorized civilians or that GIs were sending to civilians items from the PX. With millions of men under arms being trained in the United States, the question of PX goods being supplied to civilians was a major one. It was obvious that GIs could shop at the Post Exchange, but could the immediate families of the soldier also use the exchange? It was inevitable, but gift items got mixed with items for sale in the exchange system, and nowhere was this so evident as with cigarettes. This caused continual storms of protest that had to be answered by the War Department and by the AES. It was estimated by the AES and the quartermaster general that a stag‑ gering 57 billion cigarettes would be ordered during 1944. Given the growing shortage there would be a shortfall of about 10 billion cigarettes actually delivered by the tobacco manufacturers to the Army. It was fairly clear what caused the problem. The tobacco industry had not been de‑ clared an “essential industry,” and consequently manpower to do the work was limited, as the draft took men who were difficult to replace by the U.S. Employment Service. With the priority given to overseas shipment, the number of cigarettes for civilians went down. There were shipments of cigarettes by families to GIs overseas who already had access to about two packs per day through the AES, Commissary Sales, and quartermas‑ ter subsistence rations. The AES and the overseas commanders insisted that cigarette requisitions be filled with three or four of the most popular brands. Off-brands were shipped overseas but were the last resort for GIs, and were complained about to families and to members of Congress.2 The Army and the AES also reported a consistent rise in cigarette smok‑ ing in combat, and there was also a rise in the use of tobacco by civilians due to the stress and strains of the war. By Christmas 1944 the Army Postal Office reckoned that it had handled sixty million packages for GIs overseas, and although those gifts were not inspected, it was estimated that the lion’s share included from one to several cartons of cigarettes...

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