Pocket Guide to Germany 1944

ostketten · Post by **ostketten** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 9:19 am

In my continual quest for interesting and unusual WWII related documents and publications I ran across this 1944 US War Dept. booklet "Pocket Guide To Germany" (NOTE: This a 7mb Adobe PDF file, and while it should not be a problem for most people, it could take some time to load on older computers and /or dialup connections, but it's worth the wait in my opinion.)

http://digitallibrary.smu.edu/cul/gir/ww2/pdf/w0048.pdf

Written for U.S. occupation troops, the overtones of this booklet might be considered by todays "PC" standards as borderline propaganda, but in the context of the era and time in which it was written I think it is remarkably fair and balanced. Anyway, I found it fascinating and I thought some of you might enjoy it too. For anyone who is interested there is a whole series of these "pocket guides" for various countries and theatres of operations in WWII, including North Africa, Italy, France, and even Iraq of all places!! There's even a chapter in that booklet that tells the Dogface GI's how to pronounce the name of the country.... "E-Rack"... I got a little chuckle out of that one...

Col.Pickle · Post by **Col.Pickle** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 9:42 am

wow! Thanks for sharing that superb find! E-rack teeheehe

Razor17019 · Post by **Razor17019** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 12:21 pm

Ostketten,
That's funny that you mention Iraq.
I just heard an interview on NPR radio with some military or ex-military guy talking about the re-release of Pocket Guide to Iraq 1942.

He said the illustrations look like they were done by a Disney artist drafted in the armed forces. The ettique of customs in Iraq. One he mentioned was the drinking of coffee is a very important social thing.
If offered a cup of coffee by the locals, the GI was to drink it. You accepted up to 3 cups and could pass on the 4th.
I wonder if this is the case today?
Anyone know?

The man they interviewed had been there and said that he drank many cups of a local tea with the locals.

He said something about winning the "hearts and minds" of the population over there...

ostketten · Post by **ostketten** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 1:39 pm

I'm glad you guys are enjoying these, I think the "Pocket Guides" were really quite well done for their day, and served their intended purpose, although they clearly had their limitations, for example: The "language guide" in the back of the German Pocket Guide is pretty much useless in my opinion, except perhaps to make the GI's look incredibly stupid, and to thoroughly confuse their German "hosts", even though I'm sure it was well intentioned at the time. And yes, the illustrations are all "cartoonish" in nature, but these booklets are a fascinating "window in time" of a bygone era.

Quixote511 · Post by **Quixote511** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 6:48 pm

If I take digital pics, can you use them? I have several of these in my collection. I will let you know what I have when I dig them out of storage.

ostketten · Post by **ostketten** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 5:06 am

Not sure who the above message is addressed to, but I have all the pocket guides in Adobe PDF format, that's really all I need, thanks.