The Home Front: How America Heard the War

The War's Voices

Broadcast and Commercial Recordings of Speeches and Interviews of World War II-era Personalities.

Winning the Home Front

War-related Entertainment, Propaganda, and Ads Targeting World War II-era Radio Listeners.

G.I. Jive

Popular and Topical Songs of World War II.

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boys

USO Shows, Armed Forces Radio, V-Discs, and Other Morale Efforts Targeting the Military.

We Interrupt This Program

War Reports, News Flashes, and Informational Programs Regarding World War II.

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World War II-era Broadcast and Recording Technology.

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The War's Voices

For many wartime listeners, radio delivered the world to America's doorstep in ways unimaginable just a few years earlier. In addition to bringing the war closer, radio also established new heroes and introduced a tangle of distant names and places, and, more than ever before, broadcast a new world of voices from all corners of the globe, and from friend and foe alike.

The five radio broadcasts presented here come from original studio transcription disc recordings in the Arthur B. Church - KMBC Radio Collection and the J. David Goldin Collection in the Marr Sound Archives, along with recorded material provided by the Truman Presidential Museum and Library.

Broadcast #1
Early on, victory was anything but certain for the Allies, and one of the least assured battlefronts was North Africa, where a series of attacks, counterattacks, and "tactical withdrawals" had been taking place since the British mounted their first offensive in December 1940. America's involvement was limited at first to offering supplies, then providing air support, and finally landing combat troops for "Operation Torch," the allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942. Finally routing the Axis from North Africa in 1943 produced one of the Allies' first great victories, and one of America's first heroes, General Dwight Eisenhower. Capitalizing on both his victory and popularity, Eisenhower made this pitch for war bonds from Algeria on October 23, 1943. Two months later, Eisenhower would be named Supreme Commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces, and lead the D-Day invasion that following June.

Broadcast #2
The War's voices weren't limited to presidents and generals. For millions of listeners, civilian and soldier alike, the voice that spoke for the average American during World War II belonged to an English-born comic named Bob Hope. Soon after America entered the war, Hope took his show on the road, first to military bases in the States, then to troops overseas, establishing a tradition that lasted five decades. This huge professional and logistical commitment began with "The Bob Hope Pepsodent Show," his hit radio program. During the war, Hope made 135 broadcasts from U.S. military bases, while only nine shows originated from the NBC studios. This performance, from Seattle's Camp Lewis on September 22, 1942, came just weeks after Hope made his first trip outside the United States to entertain American soldiers.

Broadcast #3
With the war far from decided in 1944, Americans handed three-term commander in chief Franklin Roosevelt his fourth election. Tagged the "tired old man" by Republican challenger Thomas Dewey, Roosevelt's 1944 margin of victory was thinner than his previous wins in both popular and electoral votes. The savior of FDR's 1944 campaign may well have been his running mate. Instead of the unpopular Henry Wallace, Roosevelt chose a soft-spoken ex-farmer from Missouri who had distinguished himself as a veteran of World War I and as chair of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. Known as the "Billion-Dollar Watchdog" for the money he helped save, Senator Harry Truman was the ideal Vice President for a nation facing economic uncertainties in the post-war world. In this 1944 Treasury Department ad, Truman urges Americans to "invest in victory" through the purchase of war bonds and stamps. (Audio source material courtesy of the Truman Presidential Museum and Library.)
Read a Transcription of this Broadcast

Broadcast #4
Emerging from the isolationism that followed World War I, radio offered a new global perspective. From village names to exotic slang to unique accents, home-front listeners experienced the world as never before, many keeping maps near their radios as once-mysterious geography grew infamous overnight. With most any speech standard broadcast fare, world leaders also quickly became household names. One wartime celebrity was French General Charles de Gaulle, a controversial figure who attempted to command the "Free French" while exiled in England. In this June 6, 1944, broadcast following the D-Day invasion, de Gaulle addresses his French "subjects" from London.

Broadcast #5
Radio offered thrills and spills, cliffhanger plots, and heroes battling a host of detestable villains from cattle rustlers to gangsters to men from mars. However, none of radio's scripted melodrama matched the shock of Nazism and the villainy of Axis ringleader Adolf Hitler. From rabid rallies to blitzkrieg invasions, radio covered Hitler's actions like no previous world leader, leaving listeners around the world both spellbound and terrified. Americans usually heard Hitler through speech excerpts, which offered literal translations, but did little to convey the drama and hysteria unfolding in Germany. This broadcast, from the Nuremberg Rally of September 12, 1938, was among the first to present Nazi Germany in full frenzy.

Text by Scott O'Kelley, Marr Sound Archives
Digital Audio by Scott Middleton, Marr Sound Archives

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