I think I've mentioned in the past my curiosity for what happened 'after the fight'. Are there any documents or books on such things? I've listed some things I am interested in reading about but haven't found any 'good reads' covering them. Points of Interest: 1 - Battlefield Cleanup - What happened after a battle? What happened to all the bodies/equipment etc? 2 - Post-War Cleanup - Mass destruction all over Europe, what was life like after the guns fell silent? How/when were cities etc rebuilt? What happened to all the rubble? How did the economies recover, etc? 3 - Returning Home - POWS and Soldiers alike, how did they return home - IE, did they go back to day-to-day jobs like nothing happened? Mental/Physical Health? Etc. Same for Civilians, especially in Europe - how did life change for them?
1. In the US military the Graves Registration Units would handle the bodies. Some were buried and disinterred seven times. Collection of bodies and movement toward their final resting place, in theater or "back home" wasn't the highest priority. 2. Recovery took years or decades. The Soviets looted everything they could, often leaving machinery on railroad sidings to rust into ruin. 3. Again, in the US, the Veterans Administration, in place since the American Civil War, had experience with returning veterans from WWI. They weren't perfect, but something is better than nothing. And the GI Bill gave them an opportunity to get better educated. The veterans became a major force on US campuses for a decade or more.
Interesting article in today's Inquirer. I never heard of a "blue discharge". WWII vet wants Army to upgrade discriminatory discharge to ‘honorable,’ nearly 75 years after expelling him World War II Army veteran Nelson Henry believed he had no choice when his superiors offered him a “blue discharge” in 1945 to leave the military, one of thousands of black soldiers targeted because of their race. WWII vet wants Army to upgrade discriminatory discharge to ‘honorable,’ nearly 75 years after expelling him
