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Hi,

Just curious - did troops get to have home leave during WW2?[&:][;)]

ORIGINAL: patrickl

Hi,

Just curious - did troops get to have home leave during WW2?[&:][;)]

Upper brass maybe, regular soldiers...hell no.

Excuse me general, I would really like to hang around for the landings at Normandy but my mom is making me a GREAT apple pie for my birthday next week. So can I leave for New Jersey tomorrow? I promise to be back by July...

Flipper

Depends in what military they were and where they did serve and when... So it is both yes and no.

German soldiers definately got some home leave, even normal soldiers, but I have no clue about regulations.

Finns did have regular home leaves too, especially when it was quiet time. And there were leaves for those who were farmers etc. Plus one got regularly awarded home leaves when getting promoted, decorated or otherwise performing well.

Obviously it'd be different in Guadalcanal or even in Australia if one is from New York !! [:D]

i think the pilots would get rotated back to the States if they had enough missions, and then would sometimes come back (on a volunteer basis), but this was not actually leave taken from a combat zone.

Private Soviet soldiers got zero leave...

My wife's dad left home in March 1943 to go to Boot Camp and returned home December 1945. No 'leave' at all. He did get some three day passes in Australia and New Guinea but no leaves.

The Captain on my Dad's ship tried to "leave" my Dad in China* - would that count? [:D]


(*he "volunteered" him for a mission that fortunately disappeared at the last minute)...

Depends in what military they were and where they did serve and when... So it is both yes and no.

The US Army and Navy had different policies on taking leave.

The Army generally said no whereas the Navy often allowed it if their ship was in a US port and going to be there awhile. There were very strict limits though. For example, Navy crews could not travel outside a 50 mile radius from their ship while on leave and I seem to remember my dad mentioning that only a very small portion of the crew was allowed leave.

My dad was assigned to a Navy ship but he was actually Coast Guard. They were in San Francisco undergoing overhaul and he got a 7-day leave. His first wife was supposed to come down from Seattle but she canceled at the last minute. So he caught a train to Seattle spent a little time there and came back. Unfortunately, his Chief Petty Officer saw him get off the train and knew he had gone outside the 50 mile limit. He chewed his butt royally but didn't write him up.

Sailors could also take leave if they were in transit to a new duty station, providing their skills weren't immediately needed at the new command.

Chez

I don't know about that 50 mile stuff. From "The Big E" and "Battleship at War", when they were laid up in the yards, their crews were given leave to travel to where ever home was. Some went as far as Boston. According to the book. Can't ask Dad, he's not here anymore.

Australian troops got home leave. The AIF Divisions when returning from the Middle East where many had been fighting for almost 12 months before Pearl Harbour.
 
Then the Divisions were rotated out of PNG so they got another round of leave.
 
The US Army & Marines didnt go home, instead they invaded Australia & New Zealand.
 
British troops stayed in India, I am unsure whether Indian troops got any home leave, but often their OOB changed so maybe this allowed rotation.
 
The Japanese went where they were sent and most died there. I believe some from Burma were sent home when wounded, but it wasnt a large number.
 
The USN, because ships could return to the West Coast, allowed Home Leave & the USAAF rotated airmen so they usually went Stateside before reassignment.

I've read or heard tell of 'survivors leave', 30 days not charged to the sailors' leave account, if a USN/USCG sailor's ship was sunk in action.

Not my parents. Both were in the army, both did not get back here until it was over.

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Private Soviet soldiers got zero leave...

Not true. Upper order decorations usually came with a few weeks home leave. And of course everyone got leave after hospital. I even remember reading about a few guys who got leave before deploying to the front from unit assembly. Of cource everything was "contingent upon the needs of the service".

I don't think most U.S. soldiers got leave once committed to a theater and actually in the theater. That was one reason the divorce rate was so high during world war II in the U.S.. Thats what I read somewhere, don't remember the name of the book now.[:)]

Thanks guys for your posts![:D]

Pat

ORIGINAL: patrickl

Hi,

Just curious - did troops get to have home leave during WW2?[&:][;)]

This historical reference details the Official Canadian Army Leave Plan for WW2: http://www.forces.gc.ca/dhh/downloads/cmhq/cmhq124.pdf

It is a long read and you should not operate heavy equipment while reading it since it may cause drowsiness. To sum it up, go right to the appendices and read Appendix C: Part B on page 36 "EXTRACTS FROM SOLDIERS' LETTERS RELATING
TO THE QUESTION OF LEAVE TO CANADA"

leave is one of the shocking things
about the Cdn Army.. There is no provision for getting men home at
all, no matter what length of time they have been overseas or out of
Canada. We are the only army that has not a policy covering this
matter. We get a few of the more urgent ones home on the off P/W
Escort but it's a bad thing and I wish they would do something about
it.

The Americans get sent home after eighteen months
overseas and the English lads with over four years overseas have all
been sent back but as usual the Canadian is kept

I see where I made a mistake, in not getting married
before I left Canada, as the married men who have been away from
home anywhere from three years and up are getting the privilege of
escorting prisoners back to Canada. Guess I'll just have to remain
until the end

My grandfather died, in September 1944, while my uncle (my mother's only brother) was deployed with the Canadian Army in England. The brass, using their infinite wisdom about the psychological effects of grief on soldiers without a job to do, decided that in order to take his mind off his father's death, and rather than sending him home on compassionate leave, that he should go into combat. He was killed in October 1944 - about a month after my grandfather's death - during the Canadian action to clear the Scheldt estuary. That about sums up my resentment of the Canadian Army's leave policy during WW2.

BTW Appendix D outlines the leave policies of American, British and other Dominion forces in Europe at the time.

This was the prime reason for the near mutiny of Canadian military personnel upon learning of plans to ship Canadian units directly to the Pacific from Europe after VE day. Basically fight for 5 full years and get screwed up the hoop while other countries either were properly rotated during same period or were only in the conflict for half the war.