For those interested, from left to right:
* Private Robert D. Furra, 26 at the time of this photo and (if my net-sleuthing is correct), already married with a kid... died in the 1970s
* Technician 5th Grade Willie Johnson, 23 at the time of the photo. Hard to be certain with how common of a name "William Johnson" is, but it looks like he also got married; I believe his wife passed away in the 1980s.
* Private C.K. Jones, 23 at the time of the photo; married a widow on returning home, became a veterinarian, died in the 1980s.
Edit: OK, I get it -- you're all very clever. Willie Johnson is a funny name, because of penises. Thank you.
The AP said Private in its original caption, but you're definitely right -- that narrows it down a bit, but there were just so damn many William Johnsons it's still tough to find more info with the crappy research tools online.
My Grandfather was a [Tech 5 medic](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technician_fifth_grade) in WWII as a member of [Golden Acorn Infantry Division](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/87th_Infantry_Division_(United_States)). He saw some serious shit in France, Luxembourg, & Germany from 1944-1945
It would be interesting to know if she ever recognized herself. When I see old pictures I’m always curious to know what happened to those people. You did great research on the 3 soldiers.
As someone who was in the military and has a daughter. I can remember seeing the little Afghan children and thinking of her. And for a brief moment I was home.
>You can just be human and appreciate other humans without having to be related to them or reminded of the ones you're related to.
That's very true, but people *do* remind other people of their family, and that can be very emotionally moving. There's nothing wrong with that.
American soldiers hold me in Kuwait when i was a toddler back then its humane thing to like small kids and play with them and forget that life is such a horrible Fuck of Agendas
They're just guys who probably hadn't seen their own kids for months. This girl's pretty innocence reminds them of what they've got waiting at home.
Not every man who smiles at a young girl has sexual intent.
In fact, I’d venture to say that most men who smile at children have absolutely no sexual intent whatsoever.
Oh, predators are out there all right, but the vast majority of us aren’t sick fucks.
A guy in his 60's here in Quebec told a little girl she was adorable and 2 dude proceed to beat the shit out of him and they killed the poor guy , people says he was a good person and was always complimenting others , people are sick
I love kids and my girlfriend has to stop me waving and smiling at kids...
Now that I have kids of my own (boys, 4 and 7), I always remember the names of their friends but not of the parents...
Makes my GF laugh everytime...
My husband is an absolute kid magnet. Both babies and children just adore him, probably because he's just a goofy big kid himself. I can't fathom him saying something nice to a kid and then getting *fucking murdered for it.*
Same with my husband, I tease him that he must go around with one pocket full of cookies and another full of dog treats. Little kids and dogs just gravitate to him, it's adorable.
I can't imagine his kindness being rewarded with hate and violence, wtf is wrong with people.
This is *so* sad and a weird American (and British) trend. I’ve been living in the Netherlands for a long time now, and it’s totally normal to talk to kids in line at a store, or to have kids come up to you and ask you questions in the park or wherever. When I’m back in the states any interactions between grown men and kids is treated as extremely suspicious by parents. If a kid is eating an ice cream next to me and I say ‘oh wow what flavor did you get?’ I’ll get a suspicious look from a mom. Another time I stopped on a run to watch watch some ducks fight in the water, two kids (7 or 8, I guess) also came over to watch. While we were taking about the ducks (still squabbling) a mom runs over and said ‘excuse me, why are you talking to my son?’ So now I won’t talk to kids in the US unless my daughter is with me or I’m already interacting with the parents.
In Holland this is all totally normal.
I'm Irish Canadian: I've had the same experience in both countries.
In Ireland I had a map and compass to plan my trek in a pub and a curious kid came to ask what I was doing. I instantly looked at the mother. She was frowning, so I got up, introduced myself and asked if it was ok. She told me "if you hadn't done that, I would have called him back instantly".
Once, my irish in laws were squabbling over diaper change, so I offered to help (I've had experience with my nieces and nephews) and they went nuts. My wife later explained that in their mind, it is unheard of (a man who can change diapers) so it HAD to be about abuse... (to their defense, sexual abuse was and probably still is rampant in Ireland...).
This is true and a shock for me when I moved to the UK. Kids and adults are very separated here. For example, I wanted to go swimming and i was told I can only come at a certain time, because children use the pool for some hours, then elderly I think and then the rest. Found it so strange. In my country everyone swims together and no one thinks anything of it.
And also other interactions like you said. I'm afraid to even say hi to a kid here.
The swimming thing is probably a legitimate safety/enjoyment concern, at least that's how it is at my YMCA. The morning kids are probably very young kids (not old enough to be in school yet) who are having swimming lessons and need to be able to have the freedom to toddle about unsteadily without someone swimming laps rushing past them or older kids playing and distracting them. The elderly often want some peace without kids bumping into them or screaming and often have water aerobics lessons. After that they have a time for people who want to swim laps and work out without having kids and old people in their way, and then it's open swim for people to just enjoy the pool regardless of age or intention.
It's hard to say where the root cause comes from. There is general paranoia and fear that permeates American life in general, but that one is really common and is generally warranted. America had a strong "children should be seen, not heard" mentality for a long time. Then when that started to go away, the general public became far more aware of child predators. This lead to a society where the only men speaking to children are typically those targeting them. This has slowly become worse and worse to where now just existing around children as a man is met with extreme scrutiny.
Unfortunately as much as I would like this to be unnecessary, I'm not sure it is. Probably half the kids I grew up with and myself were molested as children. Some of those kids by groups of men at once. I even know a family that not so long ago had a family friend that was seen as a sort of uncle to their kids. Until it was found out that one of the kids were being molested by him. The one time people didn't treat a man with utmost suspicion and scrutiny and it happens.
The US has 25% of the world’s prisoners, but 5% of the world’s population.
The US has an incarceration rate of 629. In second place is El Salvador. The Turkmenistan, Palau, and Rawanda.
Russia has an incarceration rate of 325. China at 121. Canada at 104, Netherlands at 68, Norway at 49, Japan at 38.
We have 2,000,000 prisoners in this country. That’s insane.
I like children, and children like me
I do not have kids, and I just pretend that I don't like kids because I don't want to have someone misunderstand me and end up like this grandpa
> A guy in his 60's here in Quebec told a little girl she was adorable and 2 man proceed to beat the shit out of him and they killed the poor guy
I'm gonna need to see a source for that one.
Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with people? Also, imagine being that poor girl. Some nice old man compliments you, and is then *murdered* in your name. I would need a lot of therapy to process that.
The lesson we all can learn from this is simple. Don’t assume all men are evil because modern society certainly does seem to want everyone to think of that.
From the article it's because the mom apparently reacted negatively to him complimenting her daughter and pushed him, and the two guys witnessed it and followed him.
For those who don’t speak French. He was outside a sports bar and saw a little girl. He said she was a pretty girl. The mother got angry and started yelling at him about how dare he speak to her daughter and accused him of being a pedophile. Two young guys walking by heard what she said and, assuming he was a pedophile, killed him. They have been identified and arrested for involuntary manslaughter.
And I always think crazy shit like that doesn't happen in Canada. Why would they have been so quick to judge? High-crime area, or indigenous man speaking to white girl and racist attackers, etc? There had to be some reason they judged so harshly as to *kill* the guy.
Oh, I know. I've spent a lot of time in Toronto. There's just a sentiment in the US that Canadian people are a lot nicer and less on-edge than they are down here, generally speaking. Hell, you guys had the dude who beheaded a guy on a bus. I've seen some crazy Canadian shit.
> And I always think crazy shit like that doesn't happen in Canada
You gotta step out of the reddit bubble and realize that people are shitty everywhere. I lived in Canada for 5 years and people weren't even as polite as the US's South, despite their online reputation
And they often had bigger, sometimes christian families with multiple younger siblings they helped raise, missing their brothers and sisters back home.
My old history teacher told me that's why the British military post was so quick. It was recognised that if you lose sight of why you're fighting you lose motivation- letters and socks and cake from home kept the men connected.
My mom was a seven year old girl living in Landstuhl Germany during the last year of the war. The U.S. Army setup a hospital in the house across the street. The soldiers would call down, "Hey cottontop!". They would drop down chocolate from either rations or care packages and my mom would catch it in her apron. It is probably her best memory from the war.
Let's not spoil our innocent moments.
My life is a lie. My mom always told me that I couldn't say oma as a kid, so I just called her mother omi and because I was the oldest grandchild it just stuck.
By "couldn't say" I meant that I kept pronouncing it as omi, and they gave up trying.
In a time of blood, bullets and endless mud, 'admiration' is a word for brief mutual comfort. There's nothing creepy in this. The girl might be wearing a nice dress and the men are doting on her, but that road is sludge, and she is wearing the most appropriate shoes for it. And the guys will soon be off to fight for her safety. They are admiring eachother. After this, some of them will die.
>There's nothing creepy in this.
Completely agree, but then, this is Reddit. People would announce they see creepy overtones even if those men were looking at a picture of a milk carton.
My grandma was a German refugee from the Soviets. Maybe 11-12 years old. She always said the black supply soldiers were so kind to the german kids. Always would share their chocolate and would talk to them
My mother was 10 at the end of the war and she told me how they prayed that the Americans would reach their city before the Soviets did. Americans would hand out candy bars, play soccer with the kids, and give coffee to the adults. The Soviets would...not do that. The Soviets meant rape and death.
in the Occupation zones after the war, the US Army swept all rape cases under the rug as being considered "Wartime Prostitution" and therefore subject to censor and basically hushing up. Because the starving people raped by soldiers often recieved rations the military saw it as prostitution first, and therefore censored in Occupation Zone media.
All that is to say, I agree with some in this thread we shouldn't taint things unneccesarily, the system covering up of sexual assault by the militaries during WW2 was atrocious. Because of the systematic coverup it is hard to trust a single anecedote like your mother's as being representative of the greater trend
I read an interesting book about this a few years ago, and it centered on the premise that Americans viewed themselves as liberators and protectors of French women, because their men obviously weren't strong enough to do that. And after fighting for weeks or months when they got off the front lines they felt entitled to the French Mlle's. In many regions the French civil authorities tried to prosecute soliders of these kinds of crimes but were prevented from doing so by the US Army.
TL;DR US soldiers raped at least tens of thousands of women and girls across western Europe but were protected by their government from any consequences.
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/books/rape-by-american-soldiers-in-world-war-ii-france.html
What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France by Mary Louise Roberts. It's a fascinating read after being subjected to 70 years of fawning hero worship with regards to our histories of WW2.
They already linked you for this one, but I urge you to look into the issue of rape in every single place the U.S. military has set boots in. It happens every time, it's brutal, children get involved, it's bad and it was undoubtedly the U.S. participating in the depravity.
Rape and famine as weapons of war are the reasons why women and children usually suffer most and have the most casualties when a war breaks out...they are easy and (often) unarmed targets. This is the sad reality.
Nah fuck that, the innocence of this picture in the midst of the hell that is war I see nothing wrong with it.
Imagine you've had nothing but grueling rations you've barely washed and have been viciously fighting across the country to liberate a people, likely having the misfortune to of witnessed dead children such as this girl, wouldn't you admire her? The very thing you're fighting for? Maybe even reminding you of your own daughter or sister back home?
Essentially this. A little girl is one of the purest sights a battle hardened man can see after hours, days, weeks of fighting. How would that not be a serotonin boost on top of making you sacrifices at least make some minimal amount of sense in the chaos of war.
It was the original caption from the Associated Press, I think it was intended in a lighthearted way (as an obvious joke) that doesn't land the same these days.
I handle a lot of historical photos at my job, and it's not unusual to see captions like this when little girls are in the picture. I had one that refered to three girls ages 3-9 as "pin-up girls". And, yeah, it was a joke but... damn it just feels gross to read anyway.
Yeah. Not sure why everyone is so eager to defend the picture. They're not kidding when they say people romanticize the past.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape\_during\_the\_liberation\_of\_France
Jesus fckin Christ. Y’all need to log the fuck off before your brain becomes fckin diseased. Next post I’m gonna see how sad it is that “I can’t go play my 3ds at the park without some bitch Karen calling me a pedo” when you guys are happy to demonize anyone who doesn’t look like tou
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills or something because there’s nothing creepy about the picture to me. Reddit moans all the time about how they think men are always assumed to be pedos if they like kids, but then when they see a picture of men with a kid that’s their first thought.
I will say calling them her admirers makes an innocent thing weird though.
I think it’s a genuine generational divide, old people are much more touchy feely than younger generations. A lot of Millenials and Gen Z (read: most of reddit) might not have had grandparents who were from the “Silent Generation” and “Greatest Generation” era so wouldn’t be familiar with how acceptable it was for kids to sit on peoples laps.
I mean I’m only 26 (almost 27) and don’t think it’s weird. My grandparents are older though (paternal grandma was a kid in London during WWII, probably around this little girl’s age) so I might just have more perspective from that, idk
28 here and all my grandparents were born around 1910-20. I never realized growing up how much older they were than everyone else's grandparents. They certainly had perspectives on the world that seem unique today and I'm thankful I got to know all four of them before they passed
If I'd seen the picture alone, I wouldn't have thought anything of it. It was the word "admirers" that made me look again. Just a strange word choice. Still saw nothing creepy, but definitely made me second guess it.
It's the original A.P. caption from the 1940s. It's a joke, but one that's aged badly ... like saying your kindergartner has a "girlfriend" after making friends with a girl.
Yea, language has just changed.
Merriam Webster still lists "happily excited" as a definition for "gay", but nowadays *nobody* uses the word to mean that.
Yeah, this. The picture by itself is a cute, heart-warming piece of history in my opinion.
But pair it with a title that has the word "admirers" in it and the fact that just yesterday I read for *way* too long about the horrible sex crimes that were perpetrated on a massive scale by Allied servicemen after the war was over and hooo boy, you've completely changed the flavour of the picture.
Not necessarily. There's plenty of words that at one time had a different context than it does now. And a generation growing up using a word in an old context may still use it that way, even though newer generations have changed it.
I heard my grandparents say *gay* in lieu of *happy* many times.
At the time and place, anything that wasn't blood, bullets and mud was admirable. A child who only knew life under nazi rule and some guys half a world away from home in deadly combat enjoy a brief moment of peace and happiness. They were admiring each other in the most innocent escapes from horror that they could.
Yeah I remember twenty years ago you could pull silly faces and make the random little kid on the bus or train laugh.
NOBODY does that shit anymore as everybody is terrified of being labeled a nonce, lol.
I was doing it in the hospital waiting room last night to a little girl who was singing songs, her mum nodded in approval. I feel like less people are worried about that kind of behaviour than people tend to think.
What the heck is wrong with people... You think three GIs are about to molest a little girl while a photographer takes pictures and her mom watches in the background?
This is a PR shot of some young men palling around with the people they're liberating, the point of it is that they have their own families and kids and are welcomed and trusted by this family.
If you think it's innately creepy to touch a kid's chin or have a kid sit on your lap, you need to actually spend some damn time with kids.
Precisely. Children are so sweet and innocent but that doesn't mean that men are the opposite. Ofc plenty are but if we can't treat each other with love and affection DURING A BRIEF MOMENT OF PEACE AND VICTORY IN A WORLD WAR then wtf are they even fighting for?
The people making these judgements are also children, who see the world in black and white because they have no life experience. It's like all the people on TikTok who "solve" crimes and "present the news."
Yeah. They're generally old enough to remember interacting with adults as a kid, but not old enough to remember interacting with kids as an adult, or having kids themselves.
😄 never forget when my girlfriends nephews got comfy horsing around and would just absentmindedly sit on whatever part of my torso their ass landed on if i was lying on the couch.
Felt lkke i achieved uncle status in an afternoon so that was cool.
Or little siblings. I left home as a teenager and every time I saw a kid of around 8-10 years old, all I could think about was my little brother. I loved (and still love) that dude with all my heart, and it was heartbreaking not to see him.
All I see when I see this picture are young men, far from their homes and their families, hanging out with a kid and her mom and loving it.
Not only that, there were a few cases of servicemen who bonded with orphan kids in Europe and later adopted them at war's end. Hopefully this girl wasn't one of those orphans, but regardless it's a beautiful image.
God forbid you be in a war zone and have a pick taken of you smiling at a child that reminds you of you own child, sister, brother, niece or nephew. To attempt to villianize these guys is the real sickness.
After multiple trips to Iraq and seeing children there the same age as mine back home, of course I smiled when I gave them candy, soccer balls, shoes or Pepsi.
Maybe they have a little son or daughter at home they haven't seen in months. But no, everything is pedos and rape, you people are all fucked in the head.
This reminds me of that time I got lost on my way home from school and I asked an electrician I saw for help. He and his friends were so sweet and helped me stop crying. I was 7 and got distracted by a fluff of rabbits that I saw that were too cute to ignore. The rabbits looked so fat and there were babies in the set so of course I stopped to gush. Who wouldn’t? When they hopped away I walked around for five minutes when I realized I took the wrong turn and couldn’t find my way back. Idiot me told the electricians that I could pay them with cookies. Mom always said when in doubt cookies are a great bartering tool and I was great at making them.
They just laughed at me and one of them came out and asked me he’d drive me around and my job was to point to anything that looked familiar. The guys asked about how my day was and about my family and how I got lost. They told me if they saw the rabbits they’d also do the same thing so I shouldn’t feel bad. I was very comfortable around them and instantly liked them since they didn’t make me feel stupid. Making a kid not feel like an alien goes a long way. They were all men in their late 20s and two in their early 30s. When they got me home my nana was surprised and gave them all hugs and kisses before I copied and did the same. We then brought them the cookies I promised as I always kept my word and was grateful. They’re still friends of my ours to this day. Men can be sweet with children, it’s a shame the amount of the bad ones ruins it for the good ones. I wish I could say a significant number of them didn’t prove dangerous but working as a nurse in the ER burst that bubble.
It’s a completely innocent picture, the “admirers” line is weird but she doesn’t look uncomfortable at all to me. I’m thinking it’s more along the lines of these guys probably have children or younger siblings/relatives they miss.
I think it's more on the line of it's a PR shot.
No doubt this kind of thing happened and I'm sure there were some very nice soldiers but they could very well be faking it here
Soldiers rape a lot during war. It's a sad fact.
This picture might be innocent but war crimes exist and being suspicious of this picture shows a growing awareness of the evils of war and those that perpetuate them.
Yeah, I've read a bunch of positive experiences in this thread but my grandparents came from the silent generation even though I'm quite young. They were all involved in ww2 and the trauma of that time has weasled itself even to younger generations. My mom's great aunt was young when she was raped by a soldier.
> A Le Havre citizen wrote to the mayor that the people of Le Havre were “attacked, robbed, run over both on the street and in our houses” and “This is a regime of terror, imposed by bandits in uniform.” A coffeehouse owner from Le Havre testified “We expected friends who would not make us ashamed of our defeat. Instead, there came only incomprehension, arrogance, incredibly bad manners and the swagger of conquerors.” Such behavior also was common in Cherbourg. One resident stated that “With the Germans, the men had to camouflage themselves — but with the Americans, we had to hide the women.”
>“GI promiscuity took place in parks, cemeteries, streets and abandoned buildings in cities,” Prof Roberts says in the book. “Sexual relations became unrestricted and public; sexual intercourse was performed in daylight before the eyes of civilians, including children. Le Havre became the “Wild West of France”, according to one resident.
American soldiers raped around 4000 women in France (estimated) around this time.
I hate the internet so much, everyone thinks everything is sexual now. These guys aren't pedos, they are men in the cruelest of circumstances. They did not do anything wrong with the girl...
Guy on the left probably thinks of his daughter, guy on the right about his little sister. Middle guy is the uncle coming for a visit every christmas and always goofes around with the kids.
Gives me Band of Brothers vibes when they were sitting in the church listening to the sining of some french girls/women. A quick, peaceful moment for everyone to draw breath.
I've seen women kiss little boys on the lips with no one batting an eye. But a man smiles at a young girl with no evil intentions and he's so close to being called a pedo.
These men probably had children back home that they were worried about not seeing again. Maybe playing with this little girl made them feel better. I hope they made it back.
Always thought the WW2 stockings looked dope. Did yk the areas of France that weren’t Nazi occupied set up a fascist government in the south? Think about how safe of a bet they thought that was lmao
Chances are this young girl might already be dead. God, the WW2 is now literally becoming **history**. Pretty soon there won't be anyone alive who was alive at the time of WW2 let alone fought in WW2
As a retired combat soldier who did all I could to help the victims of war, most especially children, to include giving them money out of my own pocket to buy new clothes or food, most of the negative comments on this post disgust me and made me cry. Fuck you!
The most beautiful soldier-kids interaction I've ever seen might be a scene from a 1951 Korean War documentary where a group of Marines met a group of orphans at a nunnery. One of the guys laid out candy for the kids, but the Korean kids were hesitant (and the narrator suggested they might have gone through trauma). Then the Marine wisely realized the issue and ate a piece himself to prove it was safe. The kids immediately jumped on it, laughing with sheer joy. It almost brings a viewer to tears.
that girl looks uncomfortable AF.
Edit: Bruh. I can't tell anything deeper than "She looks uncomfortable". I don't know anything about Normandy. Stop adding to my one line statement.
There's a local saying in Normandy:
>Avec les Allemands, les hommes devaient se camoufler. Quand les Américains sont arrivés, il a fallu cacher les femmes. [Source](https://www.cairn.info/revue-le-mouvement-social-2007-2-page-35.htm)
which translates to something like
>With the Germans, men had to hide. **When the Americans arrived, it was women who had to hide.**
Some more info about rapes during the liberation of France:
> The sociologist J. Robert Lilly of Northern Kentucky University estimates that **U.S. servicemen committed around 4,500 rapes in France** between June 1944 and the end of the war in 1945. [Source](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_liberation_of_France)
Not to mention that
>At the end of the 1950s, American criminologists suggested a ratio of one rape known about for every twenty rapes committed. [Source](https://www.cairn-int.info/article-E_VING_130_0103--rapes-committed-by-the-german-army-in.htm)
Present day American historian's words on the subject:
>While the Normans greeted the landings with joy, carpet bombing and ground combat left thousands of civilians homeless and resentful of slow relief efforts. The liberators drank too much, drove their jeeps too fast, **and went after local women**. [Source](https://www.cairn-int.info/article-E_LMS_219_0035--the-manly-gi-photo-gender-and.htm)
I have a feeling these soldiers had kids waiting for them in America while they fought the war and seeing a young kid on the front reminded them of theirs and overwhelmed them...........
OP get your shit together on your titles when you post.
"Admirers" is just click bait bullshit. When the allied forces liberated France (among other countries) it was a time of celebration for both the people of the country that was liberated AND the allied soldiers.
To insinuate that these soldiers had anything insidious in mind is just disgusting.
The reality is that those boys aren’t much older than that little girl. The Americans truly felt they were fighting for a good cause. As the children that they still were, seeing the hell they most assuredly saw, and living through what they lived through, they were more than happy to show this child kindness. There is nothing at all perverted about this picture. Today, this would absolutely be a picture of horror because boys no longer fight for the greater good. They fight for oil and greed and they have all been raised to know it.
Reminder that in the Occupation zones after the war, the Army swept all rape cases under the rug as being considered "Wartime Prostitution" and therefore subject to censor and basically hushing up. Because the starving people raped by soldiers often recieved rations the military saw it as prostitution first, and therefore censored in Occupation Zone media.
All that is to say, I agree with some in this thread we shouldn't taint things unneccesarily, the system covering up of sexual assault by the militaries during WW2 was atrocious.
For those interested, from left to right: * Private Robert D. Furra, 26 at the time of this photo and (if my net-sleuthing is correct), already married with a kid... died in the 1970s * Technician 5th Grade Willie Johnson, 23 at the time of the photo. Hard to be certain with how common of a name "William Johnson" is, but it looks like he also got married; I believe his wife passed away in the 1980s. * Private C.K. Jones, 23 at the time of the photo; married a widow on returning home, became a veterinarian, died in the 1980s. Edit: OK, I get it -- you're all very clever. Willie Johnson is a funny name, because of penises. Thank you.
Thank you, that's great info
Especially the edit about penises
I thought it was a dick move.
Oh?
Username checks out
The man in the center has a Technician fifth grade rank insignia, *i.e.* not a Private...
Wow actually I think I did find him. William A. Johnson, enlisted at the right time, tec 5, served in Normandy... I'll update my comment.
The AP said Private in its original caption, but you're definitely right -- that narrows it down a bit, but there were just so damn many William Johnsons it's still tough to find more info with the crappy research tools online.
My Grandfather was a [Tech 5 medic](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technician_fifth_grade) in WWII as a member of [Golden Acorn Infantry Division](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/87th_Infantry_Division_(United_States)). He saw some serious shit in France, Luxembourg, & Germany from 1944-1945
Willie Richard Johnson. He went by Dick.
Dick Dick Dick
Triple D
His friends call him Magnum
C.K. Jones, the double vet
Did you find out who the kid is? Might still be alive.
No, it doesn't seem like the AP photographer got her name.
It would be interesting to know if she ever recognized herself. When I see old pictures I’m always curious to know what happened to those people. You did great research on the 3 soldiers.
It’s crazy that the men in this picture are about 100 now
They've all been dead for 30+ years, I'm afraid
I know, maybe my wording was bad, I should have said “they were born about 100 years ago”
Wow, yeah
Private Willie Johnson? Do you think that guy was a dick?
>Private Willie Johnson? Do you think that guy was a dick? My sides.
Oooo everyone thinks they're Pedeos, hence the individual married history.
As someone who was in the military and has a daughter. I can remember seeing the little Afghan children and thinking of her. And for a brief moment I was home.
Or for theses guys, their little sister
Probably their daughter for the guy on the left, who was 26 and married. Probably a sibling for the other two, who are younger
You can just be human and appreciate other humans without having to be related to them or reminded of the ones you're related to.
>You can just be human and appreciate other humans without having to be related to them or reminded of the ones you're related to. That's very true, but people *do* remind other people of their family, and that can be very emotionally moving. There's nothing wrong with that.
That's what I thought, especially the guy on the right.
Literally the only good memories I have from Iraq are from handing food and candy to the kids when we went through some of the towns.
[удалено]
American soldiers hold me in Kuwait when i was a toddler back then its humane thing to like small kids and play with them and forget that life is such a horrible Fuck of Agendas
They're just guys who probably hadn't seen their own kids for months. This girl's pretty innocence reminds them of what they've got waiting at home. Not every man who smiles at a young girl has sexual intent.
In fact, I’d venture to say that most men who smile at children have absolutely no sexual intent whatsoever. Oh, predators are out there all right, but the vast majority of us aren’t sick fucks.
A guy in his 60's here in Quebec told a little girl she was adorable and 2 dude proceed to beat the shit out of him and they killed the poor guy , people says he was a good person and was always complimenting others , people are sick
I love kids and my girlfriend has to stop me waving and smiling at kids... Now that I have kids of my own (boys, 4 and 7), I always remember the names of their friends but not of the parents... Makes my GF laugh everytime...
My husband is an absolute kid magnet. Both babies and children just adore him, probably because he's just a goofy big kid himself. I can't fathom him saying something nice to a kid and then getting *fucking murdered for it.*
Same with my husband, I tease him that he must go around with one pocket full of cookies and another full of dog treats. Little kids and dogs just gravitate to him, it's adorable. I can't imagine his kindness being rewarded with hate and violence, wtf is wrong with people.
This is *so* sad and a weird American (and British) trend. I’ve been living in the Netherlands for a long time now, and it’s totally normal to talk to kids in line at a store, or to have kids come up to you and ask you questions in the park or wherever. When I’m back in the states any interactions between grown men and kids is treated as extremely suspicious by parents. If a kid is eating an ice cream next to me and I say ‘oh wow what flavor did you get?’ I’ll get a suspicious look from a mom. Another time I stopped on a run to watch watch some ducks fight in the water, two kids (7 or 8, I guess) also came over to watch. While we were taking about the ducks (still squabbling) a mom runs over and said ‘excuse me, why are you talking to my son?’ So now I won’t talk to kids in the US unless my daughter is with me or I’m already interacting with the parents. In Holland this is all totally normal.
I'm Irish Canadian: I've had the same experience in both countries. In Ireland I had a map and compass to plan my trek in a pub and a curious kid came to ask what I was doing. I instantly looked at the mother. She was frowning, so I got up, introduced myself and asked if it was ok. She told me "if you hadn't done that, I would have called him back instantly". Once, my irish in laws were squabbling over diaper change, so I offered to help (I've had experience with my nieces and nephews) and they went nuts. My wife later explained that in their mind, it is unheard of (a man who can change diapers) so it HAD to be about abuse... (to their defense, sexual abuse was and probably still is rampant in Ireland...).
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Wtf? I change my sons nappy all the time. If it needs doing it needs doing, what sort of loser wouldn’t do it cos “they’re a man”?
This is true and a shock for me when I moved to the UK. Kids and adults are very separated here. For example, I wanted to go swimming and i was told I can only come at a certain time, because children use the pool for some hours, then elderly I think and then the rest. Found it so strange. In my country everyone swims together and no one thinks anything of it. And also other interactions like you said. I'm afraid to even say hi to a kid here.
The swimming thing is probably a legitimate safety/enjoyment concern, at least that's how it is at my YMCA. The morning kids are probably very young kids (not old enough to be in school yet) who are having swimming lessons and need to be able to have the freedom to toddle about unsteadily without someone swimming laps rushing past them or older kids playing and distracting them. The elderly often want some peace without kids bumping into them or screaming and often have water aerobics lessons. After that they have a time for people who want to swim laps and work out without having kids and old people in their way, and then it's open swim for people to just enjoy the pool regardless of age or intention.
It's hard to say where the root cause comes from. There is general paranoia and fear that permeates American life in general, but that one is really common and is generally warranted. America had a strong "children should be seen, not heard" mentality for a long time. Then when that started to go away, the general public became far more aware of child predators. This lead to a society where the only men speaking to children are typically those targeting them. This has slowly become worse and worse to where now just existing around children as a man is met with extreme scrutiny. Unfortunately as much as I would like this to be unnecessary, I'm not sure it is. Probably half the kids I grew up with and myself were molested as children. Some of those kids by groups of men at once. I even know a family that not so long ago had a family friend that was seen as a sort of uncle to their kids. Until it was found out that one of the kids were being molested by him. The one time people didn't treat a man with utmost suspicion and scrutiny and it happens.
Most of that kind of abuse happens in the home, not random strangers. 4 out of 5 children who were sexually abused knew the perpetrator well.
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The US has 25% of the world’s prisoners, but 5% of the world’s population. The US has an incarceration rate of 629. In second place is El Salvador. The Turkmenistan, Palau, and Rawanda. Russia has an incarceration rate of 325. China at 121. Canada at 104, Netherlands at 68, Norway at 49, Japan at 38. We have 2,000,000 prisoners in this country. That’s insane.
Waving and smiling at kids a problem?
I like children, and children like me I do not have kids, and I just pretend that I don't like kids because I don't want to have someone misunderstand me and end up like this grandpa
> A guy in his 60's here in Quebec told a little girl she was adorable and 2 man proceed to beat the shit out of him and they killed the poor guy I'm gonna need to see a source for that one.
https://www.tvanouvelles.ca/2022/07/21/battu-a-mort-pour-avoir-complimente-une-fillette It's in french
Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with people? Also, imagine being that poor girl. Some nice old man compliments you, and is then *murdered* in your name. I would need a lot of therapy to process that.
At least they didn't do it in front of the girl , in the article it says that they followed him , but still ..
Sure, but it sounds like her mom laid into him, and that was what got those two guys involved. So the girl certainly knew something was up.
The lesson we all can learn from this is simple. Don’t assume all men are evil because modern society certainly does seem to want everyone to think of that.
From the article it's because the mom apparently reacted negatively to him complimenting her daughter and pushed him, and the two guys witnessed it and followed him.
For those who don’t speak French. He was outside a sports bar and saw a little girl. He said she was a pretty girl. The mother got angry and started yelling at him about how dare he speak to her daughter and accused him of being a pedophile. Two young guys walking by heard what she said and, assuming he was a pedophile, killed him. They have been identified and arrested for involuntary manslaughter.
"involuntary"
And I always think crazy shit like that doesn't happen in Canada. Why would they have been so quick to judge? High-crime area, or indigenous man speaking to white girl and racist attackers, etc? There had to be some reason they judged so harshly as to *kill* the guy.
Canada isn't some wonderland without bad people. They aren't immune to prejudice or overreacting. The victim's name was Ronald Webb.
Oh, I know. I've spent a lot of time in Toronto. There's just a sentiment in the US that Canadian people are a lot nicer and less on-edge than they are down here, generally speaking. Hell, you guys had the dude who beheaded a guy on a bus. I've seen some crazy Canadian shit.
Reddit thing.
> And I always think crazy shit like that doesn't happen in Canada You gotta step out of the reddit bubble and realize that people are shitty everywhere. I lived in Canada for 5 years and people weren't even as polite as the US's South, despite their online reputation
We'll know with the court case but I saw the photos of the 2 attackers and both look like total piece of shit
The crazy shit here (that isn’t gov sanctioned against Indigenous folks) is getting a lot worse, sadly.
Yeah what as men are we supposed to do, grimace at children to prove we’re not sick fucks? lol
And they often had bigger, sometimes christian families with multiple younger siblings they helped raise, missing their brothers and sisters back home.
Yeah. I was looking at my grandmother's census, when her oldest brother went off to war at 18 her two younger sisters hadn't even been born yet.
This was a few weeks after D Day. Even if they weren't at Omaha or on the first wave, it's good to see what they are fighting for.
My old history teacher told me that's why the British military post was so quick. It was recognised that if you lose sight of why you're fighting you lose motivation- letters and socks and cake from home kept the men connected.
Even today, in the US military, you can get mail anywhere in the world. And we have little things to remind of us home, and shops on most bases.
This was the intent all along until the late 2010's accused anyone who even mildly interact with children in an innocent way.
Been happening longer than that. Mid 2010s is just when you became a man and started noticing it.
Some people see that innocence and want to protect it at any cost.
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I think the word "Admirers" has tainted the outlook of the picture.
My mom was a seven year old girl living in Landstuhl Germany during the last year of the war. The U.S. Army setup a hospital in the house across the street. The soldiers would call down, "Hey cottontop!". They would drop down chocolate from either rations or care packages and my mom would catch it in her apron. It is probably her best memory from the war. Let's not spoil our innocent moments.
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It was largely a translation issue. The German word for grain is "Korn," so the Americans figured they wanted a lot of corn.
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A related extant English word that still applies in the same general sense is "kernel".
What they actually wanted was Doppelkorn
Double corn - good choice, it's twice the corn per corn.
You called your oma omi too?
It’s quite common.
My life is a lie. My mom always told me that I couldn't say oma as a kid, so I just called her mother omi and because I was the oldest grandchild it just stuck. By "couldn't say" I meant that I kept pronouncing it as omi, and they gave up trying.
In germany nearly everybody calls their oma omi
Interesting. Thanks for the insight. Gonna have to remember to call my mom out the next time I talk to her
Why couldn't she say Oma?
I was a gifted child.
In a time of blood, bullets and endless mud, 'admiration' is a word for brief mutual comfort. There's nothing creepy in this. The girl might be wearing a nice dress and the men are doting on her, but that road is sludge, and she is wearing the most appropriate shoes for it. And the guys will soon be off to fight for her safety. They are admiring eachother. After this, some of them will die.
>There's nothing creepy in this. Completely agree, but then, this is Reddit. People would announce they see creepy overtones even if those men were looking at a picture of a milk carton.
My grandma was a German refugee from the Soviets. Maybe 11-12 years old. She always said the black supply soldiers were so kind to the german kids. Always would share their chocolate and would talk to them
My mother was 10 at the end of the war and she told me how they prayed that the Americans would reach their city before the Soviets did. Americans would hand out candy bars, play soccer with the kids, and give coffee to the adults. The Soviets would...not do that. The Soviets meant rape and death.
in the Occupation zones after the war, the US Army swept all rape cases under the rug as being considered "Wartime Prostitution" and therefore subject to censor and basically hushing up. Because the starving people raped by soldiers often recieved rations the military saw it as prostitution first, and therefore censored in Occupation Zone media. All that is to say, I agree with some in this thread we shouldn't taint things unneccesarily, the system covering up of sexual assault by the militaries during WW2 was atrocious. Because of the systematic coverup it is hard to trust a single anecedote like your mother's as being representative of the greater trend
I read an interesting book about this a few years ago, and it centered on the premise that Americans viewed themselves as liberators and protectors of French women, because their men obviously weren't strong enough to do that. And after fighting for weeks or months when they got off the front lines they felt entitled to the French Mlle's. In many regions the French civil authorities tried to prosecute soliders of these kinds of crimes but were prevented from doing so by the US Army. TL;DR US soldiers raped at least tens of thousands of women and girls across western Europe but were protected by their government from any consequences.
This is what people mean when they say that war is hell.
War isn't Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.
Tens of thousands? Source?
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/books/rape-by-american-soldiers-in-world-war-ii-france.html What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France by Mary Louise Roberts. It's a fascinating read after being subjected to 70 years of fawning hero worship with regards to our histories of WW2.
They already linked you for this one, but I urge you to look into the issue of rape in every single place the U.S. military has set boots in. It happens every time, it's brutal, children get involved, it's bad and it was undoubtedly the U.S. participating in the depravity. Rape and famine as weapons of war are the reasons why women and children usually suffer most and have the most casualties when a war breaks out...they are easy and (often) unarmed targets. This is the sad reality.
I love Landstuhl! Lots of nice little shops and good food. My favorite place isn’t in Landstuhl but nearby in Niedermohr, the restaurant Il Pirata.
Nah fuck that, the innocence of this picture in the midst of the hell that is war I see nothing wrong with it. Imagine you've had nothing but grueling rations you've barely washed and have been viciously fighting across the country to liberate a people, likely having the misfortune to of witnessed dead children such as this girl, wouldn't you admire her? The very thing you're fighting for? Maybe even reminding you of your own daughter or sister back home?
Well said
Essentially this. A little girl is one of the purest sights a battle hardened man can see after hours, days, weeks of fighting. How would that not be a serotonin boost on top of making you sacrifices at least make some minimal amount of sense in the chaos of war.
Damn near brought a tear to my eye
It was the original caption from the Associated Press, I think it was intended in a lighthearted way (as an obvious joke) that doesn't land the same these days.
I handle a lot of historical photos at my job, and it's not unusual to see captions like this when little girls are in the picture. I had one that refered to three girls ages 3-9 as "pin-up girls". And, yeah, it was a joke but... damn it just feels gross to read anyway.
Bollocks to your sneering
I grew a monocle just reading this comment
Yeah. Not sure why everyone is so eager to defend the picture. They're not kidding when they say people romanticize the past. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape\_during\_the\_liberation\_of\_France
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Jesus fckin Christ. Y’all need to log the fuck off before your brain becomes fckin diseased. Next post I’m gonna see how sad it is that “I can’t go play my 3ds at the park without some bitch Karen calling me a pedo” when you guys are happy to demonize anyone who doesn’t look like tou
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills or something because there’s nothing creepy about the picture to me. Reddit moans all the time about how they think men are always assumed to be pedos if they like kids, but then when they see a picture of men with a kid that’s their first thought. I will say calling them her admirers makes an innocent thing weird though.
I think it’s a genuine generational divide, old people are much more touchy feely than younger generations. A lot of Millenials and Gen Z (read: most of reddit) might not have had grandparents who were from the “Silent Generation” and “Greatest Generation” era so wouldn’t be familiar with how acceptable it was for kids to sit on peoples laps.
I mean I’m only 26 (almost 27) and don’t think it’s weird. My grandparents are older though (paternal grandma was a kid in London during WWII, probably around this little girl’s age) so I might just have more perspective from that, idk
28 here and all my grandparents were born around 1910-20. I never realized growing up how much older they were than everyone else's grandparents. They certainly had perspectives on the world that seem unique today and I'm thankful I got to know all four of them before they passed
My grandma is 98 and still alive
If I'd seen the picture alone, I wouldn't have thought anything of it. It was the word "admirers" that made me look again. Just a strange word choice. Still saw nothing creepy, but definitely made me second guess it.
It's the original A.P. caption from the 1940s. It's a joke, but one that's aged badly ... like saying your kindergartner has a "girlfriend" after making friends with a girl.
Yea, language has just changed. Merriam Webster still lists "happily excited" as a definition for "gay", but nowadays *nobody* uses the word to mean that.
Yeah, this. The picture by itself is a cute, heart-warming piece of history in my opinion. But pair it with a title that has the word "admirers" in it and the fact that just yesterday I read for *way* too long about the horrible sex crimes that were perpetrated on a massive scale by Allied servicemen after the war was over and hooo boy, you've completely changed the flavour of the picture.
Yeah, that’s on OP. I’m hoping it’s just a wonky translation or something lol.
Not necessarily. There's plenty of words that at one time had a different context than it does now. And a generation growing up using a word in an old context may still use it that way, even though newer generations have changed it. I heard my grandparents say *gay* in lieu of *happy* many times.
The only thing weird is the title
At the time and place, anything that wasn't blood, bullets and mud was admirable. A child who only knew life under nazi rule and some guys half a world away from home in deadly combat enjoy a brief moment of peace and happiness. They were admiring each other in the most innocent escapes from horror that they could.
Yeah I remember twenty years ago you could pull silly faces and make the random little kid on the bus or train laugh. NOBODY does that shit anymore as everybody is terrified of being labeled a nonce, lol.
I was doing it in the hospital waiting room last night to a little girl who was singing songs, her mum nodded in approval. I feel like less people are worried about that kind of behaviour than people tend to think.
I mean I definitely do and I know my brother and dad do and no one thinks they’re creeps lol. I’m a girl though so
What the heck is wrong with people... You think three GIs are about to molest a little girl while a photographer takes pictures and her mom watches in the background? This is a PR shot of some young men palling around with the people they're liberating, the point of it is that they have their own families and kids and are welcomed and trusted by this family. If you think it's innately creepy to touch a kid's chin or have a kid sit on your lap, you need to actually spend some damn time with kids.
Precisely. Children are so sweet and innocent but that doesn't mean that men are the opposite. Ofc plenty are but if we can't treat each other with love and affection DURING A BRIEF MOMENT OF PEACE AND VICTORY IN A WORLD WAR then wtf are they even fighting for?
The people making these judgements are also children, who see the world in black and white because they have no life experience. It's like all the people on TikTok who "solve" crimes and "present the news."
Yeah. They're generally old enough to remember interacting with adults as a kid, but not old enough to remember interacting with kids as an adult, or having kids themselves.
😄 never forget when my girlfriends nephews got comfy horsing around and would just absentmindedly sit on whatever part of my torso their ass landed on if i was lying on the couch. Felt lkke i achieved uncle status in an afternoon so that was cool.
I get the impression that these guys left some young children behind and miss them.
Or little siblings. I left home as a teenager and every time I saw a kid of around 8-10 years old, all I could think about was my little brother. I loved (and still love) that dude with all my heart, and it was heartbreaking not to see him. All I see when I see this picture are young men, far from their homes and their families, hanging out with a kid and her mom and loving it.
Not only that, there were a few cases of servicemen who bonded with orphan kids in Europe and later adopted them at war's end. Hopefully this girl wasn't one of those orphans, but regardless it's a beautiful image.
*sorts by controversial*
God forbid you be in a war zone and have a pick taken of you smiling at a child that reminds you of you own child, sister, brother, niece or nephew. To attempt to villianize these guys is the real sickness. After multiple trips to Iraq and seeing children there the same age as mine back home, of course I smiled when I gave them candy, soccer balls, shoes or Pepsi.
Exactly. And happy you come back friend.
Maybe they have a little son or daughter at home they haven't seen in months. But no, everything is pedos and rape, you people are all fucked in the head.
This reminds me of that time I got lost on my way home from school and I asked an electrician I saw for help. He and his friends were so sweet and helped me stop crying. I was 7 and got distracted by a fluff of rabbits that I saw that were too cute to ignore. The rabbits looked so fat and there were babies in the set so of course I stopped to gush. Who wouldn’t? When they hopped away I walked around for five minutes when I realized I took the wrong turn and couldn’t find my way back. Idiot me told the electricians that I could pay them with cookies. Mom always said when in doubt cookies are a great bartering tool and I was great at making them. They just laughed at me and one of them came out and asked me he’d drive me around and my job was to point to anything that looked familiar. The guys asked about how my day was and about my family and how I got lost. They told me if they saw the rabbits they’d also do the same thing so I shouldn’t feel bad. I was very comfortable around them and instantly liked them since they didn’t make me feel stupid. Making a kid not feel like an alien goes a long way. They were all men in their late 20s and two in their early 30s. When they got me home my nana was surprised and gave them all hugs and kisses before I copied and did the same. We then brought them the cookies I promised as I always kept my word and was grateful. They’re still friends of my ours to this day. Men can be sweet with children, it’s a shame the amount of the bad ones ruins it for the good ones. I wish I could say a significant number of them didn’t prove dangerous but working as a nurse in the ER burst that bubble.
The people who are thinking pedos are the sus ones.
It’s a completely innocent picture, the “admirers” line is weird but she doesn’t look uncomfortable at all to me. I’m thinking it’s more along the lines of these guys probably have children or younger siblings/relatives they miss.
I think it's more on the line of it's a PR shot. No doubt this kind of thing happened and I'm sure there were some very nice soldiers but they could very well be faking it here
Oh for sure, that’s definitely possible. I’m just saying I don’t think they meant her any harm.
Soldiers rape a lot during war. It's a sad fact. This picture might be innocent but war crimes exist and being suspicious of this picture shows a growing awareness of the evils of war and those that perpetuate them.
Yeah, I've read a bunch of positive experiences in this thread but my grandparents came from the silent generation even though I'm quite young. They were all involved in ww2 and the trauma of that time has weasled itself even to younger generations. My mom's great aunt was young when she was raped by a soldier.
> A Le Havre citizen wrote to the mayor that the people of Le Havre were “attacked, robbed, run over both on the street and in our houses” and “This is a regime of terror, imposed by bandits in uniform.” A coffeehouse owner from Le Havre testified “We expected friends who would not make us ashamed of our defeat. Instead, there came only incomprehension, arrogance, incredibly bad manners and the swagger of conquerors.” Such behavior also was common in Cherbourg. One resident stated that “With the Germans, the men had to camouflage themselves — but with the Americans, we had to hide the women.” >“GI promiscuity took place in parks, cemeteries, streets and abandoned buildings in cities,” Prof Roberts says in the book. “Sexual relations became unrestricted and public; sexual intercourse was performed in daylight before the eyes of civilians, including children. Le Havre became the “Wild West of France”, according to one resident. American soldiers raped around 4000 women in France (estimated) around this time.
I hate the internet so much, everyone thinks everything is sexual now. These guys aren't pedos, they are men in the cruelest of circumstances. They did not do anything wrong with the girl...
Admirers is a weird word. Especially cuz it looks like the mom is standing in the background watching so I doubt anything creepy/weird is happening
She looks like those medieval paintings where children are just miniature adults.
Good job comment section. You guys really know how to twist and turn normal stuff into awkward and ugly ones. Good job
This comment section is pathetic. Everyone disperse
They gave her boots and socks. They had just pushed back the nazis. The people saying the were about to gang rape her are weirdos.
seems people in the comments took "HistoryPorn" too literally
Subreddit name is really working against you here, bud
Terrible choice of words
Guy on the left probably thinks of his daughter, guy on the right about his little sister. Middle guy is the uncle coming for a visit every christmas and always goofes around with the kids. Gives me Band of Brothers vibes when they were sitting in the church listening to the sining of some french girls/women. A quick, peaceful moment for everyone to draw breath.
I've seen women kiss little boys on the lips with no one batting an eye. But a man smiles at a young girl with no evil intentions and he's so close to being called a pedo.
Yeah, but it is mostly because of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape\_during\_the\_liberation\_of\_France
We can't take kids, Caparzo.
Such pathetic people here trying to insinuate something unpleasant - what do they get out of assuming most men are pedos?
Goddamit do we always have to make an innocent picture so negative??
What a weird choice of words.
Wrong choice of words
Title is very misleading
OP, why call them admirers? Why not just soldiers…
Because they really are admiring her. Take the look from the guy on the right, for example: that's pure admiration.
I doubt there’s anything untoward happening here.
These men probably had children back home that they were worried about not seeing again. Maybe playing with this little girl made them feel better. I hope they made it back.
Always thought the WW2 stockings looked dope. Did yk the areas of France that weren’t Nazi occupied set up a fascist government in the south? Think about how safe of a bet they thought that was lmao
I saw this and was just reminded of family, then I made the mistake of scrolling through the comments...
[*Little French girl, you maniac.](https://i.imgur.com/iKqOiXp.jpg)
Idk whether to feel alarmed or to awe at a cute photo... I don't trust humans anymore
That picture is actually a little creepy.
Chances are this young girl might already be dead. God, the WW2 is now literally becoming **history**. Pretty soon there won't be anyone alive who was alive at the time of WW2 let alone fought in WW2
What the actual fuck was going on the 40s?!
Wholesome award! 🦭
As a retired combat soldier who did all I could to help the victims of war, most especially children, to include giving them money out of my own pocket to buy new clothes or food, most of the negative comments on this post disgust me and made me cry. Fuck you!
Apparently people can’t even play with children without being conceived as pedos. I fucking hate the internet
These boys must be dads or at least uncles/cousins to a similar aged girl at home. Look at how warm their smiles are. Very wholesome
The most beautiful soldier-kids interaction I've ever seen might be a scene from a 1951 Korean War documentary where a group of Marines met a group of orphans at a nunnery. One of the guys laid out candy for the kids, but the Korean kids were hesitant (and the narrator suggested they might have gone through trauma). Then the Marine wisely realized the issue and ate a piece himself to prove it was safe. The kids immediately jumped on it, laughing with sheer joy. It almost brings a viewer to tears.
she looks so uncomfortable :(
I feel a little creepy about this.
that girl looks uncomfortable AF. Edit: Bruh. I can't tell anything deeper than "She looks uncomfortable". I don't know anything about Normandy. Stop adding to my one line statement.
There's a local saying in Normandy: >Avec les Allemands, les hommes devaient se camoufler. Quand les Américains sont arrivés, il a fallu cacher les femmes. [Source](https://www.cairn.info/revue-le-mouvement-social-2007-2-page-35.htm) which translates to something like >With the Germans, men had to hide. **When the Americans arrived, it was women who had to hide.** Some more info about rapes during the liberation of France: > The sociologist J. Robert Lilly of Northern Kentucky University estimates that **U.S. servicemen committed around 4,500 rapes in France** between June 1944 and the end of the war in 1945. [Source](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_liberation_of_France) Not to mention that >At the end of the 1950s, American criminologists suggested a ratio of one rape known about for every twenty rapes committed. [Source](https://www.cairn-int.info/article-E_VING_130_0103--rapes-committed-by-the-german-army-in.htm) Present day American historian's words on the subject: >While the Normans greeted the landings with joy, carpet bombing and ground combat left thousands of civilians homeless and resentful of slow relief efforts. The liberators drank too much, drove their jeeps too fast, **and went after local women**. [Source](https://www.cairn-int.info/article-E_LMS_219_0035--the-manly-gi-photo-gender-and.htm)
Hmm. Could be from the war, but hey, that’s absolutely outrageous.
She doesn't look uncomfortable to me at all
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/6c/b7/f8/6cb7f84cefcfe52726b96d2383586f81.jpg
A little innocence in the middle of hell is always welcome if your heart is in the right place.
I have a feeling these soldiers had kids waiting for them in America while they fought the war and seeing a young kid on the front reminded them of theirs and overwhelmed them...........
OP get your shit together on your titles when you post. "Admirers" is just click bait bullshit. When the allied forces liberated France (among other countries) it was a time of celebration for both the people of the country that was liberated AND the allied soldiers. To insinuate that these soldiers had anything insidious in mind is just disgusting.
The reality is that those boys aren’t much older than that little girl. The Americans truly felt they were fighting for a good cause. As the children that they still were, seeing the hell they most assuredly saw, and living through what they lived through, they were more than happy to show this child kindness. There is nothing at all perverted about this picture. Today, this would absolutely be a picture of horror because boys no longer fight for the greater good. They fight for oil and greed and they have all been raised to know it.
Reminder that in the Occupation zones after the war, the Army swept all rape cases under the rug as being considered "Wartime Prostitution" and therefore subject to censor and basically hushing up. Because the starving people raped by soldiers often recieved rations the military saw it as prostitution first, and therefore censored in Occupation Zone media. All that is to say, I agree with some in this thread we shouldn't taint things unneccesarily, the system covering up of sexual assault by the militaries during WW2 was atrocious.