Research Help and Questions about the WW2 Draft System - Help needed! (war, general)

[marieamoo]

I have a lot of questions regarding the draft of world war II.

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post, or if I am doing this all wrong. I'm trying very hard, and after weeks of trying to get all my questions answered, I am hoping I can get some help here.

I'm a student, and I love the 1940's. I spend a lot of time researching about lifestyles and the home front, but when it comes down to details around the war I get stuck. I'm also a writer, and my latest project is set during 1942 New York, and while it does not deal directly with the war, there are a lot of things I need to know that I am having trouble finding elsewhere.

Okay so. When someone is drafted, are there any specifics regarding what time of the year they might be drafted and then shipped off? I want to make sure I have dates right.
And also, how exactly are they notified?

After they were notified, what was the process and where do they go? How were they shipped off and did they go anywhere else first?
I read about the service time being extended from the original 12 month, but the article I was reading showed no specifics into how long they changed it to. So. How long might someone be in service? I'm assuming that if someone was injured they would be sent home, but maybe that is incorrect.

My main problem is that I want to write about the various other war jobs, not just soldiers and pilots. Like the engineers and all the smaller jobs that are still important, like working on planes. I'm having trouble finding information on those jobs, and the process for being drafted into those.
Was the draft only for people that would be sent to fight?
For the other building/engineer jobs, was there a training process?

Basically every resource I have found has given me facts about drafting, and the selective service acts, but I need enough details to be able to right about it directly from the POV of someone going through the draft.

I'm sorry if these are all pathetically obvious questions, but I really am aspiring for accuracy in this story and am miserably stuck.

This is a super important subject to me, so thank you for any help at all.

[Cryptic]

I can only give some limited information. WWII conscripts were placed into two broad categories of use:


- Used to either form new divisions here in the US, or to expand existing National Guard divisions to full strength. In some, or perhaps all of these cases, the basic and advanced training was done by the division that they were assigned. Even the totally new divisions were assigned experienced (or relatively experienced) cadre officers and enlisted men to train new recruits. Engineers, artillery, infantry etc. would all be trained at the same divisional base.

- Assigned to replacement depots as ready replacements for future casualties. In these cases, the conscripts would have been trained by other units. These other units may well have been training only units whose sole function was to train "generic" infantrymen, tankers, engineers etc. In most cases, these men were just funneled into combat units as ad hoc "fresh meat". In some cases though, elite "low number" divisions would receive the replacements, and then give them a period of additional training before assigning them units in combat in order to bring them up to standard.

Truly specialized officers serving in very technical positions, or strategic logistics, cryptology etc. would have been trained in an OCS school. As they were not going into combat and would be managing small numbers of other specialists, the OCS schools were very token, such as three weeks or so.

As a side note, google "John Wayne, draft dodger". There are some articles which give a lot of information about the various draft categories and call up times as they tell the tale of how "The Duke" loved acting as a soldier, but was obviously in no hurry to serve in even a token fashion. As a result, he constantly changed draft categories to stay one step ahead of Uncle Sam.

[Taiko]

First a draftee went to the induction center where he would be given a battery of test. Half of the Army at that time was not in combat divisions. Like the aviators those who volunteered, supposing the test scores where sufficient, where given preference on the corps, service, transportation, signals, ordnance... depending upon the needs of the service.

Black and Japanese American inductees were segregated at this point. Chinese Americans were earmarked, not for racial purposes, but sort of a pre Green Beret cultural awareness factor was hoped for so the early Chinese draftees were almost all sent to the service forces building airfields and roads in the China Burma India theatre. By 1943 it was decided that effort to seperate the Chinese was not worth the disruption to the total force so Chinese Americans went back to the general pool just as likely to end up in Germany or Italy as they were on the Burma Road.

From induction it depended upon which basic training camp had the next class starting and the train and bus schedules to get the recruits most efficiently to them for basic training. After basic training depending upon the needs of the Army at that time and test scores you were sent to an technical school or to a division where you were placed in a squad in which you might remain until wounded or you might have shown leadership potential and be pulled as part of the cadre for the next division being formed.

Draftees later in the war when the US Army was not creating more divisions were sent to the theatre replacement depots with soldiers returning from hospital stays and extra service troops as airfield construction and the anti aircraft units.... were not needed in the numbers the were before German and Japanese forces had been blown away and sent to the divisions to make up their losses. If the division was in a reserve status they would often run a mini advanced camp for their replacements before sending them to the front, later in Vietnam era these guys would be called FNGs, being fresh meat among seasoned veterans they were expected to make mistakes and endanger the by then hard professionals. The movies Big Red Run and recently Fury, along with an episode of the 1960 series Combat deal with that subject

[MidValleyDad]

Although this primarily covers what happened with men after they were drafted it does contain some information about the draft system itself

http://www.history.army.mil/html/boo...MH_Pub_2-2.pdf

[catdad7x]

Originally Posted by marieamoo

I have a lot of questions regarding the draft of world war II.

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post, or if I am doing this all wrong. I'm trying very hard, and after weeks of trying to get all my questions answered, I am hoping I can get some help here.

I'm a student, and I love the 1940's. I spend a lot of time researching about lifestyles and the home front, but when it comes down to details around the war I get stuck. I'm also a writer, and my latest project is set during 1942 New York, and while it does not deal directly with the war, there are a lot of things I need to know that I am having trouble finding elsewhere.

Okay so. When someone is drafted, are there any specifics regarding what time of the year they might be drafted and then shipped off? I want to make sure I have dates right.
And also, how exactly are they notified?

After they were notified, what was the process and where do they go? How were they shipped off and did they go anywhere else first?
I read about the service time being extended from the original 12 month, but the article I was reading showed no specifics into how long they changed it to. So. How long might someone be in service? I'm assuming that if someone was injured they would be sent home, but maybe that is incorrect.

My main problem is that I want to write about the various other war jobs, not just soldiers and pilots. Like the engineers and all the smaller jobs that are still important, like working on planes. I'm having trouble finding information on those jobs, and the process for being drafted into those.
Was the draft only for people that would be sent to fight?
For the other building/engineer jobs, was there a training process?

Basically every resource I have found has given me facts about drafting, and the selective service acts, but I need enough details to be able to right about it directly from the POV of someone going through the draft.

I'm sorry if these are all pathetically obvious questions, but I really am aspiring for accuracy in this story and am miserably stuck.

This is a super important subject to me, so thank you for any help at all.

There was no set time of year to draft someone. The Selective Service would be told how many people would be needed by the War Dept., and induct the required numbers.

They were most likely notified by a letter from Selective Service (or War Dept.).

Draftees were told to report to an Induction Center or military base, then assigned & transported to whatever unit they were needed at for basic and advanced training.

They were drafted into the military for the duration of the war. Usually the only ones who got out before the war's end were those that were severely wounded.

A person drafted might be sent into combat, or just as easily be a mechanic, cook, or clerk, etc. The military would test them & determine what kinds of jobs they were best suited for. But the primary focus was keeping the combat units fully equipped, so the chances of ending up in a combat unit were probably higher, unless you had a specific skill they needed elsewhere.

[msgsing]

Quite a few draft age men who were otherwise mentally and physically fit were exempted because they had civilian job skills that were considered crucial to war production. My father for instance did not have to go as he was a tool and die maker.

[marieamoo]

Thank you all so much!