By the end of World War II, over 100, 000 British women had married American servicemen. But marrying a GI was one thing, getting to the United States was another. Strict US immigration quotas and lack of transport meant that most of these women, many with babies or young children, were unable to join their husbands in the United States.In October 1945, a crowd of women picketed the US Embassy shouting, ‘We want out husbands! We want ships!’ Two months later, on December 29th, the US Congress passed the War Bride’s Act, which allowed entry to the United States of alien wives and minor children of American citizens who had been active service during the war by granting them special status regardless of the immigration quotas.Months before the War Bride’s Act was finally passed, British Good Housekeeping had been educating British GI brides about their future home by publishing a small pamphlet called A Bride’s Guide to the USA. Produced in 1945 at the request of the US Office of War Information, it explained America and Americans to the women before they said goodbye to their families and headed for a strange land. We have reproduced that fascinating publication here.
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