Music in WWII: V-Discs

From Dear Nora:

As part of a letter home in April 1944, Nora writes, "I spend a lot of my off hours in the officers’ club, listening to records, reading Stars & Stripes, writing letters, playing cards, and singing."

The records fictional Nora and her fellow officers listened to were Victory Discs, a series of recordings produced by the U.S. government to boost morale. Music was vitally important as a shared experience for those serving in the military and those waiting anxiously back home. The government took great pains to deliver music to soldiers serving in all theaters of the war. Hand crank, spring-wound record players and V-Discs were widely distributed to military units, hospitals, and Red Cross facilities. 

The records were made exclusively for overseas forces and were not for sale in the United States. The armed forces produced 800 releases between 1943-1949 and distributed over 8 million twelve-inch vinyl 78 RPM records. Each side of a record held 6½ minutes of music. Covering a wide variety of styles, the records included big band hits, jazz, symphony orchestras, top singing artists, and military marches. Many soldiers got their first taste of classical music from these recordings and developed a life-long appreciation. Against the stark setting of war, the recognition of beauty and value in previously unheard music would be forever imprinted on many men.

Click play to see and hear a V-Disc played on an original hand-crank record player.