Comments by "David Himmelsbach" (@davidhimmelsbach557) on "AFTER ARNHEM 1944 | Q&A 9" video.

@Steen The US Army's term of art was and remains AWOL. If you were even late back from leave you were promptly deemed AWOL. Because of this, and the number of troops getting leave, at any given time thousands of GIs were on the books as AWOL. Full on desertion -- Civil War style -- was almost impossible to pull off -- unless you spoke French -- and, yes, quite a few dudes DID speak French. In fact, to engage in criminal (black market) activities you just about HAD to speak French. It's taboo to mention, but the US Army's biggest problem was Black crime. The generals were getting a stream of rape complaints from the French straight through. These complaints invariably were against Black soldiers, as the French gals almost never resisted White soldiers. These 'gold diggers' were ten-a-penny at the time. Later they were termed war brides. Don't think of them as prostitutes, rather as gals that wanted US citizenship -- and all the rest.
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