1944: Marines in a Railroad Advertisement

"It has been a mighty war effort with shippers and railroads working together to provide our armed forces with what they need when they want it," states this advertisement for the railroad's Chicago Northwestern Line from 1944.

The ad explains exactly how the branches of the service cooperate.

Is the bird-Marine supposed to be a cuteified eagle? And is he wearing spats or do my eyes deceive me?

Next post at noon.

10:35 a.m. edit: A note from Bill explains the spats, which are not spats at all, but canvas leggings. Ya learn something every day, that's for sure!

Your eyes deceive you Kari. Those are canvas leggings. They were supposed to provide extra protection from shrapnel and snake bites. They were not easy to strap on. They went from the top of the boot/shoe to mid calf. Now they would be called 'gators' but I'm not sure why and I don't think they were called that then. An example of gators now would be waterproof leggings to where while cross-county skiing so the bottom of your pants don't get soaked.

Posted by: Bill

Posted by: Kari Lucin, Daily Globe on 8/05/2009 at 9:00 AM | Comments (5) | Permalink

Tags: 1944, advertising, business, marines, railroads, travel, war, world war ii