That Marvelous “V for Victory”

Workers at a defense plant forming the “V for Victory”.

During WWII, the “V for Victory” was a sturdy symbol. It was daily before the civilians on Homefront, U.S.A.  It stood for that someday when “the boys will come back home”. In many forms and in many ways, it guided Americans through war.

The “V for Victory” was invented by a Belgian politician and broadcaster named Victor de Laveleye. In a 1941 radio broadcast from London, he encouraged the occupied peoples of Belgium, France, Holland, and North Africa to resist the Nazis. To show this spirit of their resistance, they should chalk a “V” onto every building. As the word freedom or victory began with a “V” in several different languages—victoire (French), vryheid (Dutch), vitezstvi (Czech)—British Prime Minister Churchill declared that “the ‘V’ sign is the symbol of the occupied territories.” Before long, the victory frenzy had spread to America, used at first to show support for Great Britain; then, after Pearl Harbor, as propaganda for morale during our own part in the war.

Some of the results to come from the “V for Victory” campaign in America:

General MacArthur featured on Victory magazine.

Victory, published by the Office of War Information (O.W.I.), was a monthly picture-magazine similar to Life. Done in twelve different languages and designed to tout the benefits of America’s influence to foreign countries, it was circulated among liberated peoples and even reached some G.I.s. However, Victory was attacked by Congress for mainly and conspicuously extolling the virtues of President and Mrs. Roosevelt. One Congressman also complained that Victory was “contributing generously to the paper shortage that is threatening the press.”

The victory garden was created by the secretary of agriculture. The purpose was to encourage civilians to buy fewer groceries and rationed goods and thus aid the war effort. In 1943, 18 million Americans would plant 20.5 million such gardens, often in a V-shape. Even some public zoos had them. The “Victory Garden Institute” distributed a booklet with a red, white, and blue cover on which was printed the jingle: “Have a victory garden; eat what you can, and can what you can’t eat.”

Victory garden

The “V for Victory” sign was popularized by Winston Churchill, who reportedly flashed it to a crowd while visiting the U.S.  Before long, it was widely used. “Instead of waving to those we passed, we gave the ‘V for Victory’ sign,” remembers one civilian. Even American servicemen marching into occupied countries were greeted by cheering civilians waving the “V” sign.

Fashion was hit by a wave of patriotism in the form of V-necked dresses and V-designs on women’s apparel. Women on the homefront wore V-pins to offer support for their boys off at war. (Not to mention the fact that Tiffany’s was offering V-shaped diamond-studded brooches for $5,000 apiece.) Meanwhile, civilian men had to switch to Victory Suits under regulation L-85. All excess was done away with on these suits—lapels were narrowed, jackets shortened. The suits came with only one pair of pants and had no pocket flaps, vests, or cuffs. Women’s two-piece outfits (jacket and skirt) followed similar guidelines.

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony even took on a new meaning since the first four notes sound like the letter “V” in Morse code: dot-dot-dot-dash. This fact is mentioned amongst servicemen in the WWII film The Longest Day (1962).

Victory sausages replaced frankfurters in an effort to stretch foods and save meat. V-sausage was short on meat and long on substitutes such as soybean meal.

Victory Peak is a mountain which, in 1943, was labeled the highest peak in the Tien Shan range and the highest in Russia. As its name suggests, it expressed the hope for an Allied victory in WWII.

V-Mail

V-mail was created to help cut down the bulk of the countless letters going back and forth between servicemen and their folks at home. It was an 8 ½ x 11” sheet of paper on which the writer would write his address and message, then fold to make its own envelope. It was subsequently posted and censored; then, unlike regular mail, it was microfilmed and reduced to nearly half its original size. This cut down on cargo space.

Victory bicycles were the “wartime stand-in for automobiles”. Civilians were encouraged to pedal a Victory Bike to save rubber automobile tires. They became a widely used form of transportation during the war.

A “Victory Tax” was imposed by the U.S. government in the form of a surcharge on income taxes. “Smash the Axis, pay your taxes,” propaganda posters instructed.

“The new Victory Tax is an added accounting responsibility.”

Until 1943, the U.S. government had ruled that alarm clocks used too much metal, so the clocks were added to the long list of household items deemed “unnecessary to the homefront”. But when employees began appearing late for work at the factories, managers voiced complaints which reached the government. As a result, “Victory Model” alarm clocks were designed which skimped on metal as much as possible.

The Victory Roll coiffure.

The “Victory Roll” is probably known as the most iconic hairstyle of the 1940s—famously worn by several actresses, including Ann Sheridan and Betty Grable. Women formed their hair into rolls which were pinned to the top of the head. “Now Victory goes to the head . . . the V hair style appears, hair rolled to a V in the back, curls arranged in three dots and a dash across the front,” The Birmingham News reported. But, it noted, “You can’t just take any old head of hair and roll it up and stick pins in it and have it turn out looking like your dream picture . . . The cut is absolutely the foundation of the finished arrangement.”

V-J Day!

And it didn’t stop there. V’s smothered military recruiting posters. Businesses soon found that patriotic citizens would snap up just about any product stamped with a “V”—everything from drinking glasses to window décor. America had V-ecstasy, but in the end, with V-E Day and V-J Day, victory was more than a mere letter; it was reality.

Photograph credits—internationalposter.com, digforvictory.org.uk, Pinterest, rarehistoricalphotos.com, njbiblio.net