THE “moral laxity” of women during the Second World War was perceived to be so degenerate that it strained relations between Britain and America.

Ministers and their officials were so worried about the impact of promiscuity on public opinion in the United States that a series of high-level Whitehall meetings was held to devise ways of cracking down on immorality.

The rift between Britain and its US ally came as thousands of American troops began to be stationed in or near London in 1942, documents released today at the National Archive in Kew, southwest London, reveal.

While the popular impression of the influx of GIs was of an alluring group of men who were “overpaid, over-sexed and over here”, it transpires that they were not the sexual predators worrying Whitehall. Rather, the US troops proved to be irresistible to many British women, often living alone because of the war, and who in bleak wartime Britain were only too glad to grab the chance of some fun.

American troops wrote home in such colourful terms about being propositioned by prostitutes and “good-time” girls in the West End of London that the US military demanded action be taken to curb the “debauchery”. So bad was the West End considered to be that US troops who caught venereal disease became known as “Piccadilly commandos”.

A report by a Superintendent Cole, the West End’s senior police officer, noted: “This district is an acknowledged ‘mecca’ of Service personnel”. He played down the scale of prostitution but accepted there was a problem with “good-time girls”.

American views were shared by many British officials who were anxious that the licenciousness be halted for fear of handing a propaganda victory to the Axis powers. These fears were heightened when stories appeared in US newspapers portraying the West End as a seething mass of loose women.

Admiral Sir Edward Evans, of the London Civil Defence regional headquarters, described the scenes at Leicester Square in a letter in 1943 to Air Vice- Marshal Sir Philip Game, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. “Leicester Square at night is the resort of the worst type of women and girls consorting with men of the British and American Forces, in which the latter seem to predominate,” he said. “Of course the American soldiers are encouraged by these young sluts, many of whom should be serving in the Forces. At night the Square is apparently given over to a vicious debauchery.”

A memorandum to Herbert Morrison, the Home Secretary, said that “there is a widespread demoralisation among girls resulting in a conspicuous initiative to promiscuous relations on the part of many of them”.

In April 1943 the Home Office held a conference to consider the issue of promiscuity in the West End and the resultant “venereal disease and bastardy”. It was attended by ministeries and allied military personnel. American officers were worried about the effect that venereal disease would have upon their manpower but at least one, Brigadier General Hawley, accepted there was “no more moral laxity in this country than in the US ”.

A series of measures was proposed, including banning women from certain streets where they might meet GIs, but police were adamant that they were doing all that could be done and that the onus was on the US authorities to rein in their soldiers. Among moves taken by the US military was a scheme by which nurses would “discreetly” approach women who had passed on VD to troops to persuade them to be treated. Another was to reduce the money available to troops by encouraging them to bank a proportion of their pay.

The Commissioner was impatient with American accusations that his men were doing too little. After a meeting with an American major and a judge he wrote: “I told them frankly it was our view the problem was best tackled from the other end, ie, by getting at the men and that, whilst it was a waste of breath to talk to a hard case, it was not a waste of breath to talk to a decent boy.

“(The) Judge is very persistent in his idea that the boys should be able to write home saying that they never saw a doubtful lady in the streets of London. I pointed out that in these days it was quite impossible to distinguish many over-painted possibly respectable persons from the professionals and that to me, at any rate, they all looked the same.”

ALL’S FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR

Nazi propaganda, right, was aimed at undermining the morale of British soldiers fighting in Europe

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