Sic Semper Fidelis and Tempus Fugit: American Military Nationalism and the European Theatre of the Second World War

While there continues to be rich and diverse historical debate surrounding various elements of the study of nationalism, there are relatively few scholars that attempt to examine the effects and manifestation of nationalism within the military community. 1 This is part of a larger reluctance by students of what Richard Kohn refers to as “new military history ” to concern themselves with the social aspects of war fighting—moving beyond traditional questions of “were soldiers patriotic? ” to the more difficult questions of “what did they think? ” or “why did they fight? ” 2 This dearth of socio-historical scholarship is particularly evident with respect to the details of combatants involved in the Second World War, an event often seen as the culmination of nationalistic militarism under the rubric of National Socialism. If one accepts that nationalism can be taken to mean the impetus created by allegiance and service to one’s state, and that since the late 18 th century the nation-state has become a key component of the construct of individual self-identity, it should be possible to detect the projection of that allegiance through the discourse found in war. In order to explore American military nationalism in World War II, I will begin by examining the components of American civilian nationalism—specifically in the context of the mobilizatio