World War II in Miami-Dade County

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Part 3

Miami 1941-1945
From VIP Suites to GI Barracks

by Daniel Markus

PT boat		Civilians contributed to the war effort in other ways as well. Several war plants in southern Florida produced subchasers, rescue boats, electronic equipment, landing creft, and airplanes. Civilians aided in the defense of the area by participating the the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) and the Coast Guard Auxiliary. They searched for submarines and survivors from torpedoed ships. Twenty-eight pilots lost their lives in these efforts.
Servicewomen		In South Florida, as in the rest of the country, women played an important role in all areas of the war effort. Women worked in the war industries and a women’s board of directors ran the Servicemen’s Pier. All of the Armed Forces recruited women to ferry planes, work as mechanics, and fill jobs in the areas of administration, supply, transportation, and education. The men who formerly filled these positions went to fight in Europe and the Pacific. Women also served in the Coast Guard Auxiliary and flew in the CAP.

Servicewomen on parade		Airplane mechanic	Messenger
		War workers	Red Cross worker

War bond drive

Foot race

By the end of 1943, the American economy was booming and the Great Depression was merely a bad memory. Civilians working in war industries all over the country were making good money and were looking for ways to spend it in a society where even food was rationed. Tourists began returning to Florida in large numbers. With so many people and so much money in the area, a profitable black market developed in Miami. Hotel owners became dissatisfied with their association with the Armed Forces and lobbied in Washington to have the soldiers transferred out of the area.

For the rest of the war Miami and its tourists received a great deal of bad press for their conspicuous consumption in the black market and their disregard for the Office of Price Administration’s price ceilings. Miami, however, was just an exceptional example of what Look magazine called the “war-dodging, business as usual complacency” affecting the entire United States in 1945.

Victory

South Florida’s contribution to the war effort in training troops and keeping their morale high far outweighted the bad press it received at the end of the war. Colonel T.J.J. Christian, commander of the Miami Beach Service Base, stated in 1945 that

“... no other community with as small a population as Miami Beach has done so much for servicemen and in my opinion there is no city or resort deserving less criticism and more commendation than Miami Beach.”

Further proof of the good impression made on the troops that trained in the area was that many of them returned to live in Dade County after the war.

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HISTORICAL MUSEUM
OF SOUTHERN FLORIDA