Overfed, Overpaid, Oversexed—Over there: Yanks in Britain in World War II

Between 1942 and 1945, nearly two million young Americans were sent to Britain to join the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe. Most had never been away from home; most of their hosts knew about America only through Hollywood films. What has been called America’s friendly occupation of Britain transformed both countries, as well as the lives of those who experienced it.

There was an inevitable clash of cultures. G.I.s were warned the British “don’t know how to make a good cup of coffee.” Britons complained that the only problem with the Americans was that they were “overfed, overpaid, oversexed, and over here.” Even so, the partnership worked. George Mason University history professor Kevin Matthews explores what Winston Churchill called the “special relationship.”

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