These Heartwarming Photos Capture Soldiers Finally Making It Home From WWII

Picture the scene: you and your friends have spent the last several years in bitter armed conflict with some of the world’s fiercest and most technologically advanced armies. Well, that’s exactly the experience that millions of Allied fighters endured during the nightmarish period of World War II. The conflict reached its conclusion in 1945 when Germany surrendered that May and Japan followed in the September. It was a period of euphoria for Allied troops – and a time to head back to their own countries. So on that note, join us as we explore pictures which show the relief of soldiers as they set foot on home soil.

40. Safe home

The sheer joy of these reunions shine brightly. Once World War II had reached its end, a massive American operation swung into action: the aptly named Operation Magic Carpet. Getting the troops home as quickly and safely as possible was the name of the game. According to the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, the stunning 360-day feat of logistics “was the largest combined air and sealift ever organized.” 

39. Home, sweet home

Judging by the welcome banner, that’s Hector coming up the garden path. This British soldier’s wife and young son are obviously overjoyed to have him home in their “prefab.” Factories produced prefabricated houses in large numbers to solve the housing crisis caused by German bombing. And the authorities gave returning servicemen priority allocation. 

38. The wounded return

The combat injuries these soldiers have endured are all too obvious in this shot. But their spirits seem undampened as they wave at the welcome sight of the Manhattan skyline. The ship they’re aboard was the Gripsholm – a Swedish American Line vessel. The U.S. State Department chartered the liner and she ferried troops home under the auspices of the Red Cross. On this occasion, Getty Images notes that Gripsholm was carrying 1,209 Americans released from German prisoner-of-war camps. 

37. A sailor is home

It’s clearly been an emotional and affectionate reunion for this couple out for a stroll. Obviously, the man’s uniform shows that he’s a sailor, and the U.S. Navy had more than played its part in the victory that allowed him to come home in one piece. After years of war and danger, what a blessed relief it must have been to walk down a city street in the sunshine with his sweetheart in tow. 

36. Back from Dunkirk

It almost certainly wasn’t actually the end of the war for these cheering soldiers, but it was at least an extremely welcome temporary escape from mortal danger. These are some of the nearly 340,000 men who were rescued by the Royal Navy and a motley flotilla of civilian craft from the beach at the French port of Dunkirk. In 1940 German forces had encircled Allied troops in northern France and were closing in. Amazingly, they escaped by the skin of their teeth. 

35. Sailing home

Could you cram any more returning servicemen onto this ship? We think not. The vessel is the General Harry Taylor and she’s engaged in Operation Magic Carpet – the massive mission to repatriate American troops after the war’s end. Seen here arriving in New York City in August 1945, the liner has brought men back from Europe after victory there. And it’s fair to say that they look pleased to be home! 

34. Italian food at last

This ragged but happy Italian soldier has just returned to his homeland after time in a Russian prisoner-of-war camp. We can assume that it wasn’t a barrel of laughs, either. He’s hardly in a fine-dining setting, but his first taste of local food in who knows how long looks to be a dream fulfilled. In fact, the soldier has plenty to be grateful about. Of the 230,000 Italians captured on the Eastern Front by the Soviets, the Central European University notes that only about 100,000 ever made it home. 

33. The train home

These G.I.s from the 1st U.S. Infantry Division are rolling into Fort Sheridan in Illinois after what can only be described as an extremely eventful war. The men had fought in North Africa and participated in the invasion of Sicily. They were some of the first troops ashore in the 1944 D-Day amphibious invasion of France and then battled all the way to Germany and on to Czechoslovakia. It’s no wonder, then, that the troops were known as “The Fighting First.” 

32. Return to Paris

It’s 1945, and these French soldiers have just been demobilized. We don’t know where they’ve been fighting, but we can be sure they’re glad to be back in Paris. They’ve arrived at the Gare d’Austerlitz: the railroad terminus on the banks of the River Seine as it flows through the center of the French capital. For millions of men in Europe, getting out of uniform was their first priority at the close of WWII. 

31. Queen Mary brings them home

It’s a British ship – the Queen Mary – but it’s packed to the gunwales with 14,000 American soldiers sailing home across the Atlantic to New York in 1945. The vessel was launched as a luxury liner in 1936 but was pressed into service as a troop ship during WWII. Before ferrying G.I.s back to the U.S. from Europe, she’d taken some 16,000 of them in the opposite direction to fight in the D-Day invasion of France, according to The Charlotte Observer.

30.War’s end brings no joy

For some, homecoming at the end of the war was a far from joyful occasion. This German – returning home after his nation’s utter defeat on the battlefields of Europe – is clearly distraught. On arriving in the city of Frankfurt in 1946, he’s discovered that bombing has obliterated his home and the family he left behind is nowhere to be seen. 

29. Released at last

These British soldiers have just flown home after their release from German prisoner-of-war camps. According to Getty Images, over 170,000 Britons were captured by the Axis forces with many of their number taken as France fell in 1940. This meant that some had been in captivity for as long as five years, so homecoming must have been a sweet delight. 

28. Deafening welcome

These three are celebrating a momentous day – the surrender of Imperial Japan in the summer of 1945. Combined with Allied victory in Europe earlier that year, that meant the war was well and truly over at last. We can only hope that the sailor in the middle of this jolly threesome didn’t suffer a permanent hearing impairment!

27. Homeward bound from Calcutta

These American troops are homeward bound in 1945 aboard a ship that set off from the city of Calcutta in India. Why here, though? Well, during the war thousands of G.I.s served in what were called the Chinese-Burma-India (CBI) operations and these presumably are some of them. Apparently, shipboard conditions were unbearably hot and cramped. But the knowledge that the men would be heading home meant that complaints were few and far between. 

26. Happy war dog

Interestingly, American canines also traveled overseas to do their bit for the war effort. And, we can surmise, they were probably just as happy to get home as their masters. This particular hound certainly looks to be full of the joys of homecoming. More than 90 dogs – including this pooch – served with the U.S. 5th Army in Italy, according to Getty Images. In fact, the army had 15 canine platoons in total and seven of them served in Europe. 

25. A Chinese celebration

For most Westerners, it’s fair to say that the Second Sino-Japanese War which lasted from 1937 until the end of WWII is a forgotten episode. But there was bitter fighting as Japan invaded and occupied parts of China during the years of that conflict. It And it was only the former’s defeat that ended the incursion. Hence, we have a celebrating Chinese national held aloft in London’s Piccadilly Circus after the war’s end. 

24. Back in New Jersey

There’s jubilation in this crowd as a well as a refreshing show of racial harmony. The celebrations have erupted in Newark, New Jersey, with the announcement of Japan’s surrender. That, of course, was precipitated by the dropping of atomic weapons on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So, it’s no wonder that these Americans are in buoyant mood. They know that no more blood will be spilled in fighting WWII. 

23. The boys are home

On this occasion, the Queen Mary liner is carrying home men from the 82nd Airborne Division to an enthusiastic welcome. The unit had seen action in North Africa, Italy and took part in the D-Day assault – parachuting into German-occupied France. The soldiers had left Southampton on England’s south coast five days earlier and are seen here arriving in New York in January 1946. Just over a week later, the 82nd would take part in a huge victory parade down Manhattan’s 5th Avenue. 

22. Back in France

These men returning home to France are not actually soldiers. But their lives were turned upside down by the German invasion of their country. They’d been dragooned into forced labor in Germany – a fate that befell up to 650,000 French citizens, according to the book Tuberculosis and War. Badly fed and ill-housed, the end of the conflict could not have come too soon for these forced workers. 

21. Welcome home Leonard Pittman!

Able Seaman Leonard Pittman was a British sailor who served aboard HMS Ajax during WWII. As is obvious, his neighbors are totally delighted to see him and have prepared the warmest of welcomes. He’s arrived home to Durban Road – a street in the city of Portsmouth on England’s south coast. Interestingly, it was and still is home to a large naval base. 

20. Times Square party

Where better to celebrate victory in World War II than Manhattan’s famous Times Square? That certainly seems to be the view of these jubilant servicemen. Specifically, they’re marking the surrender of Japan. Combined with the overwhelming defeat of Germany, that meant the war was over once and for all. And if that wasn’t a good reason to throw a rowdy street party, then what is? 

19. Arriving in New York

These smartly uniformed women were welcoming the return of soldiers from the 86th Infantry Division in June 1945. It’s a little more than a month after Germany’s final surrender, so the G.I.s have wasted no time in getting back to the U.S. Since they’d seen hard fighting in Germany during the last months of the war, who could grudge them a rapid homecoming? 

18. Love is in the air

Is there a better way to welcome victory than to seal it with a kiss? This couple in London, England, obviously didn’t think so. After an extremely tough six years of war for civilians as well as soldiers, the British were more than ready to let their hair down once it was all over in 1945. As the original Getty Images caption had it, “... An American soldier kisses a London girl in Piccadilly Circus.” 

17. Back from France

These women are greeting returning U.K. soldiers with gifts of cigarettes and fruit. The men are members of the British Expeditionary Force which was sent to France early in WWII to help French and Belgian soldiers fight invading German stormtroopers. Unfortunately, by 1940 the mission had failed and ended in a perilous mass evacuation from the beaches of Dunkirk. 

16. Home to Japan

Of course, the journey home was not one of joy in victory for everyone. These defeated Japanese soldiers are about to board a train that will take them back to their homeland. Imperial Japan had finally conceded defeat in August 1945 and this shot is from soon after. There were to be no celebratory victory parades for these troops. 

15. Wartime stories

Captain Richard I. Bong – a war veteran at the tender age of 23 – regales his neighbors in Poplar, Wisconsin, with tales of his wartime exploits. He actually saw more service after this shot was taken in 1944 – Bong was on leave at the time. In the end, he shot down a total of 40 Japanese planes, HistoryNet notes. The all-American war hero sadly died just days before the conflict ended while test-flying a Lockheed P-80 jet fighter in Ohio. 

14. Mind the gap!

Love conquers all, it’s said – apparently even this dangerous looking gap between platform and train. And the young woman has every reason to be pleased to see her man. He’d just returned from France, where the entire British Expeditionary Force almost fell into the hands of the Germans in 1940. Military disaster was narrowly averted by the legendary Dunkirk evacuation. 

13. Docking in New York

The Queen Mary sails into dock at New York Harbor with some 8,800 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division aboard, according to Getty Images. Read the list of place names on their banner and you’ll get an idea of just how much combat these troops had lived through. After all that battle action, every single one of them must have been overjoyed – and more than a little relieved – to see their homeland again. 

12. A taste of freedom

Sitting on the car hood is Captain Philip John Gardner back in England after a spell in a German prisoner-of-war camp. The men hauling the automobile are workers from the engineering factory owned by the Captain’s father. Gardner was a bona fide war hero who was awarded Britain’s highest military honor: the Victoria Cross. He won it for his action in rescuing a fellow solder while himself badly wounded and under fire. 

11. The war ends

It’s easy to see the mood of jubilation here – and the couple at the center of the image add a note of unbridled romance. The occasion is VJ Day in 1945 when victory over Japan signaled the end of the bitter fighting of World War II. Naturally, celebrations in the Allied nations were spontaneous and ecstatic. 

10. Arriving in Naples, Italy

We’ve all seen pictures of troops returning to cities like London and New York City to ecstatic crowds. But the atmosphere seen here in Naples in 1946 is rather different. These are Italian prisoners of war returning home to be greeted by a somewhat forlorn looking band of musicians. Still, we have no doubt they’re more than glad to be back in their own country. 

9. The war ends

Hostilities with Japan effectively ended in August 1945, but formal surrender did not come until September 2. President Truman’s announcement of that huge event was the moment Americans had been waiting for. Yep, the time had come for mass celebration. The scene here is Broadway in Manhattan – thronged by a huge crowd of happy Americans and complete with a model of the Statue of Liberty. 

8. A lucky escape

The mass evacuation of British, French and Belgian troops from the French port of Dunkirk came at the end of May 1940. It was a low point in the war for those fighting against a ruthlessly expansionist Germany. Though most of the British Expeditionary Force escaped back to England to fight another day – including these weary looking soldiers. 

7. Their ship comes in

It looks as if just one woman is there to greet these men of the U.S. Army’s 86th as their troopship arrives in New York from Europe. But you can be sure that there were many more people along the dockside to welcome these soldiers home in June 1945. They were the first combat troops to make it back to the U.S. as a full unit after the end of fighting in Europe, Getty Images notes.

6. Piccadilly Circus, London

Just as in America, in Britain there were wild scenes of celebration when the surrender of Imperial Japan was announced in September 1945 – bringing an end to World War II. Piccadilly Circus in the heart of London was one of the places where euphoric crowds gathered to celebrate the end of the six-year ordeal of WWII. Judging by the uniforms, the British were joined by elated G.I.s stationed in the country. 

5. Back from the Pacific

These soldiers have made it back to the U.S after serving in the Pacific. For those who had survived the fierce fighting of World War II, homecoming was a time of relief as well as celebration. Yet for many of them, thoughts about their comrades-in-arms who had not made it home must have weighed heavily. 

4. Welcome home Private James Velocci

Private First Class James Velocci of 49 Gold Street, Buffalo, New York, had made it home. His broad smile tells all we need to know about his thoughts about being back on American soil. He’d served with the 82nd Airborne Division – an outfit which had seen action right across North Africa, Italy, France and Germany. So, homecoming must have been sweet indeed. 

3. A lucky escape

These three British soldiers – identified as Privates R. Chase of London, Geoffrey Smith of Yorkshire and Trooper George Hart of Kent – are just back from Europe. They’ve been involved in the 1944 D-Day invasion of France and have paid the price with their wounds. They were now safe in England – receiving treatment at an emergency hospital. 

2. Back from Europe

The American sailors and soldiers seen here have just made it home from Europe in June 1945. According to Getty Images, they’re some of the 4,381 men and women to have arrived back on that particular day, aboard the first convoy to cross the Atlantic and dock on home soil after victory in Europe. Their feelings about being back in the U.S. are plain to see. 

1. Lipstick celebration

This photograph taken on VJ Day gives us an idea of just how unrestrained the victory festivities in America were. The telltale lipstick marks on the G.I.’s face offer their own story. Someone has certainly been extremely glad to see him. Or perhaps there was more than one handing out the kisses! In any case, the newspaper headline – “Peace” – gives the reason enough for the unbridled celebrations.