← Back to the front page

Russia’s Rambo and Other Fascinating WWII Figures and Facts

Khalid Elhassan September 16, 2019 55 min

Lydia Litvyak - World War II — Soviet pilot Captain Mariya Dolina, standing in front of her Petlyakov Pe-2 light bomber. Defense Media Network

A discharge center. America in WW2 Magazine

2. Early Planning For Magic Carpet

Even as troop transport ships crossed the Atlantic and Pacific in 1943, laden with the men who would help free the world from the scourges of Nazism, Fascism and Japanese militarism, the War Department and the War Shipping Administration (WSA) were drawing plans for their eventual return. Hundreds of cargo ships were converted into troops transports, and a point system was created to prioritize who would come back first, based on factors such as length of service overseas, combat duty, and dependents back home.

Implementation of Magic Carpet began in June of 1945, when the first ships laden with servicemen crossed the Atlantic from Europe to the US. The American buildup in Europe had averaged about 150,000 troops shipped across the Atlantic per month. After the war ended, Magic Carpet reversed that tide, bringing US servicemen back at an astonishing rate that averaged 435,000 men per month during a 14-month stretch. A monthly repatriation peak was reached in December of 1945, when over 700,000 personnel were brought back from the Pacific Theater alone.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.