WWII Gays

Sailor boys

Getting a little R&R

A little more R&R

Sailors on leave visit a photo booth

That sailor up above got around.

Here's Romeo again.

Boatjob

Sexy interracial couple.

Looking at these pics make me wonder where I can find some old gay stag films.

Very long, yet interesting, blog comment about the picture in r7:

My straight Uncle Al, age 94 when he died last year, was in the Navy during WWII. We had some great discussions over the years, and he was always open and frank with me, and never seemed to feel uncomfortable, even when we discussed his most intimate times on board the ship. I’m fascinated with this subject, and I constantly peppered him with questions, encouraging him to expand on his memories. I showed him some of the images I had found online, including the one of the blowjob on the deck. What follows are my recollections of our discussions. I don’t remember all of it word-for-word, so if I quote him, I’m paraphrasing.

During WWII, sexual activity among the guys on his ship was common because of a lack of women. It wasn't considered "homosexual", but rather an innovative way to masturbate. Everyone jerked off, but when you could do it with someone else, well, that was a whole lot more fun! Mutual masturbation/circle-jerks were common, as was almost anything that could imitate (or at least approximate) a vagina. Fucking between the thighs, armpit or between the feet or hands were ways a sailor could imagine he was fucking a pussy. Frequently a sailor would engage in mutual masturbation while ogling an image of a pin-up girl or a risqué photo of a woman. Porn was available, though scarce, and porn images usually consisted of a naked woman artfully posed. Rarer were actual images of a vagina, or sexual penetration, though they did exist.

According to Uncle Al, sex among the men was a product of both boredom and “blue balls”, the need for sexual expression as much as sexual release. When I asked, he told me that the guys with bigger dicks seemed more willing to engage; he had always considered it to be their own ego trip.

Less common, though still prevalent, were anal/oral sex. The problem was finding a willing recipient. On my uncle's ship, there were at least two men whom everyone knew were homosexuals, though they were not openly gay (and a number of others who were highly suspect too). These guys would allow penetration, given the right circumstances; i.e. they liked/were attracted to the person, or if money/favors/rations/etc. exchanged hands. (According to Uncle Al, a few of his straight buddies also made some extra cash by allowing themselves to be penetrated, though knowledge of it was strictly kept to a small, tight-knit group of men who didn’t dare share it for fear of exposure and ridicule.) Again, it was usually done with eyes closed imagining they were penetrating a female, or open while staring at an image of a woman.

Uncle Al told me that most of the guys used the gay boys for sex at one time or another, often frequently. There were times when they would please a number of men at once, either together or separately (i.e. gang-bangs, circle blow-jobs). They were teased and harassed, but it was usually not severe often good-naturedly. After all, if one wanted a little ass or a good blowjob now and then, one didn't arbitrarily piss the gay boys off. But the harassment could be vicious at times too; on more than one occasion both were physically beat up. Generally speaking, they were tolerated, though their homosexuality was rarely discussed openly. Uncle Al said they were the "necessary embarrassment", guys may have disapproved of them, but used them for sex anyway.

Part 2 from r10:

Interestingly, the shipmates didn't see the conflict here. It wasn’t OK for guys to "be" gay or engage as homosexuals. But somehow, it seemed OK for themselves to engage! When I asked Uncle Al about this strange double-standard, his reply was, "I suppose that in our minds, we found a way to justify what we needed to in order to make our situation acceptable... manageable! We were living in an enclosed, very isolated environment, shut off from the rest of the world for months at a time, and it was a bit surreal. The social and moral rules of the rest of the world didn't always apply here. In some ways, we invented our own in order to cope with the unreality of our situation." Viewed from the distance of time, that may seem bizarre to us. But in context it was perfectly acceptable given the situation on board a naval vessel.

When I showed him the picture, Uncle Al said that yes, it was probably a "real" picture, though it may have been staged for "laughs". Sex in the open was uncommon, though not completely unheard-of. It may have been performed "jokingly", under the guise of "having a laugh". If the guys could view it as a joke, a "let's-get-our rocks off-for-a-laugh" kind of humor, it then wasn't real, it wasn't homosexual. They could all pretend to be gay long enough to cum, because it was just playacting, it wasn’t real.

Sex was more often confined to below-decks, though occasionally it happened above decks too. There were a number of times when Uncle Al rounded a structure on the ship, particularly in the evening or nighttime, to find guys hiding behind a turret or capstan, jerking off together, sometimes in groups of 3 or 4.

I asked Uncle Al if he ever participated in any of the sexual activity among the guys. He didn't hesitate. "Of course I did, we all did!" He explained that it was just another pleasant activity that had no connection to sexual identity. It was merely a way to get off, to relieve the stress and relax a bit.

It wasn’t an emotional connection, as such, just a sex thing. He did, however, tell of a shipmate that he hooked up with a lot. It was mutual masturbation; no anal/oral penetration. But he did say that they were always trying to find new ways to get off together. He admitted that there was an emotional bond that they shared. It was more of a man-to-man, buddy kind of bond, what we could probably call a “bromance”. But it had a sexual element to it, particularly because of the intimacy they shared. “I was never in love with him, but I loved him like my own,” he said. “I would have stopped a bullet for him.” Interestingly enough, he also said that although he didn't realize it at the time, it was a great benefit to him in later years; practicing that creativity on the ship later helped keep the physical side of his marriage fun and interesting!

I asked about officers and higher ranks. Uncle Al told me that he thought that they were probably aware of the activity, though most likely not of the extent of it. He only knew of one officer who engaged, and that was only because he stumbled on him getting a blow job quite by accident when he opened an unlocked door that should have been locked. Generally speaking, unless the activity was blatant, officers deliberately turned a blind eye, probably figuring that such activity was good for morale and general health and well-being.

I’m sure that there are tons of stories like the ones my Uncle Al shared with me. I just doubt that most guys from that era are as willing to be as open and honest as he was. When he died peacefully in his sleep last year, I was heartbroken. But I was also so grateful, and so glad that I had spent so much time with him, learning about his life experiences. What a remarkable man!

Big Gay Al

Scotty Bowers was a Marine Corps veteran of the South Pacific theater, after which, he and his military buddies pumped gas as a cover for pumping the asses of the biggest homos in Old Hollywood.

He served as a major part of Dr. Kinsey's study on human sexuality, too.

A Russian and American soldier kiss during a celebration party after WW2 ended, in Germany, 1945:

^^^Glasnost!

No idea when or where this is from, but it seemed appropriate somehow:

Just a great vintage photo...

Men were not such emotional cripples back then as they are now. Shipboard romance and GI buddies were often encouraged by the Brass. A old timer told me that while in the Navy on duty...the men would have male beauty contests. Who looked best nude..who had the biggest cock..who had the best ass. No one thought it was ' weird ' .

I hade a friend years ago whose uncle - Lance - has been a young teenager on an Oz navy warship during WW2.

I saw pictures of his uncle back then - and he was very boyishly cute and small framed - and he loved getting fucked from before he even joined the navy at 16 or 17 or whenever.

He would regale his gay nephew with tales of his glory days - and he was brutally honest.

He used to say there was just him and two other queens to look after the whole ship. And pretty much every evening he and the others were free - one or more of them would be bent over behind the lifeboat davitts and there would be guys literally queuing to take their turn.

To hear Lance (aka Lana!) tell it - it kinda sounded like they felt it was their duty to look after the other guys - and they all clearly enjoyed doing so. He wasn’t keen on officers though! The only couple of times it happened he got fucked by an officer - he said that both of them were really nasty to him afterwards. Not so the other enlisted sailors - who seemed to have been pretty good to a little wiry, cute country boy who put out.

I read a recent history of another Oz warship - and there was a murder that took place onboard during the war that got relatively little coverage and was hushed up. It seems clear in hindsight there was a gay relationship going on - and it was felt jealousy was the motive....

So anyway - clearly there was mansex aplenty going on in the Australian navy during the war - and can’t imagine it’d be the only fleet that was doing it...

I never buy this "they did it because there were no women around" bullshit. They did it because they were curious and they were in a situation that afforded them the chance. The 6 years of the war brought a mini sexual revolution. In Britain everyone was fucking in shop doorways at night. ..also in the public shelters. Life was on a knife edge and young people especially were living it fully. The old rules temporarily broke down. You could be dead tomorrow so what the hell.

R20 exactly, funny how the constrictions of sexuality break down when society comes grinding to a halt. Who knows...we all may get lots of Str8 dick when Trump brings society to a Grindr'ing halt?

R21. I wouldn't rule it out. But why the constant fetishism for straight men. Most of them are obnoxious.

The Navy is nothing but rum, sodomy, and the leash!

Where do I sign up?

I seem to remember someone posting on DL about sailors "taking their turn in the barrel" which was a large container with holes in it on a navy ship. Guys went there to get sucked off but you also had to take your turn in the barrel doing the sucking or you couldn't participate. I think their grandfather or uncle told them about it. Or am I imagining that?

That's an old joke R25, with the punchline being the new recruit can't fuck the barrel on Thursdays because that day it's his turn to get inside the barrel.

R23:

"The Navy is nothing but rum, sodomy, and the LASH!"

Changes the meaning a little bit - to a different sort of BDSM

No wonder Noel Coward spent so much time aboard British Navy Vessels with Lord Mountbatten who was also a big queen. He writes about it extensively in his diaries but, of course, no mention of what he was really doing.

I moved to Manhattan from rural North Carolina in the early 1970s. My first but older partner had served aboard a Navy destroyer in the Korean War. He told me that at one point they were sent on an overnight trip from Japan to off of the shore of NK which everyone thought was going to be a suicide mission and no one expected to come back. He said that below decks one guy -- and they were all in their late teens or early twenties -- said that he was a virgin and didn't want to die that way. My partner said that by the next morning, nobody was a virgin. It was never talked about afterwards and top or bottom didn't matter because "we all helped each other out."

It sounds hot in theory, but also sad when you think about how many men were forced to stay in the closet forever, and their unlucky wives.

R29 here. One of my first jobs in Manhattan was as a proofreader at a major law firm at 40 Wall Street (a building later purchased by Trump). There were four of us, three gay guys and a young woman with enormous breasts who dressed to show them off to the attorneys. At any rate, one of the guys left and we hired a young straight Irish immigrant to replace him. He immediately recognized the situation, and had no problem working with a couple of obviously gay guys who he saw were professional and wouldn't be hitting on him and a show off big breasted woman. Anyway, he said to me at one point that although he wasn't gay, "What are you going to do when your choice is between Eleanor Roosevelt or a Boy Scout?" Ian was adorable,

BTW, we hired Ian strictly because he was hands down the best person we interviewed and tested for the job.

There was an autobiography by George Melly a British jazz and blues singer and writer. He was bisexual and pretty open about it - and when he was young in the navy during the war his sexual encounters were mostly gay. Later on in his thirties he mainly fucked women and married twice - and the later marriage was ‘open’.

His book about his life during the war years was called ‘ Rum, Bum & Concertina’ - which I always assumed was his updated and musical take on the earlier, previously mentioned expression ‘rum, sodomy and the lash’ (a concertina is a squeeze-box - at least I think that’s the American name for it?)

Anyway - I don’t think he even was assigned to a ship - had shore duties instead! - and still had the gayest time possible. So don’t think it’s entirely about being isolated onboard at sea with hundreds of horny young guys...

How can one avoid a gay encounter or two when this was going on?

Nice

Reading the long post at R11 and R12 was fascinating. I had no idea how widespread the "helping out" was, but it certainly makes perfect sense when you consider that they didn't know if they would live to see tomorrow, let alone next year. Thanks for posting that.

Years ago I had an eldergay neighbor who was in WWII he told me there was lots of sex between men in the navy. It was where he met his life partner. He confirmed what others have said that people looked the other way or participated, there was no stigma.