June 6 Part II

"The most notable mass market distribution to combat troops took place in the marshaling areas in southern England just before the Normandy invasion. One copy of an Armed Services Edition was issued to each soldier as he boarded the invasion barge." - page 9, Books in Action (Washington: Library of Congress, 1984).

The Armed Services Editions program was an American effort to provide reading material to WW II Armed forces. With 123 million books distributed I imagine many of 1322 titles ended up in Canadian hands. There wasn't a similar program in Canada but publishers did encourage Canadians to send books in the "Service" parcel. An example from the White Circle imprint published by Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada is below.

The ASE program continued to September 1947. The last year's books were published in the usual mass market format rather than the vertical format.

White Circle 63 - 1943

White Circle 63 back

ASE T-2

ASE T-2 back

ASE 1244

ASE 1244 back