Club Service was made available at the request of the U.S. government to able-bodied members of the armed forces serving overseas, while recreational services for the military at home remained, as it had been, limited to hospitals. Overseas the Red Cross staffed and supplied permanent service clubs, travelling clubmobiles, and other recreational facilities that stretched literally around the world. At its peak, the Red Cross operated nearly 2,000 recreational service facilities abroad, staffed by 5,000 Red Cross workers and approximately 140,000, mostly local, volunteers.
Service clubs ranged from large facilities in major cities, often requisitioned hotels, to small facilities in towns and villages in both the European and Pacific theaters of war. The large clubs offered not only meals and recreational activities but also overnight accommodations and such amenities as barbershops and laundries. Probably the most famous of these was the huge Rainbow Corner Club in London whose doors never shut and where up to 60,000 meals could be served in a single 24-hour period. The smaller clubs provided food and sometimes recreation but not overnight facilities and were usually located in outlying areas close to American military camps. Many were called Donut Dugouts, while those serving sailors were known as Fleet Clubs and airmen went to Aeroclubs. The Red Cross also operated rest homes in some usually rural and tranquil locations overseas for service personnel needing respite from the pressures of war. The homes provided sleeping accommodations, dining room service, and a variety of recreational pursuits for the servicemen who were assigned there by the military authorities.
In order to serve multiple sites, particularly in isolated areas, the Red Cross introduced clubmobiles in Great Britain in 1942 and later deployed some to the continent. They were converted half-ton trucks and single-deck buses acquired from a former London bus company. Each operated by three American Red Cross women and a local driver, they were equipped for making and serving coffee and doughnuts and for distributing newspapers, chewing gum, and other small items. Some were equipped with phonographs and loudspeakers to provide music for the troops. A few were outfitted with movie projectors and became known as cinemobiles.
Marge's sister Connie was also in the Red Cross in the same area, and Marge refers to Connie's letters frequently. Wouldn't it be fascinating to compare their experiences, if we had Connie's letters too?
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