Was there a draft during World War 2?

Answer 1

Yes....

Answer 2

There were a number of drafts in the US during the civil and first world wars. The Selective Service Board started up in 1940 prior to the US entry into WWII and continued until 1973. In 1980, selective service registration was re-instated.

Conscription did not start in Canada until after a plebicite in 1942. This was a major political crisis due to French/English political issues. Conscription did pass but very few (less than 2500) conscripted soldiers were posted to combat units.

Conscription was also a fact in the UK and Germany.

Answer 3

With the public outcry against the Japanese and Germans, finding men (and women) to join the military wasn't all that hard. Although recruitment went sky high, there were some jobs that were hard to fill, so there were drafts in place. Linguists, Doctors, and many of the engineering (battlefield engineers) were filled by civilians pressed into military service. Although the US military has a long history of paying for doctors to go to school on the agreement that they work as a reservist, and will be activated in a time of war.

Answer 4

Yes, there is a famous newsreel where they first number is read aloud, and the mother of the man called screams. Conscription is traditional in most countries during wartime, but our country abandoned the practice in reaction to the anti-war sentiment during Viet Nam.

Answer 5

Yes

Answer 6

Conscription was established (1863) in the U.S. Civil War, but proved unpopular (see draft riots). The law authorized release from service to anyone who furnished a substitute and, at first, to those who paid $300. General conscription was reintroduced in World War I with the Selective Service Act of 1917. All men from 21 to 30 years of age (later extended 18 to 45), inclusive, had to register. Exemptions from service were granted to men who had dependent families, indispensable duties at home, or physical disabilities. Conscientious objector status was granted to members of pacifist religious organizations, but they had to perform alternative service. Other war objectors were imprisoned, where several died. By the end of World War I about 2,800,000 men had been inducted.

The United States first adopted peacetime conscription with the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940. The act provided that not more than 900,000 men were to be in training at any one time, and it limited service to 12 months—later (1941) extended to 18 months. After the United States entered World War II, a new selective service act made men between 18 and 45 liable for military service and required all men between 18 and 65 to register. The terminal point of service was extended to six months after the war. From 1940 until 1947—when the wartime selective service act expired after extensions by Congress—over 10,000,000 men were inducted. A new selective service act was passed in 1948 that required all men between 18 and 26 to register and that made men from 19 to 26 liable for induction for 21 months' service, which would be followed by 5 years of reserve duty.

Answer 7

Yes, however many young men enlisted before receiving their draft notices and if you were declared 4-F then you will ineligible for the draft.

Answer 8

This, I believe is when the selective service was created. Up until then, there wasn't much demand for a large surge of troops.

WWI may have required conscription as well, but that wasn't part of your question, now was it ?

Answer 9

Absolutely yes. My grandfather was drafted.

Answer 10

Yes.

Answer 11

Most definitely