text: Provide Human Resources Services
  6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion (Women’s Army Corps)
  In February 1945, warehouses in Birmingham, England were filled with millions of
  pieces of mail intended for members of the U.S. military, U.S. government personnel,
  and Red Cross workers serving in the European theater. Airplane hangars held
  undelivered Christmas packages, and a constant stream of incoming mail added to the
  already massive backlog of letters and packages. Oftentimes the mail was addressed
  simply to “Junior, U.S. Army” or “Buster, U.S. Army.” As Allied forces drove across
  Europe, ever-changing locations hampered mail delivery to service members. With
  seven million Americans in the European theater, many shared common names (7,500
  were named Robert Smith). Service members noticed that they weren’t getting mail
  from home, and Army officials reported that the lack of reliable mail delivery was hurting
  morale. One General predicted that the backlog in Birmingham would take six months
  to process.
  But who would take on this massive task? Under the heading of “Personnel Problems,”
  an Adjutant General’s report stated that, “Since D-Day, and for a long time prior to that
  date, a shortage of qualified postal officers has existed within the [European] theater.
  The Postal Division continually sought to secure additional officers by requisition from
  the Reinforcement System and from the Zone of the Interior.” Although there were
  personnel stationed at Birmingham to handle the mail, the system was in chaos.
  A law signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on 1 July 1943 created the Women’s
  Army Corps of the U.S. Army. In November 1944, a battalion of all African-American
  women drawn from the Women’s Army Corps, the Army Service Forces, and the Army
  Air Forces, was created and eventually designated as the 6888th Central Postal
  Directory Battalion, nicknamed “Six Triple Eight.”
  In February 1945, the first contingent of “Six Triple Eight” arrived in Birmingham,
  England; the second contingent arrived 50 days later. Upon their arrival, they
  confronted warehouses stacked to the ceiling with letters and packages. These
  buildings were unheated and dimly lit, the windows blacked out to prevent light showing
  during nighttime air raids. Additionally, rats had sought out packages of spoiled cakes
  and cookies. The unit members were organized into three separate eight-hour shifts
  so work continued around the clock, seven days a week. They tracked individual
  service members by maintaining about seven million information cards including serial
  numbers to distinguish different individuals with the same name. The women dealt with
  “undeliverable” mail that was sent to their location for redirection. They investigated
  insufficiently addressed mail for clues to determine the intended recipient, and they
  handled the sad duty of returning mail addressed to service members who had died.
  With the new tracking system they created, the women processed an average of
  65,000 pieces of mail per shift and cleared the six-month backlog of mail in three
  months. The women adhered to the motto of, “no mail, low morale,” providing essential
  support of the U.S. military in the European theater by linking service members to their
  loved ones back home. They achieved unprecedented success and efficiency in
  solving the military’s postal problems.
  OTHER POSTAL INFORMATION
  4-79. The following paragraphs discuss additional elements of postal operations.