On February 4, 1946, the SS Argentina, an American passenger liner turned troopship, arrives in New York City with 452 British war brides, one war groom and 173 children. The group, which departed from Southampton, England, a week earlier, represents the first wave in Operation War Bride, an Army-coordinated effort to reunite American servicemen and women with the spouses they married overseas. Other shiploads will soon follow—eventually transporting close to 300,000 war brides and children to ports on the East and West Coasts, according to the National World War II Museum.
LIFE magazine, which chronicled the Argentina’s voyage in a photo essay, reported that on the first day out, “the girls at meals stuff themselves and their youngsters with such long-missed delicacies as oranges, beef, chicken, bacon and eggs. They also thronged the Argentina’s canteen to buy candy, lipsticks and cigaret (sic) lighters.”
