How did soldiers during World War 2 send and receive letters from home and did letters often get lost?

Answer 1

V-Mail One method was called "V-Mail" or "Victory Mail". This was a method used to ship thousands of letters and not take up too much space on shipments. The soldier wrote his letter on a blank letter form. At the top he wrote the address and his return address. This letter was then taken to a place and photographed. Then the photo negatives were shipped back to the US. This reduced the letters to a small size. Once the film arrived in the US, then it was printed like a photograph would onto a small sheet of paper. The printed letter was folded and inserted in an envelope that had a window so the address would show and it was mailed Free to the family.

Answer 2

It would depend on where they were stationed. Those in combat zones might not see mail for weeks. The mail was usually brought across the ocean on airplanes. There was experimentation with microfilm letters, saving on weight. Someone in a staging area preparing to go to combat might actually be getting mail every day.