I've just put my hands on a little book coming from my grand-dad. It's a French phrase book published in 1943 by the American gvt, that was given to GIs sent to France. Lucky them.
it's quite interesting/funny to see the sentences and words chosen that they thought they would need. It's 125 pages long but on page 16, one can already read sentences like "Draw a picture of it", "Tell the truth", "You will not be hurt" or "You will be rewarded".
Captain Noonan, if you ever need to say in French "How is the surface on the runway", just say "kel ay lay-TA duh la PEEST"? (Quel est l'état de la piste). handy...