Search Results for "1944"
Meat Rationing Lead To Alternatives (Click Magazine, 1944)As a result of the rationing of beef some people along the W.W. II home front turned to whale meat as a substitute for beef:
"If you walk into a Seattle, Washington butcher shop and ask for a steak, you might be offered a whale steak. No ration points will be required, and the flavor will be somewhere between that of veal and beef. You can prepare your steak just as you would a sirloin, or you can have it ground into whaleburger."
When the U.S. was fighting the First World War, twenty years earlier, it was found that the oil extracted from whales proved useful in the production of explosives. FDR and the House Republicans (United States News, 1944)The House of Representatives that was convening in early '44 was composed of thirty additional Democrats - but this seemed not to matter to the President and his allies on the Hill; after eight years of practice, the opposition party had learned how to play the game. FDR, African-Americans, and the 1944 Election (Yank Magazine, 1944)This article is a segment from a longer piece regarding the 1944 presidential election and the widespread disillusionment held by many Black voters regarding the failings of FDR and his administration:
"...the Negro vote, about two million strong, is shifting back into the Republican column."
The report is largely based upon the observations of one HARPER'S MAGAZINE correspondent named Earl Brown.
The Wonderment of Airships (Collier's Magazine, 1944)America's foremost authority on lighter-than-air craft, Rear Admiral Charles Rosendahl (1892 1977), tells you why this country should build and operated dirigibles if we are to maintain our rightful place in the field of post-war air transportation (they decided to build jets instead). Watch a Film Clip About Admiral Rosendahl and his Obsession The Man Germany Hates Most (Collier's Magazine, 1944)This is the story of "Bomber Harris", also known as Sir Arthur Travers Harris, Marshal of the Royal Air Force (1892 1984) between the years 1942 through 1945. He was the daily tormentor of Nazi Germany, striving relentlessly to bring an end to German hostilities by bombing their home front without pity. This article tells the tale of Harris the soldier and Harris the man: his W.W. I experiences, his inter-war training and Washington posting, his W.W. II contributions as Air Marshal as well as his family life.
Click here to read W.W. II articles about life in Harris-plagued Germany.
Click here to read about the 1943 bombing campaign against Germany.
Click here to read about the harried everyday life on a U.S. bomber base in England...
Draft-Resistance In Canada (Pathfinder Magazine, 1944)"A mob of French-Canadian youths surged through Montreal with skull-and-crossbones sign [that read]: "Are We Cannon fodder? Do We Want Conscription? No!" Quebec province seethed with rage at Prime Minister Mackenzie King's decision to send draftees overseas."
Their father's resisted the draft some twenty years earlier...
Dontchya Know There's A War On! (Click Magazine, 1944) 600 Nisei Judged Disloyal (L.A. Times, 1944)"About 630 American-born Japanese over the age of 17, now at the Poston (AZ.) relocation center, were found to be openly disloyal or of questionable loyalty to the United States, the Dies subcommittee learned at its hearing yesterday in the Federal Building...Among the 630 there were 606 men and 24 women." French Paratroopers on D-Day (The Stars and Stripes, 1944)Written by Andy Rooney, this three column article concerned the seldom remembered efforts of a French airborne battalion that jumped into Brittany on D-Day in order to disrupt German communications.
Click here to read more about W.W. II parachute infantry...
Click here to read about the first American Paratrooper.
Color Film Footage: D-Day through the Liberation of Paris The Returning Army (United States News, 1944)"The young man going into the Army has a course in orientation to fit him for fighting. He has to be shown what kind of people his enemies are. He has to be told why it is necessary to fight. In the same manner, the Army is finding that the men returning from war have to be fitted for civilian life. They bring back resentment against men and women who have known little privation and less hardship." The Mettle of Americans (Click Magazine, 1944)Following his tour of the war fronts, U.S. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (1902 1985) put pen to paper in an attempt to express his admiration for the brave and selfless acts that Americans were performing all over the globe:
If asked to say what impressed me on my recent trip to the war theater, my answer would be: the heroic qualities displayed by our American boys. My most lasting impressions were gained in the field and in the hospitals around the globe. It is there that one sees the kind of boy America produces."
Additional praise for the American fighting man can be read here...
The Siege Of Leningrad (Collier's Magazine, 1944) Reporting by radio from the city of Moscow, the celebrated Russian poet Vera Inber (1890 - 1972) gave an account of the difficult life lived by the civilians of Leningrad when the Nazi war machine laid siege to that city between September 8, 1941 through January 27, 1944:
"I will never forget the winter of 1941 - 42, when the bread ration was 4.4 ounces daily - and nothing else but bread was issued. In those days, we would bury our dead in long ditches - common graves. To bury your dead in separate graves, you needed fourteen ounces of bread for the gravedigger and your own shovel. Otherwise, you would have to wait your turn for days and days. Children's sleighs served as hearses to the cemetery." Remembering the Americans Who Didn't Make It to Paris (Yank Magazine, 1944)YANK correspondent Saul Levitt was eyewitness to all the merriment that kicked-in when Paris was liberated. Regardless of the gaiety, he could not forget all the American blood that had so liberally been spilled during the previous weeks:
"Despite all the bottles of champagne, all the tears, and all the kisses, it is impossible for those of us who are here to forget that we are here for the men of the American divisions who died or were wounded on the way to Paris... for all of those men who started out toward Paris but are not here to see it. We are here for the men of the 48 states who dream of home, and for whom the freeing of Paris is the way home."
Click here to read about the celebrations that took place in Paris the day World War One ended. The San Francisco Home Front (Yank Magazine, 1944)San Francisco played an active roll in World War Two and it was the largest port of embarkation, ferrying millions of American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines off to their unknown fates in the Pacific War. Between 1942 and 1945, the San Francisco population increased by some 150,000 - yet despite the growth, traffic along Market Street was just as heavy as it was before the war. Taxis were fewer and far more dilapidated, trolley car rides were raised to seven cents and despite a government restriction obliging all coffee vendors to charge no more than five cents for each cup, the caffeine-addicted San Franciscans paid twice that amount. U.S.O shows were plentiful throughout San Francisco and with so many of the city's police officer's called up, some parts of the city were patrolled by women.
True fans of San Francisco will enjoy this article.
Read about the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake...
From Amazon:
The Bad City in the Good War
*Watch This Color Film Clip of San Francisco's Market Street on VJ-Day, 1945* Home Front Concerns (Pathfinder Magazine, 1944)Here are two home front articles regarding the rationing of labor, food and steel; 1944 orders on clothing production are also touched upon. American Fascists Exposed (Coronet Magazine, 1944)This is a wonderful read. Writing under the name "John Ray Carlson", the journalist Arthur Derounian (1909 - 1991) went under cover into the seedy world of American fascist organizations and discovered that they all spoke with each other. Having impressed the German Bundists, he moved quickly up the ranks of American fascism and was soon given the task of uniting every antisemitic, anti-democratic, pro-fascist clique in the country. Here is a list of some of the groups he was in contact with during his four years in the underground: America First, the American Vigilant Intelligence Federation, American Nationalist Party, Chicago Patriot's Bureau, New England Christian Front, National Workers League, Detroit Mothers, American Mothers, Yankee Freeman and Mothers of the United States of America. He finally found himself in the company of Lawrence Dennis, a creepy book-worm who was known in those low circles as "the dean of American fascism".
''I Rode A German Raider'' (Collier's Magazine, 1944)Frank Vicovari, veteran ambulance driver, was en route to North Africa on a neutral passenger ship called Zam Zam. He was traveling with numerous other men who would serve under his command; there were 21 top of the line ambulances in the hold that would be put to use by Free French forces when they landed. Zam Zam also carried some 200 American missionaries off to spread the good news south of the equator. This article is Vicovari's account of his life onboard a Nazi raiding vessel after it sank Zam Zam in the South Atlantic. He eloquently describes how efficiently the crew fired upon other non-combatant vessels and, on one occasion, machine-gunned lifeboats. Lend-Lease for the Eastern Front (Coronet Magazine, 1944) One of the seldom remembered lend-lease programs was run out of Fairbanks, Alaska, where as many as 5,000 American fighter planes were flown across the Berring Sea by Soviet pilots.
Click here to read more about the Lend-Lease program. D-Day-Plus-One (Yank Magazine, 1944)"D-Day for my outfit was a long, dull 24-hour wait. We spent the whole day marooned in the middle of the English Channel, sunbathing, sleeping and watching the action miles away on the shore through binoculars. We could hear the quick roars and see the greenish-white flashes of light as Allied Battleships and cruisers shelled the pillboxes and other German installations on the beach." "On D-plus-one we took off for shore. Four Messerschmidtts dove down to strafe the landing crafts as we headed in, but a Navy gunner drove them off with a beautiful burst of ack-ack..." The Growing Popularity of Abortions (Collier's Magazine, 1944)"The present war has fanned the abortion racket from a flame to a blaze. Now it's a nation-wide problem... Apparently every type of woman and girl, from every occupational group and every social level, was represented among women arrested or question in New York [on the matter of abortion]." Rome Falls (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)"The capture of the Eternal City - first Axis capital to fall to the Allies - came on the 275 day of the Italian invasion and realized the political and psychological objective of the entire campaign. Yet, for the Allied Armies, the fall of Rome was rather the beginning than the end of the job. Paced by the air forces, without a pause the troops rolled on through the city and across the Tiber in a drive aimed at smashing completely the retreating German forces." Watch A Clip About The Liberation of Rome Glider Infantry on D-Day (Yank Magazine, 1944)A day by day account by Private George Groh, a member of the 101st Airborne, who joined the 1944 Normandy Invasion as a glider-infantryman. Watch a Short Film Clip About the African-Americans Who Served on D-Day W.W. II and the Absent Poets (Pageant Magazine, 1944)Attached is an interesting article by the noted poet and poetry anthologist, Louis Untermeyer (1885 1977). He praised the soldier poets of the First World War and expressed his bafflement concerning the absolute dirth of competent rhyme-slingers in the Second World War:
"Why then, it has been asked again and again, is the poetry of this war so thin, so emotionally anemic, so unrepresentative of the fierce struggle in which the world is engaged? Why has no poet, not even a single poem, emerged to stir the heart and burn into the mind?" D-Day Plus Ten With the 82nd Airborne (Yank Magazine, 1944)The battle of the hedgerows as experienced by the paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division: "They all had been fighting since D-Day. Compared with the obstacles at the beginning of their drive, the hill they had just taken was only a minor deal, but it was no push-over. "At some places," one paratrooper told me, "the fighting was so close the Krauts didn't even bother to throw their grenades, they just handed them over to us." War Stories from the Second Armored Division in Normandy (Yank Magazine, 1944)An account relaying a bloody slice of life lived by the officers and men of the U.S. Second Armored Division. The story takes place on the tenth day following the D-Day landings as one armored battalion struggled to free themselves of the hedgerows, placate their slogan-loving general and ultimately make that dinner date in far-off Paris. Yank correspondent Walter Peters weaves an interesting narrative and the reader will get a sense of the business-like mood that predominated among front line soldiers and learn what vehicles were involved during an armored assault
Von Kluck's Drive on Paris (West Point Supplement, 1944) Home Front Lingerie (Click Magazine, 1944)Here is a small article, illustrated with five fashion images, about the types of intimate apparel and pajamas that were available to the home-sewing girls on the W.W. II American home front.
Click here to learn about the under garments that had to be worn to pull-off the New Look... Commercial Profits Generated Within the Camps (U.S. Government, 1944)Even under the gloomy conditions of the camps the wheels of commerce continued to turn ~and they turned out an impressive $3,526,851.77! As can clearly be seen in the plans of the camps that are offered on this site, the camps all had commercial districts where the interned families could purchase needed goods and services; the ten Japanese-American internment camps had 160 businesses operating within their gates that managed to employ 1,853 souls. The attached chart from the 1944 records of the War Relocation Authority serves to illustrate the productivity of all these assorted commercial operations that had once thrived in the camps. John Garand: Inventor of the M1 Garand (Click Magazine, 1944)Attached is a Click Magazine photo essay of one of the seldom remembered heroes of W.W. II: John C. Garand - the gunsmith who tripled the firepower of the American foot soldier.
In 1939, a German spy almost succeeded in delivering the blueprints of the Garand rifle into the blood-soaked hands of his Nazi overlords: read about it here.
Click here to read about the Japanese Zero.
The American A-20 Havoc (Yank Magazine, 1944)An enthusiastic Yank Magazine article about the Douglas DB-7/A-20 Havoc (the British called it the "A-20 Boston"): throughout the course of the war, there was no other attack bomber that was manufactured in greater quantity than this one (7,477).
"An eyewitness report of a pre-invasion mission over the continent in one of the newest and most effective U.S. air weapons, an attack bomber that looks like an insect but moves and hits with the speed of a meteor..." *Watch a Documentary About the A-20 Havoc & Other Lend-Lease Aircraft* The French Film Industry: 1940 - 1944 (Tricolor Magazine, 1944)An article from TRICOLOR MAGAZINE explains how the French film industry fared under the German occupation. Tom Treanor of the L.A. Times (Coronet Magazine, 1944)War correspondent Tom Treanor (1914 1944) of The Los Angeles Times was billed by writer Damon Runyon as "one of the four best reporters developed in this war.":
"Landing in Cairo just about the time Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was approaching Alexandria, Treanor went to the British to obtain an accreditation certificate as a war correspondent. But since the British didn't know him they wouldn't accredit him. Undaunted he went out and bought a set of correspondent's insignia for 70 cents, borrowed an army truck, and made a trip to the front and back before the British realized he was gone. They stripped him of his illegal insignia, but in the meantime Tom had obtained material for several 'hot' columns." Treanor was killed in France shortly after this column went to press. German Half-Tracks and Recon Cars (Yank Magazine, 1944)Four pictures and few well-chosen words concerning a German command and reconnaissance car as well as two Nazi half-tracks (one capable of carrying ten men, the other twelve).
Click here to read about the American Army half-tracks. With the Brazilians in Italy (Newsweek & Yank Magazines, 1944)The attached Yank article was written from the perspective of the American G.I.; it lays out a few peculiar facts about life in the World War Two Brazilian Army: "Every type of South American racial strain is represented. This gives a squad the appearance of a capsule League of Nations, except that there are no blonds."
Mexico preferred not to participate in the war, but they did kick all the Fascist spies out of their country, click here to read about it...
German Armor: Panzer III and IV (Yank Magazine, 1944)The attached two articles report on what the U.S. Army came to understand following the close examination of two German tanks: the Panzer III and Panzer IV.
The Panzer III was first produced in 1934 and the Panzer IV two years later; both tanks were used with devastating effect during the opening days of the Blitzkrieg on Poland, France and later the invasion of Russia. The developed a close and personal relationship with both during the North African campaign in 1943.
Click here to read about the German King Tiger Tank. Watch A Documentary About Panzer Tanks The First Two Weeks of the Battle of the Bulge (United States News, 1944)The American magazines that appeared on newsstands during late November and early December of 1944 are often found to have articles anticipating life in the post-war world or tips on how to welcome your returning husband home from the battle fronts. This line of thinking was put on hold in late December when the Germans launched their brutal counter offensive through the Ardennes Forrest in what has been nicknamed "the Battle of the Bulge".
America's Oldest Soft Drink (Pathfinder Magazine, 1944) The 9th Air Force on D-Day (Yank Magazine, 1944)An eye-witness account of the U.S. Army Ninth Air Force A-20 bombers as they made their runs on D-Day: "There was no time to lose on this mission. Hitler's armies might well be driving over those crossroads toward the beachheads at this minute. This was not just an ordinary mission. It was the beginning of a mission that some day might end all combat missions."
"'There's London.' Rafalow announced, over the intercom."
"I glanced down. The acres of buildings looked quiet and peaceful."
"You'd almost think there wasn't a war on.'"
"A few minutes later his voice came over the intercom again, but this time it was high-pitched with excitement. We were over the English Channel where it was quite obvious there was a war on."
"'By God, look at the ships!' he yelled." Hitler's Man in Delhi (Collier's Magazine, 1944)Subhas Chandra Bose (1897 1945) spent much of the Twenties and Thirties brainstorming with Gandhi and Nehru as to how best they might secure sovereignty for their beloved India. By 1939 Bose broke ranks with his fellows at the Indian National Congress, believing that British rule would end a good deal quicker if the Indians signed on with the Axis. The Brutality of Combat (Pathfinder Magazine, 1944)"The shock of modern battle is so severe to nervous systems that the hair color of thousands of young men in the Pacific and European theaters of war has turned gray overnight."
Not surprisingly, the young men in question had no interest in resembling their grandfathers
and so the services of a patriotic hair dye manu- facturing firm were secured.
Read more articles from PATHFINDER MAGAZINE...
Burying The American Dead (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)In time, the American dead from D-Day and the Normandy campaign would be buried at the larger cemetery located in Colleville-sur-Mer, but in late July of 1944, these honored dead were interred at Cardonville, France. Outraged Soldiers and Marines (U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 1944)That administering government agency charged with the management of the Japanese-American internment camps was the War Relocation Authority , which was an arm of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Much to their credit, in 1944, this bureaucracy saw fit to published a small booklet containing the letters of many outraged American servicemen who vented their anger on the subject that their fellow Americans were being singled-out for persecution:
"...I'm putting it mildly when I say that it makes my blood boil...We shall fight this injustice, intolerance and un-Americanism at home! We will not break faith with those who died...We have fought the Japanese and are recuperating to fight again. We can endure the hell of battle, but we are resolved not to be sold out at home."
Examining Axis War Material (See Magazine, 1944)This article tells of the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps and how they go about turning enemy weaponry inside-out in order to gain a full understanding of Axis capabilities:
"Every gun, from the smallest side-arm to largest howitzer, every tank, truck or other conveyance, every airplane and item of equipment abandoned by the retreating enemy, whether it be emergency ration or new type haversack falling into Allied hands, is carefully scrutinized for tell-tale clues to [the] foe's tactics and resources." Inside Germany (Collier's Magazine, 1944)"The most striking thing about Germany today is its quiet. There is no noise. The people are sullen... There are no parades, no bands, no singing in Germany now. When American internees heard the Allied bombers, saw cities in flames and felt the shock of four-ton bombs, they knew why."
This account of war-torn Germany was written by one of those internees who was incarcerated since December of 1941 and subsequently released in March, 1944. We Want to Fight (PM Tabloid, 1944)On the very first day of America's participation in World War II, an African American sailor at Pearl Harbor named Dorrie Miller shot down four enemy planes and saved 12 men from drowning. One would think that this would make the gang on capitol Hill sit up and realize that the war would be shorter if other men of a similar hue could be released upon our enemies, but this was not the case. Very few American blacks were permitted to fight and this article serves as a testimony to their frustration. Captured Hitlerjugend (Stars & Stripes, 1944)Among the thousands of German POWs captured during the Normandy campaign was this 17 year-old alumnus of the Hitler Jugend program who is the subject in the attached column. The editors at The Stars and Stripes were dumbfounded to discover how thoroughly he had been brainwashed - to prove the point, they printed their interview with the teen.
Q. If Germany wins the war, will you punish the United States?
A. We want living space. ''Eighth Over Berlin'' (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)"Comparing the American [daylight] raids with the RAF [nighttime] incursions, it was certainly a great shock to Berliners to find their city now open to round-the-clock bombing."
"We don't mind the Yanks who come when the sun shines and it's warm. It's the Tommies sneaking in at night that we don't like so much."
Click here to read about the harried everyday life on a U.S. bomber base in England...
Sports in Japanese Prison Camps (Yank Magazine, 1944)Assorted yarns told by liberated Allied soldiers as to the types of games played in Japanese prison camps between bouts of malaria, dysentery and gangrene: "We had a big fellow with us in camp, a guy named Chris Bell, who was 6 feet 2 and the rocky sort. The Jap guards were having a wrestling tournament at the guardhouse and they wanted Bell to come down and wrestle one of those huge sumo men. These sumo wrestlers weigh about 300 pounds and are very agile..."
This was NOT the first time that a Japanese baseball team had faced Americans.
Click here to read about that game.
Suggested Reading:
POW Baseball in World War II: The National Pastime Behind Barbed Wire
The Bombed-Out Germans (Collier's Magazine, 1944)A report by a Swiss journalist as to what becomes of the Germans who are left homeless after the bombings:
"In most cities they immediately get 200 marks cash payment. The money is fresh and clean from the press... With cup in hand, the bombed-outers wait in the streets for the army goulash truck to drive up and give them a feed. Sometimes they wait for as much forty-eight hours. People who don't like or cannot get the army goulash build themselves a fire and cook the horses, dogs and cats that lie around the street..." Martha Graham's Art (New Masses, 1944)A review of Martha Graham's sell-out Broadway performance from January, 1944:
"Martha Graham's art has always been characterized by constatnt experimentation with new forms and new contents." Fashion Modeling in the 1940s (Coronet Magazine, 1944)Inasmuch as this 1944 article sums up the bygone world of the New York fashion model, the terms "heroin chic" and "bulimia" are not found on any of it's five pages (an over site, no doubt). The Forties were a time when a model would be just as likely to get a booking from a commercial artist as she would a photographer, and, unlike the Twenties and the earliest days of the Thirties, it was a time when a standardized image of beauty was well-established.
"- five feet nine inches in height, weight 110 pounds, bust 33, waist 24, hips 34, blonde or a light shade of brown hair. She will have quick, clever eyes and a very expressive face."
"Many of the models are bitter, unhappy girls inside. They soon grow disillusioned with their dream of modeling as a gateway to theatrical glory; they learn that their height is against them."
Read about the attack of the "actress/models"!
''Assault Climbing'' (Click Magazine, 1944)One month after this article was seen on the newsstands, America would be reading a good deal about the U.S. Army Assault Climbers when they thirsted to read further about those hardy lads who climbed the steep cliffs at Point du Hoc on D-Day; but in May of 1944, the term was new to them. The article is well illustrated with two color images and a brief explanation as to what was involved in the training of those lucky souls who were charged with the task of learning how to climb the rocky terrain held by the Fascist powers.
Read what the U.S. Army psychologists had to say about fear in combat. War Memorials Don't Have to be Ugly (Pageant Magazine, 1944)Robert Moses (1888 1981) was an American urban planner who worked as the New York City Parks Commissioner between 1934 and 1960. During the Second World War his phone was ringing off the hook:
"All over the country plans are being hatched for war memorials. Demands upon public officials for space in parks and public places are daily becoming more insistent. [But] if truth be told, most gestures of patriotism are pathetic, third-rate, inadequate [and] ugly..." Samuel Goldwyn, Producer (Coronet Magazine, 1944)Screen scribe Sidney Carroll put to paper a serious column about the productive life of Samuel Goldwyn (1879 1974) and all that he had accomplished since he co-founded Hollywood (along with Cecil B. De Mille) in 1913:
"He has done many remarkable things in 30 years. He has made as many stars as any man in the business; he was the first to make feature-length films; he was the first to bring the great writers to Hollywood... Goldwyn is the greatest maker of motion pictures ever to come out of Hollywood [with the exception of The Goldwyn Follies (1938)]. Paris After the Liberation (Yank Magazine, 1944)"The capital of France, as of September 1944, is not the same nervous, triumphant paradise city that it was when the Allies first made their entry." "The welcome has died down. When you enter the town, today, whether on foot or in a car, everyone is glad to see you, but there are no more mob scenes of riotous greeting exploding around each jeep. Shows are opening again, and the people are beginning to breathe easier...On the other side, Parisians appear as a very grateful but proud and self-reliant population." Killing (Coronet Magazine, 1944)A World War Two article by a young Polish guerrilla who graphically explains what it is like to kill a man, an experience he abhors:
"...then all at once he gave a shiver and relaxed, I released my grip and he fell to the ground."
''Doughboy's General'' (Reader's Digest, 1944)This column summarizes General Bradley's early life and career with a good deal of space devoted to his leadership during the North African Campaign:
"Chosen over dozens his senior in service, he was sent to North Africa in February 1943 as deputy to General Patton. In May he succeeded Patton. On several critical occasions his tactical skill and remarkable sense of timing surprised the Germans and soundly defeated them. One of his favorite maxims: 'Hit the enemy twice: first to find out what he's got; then, to take it away from him.'"
Traveling Movie Theaters (Click Magazine, 1944)"Two million Americans have as their principal form of visual entertainment nomad movies, run by some 3000 road-showmen who present their motion pictures in tents, auditoriums or churches. Few city folks realize that this is the way in which entertainment is brought to about 5000 U.S. towns of less than 1000 population... Road-showmen say that the favorite shows are fast-action westerns and occasional comedies. Mushy love scenes are box-office poison among their clientele. During harvest seasons, when customers can best afford the ten to twenty-five cents admission charge, these showmen take in between $75.00 and $150.00 a week."
These were not the only traveling entertainers during the Thirties: the Federal Theater Project also sent hoards of players throughout the nation to amuse and beguile - you can read about that here
Click here to read about Marilyn Monroe and watch a terrific documentary about her life.
Princess Elizabeth Comes of Age (Click Magazine, 1944)The attached article was about the Spring of 1944 and why it was such an exciting season for Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary of England (b. 1926): the twenty-first of April marked her eighteenth birthday and her country was entering the last year of their bloodiest war, while the princess herself held two positions that she took quite seriously: Patrol Leader of the Buckingham Palace Girlguides, as well as Colonel-in-Chief of the Grenadier Guards. There were also times when she was required to join her father when he was in conference with his ministers.
Also addressed in these pages was the royal concern as to who was suitable to be her mate; a list of names was provided. The Nazis Hated These Guys (Yank Magazine, 1944)The attached W.W. II magazine article tells the story of the hard-charging "Goums" - a detachment of French-Moroccan infantry who appeared to the American GIs as genuine curios (Wikipedia definition: "Goumier is a term used for Moroccan soldiers, who served in auxiliary units attached to the French Army, between 1908 and 1956").
"The Germans definitely don't like the Goums. As for the Italians, they're scared to death of them. In the Mateur and Bizerte sectors, where the Goums were attached to the Ninth Division, three Italian companies surrendered en masse as soon as they heard that the guys in front of them were Goums."
Veronica Lake (Click Magazine, 1944)The attached magazine article is a profile of Veronica Lake (1922 1973) who was characterized in this column as "an artist at making enemies.":
"One of the most acute problems in Hollywood is Veronica Lake. Where, and at what precise moment her time-bomb mind will explode with some deviation from what studio bosses consider normal is an ever-present question. Hence, the grapevine of the movie industry always hums with rumors that unless Miss Lake 'behaves', she will no longer be tolerated, but cast into oblivion."
Her response was eloquent.
Baldur von Schirach (Collier's Magazine, 1944) A Failed Peace Movement (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)We were terribly surprised to learn of a peace movement that existed on the 1944 American home front. Baring an awkward name that was right out of Seventiespeak, Peace Now printed pamphlets that played the class game so prevalent in the other leftist organizations that would come forth twenty years later. The Most Dreaded Telegram on the Home Front (Coronet Magazine, 1944)By the time this historic piece was written, thousands upon thousands of Western Union casualty telegrams had been delivered to altogether too many American households. This article lucidly explains how they should be delivered and how they shouldn't be delivered. Recognizing the solemnity of the task, the men who passed the news along were often older men, who had tasted some of life's bitterness:
"One mother, receiving the news that her son was dead, crushed the paper in her hand and looking beyond the messenger, said, 'If it hadn't been my son, it would have been some other mother's'". The GI Bill (Yank Magazine, 1944)This tiny notice reported that the G.I. Bill of Rights was passed Congress, was now enacted into law. A list of all the original (1944) veteran's benefits are listed for a quick read.The readers of YANK were the intended beneficiaries of this legislation and it seems terribly ironic that this news item was granted such a minute space in the magazine.
No matter how you slice it, few acts of Congress have left such a beneficial mark across the American landscape as this one. The Australian Soldier (Yank Magazine, 1944)Attached is a two page article concerning the basic lot of the World War Two Australian soldier: his pay, his kit, his battles and the general reputation of the Australian Imperial Forces (A.I.F.):
"...the Australian Imperial Forces who have - and are seeing action all over the world...has fought in every theater in which British forces have been engaged...They have especially distinguished themselves at El Alamein in the North African campaign and in the Papuan and New Guinea campaigns."
Four years after the Pearl Harbor attack, a Japanese newspaper editorial expressed deep regret for Japan's aggressiveness in the Second World War, click here to read about it...
*Watch a Film Clip About the End of W.W. II Celebrations in Australia* Eyewitness To The Battle For France (Collier's Magazine, 1944)Combat photographer Joe Dearing, deprived of his camera, endeavored to explain with words all that he had seen while he was embedded with an advancing infantry unit in France. Dr. Walter Gross and the Office of Racial Policy (Collier's Magazine, 1944)"Although he may not be very well known outside Germany, few men rank higher in the Nazi regime than Doctor Walter Gross (1904 - 1945). As head of the Office of Racial Policy, he is Adolf Hitler's expert on breeding, riding herd on the biological urge, and even deciding what children may be brought into the world."
Written by George Creel (1876 1953), this single page article outlines how this quack doctor was responsible for the enslavement of women sex slaves who were pressed into submission from all the conquered nations of Europe.
Gross killed himself at the end of the war.
Click here to read about the origins of Fascist thought...
Watch a Film Clip About The League of German Girls Boss Man (The American Magazine, 1944)Here is a quick look at U.S. Army General Allen W. Gullion (1880 1946); he was in charge of every German, Italian and Japanese prisoner held by the American Army during the Second World war (At the time this article appeared there were about 150,000 Germans, 50,000 Italians and only a handful of Japanese).
Verdun, 1944 (Yank Magazine, 1944)The contested forts of Verdun (Battle of Verdun, 1916), Fort Douamont, Fort Souville and Fort Vaux, were little more than storage sheds to the American army of World War Two; and during the four years of German occupation, the forts played a similar roll for the German army as well. This is a neat article that briefly touches on the importance of these structures during the previous war and what kind of flotsam and jetsam the GIs were able to find as they wandered about the forts (like a W.W. I skeleton). Of particular interest was a wall that was covered with the names of various combatants from all sides and from both wars:
"The American names are big and black and seem to blot out the others. One of them says:
"Austin White, Chicago, Ill., 1918 and 1944.
This is the last time I want to write my name here".
Click here to read more magazine articles about the African-American efforts during the First World War.
An Army of Juan (Yank Magazine, 1944)Some have said that America's first introduction to Latin culture came with "Ricky Ricardo"; others say Carmen Miranda, Xavier Cugat, Charo or Chico and the Man. The dilettantes at OldMagazineArticles.com are not qualified to answer such deep questions, but we do know that for a bunch of unfortunate Nazis and their far-flung Japanese allies, their first brush with "la vida loco Latino" came in the form of Private Anibal Irizarry, Colonel Pedro del Valle and Lieutenant Manuel Vicente: three stout-hearted Puerto Ricans who distinguished themselves in combat and lived to tell about it.
In 1917 the U.S. Congress granted American citizenship rights to the citizens of Puerto Rico - but they didn't move to New York until the Fifties. Click here to read about that...
Click here to read an article about Latinas in the WAACs. The Liberation of Paris (Yank Magazine, 1944)Two Yank Magazine reporters rode into Paris behind the first tank of the Second French Armored Division, following the story of the city's liberation in their recently liberated German jeep. Here is a picture of Paris and the reaction of Parisians to their first breath of free air in four years.
"As they caught site of the American flag on our car, people crowded around and almost smothered us with kisses..."
Click here to read about the fall of Paris...
*Color Film Footage: D-Day through the Liberation of Paris* Indian Sikhs Tell of Japanese Prison Camps (Yank Magazine, 1944)"Captured in the fall of Singapore, 66 soldiers of the 5/11 Sikh Regiment of the Indian Army were freed by our troops. Used as slave laborers since their capture in February 1942, the Indians were building jetties on Los Negros Island when they were rescued." "Asked how they were treated by the Japanese, the Sikhs shake their heads sadly, smile and say, 'Not very well.'" Goodbye to the Pompadour (Click Magazine, 1944)A late-breaking news report from the fashion editors at Click Magazine announced that the pompadour hairstyle has been given the brush-off: grab your combs, girls, because parts are back in style... During the Second World War, hair dye was not simply used by women;click here to read about the men who needed it. D-Day On The Home Front (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)"By the dawn's early light America awoke to the knowledge that its D-Day had come. Electricity meters clocked a sudden spurt in kilowatt loads as house lights and radios went on; telephone switchboards jammed as excited householders passed the word along. By morning on June 6, scarcely a family failed to know that the nation's sons and brothers, husbands and sweethearts were even then storming the beaches of Normandy to begin the Allied liberation of Europe."
Click here to read about D-Day...
Captured: A Woman Sniper (Yank Magazine, 1944)A small notice from a post D-Day YANK announced the capture of a German woman sniper named, Myra. Click here if you would like to read about women combatants during W.W. I. *A Filmed Interview with a Woman Sniper* U.S. Sailors Wore Earrings? (Pathfinder Magazine, 1944)A short notice from a May, 1944, issue of The Pathfinder reported that there was a fashion among the American sea-going men of the enlisted variety to wear a particular style of earring in their left ear if they'd experienced combat. Don't take our word for it, read on... Hermann Goering as Fop: a Cartoon (The Jesters in Earnest, 1944)Here is a W.W. II gag cartoon by the Czech chuckle-meister himself, "W. Trier" (probably a pseudonym) that was smuggled out of his occupied homeland to Britain where it was published in "Jesters in Earnest" (1944). The cartoonist truly succeeded in satirizing Goering's love of costume and his precious self-image. However glorious the drawings may be, they fail to impart to the viewers just how enamored the Reichsmarschall was with perfume (and he was) The Liberation of Cherbourg (Yank Magazine, 1944) Who Was Tougher: The Japanese or The Germans? (Yank Magazine, 1944)By the end of 1943 Major General Joseph Lawton Collins (1917 - 1987) was one of two U.S. generals to give battle to both the Japanese in the East and the Germans in the West (Curtis Lemay was the other general). In this two page interview with Yank Magazine correspondent Mack Morriss, General Collins answered the question as to which of the two countries produced the most dangerous fighting man: "The Jap is tougher than the German. Even the fanatic SS troops can't compare with the Jap...Cut off an outfit of Germans and nine times out of 10 they'll surrender. Not the Jap."
Click here to read another article in which the Japanese and Germans were compared to one another.
Click here to read an interview with a Kamikaze pilot.
The First Wave (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)"'Down ramp!' shouted the coxswain from the elevated stern."
"Down it came with a clank and splash. Ahead - and it seemed at that moment miles off - stretched the sea wall. At Lieutenant Crisson's insistence we had all daubed our faces with commando black. I charged out with the rest, trying to look fierce and desperate, only to step into a shell hole and submerge myself in the channel. Luckily my gear was too wet and stinking to put on so I was light enough to come up."
This Newsweek journalist was the only allied war correspondent to have witnessed the derring-do of those in the first wave.
Click here to read more about the D-Day reporters.
A Spike In Illegitimate Births (Pathfinder Magazine, 1944)"'A new problem of the war is the fact that children are born to married women whose husbands have been long overseas... Department of Labor figures show that more than twice as many illegitimate children were born this year than in 1942."
Click here to read more on this topic. U.S. Advertising During W.W. II (Yank Magazine, 1944)"Advertising is the modern procedure for making ideas and suggestions plain and persuasive. The essence of advertising is the distribution of information in understandable and pleasing doses. Pictures, type, arguments illustrated by words or photographs, comedy, eloquence, music - all of these human devices to enlist interest, to hold attention, to win approval, to convince, have to be employed. They have been used in this war successfully and honorably in [a] great cause."
Articles about the importance of fashion models in 1940s advertising can be read here.
Moses Soyer on David Bruliuk (New Masses Magazine, 1944) The Population of the Internment Camps (U.S. Government, 1944)The attached table lists the average Japanese-American internment camp population as counted between the months of January to June of 1944. All ten camps were considered in the study. Hollywood Stars in the USO (Click Magazine, 1944)Attached is a 1944 article from Click Magazine about the touring performers of the U.S.O. during the Second World War. Illustrated with eight photographs picturing many of the most devoted and well-loved of the Hollywood entertainers (Bob Hope, Martha Raye, Al Jolson, Jack Benny, Wini Shaw) the article, by celebrated newspaper critic Leonard Lyons, goes into some detail as to the deep sense of gratitude these show people felt and how happy they were to give some measure of payback. It was estimated that the U.S.O. performed 293,738 shows by the time the war reached an end.
''Eighth Over Berlin'' (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)"Comparing the American [daylight] raids with the RAF [nighttime] incursions, it was certainly a great shock to Berliners to find their city now open to round-the-clock bombing."
"We don't mind the Yanks who come when the sun shines and it's warm. It's the Tommies sneaking in at night that we don't like so much."
Click here to read about the harried everyday life on a U.S. bomber base in England...
Will Disenchantment Follow This War, Too? (World Magazine, 1944)Recalling the general melancholia that descended upon many societies following the slaughterous First World War, a former member of the British Parliament asked whether we should expect the same after an even larger world war.
If you would like to read 1920 article about the disillusioned post-war spirit, click here.
An Interview with U.S. Admiral Chester Nimitz (Yank Magazine, 1944)Yank correspondent H.N. Oliphant interviewed Admiral Chester William Nimitz (1885 - 1966) for the August 4, 1944 issue regarding the progress in the Pacific Theater of Operations. At that time, the battle of the Marianas was being waged and it was a subject of much concern as to it's significance. "In the Central Pacific, we have in three swift leaps advanced our sea power thousands of miles to the west of Pearl Harbor. Now our western-most bastions face the Philippines and undoubtedly worry the man on the street in Tokyo concerning the immediate safety of his own skin."
Click here to read about Admiral Mischer...
Click here to read a unique story about the Battle of the Sula Straits... The Atlantic Convoys (Collier's Magazine, 1944)"The War Shipping Administration is never at a loss for an answer when asked what's been authorized, what's in the works, what's been shipped and where everything is at the moment? Nevertheless, the Transportation Inventory Department is a tidy place, with no visible signs of agitation. The TID has never lost so much as a bolt. Once it took twenty-two weeks to find a couple of airplane engines which had got themselves lost." Treblinka (PM Tabloid, 1944)One of the very few escapees from the Treblinka death camp wrote the attached account describing the horrendous moral outrages that he had seen there:
"Experiments were started with the cremation of corpses. It turned out that women burned easier than men. Accordingly, corpses of women were used for kindling the fires... the sight was terrifying, the worst that human eyes have ever beheld." A World War II Prayer Story (Reader's Digest, 1944)"A psychologist, in discussing some of the widely publicized 'miracles' of the war, puts it this way: 'God may be likened to an electric dynamo. We can receive the power of this dynamo by attaching ourselves to it by prayer; or we can prove it has no influence in our lives by refusing to attach ourselves to it by prayer. The choice is ours...' Today indisputable proof of the power of prayer are pouring in from every quarter of the globe. The only surprising thing is that we think it surprising. These praying soldiers, sailors and aviators of ours are merely following the example of Washington who knelt to ask for aid in the snows of Valley Forge and of Lincoln who, in the darkest days of the Civil War, declared: 'Without the assistance of That Divine Being Who attends me I cannot succeed; with that assistance I cannot fail.'"
Read about the Nazis who cried out to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob...
The Invasion of Western Europe (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)"The focal point of the attack apparently was aimed at Le Havre, the fine port at the mouth of the Seine. Nazi reports indicated a series of drives to cut the Brittany Peninsula with the center of gravity at Caen. It seemed certain that the Reich was awaiting news of other attacks."
The Death of the German Seventh Army (Yank Magazine, 1944)A 1944 YANK MAGAZINE article concerning the destruction of the once mighty German 7th Army:
"We have been told that the German Army, which fought so craftily and gave out to our men a share of death in Normandy, is now almost encircled by the great armored columns which broke through and swept around the enemy. But this army does not die easily..."
Click here to read about the retreat of the Africa Corps.
The Canadians on D-Day (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)"In the first 48 hours the Canadians had captured a dozen towns, taken more than 600 prisoners, stopped a small enemy tank force outside Caen and then joined the British in repeated attacks on Caen."
More about the Canadian Army can be read here.
D-Day Plus Ten With the 82nd Airborne (Yank Magazine, 1944)The battle of the hedgerows as experienced by the paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division: "They all had been fighting since D-Day. Compared with the obstacles at the beginning of their drive, the hill they had just taken was only a minor deal, but it was no push-over. "At some places," one paratrooper told me, "the fighting was so close the Krauts didn't even bother to throw their grenades, they just handed them over to us." Letter from France (Tricolor Magazine, 1944) A British staff officer who was an eyewitness to the Allied breakout from the Normandy hedgerows compiled all the assorted questions that friends and family had written to him in their respective letters and answered them in a public format published in TRICOLOR MAGAZINE:
"What do you feel when you see people dead?"
"Just an urgent desire to get by quickly and a feeling of revulsion which is greater or less according to the length of time the body has been dead... There is no difference in appearance between decomposing men and decomposing animals and the same stench comes from both." Dispatch from Operation Market Garden (Stars and Stripes, 1944)Five days into Operation Market Garden, this hastily written notice was dispatched by a Stars and Stripes reporter on assignment with the allied airborne forces in war-torn Holland. A Pill Box in the Hόrtgen Forest (Yank Magazine, 1944)During the last miserable days of 1944 came this one page, first person account by a common American soldier marching through a shell-pocked German landscape. The fellow went to great effort to describe the general discomfort experienced by all those GIs privileged enough to be posted at the spearhead of that winter advance through the Hόrtgen Forest. Halting in frozen rain and blinding winds, his platoon languished around a liberated Nazi pillbox where it was decided that each of them should enjoy a three hour respite inside to escape the cold. When it was our hero's turn he explains how nice it was to be surrounded by four walls and a roof.
Click here to read about the mobile pill boxes of the Nazi army. A Pre-D-Day Interview with General Eisenhower (Yank, 1944)Written in the interest of promoting U.S. Army morale, this is a profile of five-star General Dwight David Eisenhower by an anonymous YANK MAGAZINE journalist. An interesting interview, it was printed six months prior to the Normandy invasion: "General Eisenhower's rise is surely without parallel in American military history. From colonel to supreme commander and full general in two years - from the 'mock' war maneuvers in the delta country of Louisiana to the real maneuvers that face him now as he must figure out the when and how of the attack that must drive to the very heart of Nazi Europe - that is his story."
Click here to read about Hitler's slanderous comment regarding the glutinous Hermann Goering. Richard Tregaskis of the International News Service (Coronet, 1944)Richard Tregaskis (1916 1973) covered the invasion of Guadalcanal and the first seven weeks of Marine fighting on that island, the earliest stages of the Tokyo air raid, covered the Battle of Midway, wrote a best-selling book
(Guadalcanal Diary) and accompanied the forces that invaded the Russell Islands."
"It wasn't long after he arrived in the Mediterrian that stories began appearing in American papers under the Tregaskis byline, and he is still 'somewhere' on the European fighting front covering the big battles which make news." Sam Rosenman: FDR's Right Arm (Coronet Magazine, 1944)Samuel Rosenman (1896 1973) was an attorney, judge and a highly placed insider within the ranks of the Democratic Party, both in Albany and the nation's capital. It was Rosenman who helped articulated many of FDR's policies, wrote numerous executive orders and conceived of the moniker "New Deal". He was the first lawyer to hold the position White House Counsel and he was an indispensable advisor to Roosevelt throughout the course of his New York governorship as well as his presidency. Big Band Happenings in 1944 (Yank Magazine, 1944)One of the most popular portions of YANK MAGAZINE was a that small corner devoted to the happenings within the Big Band world titled "Band Beat". Attached herein is the Big Band news from that department for the Spring of 1944 which kept the far-flung Americans up to date as to what was going on with Vaughan Monroe, Lina Romay, Duke Ellington, Charlie Powell, Jon Arthur, Jimmy Cook, Red Norvo and Bob Strong's orchestra. ''Sand Diego - A Woman's Town'' (Click Magazine, 1944)"Sand Diego wanted women for its war industries. Since the beginning of the war boom San Diego has cajoled, bribed and appealed publicly for women. And San Diego got women, not only for the war industries, but for every other conceivable job. They became letter carriers, bus drivers, high-altitude window washers, milk deliverers, office workers."
Home Front Philadelphia (Yank Magazine, 1944)"You can boil down nearly all the changes that have taken place in Philadelphia since Pearl Harbor to one word: prosperity." "In 1940 the average factory worker in Philadelphia was making $27 a week and the city's total factory pay roll was 393 millions. In 1943 Philadelphia's factory workers averaged $48 a week and the total factory payroll was one and a quarter billions...The Philadelphia social life, too, has taken a terrific shot in the arm..." Read about Wartime San Francisco. Click here to read about wartime Washington, D.C.. The Absent Teachers (Click Magazine, 1944)This 1944 article by the U.S. Commissioner of Education, John W. Studebaker (1887 1989), reported on the impact that W.W. II was having on the American educational system. Studebaker pointed out that during the course of the national emergency, as many as 115,000 teachers had left the nation's classrooms in order to help the war effort in one form or another.
Click here to read about child labor exploitation during the Second World War...
''Hitler'' of Hollywood (The American Magazine, 1944)Song and Dance man Robert Watson (1888 - 1965) was Hollywood's-go-to-guy when they needed a fella to tread the boards as the Bohemian Corporal (Adolf Hitler). Throughout the course of his career he played him nine times. The American Invasion of Saipan (The American Magazine, 1944)The battle of Saipan spanned the period between June 15 through July 9, 1944. Here is an eyewitness account of the three week battle:
"Reveille for the Japanese garrison on Saipan sounded abruptly at five-forty that morning of D-Day minus one, with a salvo from the 14-inch rifles of one of our battleships. Other guns, big and small, joined the opening chorus and from than on we realized why we had stuffed the cotton in our ears. The bass drum jam session was to continue for hours."
''Buzz-Bombs Blitz'' (Yank Magazine, 1944)Launched by air or from catapults posted on the Northern coast of France, the German V-1 "Buzz-Bomb" was first deployed against the people of London on June 12, 1944. Before the V-1 campaign was over 1,280 Britons would fall on greater London. 1,241 of these rockets were successfully destroyed in flight. Accompanied by a diagram of the contraption, this is a brief article about London life during the "Buzz-Bomb Blitz". Quoted at length are the Americans stationed in that city as well as the hardy Britons who had endured similar carnage during the Luftwaffe bombing campaigns earlier in the war. The Hollywood Offerings from Late 1944 (Click Magazine, 1944)During the last month of 1944 the Yankee movie-goers had a choice of ten new releases to choose from, here are four titles:
Laura, starring Clifton Webb,
I'll Be Seeing You, starring Joseph Cotton and Ginger Rogers
The Doughgirls, starring Jane Wyman and Ann Sheridan
Mrs. Parkington, starring Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson
Each review is illustrated with thumbnail images of the ten films.
The Bombing of Monte Cassino (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)The bombing of the Medieval abbey at Montecassino was one of the saddest tactical errors of the Second World War. The decision to bomb the structure was a result an error in translating an intercepted German communique that lead the Allies to believe that there was Nazi battalion contained within the abbey. This was not the case. When the Allies sifted through the rubble they were surprised to find the remains of numerous Italian civilians and very few Germans. The attached article recalls the fantastic view that was enjoyed by the assembled U.S. and British troops as the bombs fell. The Battle for Aachen (Yank Magazine, 1944)An eye-witness account of the first major American battle to be fought on German ground during World War II. Aachen, the Westernmost city in Germany was defended by some 44,000 men of the Wehrmacht as well as assorted elements of the First SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler Division which combined to offer a stubborn defense that lasted nineteen days. This article, written by Bill Davidson, who witnessed the most vicious kind of street combat, believed that the battle for Aachen was simply a re-staging of the battle of Stalingrad and he supports this point throughout the article: "Godfrey Blunden,the Australian war correspondent, was here in Aachen...he was immediately struck by the similarity between the two battles. 'There is is the same house-to-house and room-to-room fighting, the same combat techniques, the same type of German defense.'"
Years later, historian Stephen Ambrose remarked that the Battle of Aachen was unnecessary.
Warnings From A Soviet Defector (Reader's Digest, 1944)A fascinating article written by a man who just seven years earlier had been a senior officer in Stalin's army. In order to escape the dictator's purges, General Alexander Barmine (1899 - 1987) defected to the West in 1937 and made his way to the U.S. where he began writing numerous articles about the NKVD operations in North America. This article concerns the Soviet infiltration of labor unions, the Democratic Party and the U.S. Government. John Riley Kane (Coronet Magazine, 1944)John "Killer" Kane (1907 1996) proved his mettle numerous times throughout the Second World War, but it was on August 1, 1943 - above the blackened skies of the Ploesti oil refineries in Romania, that the brass caps of the U.S. Ninth Air Force sat up and truly took notice of his polished skills as a pilot of a B-24 bomber. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for the admirable mixture of confidence and ability that showed so clearly that day.
In the attached article, the pilot recalled the moment when he was made aware that the number four engine had been hit
"and we increased power on the other three. As soon as we left the target we dropped down to tree-top level. We were right in the middle of the group and I could see other ships passing us as we lost speed. Then the Junker 88s and the ME 105s came to work on us. It was a sight I can never forget, seeing B-24s falling like flies on the right and left of us. But we were getting our share of fighters, too. It was a rough show."
High praise is heaped on Colonel Kane for all of nine pages - celebrating his enormous personality as much as his sang-froid in battle.
Click here to read further about the Ninth Air Force raid on Ploesti. Nazi Justice On American Soil (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)Here was the first report on the kangaroo courts that were held "at frequent intervals" in the American POW camps that housed captured German soldiers and sailors. It seems that it was a common practice to level the charge of "treason" on one of the inmates, put him in the docket where, just like the courts at home, he would fail to present an adequate defense and soon find himself condemned to death by his fellows. Beaten to death by his former compatriots, the corpse would then be presented to the American camp authorities who would see to the burial.
Click here to read about the actual event...
Stockings for Movie Stars (Coronet Magazine, 1944)$2,500.00 stockings, anyone? (in today's currency, that would be $41,519.00) This is the story of Hollywood's go-to-guy for outrageously priced, beautifully tailored silk hosiery. Unbelievable. ''Invasion Fever'' (Yank Magazine, 1944)"As increasing aerial bombardment of Nazi-occupied Europe mounted in Fury day after day, every American civilian was talking last week about when and how the actual land invasion of the continent would begin." "Newspaper editors were already dragging out their largest headline type, and when more than 40 top Washington correspondents were called to the White House for what turned out to be a routine announcement, telephone lines from a dozen National Press building offices were being kept open in case this was 'it'" Washington, D.C. During Wartime (Yank Magazine, 1944)Washington, D.C. has always been described as a pretty dull place and the only ones who ever seem to feel differently must have had a good deal of experiences in far worse locations. In this case, I am referring to Iowa and the war-torn portions of the South Pacific, which are the only two locations this YANK journalist had ever called home; so he liked Washington just fine. The author in question, Sergeant Merle Miller (1919 - 1986), does not ramble on about historic bone-yards or any other pedantic clap-trap, but rather presents useful information that a G.I. can apply to his life: "Of course, getting a fair date while you're in town is no problem. A Canadian newspaperman recently discovered that, judging from ration-book requests, there are 82,000 single girls of what he called the "right marrying age" of 20 to 24 in town, and only 26,000 men of the same age Therefore, he concluded, a girl has only about a 30-percent chance of getting a husband -- or, for that matter, a date"
The missing period at the close of the article, I assume, is due entirely to war-time shortages.
To read about the VJ-Day celebrations in Washington, click here. Sniper Killer (Yank Magazine, 1944)The story of Sergeant Frank Kwiatek, a W.W. I veteran who remained in the U.S. Army long enough to serve in the next war and have-at the Germans all over again. His distaste for German snipers was remarkably strong.
The Hostess Gown Made a Splash on the Home Front (Click Magazine, 1944)There can be no doubt that the fashion-craving lasses of the Thirties and Forties had a tough time of it! Coming of age during the the Great Depression, they spent too much time window-shopping as a result of the all too widespread economic deprivations that were the order of the day - only to be greeted on the other end by the fabric rationing that accompanied the Second World War. They had some good news in the form of a swanky garment that was called "Hostess Gowns" which were seen as ultra-feminine and tailored in the finer fabrics of the day:
"Top-notch fashion stores are finding a new wartime boom in luxury hostess gowns and pajamas; new styles for home reflect the latest dress fashion trends. Ruffles, waistline draping, beads, sequins and marabou add luxury; a number of dressy models might also be taken for dinner gowns..." Four Glider Pilots on D-Day (Yank Magazine, 1944)A three page article about the unique experiences of four American glider pilots on D-Day; how they fared after bringing their infantry-heavy gliders down behind German lines, what they saw and how they got back to the beach.
Albert Ganzenmόller (New Masses, 1944)Obergrupenfuehrer Albert Ganzenmόller (1905 - 1996) was responsible for running the German rail roads. This not only involved delivering troops and ordinance to the various fronts but also deporting Jews, Poles, Croats and Slovenes to assorted death camps:
"Ganzenmόller's special contribution to these migrations was his invention of the railroad-car gas chamber to exterminate Jews." Harry Hopkins - FDR's Right Hand (United States News, 1944)This article makes it quite clear that Harry Hopkins (1890 1946) wore many hats in the administration of FDR.
During the first five years of the New Deal he had the unique title "Special Assistant to the President", he not only wrote speeches for FDR - Hopkins also oversaw the goings-on at the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Between the years 1938 through 1940, he served as Secretary of Commerce and when the war came he supervised the Lend-Lease program, the Chairman of the Munitions Assignment Board and traveled frequently as the President's representative to Moscow and London.
When the U.S.S.R. collapsed, it was discovered that one of his additional duties was being a Soviet agent.
Click here to read about another member of the "New Deal Brain-Trust"...
Read an anti-Gandhi article from 1921...
Japanese Prisoners at Camp McCoy (Collier's Magazine, 1944)"A midget Jap submarine went aground on the morning of December 8, 1941, off the island of Oahu in Hawaii, and a lieutenant just one year out of the Imperial Naval Academy walked ashore and became the first, and for many weeks our only, W.W. II prisoner. He eventually wound up at Camp McCoy..." Actor Lew Ayres: Conscientious Objector (Yank Magazine, 1944)This short notice from a 1944 issue of the U.S. Army's Yank Magazine can be printed or read on screen if you prefer; the article is accompanied by a photo of Lew Ayres (1908 - 1996: Ayres is best remembered for his performance in All Quiet on the Western Front) wearing his Army togs while performing his tasks as a chaplain's assistant on Wake Island (New Guinea). "'I am still a conscientious objector to war,' Ayres says. He went to a camp for conchies at Wyeth, Oregon early in 1942 but volunteered a short time later for medical service. After training as a hospital ward attendant and then becoming an instructor at Camp Barkley, Texas, the ex-movie actor shipped overseas as a staff sergeant."
Click here to read more about American conscientious objectors in W.W. II.
Anticipating Germany's Collapse (United States News, 1944)Taking into consideration the state of Germany's military forces on land, air and sea, as well as the fragile state of the German populace after three years of steady bombardment, this 1944 NEWSWEEK MAGAZINE article concluded that Germany's end was nigh - really, really nigh:
"Thus on the face of it, Germany's situation is desperate. She is encircled by powerful nations that are allied against her. Her chance of creating dissension to split those allies is gone. She is being beaten on every front and in every phase of the fighting. Her last chance to win has disappeared."
Germany would fight on for another sixteen months.
The SS Prisoner at the U.S. Army Field Hospital (Yank Magazine, 1944)This tight little essay, titled "The German", serves to illustrate a small piece of life in a very big war. Written with a sense of melancholy by a winsome American medical orderly posted to a hospital not too far behind the front lines, it explains how he slowly got to know one of his German patients, a member of the SS, and how secretive and generally unpleasant he seemed to be.
Click here to read an article about the women of the SS in captivity.
The Execution of French Traitors (Collier's Magazine, 1944)"The apathetic France of 1939 is dead. Collier's correspondent, journeying across southern France, found high hope of unity and determination to punish all collaborationists. France, he feels, is reborn." Watch A Film Clip On This Subject James Forrestal: Secretary of the Navy (Collier's Magazine, 1944)It was a clear day on a fast track for James Forrestal (1892 1949) when the U.S. Congress passed the Two Ocean Navy Bill during the Summer of 1940. At that time both Europe and Asia were engulfed in war and it seemed certain to many that the U.S was not going to be able to avoid it. Serving as the Under Secretary of the Navy, with Frank Knox (1874 1944) presiding as his senior, Forrestal was charged with the duty of building the U.S. Navy into something far more dangerous than it already was, and build it he did.
Influenza Returns (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)During the final year of the First World War, the Influenza Pandemic absolutely ravaged the American home front - it made a return visit to the W.W. II home front during the winter of 1943 - 44, but not to the same degree.
Click here to read about the 1918 - 1920 outbreak of influenza in the United States.
Leo Disher of the United Press (Coronet Magazine, 1944)"Leo Disher was among the war correspondents who sailed for Africa with the American invasion fleet late in October of 1942... Army authorities were so impressed with his conduct under fire that they presented him with a Purple Heart [he was the first W.W. II reporter to earn this distinction]. More important was the fact that the story he dictated from his hospital cot after the shooting was over was displayed on the front pages of most of the UP papers." The Battle Against Alcohol Dependence (Pathfinder Magazine, 1944)Here are five letters to the editor written in response to an article that appeared in one of the Spring, 1944, issues of PATHFINDER MAGAZINE that pertained to two Native American tribal edicts that forbade the use of alcohol.
 Buzz-Bombs Over London (Yank Magazine, 1944)Launched by air or from catapults posted on the Northern coast of France, the German V-1 "Buzz-Bomb" was first deployed against the people of London on June 12, 1944. Before the V-1 campaign was over 1,280 would fall within the area of greater London and 1,241 were successfully destroyed in flight. Accompanied by a diagram of the contraption, this is a brief article about London life during the "Buzz-Bomb Blitz". Quoted at length are the Americans stationed in that city as well as the hardy Britons who had endured similar carnage during the Luftwaffe bombing campaigns earlier in the war.
A Report on the War Reporters (Click Magazine, 1944)A well-illustrated 1944 article by Leonard Lyons pertaining to the assorted wartime experiences of ten American war correspondents:
Martin Agronsky for NBC News
Vincent Sheean with The N.Y. Tribune
Henry Cassidy of the Associated Press
Bob Casey of the Chicago Tribune
John Gunther of The Chicago Daily News
Jack Thompson of The Chicago Tribune
Cecil Brown of CBS News
W.L. White of the Associated Press
Quentin Reynolds of Collier's Magazine
Cyrus Schulzberger with the NY Times
Pre-Invasion Bombs (Yank Magazine, 1944)"Invasion, however, will not begin until the Nazis have been virtually knocked out of the sky. The target of the moment, therefore, is the German air force. ...From 500 airdromes scattered throughout Britain, Allied planes fly night and day - frequently every hour of the 24 - some in fleets of a thousand or more to battle the Luftwaffe...Air war as such is almost over in Europe; the Allied infantryman is preparing now to march across a continent, battling along a 'road' already cut wide and long by bombers and fighters four miles upward." Argentina: Silent Nazi Ally (Collier's Magazine, 1944)"Just back from South America, COLLIER;S correspondent reports on the totalitarian government in Argentina, it's link to Hitlerism, and what to do to guard our future security." "The Argentine government has harbored spies and saboteurs. Colonel Frederic Wolf, the Himmler of the German Embassy and the latest director of the real Nazi spy ring, remained in Buenos Aires until quite recently. Our military forces have plenty of evidence that Allied ships have been sunk, and American lives have been destroyed as a result of information broadcast from Argentina to U-boat commanders."
Click here to read about the headache that was Evita Peron. The Occupations of the Interned (U.S. Government, 1944)Attached is a chart that served to document the occupations of all the Isei and Nesei adults who were interned during the course of the war. John Byron Nelson: One Heck Of A Golfer (Yank Magazine, 1944)This short profile of Byron Nelson (1912 - 2006) was written when the golf champion was at the top of his game. Nelson was indeed one of the grand old masters of golf with many victories to his name (twelve PGA Tour wins). This article serves to illustrate how admired he was by his fellow players as well as his contemporaries who watched the game closely.
Click here to read about the first steel tennis racket.
The Strategist (Collier's Magazine, 1944)Here is a Collier's profile of U.S. Admiral Raymond Spruance (1886 - 1969):
"Outside Navy circles, very few know much about the man who bosses our task forces in the Pacific and has never lost an engagement. But Admiral Nagano knows of Spruance; so does Tojo - because, if it weren't for Spruance at Midway, Japanese carriers might now be based at Pearl Harbor." Tule Lake: How Many Women, How Many Men? (U.S. Government, 1944)A 1944 report by the War Relocation Authority regarding the population of the Japanese-American Relocation Camp located at Tule Lake, California. The attached chart will allow the reader to understand the numbers within the population of that camp who were foreign born, U.S. born, their age and their gender.
From Amazon: The Train to Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II
Port of Embarcation (Yank Magazine, 1944)This one page article from YANK MAGAZINE by Irwin Swerdlow will give you a sense of the Herculean task that was involved in the transporting of so many men and supplies across the English Channel to breach Rommel's Atlantic Wall:
"The biggest job of coordination that the world has ever known was under way. Thousands of things had to happen at a certain time, things which, if they did not happen, would delay the entire movement. "
Click here to read about unloading supplies on Iwo Jima.
Taro Yashima (Direction Magazine, 1944)Many are the names of the refugee-artists who fled Hitler's Germany for the United States - but few are the Japanese artists we remember who departed fascist Japan for America. This slim article tells the story of Taro Yashima (born Atsushi Iwamatsu, 1908 - 1994) who was brutalized by the militarists in his homeland and fled in 1939.
The White Russian Fascist In America (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)One of the loyal confederates of the American Bund was Anastasy Vonsyatsky (1898 1965). It was his sincere belief that Fascism was the only force capable of defeating international communism - and once he conceived of this idea, he was all in: Fascism could do no wrong. Although he worked closely with the American Bund, his true allegiance stood with the Russian Fascist Party in far-off Manchukuo, China
(you can read about Manchukuo here). Vonsyatsky was arrested by the FBI five months after Pearl Harbor and released in 1946. The First 100 Hours (Collier's Magazine, 1944)Perched on the quarter deck of an LST off the coast of one of the American beachheads during the D-Day invasion, COLLIER'S war correspondent, W.B. Courtney, described the earliest hours of that remarkable day:
"I stared through my binoculars at some limp, dark bundles lying a little away from the main activities. In my first casual examination of the beach I had assumed they were part of the debris of defensive obstacles. But they were bodies - American bodies." U.S. Army Mobile Hospitals of World War Two (Yank Magazine, 1944)The American military personnel who are wounded while fighting the terrorists in both Iraq and Afghanistan are today the beneficiaries of a field hospital system that was developed long ago in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. The mobile hospitals developed by the U.S. Army Medical Corps has evolved into a unique life-saving force that has not simply relied on a trained staff but also a fast and well-fueled transportation system. This Yank Magazine article will give the reader a good look at how the medics and doctors had to work during the second War to End All Wars: "A portable surgical hospital is a medical unit of four doctors and generally 32 enlisted men. They're supposed to work directly behind the line of battle and patch up casualties so they can be removed to an evacuation hospital. Sometimes part of the portable hospital personnel have to be removed, too." M8 Greyhound Armored Car (Yank Magazine, 1944)Here is the skinny on the Ford Motor Company's M8 Greyhound Armored Car as it was presented to the olive-clad readers of YANK MAGAZINE in the summer of 1944: "Armored Car, M8, 6x6: the Army's latest combat vehicle, is a six-wheeled, eight-ton armored job that can hit high speeds over practically any type of terrain. It mounts a 37-mm cannon and a .30-caliber machine gun in a hand-operated traversable turret..." Home Front Chicago (Yank Magazine, 1944)Chicago, Illinois saw enormous changes take place during the war years, most notably the overnight construction of over 260 defense plants and the opening of its subway system (six miles in length, at that time). Half a million war workers arrived to toil in her new factories while it is said that each city block in Chicago dispatched, on average, at least seven of her sons and daughters for the armed services.
"Nerves are taught with war tension. Hard work adds to the strain and increases the tempo. People walk faster in the streets. Stampedes for surface cars, and the new subway are more chaotic than ever... Five thousand block flagpoles have been erected by block committees of the Office of Civilian Defense. Listed in some manner near each are the names of all the GIs from the block. Some of the installations are elaborate and have bulletin boards that are kept up to date with personal news from camps and war theaters."
Highlights of the Lend-Lease Act (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)Here is an article that was written on the third anniversary of the passage of the Lend-Lease Act and it lists the numerous munitions that were made available to the allied nations who signed the agreement:
"By January, 1944, $19,986,000,000 in American aid had gone out - 14 percent of our total expenditures. To the original recipients - Britain and Greece - had been added China, Russia, Latin America, the Free French and a host of smaller nations."
A 1939 article about Lend-Lease can be read here... Slim Aarons in Cassino (Yank Magazine, 1944)Society photographer Slim Aarons (1916 - 2006) is remembered for chronicling the swells of Palm Beach and Newport during the 1960s for TOWN & COUNTRY, among other magazines, but before he was able to have those villa doors open for him he had to first pay his dues at Yank Magazine, photographing the dung and destruction of World War Two.
This is an article he wrote about all that he saw during the Battle of Monte Cassino (January 17, 1944 May 19, 1944), accompanied by five of his photographs.
Inhumanity (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)Here is a short column that recalls the bestial treatment that was meted out to the American and Filipino prisoners of war by their Japanese masters.
"For example, in August of last year, some 300 Japs attacked an unarmed litter train on the Munda Trail. They hacked twenty of the wounded to death..." African-Americans, FDR, and the 1944 Election (Yank Magazine, 1944)A segment from a longer article regarding the 1944 presidential election and the widespread disillusionment held by many Black voters regarding the failings of FDR and his administration: "...the Negro vote, about two million strong, is shifting back into the Republican column." The report is largely based upon the observations of one Harper's Magazine correspondent named Earl Brown.
The group that advised FDR on all matters involving the African-American community was popularly known as "the Black Brain Trust"...
The German Portable Pillbox (Yank Magazine, 1944)No doubt about it: for the fashionable, young Deutchen Soldaten on the go, the preferred choice in pillboxes is the portable variety! And you'd best believe that when those slide-rule jockeys back in Berlin lent their lobes to what the trendy book-burning crowed in Italy and Russia were saying, they jumped to it and created this dandy, 6,955 pound mobile pillbox that was capable of being planted almost anywhere. Better living through modern design! The Ike Jacket Goes Mainstream (Collier's Magazine, 1944)In their book about American soldiers in the war-torn Britain of W.W. II, Overpaid, Over-Sexed and Over Here (1991), authors James Goodson and Norman Franks recall how thoroughly impressed Americans were with the standard issue British Army uniform. The Supreme Allied Commander, U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower, was no exception - he promptly ordered his tailor to suit him in a similar get-up. Other American generals followed in his path as did the cocky young pilots of the Army Air Corps - shortly there after the look soon spread to other branches of the Army. This 1944 article discusses the broad appeal of this jacket and that civilian fashion designers had begun manufacturing the "Ike Jacket" for the Home Front. Teaching in the Forties (Pageant Magazine, 1944)"Teachers, during the war period, have been undergoing unprecedented, exhausting struggle in the classroom. And in their ranks have been casualties that add up to a dangerous teacher shortage. According to the National Education Association, 'the economic status of teachers has been pushed back 20 years since Pearl Harbor'... The combination of overwork, underpay and the thanklessness of teaching has created an army of deserters from the profession."
More on the hard lot of teachers during the war can be read here.
Home Front Spy-Hunters (Coronet Magazine, 1944)Appearing in 1944, this article listed numerous reports relayed to the FBI by amateur spy-hunters of all the imagined foreign agents who they stumbled upon daily. Some of the accounts ended up being true and lead to actual confessions, but most were just plain silly - either way, the G-men had to investigate each account. General Stilwell In Burma (Yank Magazine, 1944)"In May 1942 Lieutenant General Joseph Warren Stilwell (1883 1946) made that frank statement after leading a tired, battered band of 103 officers, men and nurses on a 20-day march into India, refugees from the Allied rout in Burma... Stilwell's return to Burma is the result of two years of careful preparation in which two major projects were developed. One was a Chinese-American training center in India...The other was the Ledo Road, a supply route from India by which Allied troops moving into Northern Burma could be equipped and provisioned." The Japanese Run Out of Ships (PM Tabloid, 1944)After the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the U.S. Navy believed that the Japanese had lost over half their original strength:
"Naval observers in Washington are exhilarated by the evident extent of the Japanese defeat but, in true Navy tradition, they are being canny about it. It isn't what we have sunk or disabled [that matters], it's what is left that can still fight." The Victory Corps (See Magazine, 1944)The Victory Corps was a voluntary program open to American high school
and college students during the Second World War. It was established in September of 1942 with an eye toward preparing teenagers for military service. Although its primary concern involved weapons training, physical fitness and mathematics, it also had a "farm volunteer" arm, as this article about one branch of the Sacramento Victory Corps makes clear.
More about youth and the war effort can be read here... The BMW Motorcycle Examined (Yank Magazine, 1944)All global tensions aside, the U.S. Army could not find any faults at all with the motorcycles that BMW was making for Adolf Hitler during World War II. After having spent much time testing and re-testing the thing, they reluctantly concluded, "This is as good as any motorcycle in the world" (it was probably a bit better...). Click here to read about the firm belief held by the German Army concerning the use of motorcycles in modern war. The Lady was a Sniper... (Yank Magazine, 1944)This small notice from a post D-Day issue of YANK announced the capture of a German woman sniper named Myra. It is interesting to note that she was captured in civilian clothing; a male sharp-shooter would have probably been shot immediately. The popular reasoning on all sides during war stems from the fact that snipers do not take prisoners themselves, therefore why should they be afforded the privilege?
If you would like to read an article about women soldiers in W.W. I, click here. *Watch a Documentary About the Russian Women Snipers* How to Drive W.W. II Axis Vehicles (Yank Magazine, 1944)This posting remarks about a number of concerns: assorted factoids about the German PZKW II tank and it's 1944 down-graded status as an offensive weapon to a reconnaissance car; tips for GIs as to how to drive German vehicles and, finally, the German interest in salvaging tank parts from captured enemy armor:
The Tiger Tank at the Aberdeen Proving Ground (Yank Magazine, 1944)The American army's Aberdeen Proving Ground rests on 72,962 acres in Aberdeen, Maryland. Since 1917 it has been the one spot where the U.S. Army puts to the test both American and foreign ordnance and in 1944 the gang at Aberdeen got a hold of a 61 1/2 ton German "battle-wagon", popularly known as the "Tiger Tank" (PZKW-VI). This is a nicely illustrated single page article that explains what they learned.
For further reading about the Tiger Tank, click here. Watch A Great Documentary About WW II German Tanks Tarawa (Yank Magazine, 1944)The editors at Yank Magazine were always aware that the publication existed primarily to keep U.S. Army morale on the upward swing, but they never wished to patronize their readers by feeding them Army approved malarkey either. They knew fully that they had to give the straight dope as often as possible or they, too, would be eating k-rations at the front. There are examples of articles that seriously downplayed the disappointing outcomes of major engagements (such as Kasserine Pass and Operation Market Garden) but, by enlarge, the sugar-coating was lighter than you might think. That is why this 1944 article concerning the Battle of Tarawa is important. Yank correspondent John Bushemi (1917 - 1944) made it quite clear the U.S. Marine losses were heavy, and for that reason alone the battle was of historical significance.
Click to read about the U.S. fabric rationing during W.W. II.
Mine-Detecting Dogs (Yank Magazine, 1944)A short paragraph about the M-Dogs of the American Army during the Second World War and how they were trained to locate both plastic and metallic mines during the course of the war. An additional paragraph can be read about the Hollywood starlet who volunteered her dog for military service, only to be informed that the pooch had given the last full measure on behalf of democracy and a grateful nation. Click here to read an article about re-educating the captured German boys of the war. The Plan For Post-War Revenge (Click Magazine, 1944)This snippet that appeared in Click Magazine during the early months of 1944 supports the argument posed by journalist Gerard Williams and the investigators on the program Hunting Hitler. It stated that a Nazi insider had defected to London where he informed British intelligence of a Nazi plan to launch a third world war from the confines of, it was assumed, another country. Watch a Clip from ''Hunting Hitler'' The Government Film Business During WW II (Pathfinder Magazine, 1944)"Government movies are now having their greatest boom in history. The boom is tied to the war, but many capital observers believe that it will continue into the post war era, and that the large-scale production of films by the Government telling the people what's what and how to do it is here to stay." The Doyle Slugs It Out (Yank Magazine, 1944)"From the deck of the destroyer U.S.S. Doyle, this Yank correspondent watched for nearly three nights as the grim drama of D-Day unfolded on the American beachhead."
"From the Doyle's decks I could see the shells strike with the naked eye. First there would be a flash and then a puff of smoke which billowed into the sky. Several tanks and landing crafts were burning at the water's edge. Through the glasses I watched troops jump from their boats and start running up the beach."
Statistical data concerning the U.S. Army casualties in June and July of 1944 can be read in this article. World War II in the Jungles of Burma (Yank Magazine, 1944)Written by correspondent Dave Richardson (1916 - 2005) "behind Japanese lines in Northern Burma", this article was characterized as "odds and ends from a battered diary of a footsore YANK correspondent after his first 500 miles of marching and Jap-hunting with Merrill's Marauders."
One of the most highly decorated war correspondents of World War II, Richardson is remembered as the fearless reporter who tramped across 1,000 miles of Asian jungle in order to document the U.S. Army's four-month campaign against entrenched Japanese forces - armed only with a camera, a typewriter and an M-1 carbine. No Combat Pay for Combat Medics (Yank Magazine, 1944)The World War II pay raise that was granted to U.S. Army combat infantrymen in the summer of 1944 did not extend to the front-line medic for reasons involving the Geneva Convention Rules of War. This triggered a number of infantrymen to write kind words regarding the medics while at the same time condemning the Geneva restrictions:
"...I've seen the medics in action and I take my hat off to them. Most of them have more guts then us guys with the rifles...I've seen them dash into cross-fire that would cut a man to ribbons to help a guy who was in bad shape. I say give them all the credit they deserve."
The Doodlebug Tank? (Yank Magazine, 1944)That crack team of linguists who loaf-about our Los Angeles offices here at OldMagazineArticles.com have assured us that the "Doodlebug" was not the name assigned by the Nazi engineers for this minute, remote-control tank that made it's appearance on the Anzio beachhead in 1944, but rather a NICKNAME that was authored by the stalwart G.I.s who opposed it. The gizmo packed with explosives in order to destroy Allied tanks.
Click here to read about the Patton Tank in the Korean War...
The Seabees (Pageant Magazine, 1944)In another article on this site, these words were quoted from the captured dispatches of a Japanese general writing to his superiors:
"[The Yank] is a wizard at handling machinery and he can build airfields, roads and advance bases with uncanny speed."
- he was, of course, referring to the famous Construction Battalions (Seabees) of the U.S. Navy. This article will tell you all about them. The Army Rangers in Tunisia and Italy (Yank Magazine, 1944)A compelling collection of World War II combat stories involving the 1st, 3rd and 4th Ranger Battalions. Numerous Army Rangers were interviewed for this article and it is an informative read which starts with the formation of the unit taking place just seven months after the U.S. declaration of war (December 8, 1941) and their earliest deployments in North Africa and Italy. "The original outfit, the 1st Ranger Battalion, was activated in Northern Ireland on June 19, 1942, with 600 men selected from more than 2,000 soldiers who had volunteered. Their training was in Scotland, and they had more casualties there than they had on their first African landing. The British Commandos were their instructors."
Read about the hand-to-hand combat training for the Ranger Battalions here... Reporting D-Day (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)"Never had so many correspondents (450) poured so much copy (millions of words) into so many press associations, photo services, newspapers, magazine and radio stations (115 organizations in all). Representing the combined Allied press, some 100 reporters covered every phase of the actual battle operations. Their pooled copy started reaching the United States within four hours of General Eisenhower's communiquι."
The first newspaper to get the scoop was The New York Daily News (circulation 2,000,999). The First radio station to announce the news was WNEW (NYC).
Click here to read about the extensive press coverage that was devoted to the death of FDR...
''Confessions of a Nazi Officer'' (New Masses, 1944)"Lieutenant K. F. Brandes of the German Army was killed on October 24 [1944] on the right bank of the Dnieper. A diary was found on him. I have seen many diaries of German officers and soldiers... It was written by a clever and educated man. Brandes was a Fascist. He calls the conquest of Europe the 'German Spring'. Like his colleagues he came to Russia for 'lebensraum'... But as distinct from other Hitlerites, Brandes saw the limit of his dreams. He faithfully described the disintegration of the German Army, showed the meanness of the men who are still ruling Germany. I will cite the most interesting excerpts from his diary." Barbers & Hair Stylists Called On The Carpet (Pathfinder Magazine, 1944)By the end of 1944 Congressional heads all turned when it was brought to their attention that the fees charged by hairstylists and barbers had soared 25% above the 1941 levels. New Dealers sought to burden the trade with a price freeze. John Thompson of the Chicago Tribune
(Coronet Magazine, 1944)John Thompson of The Chicago Tribune saw more of the World War II than most other correspondents. He had witnessed to the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of Paris and the horrors of the Buchenwald death camp. Throughout his life, Thompson held the distinction of being the last surviving war correspondent to land on Omaha Beach during the D-Day landings; by war's end he had been awarded the Purple Heart, nine battle stars and was the first correspondent to receive the Medal of Freedom. This column was written in 1943 and pertains to some of his experiences in North Africa and Sicily.
The Sinking of the Liscome Bay (Yank Magazine, 1944)A World War Two article from YANK MAGAZINE recalling the sinking of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier off the coast of the Gilbert Islands -
Rest from Battle (Yank Magazine, 1944)A 1944 Yank article tells the tale about a quiet little spot behind the front line where American GIs were able to enjoy 24 hours of peace before being returned to the meat-grinder:
"Sergeant Carmine Daniello, of Brooklyn, New York, smoked a big cigar during the afternoon...he was taking it easy in his own way. He didn't want to sleep just now. He said, 'Just sitting around like this is all I want right now.'On the other side of the river it had been so bad..."
CLICK HERE... to read one man's account of his struggle with shell shock...
1944 Army Statistcs (Yank Magazine, 1944)A printable list of figures regarding U.S. Army and Navy strength as tabulated for the year 1944: "The latest figures, released last week, show that the total strength of the armed forces now comes to about 11,417,000. The House Military Affairs Committee, to which Selective Service gave this information, released it to the public without comment, but several committee members were reported to have said privately that it confirmed their suspicions that some 2,000,000 more men have been inducted than necessary."
Click here to read another article about U.S. casualties up to the year 1944.
Rampant Inflation in Post-War Germany (Click Magazine, 1944)Author and radio commentator Emil Ludwig (1881 1948) recalled the economic catastrophe that devastated post-World War I Germany as a result of their inflated currency:
"Inflation in Germany really started on the first day of the war in 1914 when the government voted a credit of five billion marks. This was not a loan...I saw the mark, the German monetary unit corresponding to the British shilling or the American quarter, tumble down and down until you paid as much for a loaf of bread as you would have paid for a limousine before inflation started." Death of a Baby Flat-Top (Yank Magazine, 1944)"The baby flat-top Liscome Bay was sunk by a torpedo from an enemy submarine on the day before Thanksgiving of 1943. The Liscome Bay was on her first battle assignment, covering the occupation of Makin in the Gilbert [islands]...The torpedo struck a half an hour before dawn and it was still dark when Liscome Bay sank."
The ship went under in less than twenty-four minutes; up to that time it was the U.S. Navy's second largest loss since the sinking of the Arizona at Pearl Harbor. Only 260 men survived. Bob Miller of the United Press (Coronet Magazine, 1944)"On the day following the first landing made by United States Marines on Guadalcanal, United Press' Bob Miller accomplished something which probably no other war correspondent has ever done. Singlehanded, he captured a Jap prisoner."
"During the six weeks he spent on Guadalcanal, Miller's group was bombed almost daily during the entire time, and Jap ground forces were a constant threat."
Miller was known to one and all in the Pacific Theater as "Baldy". Shortly before this article appeared in CORONET he had fallen victim to malaria and was returned to the U.S. for convelesence. In 1944 his dispatches to the UnitedPress would concern the liberation of France and the Nuremburg Trials.
4-F Guy Mops the Floor with Three GIs (Yank Magazine, 1944)"Classified as 4-F, Edwin Taylor of Belleville, Illinois, was enraged when four GIs kidded him by singing a song about 4-Fs..." he sent two to the hospital and the other soldiers are still running today. The R.A.F. Mosquito-Bomber (Click Magazine, 1944)"Almost entirely of wood, Britain's Mosquito Bomber can sting the enemy out of proportion to its size and appearance. Thirty odd German cities already have felt the devastating, impressive bite of Mosquitoes in more than 150 bombing raids on the Reich." The Hollywood Happenings in the Spring of '44 (Yank Magazine, 1944)Tenderly ripped from the brittle pages of a 1944 issue of YANK MAGAZINE was this short paragraph which explained all the goings-on within the sun-bleached confines of Hollywood, California:
"Rita Hayworth steps into the top spot in the Columbia production, 'Tonight and Every Night'; Ethel Barrymore returns to the screen after 11 years' absence to share honors with with Cary Grant in 'None but the Loney Heart'...In 'Something for the Boys' Carmen Miranda will sing 'Mairzy Doats'..." etc, etc, etc. D-Day with the Eighth Air Force (Yank Magazine, 1944)D-Day for the lads of the U.S. Army Air Corps' Eighth Air Force was a time of great excitement and anticipation. Despite the exhaustion that comes with a fifteen hour day, all concerned recognized well that they were participating in an historic event that would be discussed long after they had left this world, but of greater importance was their understanding that the tides of war were shifting in the Allies' favor.
In his book Wartime, Paul Fussel noted that the Allies had placed as many as 11,000 planes in the skies above France that day.
Click here to read about the 8th Air Force and their bombing efforts in the skies above Germany. ''About the Russians in Normandy'' (Yank Magazine, 1944)"About the Russians in Normandy...and they weren't much help to Adolf, either. Here are two stories, one of which tells how Russians, captured and forced to fight for the enemy, turned the tables on Jerry; the other which tells what happened when the Americans liberated Russian prisoners from a concentration camp."
Paris Fashion Liberated (Tricolor Magazine, 1944)New York fashion journalist Gertrude Bailey wasted no time in applying for her overseas press pass upon hearing the news that the Germans had been driven from the banks of the Seine in August of '44. Although the fashion column she filed largely anticipated the glorious return of Paris chic, mention was also made of what Paris fashion was like during the German occupation - sitting ringside at one of the runways, Bailey found that
"One found significance in the appearance of green as a color, and noted that the reason it had been absent for four years was because it was the color of the German uniform, which no Frenchwoman would wear until France was free."
Interview with a Home Front War Worker (Yank Magazine, 1944)It would seem that a good many World War II servicemen believed that they were missing out on all that "home front glamour" that had kicked-in as a result of the full-employment and booming economic prosperity of wartime America; and so Yank correspondent Al Hine was quickly dispatched to Turtle Creek, Pa. to pen this small article about Frank Hanly, "an average guy in a average war plant. He works hard, rests and plays like we used to and he isn't getting rich."
The truth is this army reporter was instructed to report on the blander side of home front living - the facts were far brighter; there was money to be made and fun to be had and you can click here to read about it...
Tears in the Dark of the Theater (Click Magazine, 1944)Even the broad-shouldered, steely-hard men who toil daily over this website cry like little girls when exposed to the 1944 home front movie, Since You Went Away ; for our money it was the best movie Hollywood ever produced about the war years.
That said, we invite you to take a gander at the attached photo-essay from CLICK MAGAZINE in which a spy camera using infrared film was used to capture the weeping masses sobbing in the dark of the theater as they watched that remarkable movie.
Conscientious Objectors (Yank Magazine, 1944) "Whatever became of the conscientious objectors?"
"Some of the men who registered as 'conchies' with their local selective service boards have been deferred because they are working in essential jobs. About 6,890 conchies have been interned and assigned to Civilian Public Service camps in the States. A handful, just 47, live and work in camps on Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, the only places outside the continental limits of the States where they may serve. By act of Congress, conscientious objectors may not be sent to foreign lands, but Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, although overseas, are territories of the U.S."
Click here to read about the British conscientious objectors of World War I.
We have an article that pertains to the Korean War draft-dodgers but it also explains the popular methods used by the W.W. II draft-evaders, as well.
To read an article about American draft dodgers of W.W. II, click here.
What was Yank Magazine? (Coronet Magazine, 1944)Inasmuch as OldMagazineArticles.com is devoted to archiving the articles from the olde Yank, we are also keen on posting article about the magazine and its editorial policies, for few periodicals said as much about that generation and their lot in the Forties better than Yank. Attached is a photo essay from Coronet Magazine, illustrated with some 23 images, that tell the tale of how that weekly operated.
When W.W. II came to a close Yank Magazine was no more, this article was written -
Watch this short film from 1944 about Yank Magazine In France with the Canadian Army (Yank Magazine, 1944)Written four months after the allied invasion of Europe, and seven months to go until the war's end, YANK MAGAZINE published this account of the Canadian march through France and their heroic stand at the Falaise Gap.
Click here to read about the Canadian POWs who collaborated with the Nazis.
Read about the French-Canadians who resisted the draft... U.S. General Benjamin Oliver Davis (Coronet Magazine, 1944)Civil Rights leader Walter White (1893 - 1955) recognized an historic moment when he saw one: during the summer of 1944 he wrote about the first African-American general - Benjamin O. Davis (1912 - 2002; West Point '36):
"He had endured snubs because of his color and seen less able men promoted over his head without complaint. Some soldiers of his own race charge that he is not as militant as they think he should be in redressing their grievances. Non of this disturbs him." Riding The Fox-Hole Circuit (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)"Together [these entertainers] constitute the vast composite known as USO-Camp Shows, Inc. Organized in November, 1941 as this war's answer to the last one's mistakes (too little which came too late to too few), Camp Shows see to it that as much entertainment as possible reaches as many soldiers as possible - in contrast to the fact that the last war produced only an Elsie Janis (You can read about her here)... The money to run Camp Shows comes from the National War Fund; the authority to use its services rests with the Army and Navy." Allied Overoptimism (United States News, 1944)The surprise that was Hitler's December Offensive made many people think that the Allies were losing their edge and relying more on air power than infantry; Allies rather than our own divisions. The Battle of the Bulge shook all Americans out of their complacency.
More on the Battle of the Bulge can be read here... American Losses at Normandy (Yank Magazine, 1944)In the July 22,1944 issue of YANK the editors saw fit to release the numbers of American casualties that were racked-up during the first eleven days of the allied Normandy Invasion. In the fullness of time, the numbers were adjusted to be considerably lower than the 1944 accounting; Pentagon records now indicate 1,465 were killed, 3,184 were wounded, 1,928 were registered as missing, 26 were taken prisoner.
It is interesting to note that YANK did not sugar coat the report.
Of the total US figure, 2499 casualties were from the US airborne troops (238 of them being deaths). The casualties at Utah Beach were relatively light: 197, including 60 missing. However, the US 1st and 29th Divisions together suffered around 2,000 casualties at Omaha Beach. FDR's D-Day prayer can be read here Additional facts and figures about the U.S. Army casualties in June of '44 can be read in this article.
The First Black Marines (Yank Magazine, 1944)The editors at Yank (an Army possession) seldom wrote about the Marines - and they loved dissing their weekly magazine, The Leatherneck. However, they did recognize an historic moment when they saw one. As remarked in another article on this site, the Navy was the most prejudiced of all the branches of service, and the Marines had previously rejected all Black recruits, but that changed in 1942, and this article served to introduce their readers to this consequential lot. The first African American Marines trained at Camp Montford Point in Jacksonville, NC from August 26, 1942 until the camp was decommissioned in 1949. The greatest number of black Marines to serve in combat during the Second World War was during the Battle of Okinawa (2,000 strong). Vichy Government Flees Paris (The Stars and Stripes, 1944)Published in the Stars & Stripes issue marked August 19, 1944 (the official date of the Paris liberation) was the attached notice concerning the hasty disappearance of the Nazi-collaborators who lorded over the French during the occupation:
"Laval, Darnand and other Vichyites fled from Paris to Metz, according to a United Press report quoting a French resistance leader who reached the British front from Paris. The whereabouts of Marshal Petain were not known." The Sole Surviving Son Rule and ''Saving Private Ryan'' (Yank Magazine, 1944)By posting this notice that appeared in a 1944 issue of YANK, we had hoped to play a useful roll by bringing to an end some of the bar room arguments and late-night dorm bickerings that came about as a result of the unlikely story line that was presented in the movie, Saving Private Ryan (Paramount Pictures, 1998). Preston Sturgis, Director (Pic Magazine, 1944) Woman Soldier No. 1 (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)Here is the skinny on Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby (1905 - 1995). This article begins at a crucial point in her life, when she took charge of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (later the Women's Army Corps). With no prior military experience, Hobby entered the U.S. Army as a major and immediately began organizing the Women's Army Auxiliary into an efficient clerical element within the army. Her abilities were evident and she was soon elevated to the rank of colonel; in a similar light, the skills and abilities of the WAACs were also recognized and they, too, were given more challenging jobs. After the war, Hobby went on to distinguish herself in a number of other government positions.
Click here to read about WAC accomplishments by the end of 1945. Watch A Film Clip About Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby U.S. Army Casualties: 1941 - 1944 (United States News, 1944)Here are the U.S. Army casualty figures from December, 1941 through November, 1944. The provided graph points out the following major events that ushered in the larger numbers:
The Philippine collapse
The American landings in North Africa
The Battle of Kasserine Pass
The Sicily Landings
Anzio
D-Day
Shortly after this article appeared on the newsstands the Germans launched their winter counter-offensive in the Ardennes. The editors of this magazine anticipated the American losses for 1945 to be the highest yet.
Click here to read General Marshall's end-of-war remarks about American casualty figures.
A G.I. Rememberance of the ETO dead...
A Glossary of WAC Slang (Collier's Magazine, 1944)"Like other Army and Navy personnel, the members of the Women's Army Corps have coined their own slanguage. If you hear a WAC say:"
"I'm off on an orchid hunt, kids - and no PFC. My night maneuvers are gonna be with a varsity crewman."
-you'll know what she means after you've studied this [attached] glossary."
June 6, 1944 (Pathfinder Magazine, 1944)"That was the way D-Day began, the second front the Allies had waited for for two years. It came like a shadow in the English midnight... The Nazi news agency, DNB, flashed the first story at 12:40 a.m. on June 6, Eastern wartime. Before dawn, British and American battleships were pounding shells into Havre, Caen and Cherbourg, high-booted skymen of the [88th] and 101st U.S.A. paratroop divisions had dropped into the limestone ridges of the Seine valley and landing barges filled with American, Canadian and British infantrymen nosed up to the beaches along the estuaries of the Orne and Seine rivers." More Reports on the War Reporters (Pic Magazine, 1944)Published four months after the above article, here is a similar, well-illustrated piece that lists the names of the photographers and reporters who were killed - and the younger breed of writers and lens-men who took their places. The DUKWs of W.W. II (Yank Magazine, 1944)The American Army's amphibious vehicles called the DUKWs (Ducks) were first manufactured by General Motors in 1942 and were issued to both the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. 2,000 were shipped to the British, over five hundred found their way to the Australian military and 535 were passed along to the Soviet Army. They have earned their sea legs a thousand times over and have even ventured across the English Channel.
The attached YANK MAGAZINE article was one of the first articles to have ever been written about them, and quite ironically plays-down the revolutionary nature of the invention:
"Japs realize the value of the DUCKs. They once issued a communique saying their bombers sank 'one 5,000-ton ship and one amphibious truck".
DUKWs were popular, but the third most requested Lend-Lease export item was the Tommy Gun - click here to read more..
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(1991), authors James Goodson and Norman Franks recall how thoroughly impressed Americans were with the standard issue British Army uniform. The Supreme Allied Commander, U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower, was no exception - he promptly ordered his tailor to suit him in a similar get-up. Other American generals followed in his path as did the cocky young pilots of the Army Air Corps - shortly there after the look soon spread to other branches of the Army. This 1944 article discusses the broad appeal of this jacket and that civilian fashion designers had begun manufacturing the "Ike Jacket" for the Home Front.