editor – Page 225 – Old Magazine Articles

1918, Leslie's Weekly, World War One

Behind the Scenes at the Doughboy Training Camps
(Leslie’s Weekly, 1918)

By editor / July 29, 2015

This article written by Edwin A. Goewey and illustrated by C. Leroy Baldridge (1889 – 1977) reported on how America’s granite youth was chiseled into fighting trim at the Long Island training camps at Upton and Mineola. Reference is made to the contributions made by Father Francis Duffy and Major-General J. Franklin Bell.

Click here to read about the AEF officer training at Plattsburg, New York.

Click here to read some statistical data about the American Doughboys of the First World War.

1919, Current Opinion Magazine, Doughboys

The Suitability of the First One Million Draftees
(Current Opinion, 1919)

By editor / July 29, 2015

Additional data regarding the 1917 Draft and how the first one million inductees measured-up physically:

The first adequate physical survey in half a century was made possible when the Selective Service system brought before medical examiners some ten million men. Of the 2,510,000 men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one 730,000 (29 percent) were rejected on physical grounds.

We found it interesting to learn two facts from this article; the first being that the highest number of acceptable draftees were from the countryside and the second involved the malady of flat feet -which effected one out of every five American men at that time.

1919, Aftermath (WWI), The American Review of Reviews

German Admiral Von Tirpitz Condemned
(Review of Reviews, 1919)

By editor / July 29, 2015

One year after the First World War reached it’s bloody conclusion, Admiral German Grand Admiral Alfred Von Tirpitz (1849 – 1930) was in a frenzy writing his wartime memoir in order that it arrive at the printing presses before his critics could do the same. One of his most devoted detractor was a naval advocate named Captain Persius who had been riding Tirpitz as early as 1914 for failing to fully grasp the benefits of the U-boat. In 1919 Captain Persius took it upon himself to widely distribute a pamphlet titled, How Tirpitz Ruined the German Fleet, which was reviewed in this article.

Tirpitz never realized the power of the submarine… Tirpitz was building Dreadnoughts when he should have been concentrating on submarines, and what is worse was building them with less displacement than the British, less strongly armed and of lower speed.

In 1920 the representatives from the victorious nations who convened at Versailles demanded that Kaiser Wilhelm, Admiral Tirpitz and an assortment of other big shots be handed over for trial – click here to read about it.

Read Another Article About Tirpitz…

1916, Snipers, The Literary Digest

Sniper Scopes Compared
(Literary Digest, 1916)

By editor / July 29, 2015

By enlarge, this article is a mildly technical piece that compares the German sniper scopes used during W.W. I to those of the British; happily, the amusing part of this essay is contained in the opening paragraph in which a British Tommy returning from the front, is quoted as exclaiming:

German snipers are better shots than the English because their rifles have telescopic sights that are illuminated at night.

1915, Uncategorized

A German Taube Monoplane
(The Nations at War, 1915)

By editor / July 29, 2015

A hand tinted colour photograph depicting a French biplane in pursuit of a German Taube.

1918, Cornhill Magazine, World War One

The Spirit of the War at Harrow
(Cornhill Magazines, 1918)

By editor / July 29, 2015

Written as a companion piece for The Spirit of the War at Eton, the article gives an moving account as to how the war affected life on campus while Britain was taking such tremendous losses.

1918, McCall's Magazine, Women's Suffrage

Out Go the Men – In Come the Women
(McCall’s Magazine, 1918)

By editor / July 29, 2015

In 1918 the small town of Umatilla, Oregon held their elections. There was one ticket composed entirely of men and another entirely of women: every man lost. The Mayor of Umatilla was soundly defeated by his wife.

Attached herein is the story of that unique contest from a time when women were denied the vote.

1919, The Stars and Stripes, Women's Suffrage

Woman Aviator Seeks Mail Job
(The Stars and Stripes, 1919)

By editor / July 29, 2015

Katherine Stinson (1891-1977) wants to carry letters up to Third Army. By the time Stinson (a.k.a. the Flying Schoolgirl) had applied for the job of carying the mail to the occupying forces in post-war Germany, she already had the distinction of being the fourth American woman to earn a pilot’s license and the first woman to ever deliver air-mail for the U.S. Post Office. She didn’t get the job…

1915, Twentieth Century Writers, Vanity Fair Hall of Fame

W.B. Yeats and Those He Has Influenced
(Vanity Fair,1915)

By editor / July 29, 2015

With the publishing of the first part of his autobiography, Reveries Over Childhood and Youth, W.B. Yeats (1865 – 1939) got some attention in the American press. Here is a small notice from an American society magazine which praises his ability as an artist to influence other writers, such as George Bernard Shaw, John M. Synge, George Moore and Dr. Douglas Hyde.

1917, Poetry, The Literary Digest

Poets in Their Glory: Dead
(Literary Digest, 1917)

By editor / July 29, 2015

This 1917 article listed the known body count of dead poets who were rotting away in no-man’s land. A number of the scribes are unknown in our era; among the prominent names are Alan Seeger, Julian Grenfel and Rupert Brooke.

Printed in a popular U.S. magazine, it appeared on the newsstands the same week that Wilfred Owen, the most well known of World War I poets, was discharged from Craiglockhart Hospital, where he first resolved to write poetry about his experiences in the war.

1945, VJ Day, Yank Magazine

VJ-Day in Pasadena
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

By editor / July 29, 2015

A quick dispatch filed by YANK MAGAZINE correspondent Larry McManus from the pristine halls of a Pasadena military hospital (previously the Vista del Arroyo Hotel) where total bedlam broke out when the word was announced that the Japanese had cried uncle:

They went wild…they slid down banisters, they chinned themselves on the hospital’s chandeliers. The remark most of them made was, ‘No Pacific trip now!’

1945, VJ Day, Yank Magazine

VJ Day in Alaska
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

By editor / July 29, 2015

VJ-Day in Boston
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

By editor / July 29, 2015

Boston’s peace celebration exploded suddenly after the official news of Japanese surrender poured out of the countless radios. All morning and afternoon while many other cities were already wildly celebrating, the Hub, with true New England caution, waited soberly for confirmation.

But the staid attitude was swept away…The most general impulse seemed to be to shout, sing and hug passers-by. For men in uniform the celebration seemed to be more of a kissing fest than anything else…

1945, VJ Day, Yank Magazine

VJ – Day in Berlin
(yank Magazine, 1945)

By editor / July 29, 2015

The city that had seen its own brand of fascism and international banditry tumble only a few months before had little energy left for reaction to the fall of Japan. The American Forces network broadcast the first authentic VJ news at 0210, and most of Berlin’s polyglot occupation population, as well as most native Berliners, were asleep.

1915, Magazine Ad, Uncategorized, World War One

British Offcer’s Boots
(Magazine Ad, 1915)

By editor / July 29, 2015

An illustrated magazine advertisement from 1915 which displays the variety of private purchase footwear available to British and Commonwealth officers during World War I.

1918, The Stars and Stripes, U.S. Army Uniforms of World War One

The Recycling of Doughboy Uniforms
(Stars and Stripes, 1918)

By editor / July 29, 2015

In 1918 the U.S. Army Service of Supply instituted a salvaging unit near the French city of Tours which employed hundreds of French women and a number of idle Sammies in order to eradicate Army waste. It was there that the millions of discarded uniform elements were re-fashioned into other useful items:

At Tours they evolved a hospital slipper with a sole made from a torn and discarded campaign hat and an upper of O.D cloth cut from anywhere. It was such a good slipper, and easy to make that St. Pierre-des-Corps soon reached quantity production on it.

1919, Cemeteries, The Stars and Stripes

The American Military Cemeteries in France
(The Stars and Stripes, 1919)

By editor / July 29, 2015

France has given three fields of honor at Romagne, Thiacort and at Beaumont.

This short notice from an American military newspaper reported that four percent of the American dead were considered unidentifiable.

1946, Think Magazine, Women (WWII)

The Navy Nurse Corps
(Think Magazine, 1946)

By editor / July 29, 2015

The attached story of U.S. Navy Nurse Corps and the brave and remarkable women who gallantly served within it’s ranks throughout the Second World War is told in this brief article. It documents the selfless service of Navy Nurses who stayed behind in the Philippines to face Japanese captivity rather than desert their patients.

That was typical of the steadfast manner in which Navy Nurses adhered to duty throughout the war, forsaking personal comfort and safety to bring the benefits of their skills to the sick and wounded.

Author name: editor