World War Two – Page 26 – Old Magazine Articles

Blitzkrieg: In the Words of Nazi Officers
(American Legion Weekly, 1940)

An article by military historian and biographer Fairfax Downey (1894 – 1990) concerning the unique manner of mechanized warfare that the Germans had introduced to the world during the opening weeks of the Second World War:

Thunder rumbles, lightening flashes and strikes. Incredibly swiftly it is over. So, compared to the campaigns of the First World War, was the German Blitzkrieg, rumbling, flashing and striking down Poland, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France. How did it work? What made it click?

Marshal Pétain on Trial
(Commonweal, 1945)

An irate editorial concerning the 1945 trial of French General Henri Philippe Pétain (1856 – 1951).

Whoever is managing the current spectacle in Paris desires us to think that the Petain trial is a revolutionary trial. The thesis is that the whole French nation has risen against the politicians who did not prepare for the war, against the Marshal who signed the the armistice, collaborated with the Germans and betrayed France. And so that trial is not a search for truth, it is a public exposure of truth, it is a simple demonstration…Look at them: Daladier, Reynaud, Weygrand – how they fight each one against the other. Because it is not just Petain who is guilty. It is Petain’s trial. But it is also the trial of all the witnesses… Everyone is guilty.

The General Who Failed France
(Coronet Magazine, 1941)

General Maxime Weygand (1867 – 1965) is remembered as the French military commander who allowed himself to be out-maneuvered and out-generaled when France was invaded by the German Army in May of 1940. The Battle for France lasted roughly 42 days before Weygrand’s forces collapsed.

The Maginot Line Will Save Us
(Literary Digest, 1938)

The Maginot Line will permit calm French mobilization, experts say, in the event of a crisis. It may be noted, from a study of these forts on a map, that the chief point of concentration is approximately opposite the reoccupied Rhine zone. The Paris newspaper, Le Soir, says that no army can break down the Maginot Line.

Click here to read an article about French confidence in the Maginot Line.

Ol’ Blood ‘N Guts Goes South
(Newsweek, 1945)

Here is the Newsweek obituary for the American W.W. II army commander General George S. Patton:

As spectacular in his tactics as in his speech, he used his armor as Jeb Stuart employed his cavalry… Time after time his divisions broke through and slashed forward in drives which made military history. After the victory, German generals said they had feared him more than any other American field commander.

Click here to read about Patton’s prayer for good weather during the Battle of the Bulge…

Click here to read about the Patton Tank in the Korean War…

The Japanese Did Not Like The Germans
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

A ranking member of of the German embassy staff in Tokyo told me a few weeks before Pearl Harbor, ‘If Japan goes to war against America and Britain, our days will be numbered here, too. Japan will wage a race war in which we Germans will be regarded as enemies along with the rest of the white race. It is only a matter of time. They intend to conquer all of us, but they are smart enough not to tackle all of us at once.’

Imperial Japan had a great many reasons to dislike their Nazi ally and most of them were far more legitimate than this one. All of them are are laid out in the attached article.

The Beachmaster
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

One of the most familiar human sounds in any Central Pacific operation is a rasping, oath-throwing voice with a rich Scandinavian accent which booms out over the loudspeaker on the invasion beaches. The voice threatens, gives orders with no reservations, pleads and intimidates. It is the voice of a Navy captain, Carl E. (Squeaky) Anderson, the force, or senior, beachmaster – the man who unloads the ships and keeps the supplies (all 64,000 tons) rolling in.

Iwo Jima, he says, is the worst beach he’s ever had anything to do with.

Marshall’s Strategic Concept
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

An excerpt from General Marshall’s introductory essay to his 1945 Biennial Report for U.S. Secretary of War Henry Stimson concerning the progress and general status of the American Army through the period beginning on July 31, 1943 through June 30, 1945.

Click here if you would like to read an article about 1940s fabric rationing and the home front fashions.

The Liberation of Allied POWs in China
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

Click here to read more about W.W. II prisoners of war… What was this evening tabloid PM – click here

Tokyo POWs Liberated
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

Click here to read more about W.W. II prisoners of war… What was this evening tabloid PM – click here

Hitler Prepares to Visit Paris
(PM Tabloid, 1940)

The man who once peddled cleaning fluids on the crooked back streets of Vienna, today was preparing to march as conqueror into Paris beneath the arch built to commemorate the triumphs of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Lounges for WAACs and WAVES
(Pic Magazine, 1943)

All thanks to the efforts of a private donor, three lounges were built explicitly for the women volunteers of the WACs and WAVES. Furnished with vanities, hair dryers, magazines and ping-pong tables; they must have been a big hit – they look very much like the sets of a Fred Astaire movie.

Click here to read about the U.S.O. entertainers…

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.

Women Working for the War
(The American Magazine, 1942)

Here is an account by one reporter of his visit to an American aircraft factory early in the war. His article concerns the novelty of female laborers:

We climbed to a catwalk in the rafters and looked down on one of the most fascinating factories on earth. It was gay as a flower garden. Women in bright blouses and slacks were everywhere, doing everything. Blondes and brunettes and redheads and – well , middle-aged ones. Mostly pretty. And every one eagerly intent upon her job.

No Work, No Nooky
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

In an effort to put an end to worker absenteeism at defense plants, a fetching welder at the Albina Engine & Machine Works shipyard (Portland, Oregon), Jeannine Christiansen unhatched a sure-footed scheme to do just that. Recognizing that (most) men don’t find life worth living without rubbing noses with the females of the species, Miss Christiansen instituted the NO WORK NO WOO movement (I think you can guess what Woo means). The attached report states that it was effective and spread to other factories along the West Coast.

Women At The Brooklyn Navy Yard
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

The Navy Yard in Brooklyn (NY) got along with men mechanics for 141 years, up to now – but this is a tough war. Women are now being hired to help build and repair warships and their accessories.

Britain Executes Two Spies
(PM Tabloid, 1941)

They were landed off the Branffshire coast by a German seaplane and rowed ashore in a rubber boat in darkness.
Both were arrested a few hours later. Both had pistols, large sums of British currency, food and radio transmitting and receiving apparatus.

All the Pretty German Spies
(Coronet Magazine, 1943)

Siegrid von Laffert, Edit von Coler and the exotic dancer LaJana had four things in common: they were all carbon-based life forms, they were all all German women, they were all beautiful and they were all Nazis spies:

These women spies are called the ‘Blonde Battalions’. Chosen for their physical attractiveness, they are usually between 18 and 22 years of age. Members of the ‘Blonde Battalion’ are admitted to the Gestapo school in Altona, near Hamburg and after they are sent out to perform their work as efficient machines, with rigid discipline and precision…

From Amazon:
Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies