World War Two – Page 3 – Old Magazine Articles

One Journalist’s Encounter with General Patton
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

We have no idea who Tom O’Reilly was – beyond what can be immediately conjectured, that he was a staff columnist with PM, and so admired that they thought it a grand idea to clean him up and send him off to see Nazi Germany in its death throes. O’Reilly had a very candid, off-the-cuff manner of writing, which came across as quite humorous when he explains how unimpressed he was with General Patton’s dramatic appearance.

The Well-Organized War
(Liberty Magazine, 1942)

In the attached column, Liberty Magazine publisher Paul Hunter responded to all the naysayers who were carping about how poorly the American war was being prosecuted, he would have none of it. Hunter pointed out that previous American wars were plagued with all manner of shortages and bureaucratic foul-ups that hampered military success but that was not the case with the current conflict. The war at that point was not even half-way over, yet Hunter seemed clairvoyant when he wrote these words that historians yet un-born would agree with:

“On performance to date it is an even bet this war will go down in the history books as the best-run war America has ever fought.”

A similar article can be read here.

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:

Canada Steps Up for Britain

In 1939, “Canada wisely decided that she could become an ideal training center for pilots and airmen generally. Canada could

American Leviathan

“It is the purpose of this article to show how in three years we have broken the shackles of all

An Eye-Full of Post-War Tokyo

An eyewitness account of the devastation delivered to Tokyo as reported by the first Americans to enter that city following the Japanese surrender some weeks earlier:

The people of Tokyo are taking the arrival of the first few Americans with impeccable Japanese calm. Sometimes they turn and look at us twice, but they have shown no emotion toward us except a mild curiosity and occasional amusement…They are still proud and a little bit superior. They know they lost the war, but they are not apologizing for it.

Click here to read about the humbled Japan.

Guadalcanal
(Newsweek Magazine, 1942)

The Battle of Guadalcanal (August 7, 1942 – February 9, 1943) was the first major land offensive by Allied forces against the Japanese. When this article went to press, the American military presence on the island was exactly one month old; it was at this point that the Marines sought to outmaneuver the enemy by conducting an additional amphibious landing on the north side of the island where They found that except for a few snipers, the Japanese had scampered to the hills.

Night Attacks On Bataan
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

Filed from General MacArthur’s headquarters in Australia, here is Frank Hewlett’s (1913 – 1983) eyewitness account of the defense of American positions in the Philippines (January 7 – April 9, 1942).

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.

‘Occupied England”
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

This Yank Magazine article, written just after the Channel Islands liberation, tells some of the stories of the Nazi occupation of Jersey and Guernsey Islands.

Before the war the English Channel Islands – long known as a vacation spot for the wealthy – were wonderful places to ‘get away from it all.’

Then the Germans came to the islands after Dunkirk, and for five years 100,000 subjects of his majesty the King were governed by 30,000 Nazi officers and their men.

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.

Japan Could Not Afford to Go to War
(St. Louis Star-Times, 1941)

The day following Japan’s debut performance at Pearl Harbor found American economists assessing the economic strength of that country in an effort to understand how long their military would be able to exert power:

Government economists doubted today that Japan’s economy could withstand a long war with the United States.

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…

Sex During the Second World War
(Coronet Magazine, 1955)

At the beginning of World War II, our army was a mixture of callow boys and and domesticated men. The older men were homesick for wives and children…There were plenty of lonely wives, too, and it soon became evident that a fair number of them were committed to the belief that continence was bad for women.

Marriage vows were one of the unsung casualties of the Second World War: by 1944 many married women who hadn’t seen their drafted husbands in years began producing babies; you can read about that here…

In 1943 a woman on the home front introduced a sexual component that she believed would bring an end to the problem of industrial absenteeism – click here to read about her idea…

Americans Answered The Call
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

When it came across the wire that Fall of 1942 saw the U.S. Navy enlistments increase by 150%, the editors of PM were not slow to dispatch a team down to the induction center to check it out (at 67 Broad St., NYC).

Many, many African-Americans answered the call as well, but with understandable reservations…

More about W.W. II induction can be read here

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 American Way of War
(American Magazine, 1945)

The Yank is not expert at deception, but he can change his plans rapidly. He is a wizard at handling machinery and he can build airfields, roads and advance bases with uncanny speed.

– so wrote one of the bewildered Japanese Army generals concerning his experiences with the American military in the Pacific.

A Pat on the Back for the GIs
(Coronet Magazine, 1945)

So they’ve given up.

They’re finally done in, and the rat is dead in an alley back of the the Wilhelmstrasse.

Take a Bow, GI – take a bow, little guy.

Far-flung ordinary men, unspectacular but free, rousing out of their habits and their homes – got up early one morning, flexed their muscles, learned the manual of arms (as amateurs) and set out across perilous oceans to whop the bejeepers out of the professionals.

And they did.

Ireland Bows Out of the War
(Collier’s Magazine, 1942)

This article discusses the various complications and contradictions inherent with Irish neutrality in the face of the Nazi march on Europe. Even though it was clear to see that an Allied victory would certainly be an Irish benefit and the Germans had already fire-bombed Irish cities twice, the Irish leader Eamon De Valera (1882 – 1975) was hellbent on seeing to it that Ireland never played favorites.