1944

Articles from 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.

The 9th Air Force on D-Day (Yank Magazine, 1944) Read More »

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…

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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…

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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.

The DUKWs of W.W. II (Yank Magazine, 1944) Read More »

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.

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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.

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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…

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