World War Two – Page 116 – Old Magazine Articles

Military Buildup in the USSR
(Literary Digest, 1935)

Premier Vyacheslav M. Molotov (1890 – 1986) pictured the Soviet Union as a lusty young giant strong enough to defend itself from both the East and the West in the keynote speech of the Seventh All Union Congress of Soviets, the Soviet Parliament.

In proof of this claim it was shown that in the last two years the Soviet Government had increased the strength of the Red Army from 562,000 men in 1932 to 940,000 in 1934.

Read about all the various international treaties that the Soviet Union violated…

The Navy Nurse Corps
(Think Magazine, 1946)

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.

Weird Combat Training at Fort Knox
(Yank Magazine, 1943)

Erroneously believing that their new recruits were lacking in a sufficient amounts of anti-Teutonic zeal, the brass-hats in charge of the U.S. Army training gulag at Fort Knox, Kentucky decided to employ roving bands of faux-Nazis to frustrate and bedevil the men in training. The hard-charging editors of YANK belittled the scheme.

Which Hollywood actors received draft deferments?

The Bavarians Wanted a King
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1949)

An important news item came across the wire in mid-may, 1949:

The delegates from Western Germany’s 11 states gave final approval to the draft of the constitution for the new Federal Republic of Germany.

– but what matter was this to the thousands of Bavarians who were highly distrustful of the new government; they had their own gloried past that was largely due to the royal family known as the House of Wittelsbach:

A strong faction is campaigning for the return to the throne of former Crown Prince Rupprecht. The eldest son of King Ludwig III, deposed in 1918, Rupprecht is a tall, thin man of vast education. He led Bavarian troops under Kaiser Wilhelm. In World War II, he was exiled to Italy. Since then he has been living with his family at Leutstetten Castle on Lake Starnberg near Munich.

If the Bavarian people desire monarchy, I shall respect their desire.

Nice work if you can get it…

Paul Tibbets of the ENOLA GAY
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

A one page interview with Paul Tibbets (1915 – 2007) and the crew of the ENOLA GAY as they recounted their historic mission over Hiroshima during the closing days of World War Two. Paul Tibbets remained in uniform long after the war and eventually retired as an Air Force General. When he died during the fall of 2007 it was revealed that he preferred there not be a memorial service, nor any marker identifying his grave in order to deprive protesters of a staging ground. His ashes were sprinkled over the North Atlantic.

What if the Atomic Bomb had never been invented? When would the war have ended?

VJ – Day in Berlin
(yank Magazine, 1945)

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.

VJ-Day in Boston
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

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…

VJ Day in Alaska
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

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VJ-Day in Pasadena
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

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!’

Sports on the Home Front
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

A page from a 1945 YANK MAGAZINE which offers a smattering of sports info.