World War Two

Find old World War 2 articles here. We have great newspaper articles from wwii check them out today!

The Japanese Zero (PM Tabloid, 1942)

Soon after Pearl Harbor Americans began hearing about a Japanese warplane called called the Zero. It had an unusual name, it was virtually unknown, even to aircraft experts, and almost immediately it began to take on an air of sinister mystery. Information now available shows there is no good reason for the mystery, although the plane has been a big factor in the Jap drive… The Zero has no secret weapons or engineering developments. It is simply a pretty good pursuit or fighter.

The Japanese Zero (PM Tabloid, 1942) Read More »

The German JU-88 Heinkel Fighter Bomber (Alertman, 1943)

From the pages of a 1943 issue of America’s Alertman was this page that presented some information about the German JU 88 twin engine bomber, which was the primary offensive aircraft in the Luftwaffe’s arsenal during the Second World War. It was the successor to the Ju-87 and saw service as a night fighter and torpedo bomber in addition to serving as reconnaissance aircraft. The earliest prototype first flew in December of 1936 with a civilian registration of D-AQEN; it managed a top speed of 360 mph. Throughout the course of the war there were 15,000 JU 88’s constructed.

The attached article from 1943 goes into greater detail and can easily be printed.

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The American A-36 Fighter Bomber (Yank Magazine, 1943)

This article page from a 1943 YANK MAGAZINE concerns the American A-36 fighter-bomber of World War II. The article is accompanied by photographs and testimonial accounts as to how well the fighter aircraft performed in combat over North Africa and Sicily.

Built by North American Aviation, this ship is a dive-bomber version of that company’s P-51 Mustang fighter. The A-36 can climb at the rate of nearly half a mile a minute, with a ceiling of 30,000 feet. Powered by a 12-cylinder Allison engine, it has a flying speed in excess of 400 miles an hour…

The American A-36 Fighter Bomber (Yank Magazine, 1943) Read More »

The B-17 (Coronet Magazine, 1959)

The B-17 Flying Fortress was the most fabulous combat plane ever built. Like Douglas’ unretireable DC-3 airliner, the B-17 is history written in metal, a pivot of progress which helped influence an entire generation.

Perhaps more than any other plane, the B-17 beat Hitler. Its 640,036 tons of bombs on Europe, nearly the total dropped by all other U.S. planes combined, knocked out much of his industry, oil and railroads… The B-17 unveiled the era of strategic air power and turned man’s eye to the stratosphere and beyond.


Click here to read about the P-47 fighter plane.

The B-17 (Coronet Magazine, 1959) Read More »

The B-17 (Coronet Magazine, 1959)

The B-17 Flying Fortress was the most fabulous combat plane ever built. Like Douglas’ unretireable DC-3 airliner, the B-17 is history written in metal, a pivot of progress which helped influence an entire generation.

Perhaps more than any other plane, the B-17 beat Hitler. Its 640,036 tons of bombs on Europe, nearly the total dropped by all other U.S. planes combined, knocked out much of his industry, oil and railroads… The B-17 unveiled the era of strategic air power and turned man’s eye to the stratosphere and beyond.


Click here to read about the P-47 fighter plane.

The B-17 (Coronet Magazine, 1959) Read More »

Enter Napalm (Collier’s Magazine, 1945)

The first use of napalm in the Second World War was by the U.S. Army Air Corps flying over Germany. This article reported that it was used by Navy over Saipan, the Army over Tinian and the Marines over Peleliu:

Now it is possible to tell one of the more dramatic fire-bomb stories: [During an eight day period] last October, on a section of Peleliu no bigger than a city block, the Death Dealer Squadron of the Second Marine Air Wing dropped more than 32,000 gallons of flaming gasoline on Jap cave positions and wiped them out.


Click here to read about one of the greatest innovations by 20th Century chemists: plastic.

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The Undeveloped Weapons of the Nazi Scientists (Yank Magazine, 1945)

The war was over when the U.S. Army Ordnance Department began snooping around all the assorted ÜBER-secret weapons labs and work shops where the pointiest headed Nazis were developing some truly far-seeing weaponry, inventions that they were never able to perfect (thankfully).

One of the most striking aspects of the attached article is the part when you recognize that it was the Nazi scientists who first conceived of such space-based weaponry as the Star Wars technology that was ushered in during the Reagan presidency (i.e.: the Strategic Defense Initiative). While in pursuit of their nefarious tasks, these same scientists also conceived of harnessing the powers of the sun in order to advance Hitler’s queer vision of the perfect world.


Click here to read about the firm belief held by the German Army concerning the use of motorcycles in modern war.

The Undeveloped Weapons of the Nazi Scientists (Yank Magazine, 1945) Read More »

When W.W. II Came to Hollywood (Photoplay Magazine, 1948)

The attached article is but a small segment addressing the history of Hollywood during the war W.W. II years; clipped from a longer Photoplay Magazine piece that recounted the illustrious past of Hollywood some thirty-five years earlier.

After Pearl Harbor, the men really began leaving town. David Niven was gone now. So too, was Flight Officer Laurence Olivier. And more and more from the Hollywood ranks kept leaving. Gable, Fonda, Reagan, the well-knowns and the lesser-knowns. Power, Taylor, Payne, Skelton and many others…More Hollywood regulars went away, so other, newer newcomers had to be found to replace them because the box office was booming.

When W.W. II Came to Hollywood (Photoplay Magazine, 1948) Read More »