World War Two – Page 29 – Old Magazine Articles

A New Kind of Naval Warfare
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

In the seven months since Pearl Harbor the aircraft carrier has replaced the battleship as the true capital ship of modern naval warfare. The carrier’s rise to power reached a crushing climax in the battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway – the two most decisive naval engagements of the war thus far. Opposing fleets only struck at each other with bomber and torpedo planes and never fired a shot except in self-defense against aircraft.

1941 Fashion
(PM Tabloid, 1941)

Eleven months before America’s entry into the war found sailor suits playing a heavy role in the thought processes of the Great American Fashion Designers.

Click here to read about the military influence on W.W. I fashion…

The King Tiger Tank
(U.S. Dept. of War, 1945)

This article is illustrated with a photograph of the King Tiger tank and accompanied by some vital statistics and assorted observations that were documented by the U.S. Department of War and printed in one of their manuals in March of 1945:

The king Tiger is a tank designed essentially for defensive warfare or for breaking through strong lines of defense. It is unsuitable for rapid maneuver and highly mobile warfare because of its great weight and and low speed…The King Tiger virtually is invulnerable to frontal attack, but the flanks, which are less well protected, can be penetrated by Allied antitank weapons at most normal combat ranges.

The American answer to the Tiger was the M26 Pershing Tank; read about it here.

If you wish to read about the only German tank of World War I, click here.

The Outcast Americans
(American Magazine, 1942)

Economically, the departure of the [Japanese-Americans] presented no particular problem in the cities… But it was different in the country. [They] had owned or controlled 11,030 farms valued at $70,000,000. They had produced virtually all the artichokes, early cantaloupes, green peppers and late tomatoes, and most of the early asparagus. They owned or controlled the majority of wholesale produce markets and thousand of retail vegetable stands. When they disappeared, the flow of vegetables stopped. Retail prices went up. Many vegetables vanished entirely. There were rumors of a food shortage.

Equal Pay for Equal War Work
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

The War Labor Board has decreed ‘equal pay for equal work’ for women in war industry… George W. Taylor, WLB vice-chairman, wrote the decision and said that any other condition than that of pay equality was ‘not conducive to maximum production’.

Stalingrad Turns in Favor of Reds
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

At Stalingrad the imitative appears to be slowly shifting into the hands of the Russians…The Russian attack was reported to be growing in vigor and German counterthrusts were repulsed with heavy losses.

The WASPs
(Think Magazine, 1946)

The WASP program, for as such the Women Airforces Service Pilots became known, was begun in August, 1943. In addition to providing women fliers who could take over certain jobs and thereby release their brothers for front-line duty, the program was designed to see if women could serve as military pilots and, if so, to serve as a nucleus of an organization that could be rapidly expanded…The women who took part in the pilot program proved of great value to their country, flying almost every type of airplane used by the AAF, from the Thunderbolt fighter, to the C-54 transport, they flew enough miles to reach around the world 2,500 times at the Equator.

The WASPs were fortunate enough to have pioneering aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran (1906 – 1980) to serve at their helm.

Click here to read about the WAC truck drivers of the Second World War.

Japan Rejects the Washington Naval Treaty
(Literary Digest, 1935)

The first successful attempt in world history to limit armaments was marked for the scrap-heap on December 31, 1936, when Hirosi Saito, the slim and smiling Japanese Ambassador to the United States, bowed himself into the State Department building in Washington last Saturday and handed to Secretary Cordell Hull a document that the world has expecting for many months – Japan’s formal denunciation of the Washington Naval Treaty.

Click here to read about FDR’s Secretary of State, Cordell Hull.

Enemy Agents Sought Weather Info
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

Before the era of the World Wide Web, intelligence agencies had to rely on their own flunkies to gather all meteorological information they could find about a particular weather system; this explains why so many Axis spies were found with weather data among their possessions.

‘White Man’s War”
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

During the winter of 1942, Private Harry Carpenter, U.S Army, made a big honking mistake when he decided to declare that the current war was a white man’s war. Arrested by the MPs and carted-off to stand before Magistrate Thomas O’Hara, Carpenter found that he had reaped the whirlwind: he was charged with treason against the United States.