World War Two

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

Women Working for the War
(The American Magazine, 1942)

Here is an account by one reporter of his visit to an American aircraft factory early in the war. His article concerns the novelty of female laborers:

We climbed to a catwalk in the rafters and looked down on one of the most fascinating factories on earth. It was gay as a flower garden. Women in bright blouses and slacks were everywhere, doing everything. Blondes and brunettes and redheads and – well , middle-aged ones. Mostly pretty. And every one eagerly intent upon her job.


No Work, No Nooky
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

In an effort to put an end to worker absenteeism at defense plants, a fetching welder at the Albina Engine & Machine Works shipyard (Portland, Oregon), Jeannine Christiansen unhatched a sure-footed scheme to do just that. Recognizing that (most) men don’t find life worth living without rubbing noses with the females of the species, Miss Christiansen instituted the NO WORK NO WOO movement (I think you can guess what Woo means). The attached report states that it was effective and spread to other factories along the West Coast.

Women At The Brooklyn Navy Yard
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

The Navy Yard in Brooklyn (NY) got along with men mechanics for 141 years, up to now – but this is a tough war. Women are now being hired to help build and repair warships and their accessories.

Britain Executes Two Spies
(PM Tabloid, 1941)

They were landed off the Branffshire coast by a German seaplane and rowed ashore in a rubber boat in darkness.
Both were arrested a few hours later. Both had pistols, large sums of British currency, food and radio transmitting and receiving apparatus.

All the Pretty German Spies
(Coronet Magazine, 1943)

Siegrid von Laffert, Edit von Coler and the exotic dancer LaJana had four things in common: they were all carbon-based life forms, they were all all German women, they were all beautiful and they were all Nazis spies:

These women spies are called the ‘Blonde Battalions’. Chosen for their physical attractiveness, they are usually between 18 and 22 years of age. Members of the ‘Blonde Battalion’ are admitted to the Gestapo school in Altona, near Hamburg and after they are sent out to perform their work as efficient machines, with rigid discipline and precision…


From Amazon:
Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spiesstyle=border:none

Above Nagasaki
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

The destruction of Nagasaki looks nothing like the debris in Cassino or Leghorn. The strange thing here is the utter absence of rubble. You can see a couple of square miles of reddish-brown desolation with nothing left but the outlines of houses, a bit of wall here and half a chimney there. In this area you will see a road, and the road will be completely clean. It is too soon after the bombing for the Japs to have done any cleaning of the roads and you can’t see a single brick or pile of broken plaster or lumber on any street or sidewalk in town.


After Nagasaki, Japan surrendered – but there was a lapse of fifteen hours before the Japanese heard that their declaration had been accepted…

Occupation Begins
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

On Tuesday, August 28 (Tokyo time), the Japs got their first taste of the ignominy of surrender… The occupation forces were ordered to go ashore much as they regularly did in amphibious operations – with full combat equipment and battle dress, across beaches and onto docks. No chances were to be taken.

An American POW On Radio Tokyo
(American Magazine, 1942)

When the bright boys at Radio Tokyo decided to allow one of their half-starved American prisoners to flatter them on air, they couldn’t imagine that he would take the opportunity to broadcast vital information needed by the U.S. Navy, but that’s just what he did.


Click here to read an article about the American POW experience during the Korean War.

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