World War Two

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

June 6, 1945: the First Anniversary (Yank Magazine, 1945)

YANK correspondent Dewitt Gilpin visited the Omaha and Utah beaches exactly one year after the 1944 Normandy Invasion. The journalist interviewed some American D-Day veterans as well as members of the local French population who recalled that bloody day -while others simply tried to forget.

Landing to the left of the Rangers on Omaha was the 116th Infantry of the 29th Division. Their 1st Battalion came in over a beach that had more dead men on it than live ones.


Read what the army psychologists had to say about fear in combat.

June 6, 1945: the First Anniversary (Yank Magazine, 1945) Read More »

June 6, 1945: the First Anniversary (Yank Magazine, 1945)

YANK correspondent Dewitt Gilpin visited the Omaha and Utah beaches exactly one year after the 1944 Normandy Invasion. The journalist interviewed some American D-Day veterans as well as members of the local French population who recalled that bloody day -while others simply tried to forget.

Landing to the left of the Rangers on Omaha was the 116th Infantry of the 29th Division. Their 1st Battalion came in over a beach that had more dead men on it than live ones.


Read what the army psychologists had to say about fear in combat.

June 6, 1945: the First Anniversary (Yank Magazine, 1945) Read More »

Ranger School (Yank Magazine, 1942)

The 76th Division at Fort Meade learns the latest scientific methods of hand-to-hand slaughter and free-for-all street fighting that will soon be taught to every infantry outfit in the Army. The article concerns the hand-t-hand combat instruction of one Francois D’Eliscu – a U.S Army major made famous for his 11-point training plan.

Major D’Eliscu is one of the toughest men alive. He can kill with a flick of his elbow, maim with a pinch of his fingers. He imparts this toughness into the course he gave to the 76th Division instructors and to the Special Service officers from the other divisions.

Ranger School (Yank Magazine, 1942) Read More »

Audie Murphy: the Most Decorated (Coronet Magazine, 1955)

Audie Murphy (1925 – 1971) was one of the most decorated American combat soldiers of the Second World War. This article appeared on the newsstands just in time to promote To Hell and Backstyle=border:none, the Universal Studio movie based on Murphy’s 1949 wartime memoir of the same name. Some men fit quite comfortably into the public life of a celebrated hero, Audie Murphy was not one of them.

Audie Murphy: the Most Decorated (Coronet Magazine, 1955) Read More »

John Riley Kane (Coronet Magazine, 1944)

John Killer Kane (1907 – 1996) proved his mettle numerous times throughout the Second World War, but it was on August 1, 1943 – above the blackened skies of the Ploesti oil refineries in Romania, that the brass caps of the U.S. Ninth Air Force sat up and truly took notice of his polished skills as a pilot of a B-24 bomber. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for the admirable mixture of confidence and ability that showed so clearly that day.


In the attached article, the pilot recalled the moment when he was made aware that the number four engine had been hit

and we increased power on the other three. As soon as we left the target we dropped down to tree-top level. We were right in the middle of the group and I could see other ships passing us as we lost speed. Then the Junker 88s and the ME 105s came to work on us. It was a sight I can never forget, seeing B-24s falling like flies on the right and left of us. But we were getting our share of fighters, too. It was a rough show.


High praise is heaped on Colonel Kane for all of nine pages – celebrating his enormous personality as much as his sang-froid in battle.

John Riley Kane (Coronet Magazine, 1944) Read More »

The Scared Infantry (Regiment of the Century, 1945)

We were men on a chess board being pushed around by people we never saw, by orders we never read, going to places we didn’t know the names of, not knowing where the front was… praying that the ‘old man’ knew what he was doing.


The passage above was found in a year book that told the tale of the 397th (U.S.) Infantry Regiment, of the 100th Division. The 100th Division was on the German’s tale all the way to Berlin.


Click here to read about the depth of suffering American soldiers had to endure during the Battle of the Bulge.

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The Death of the German Seventh Army (Yank Magazine, 1944)

A 1944 YANK MAGAZINE article concerning the destruction of the once mighty German 7th Army:

We have been told that the German Army, which fought so craftily and gave out to our men a share of death in Normandy, is now almost encircled by the great armored columns which broke through and swept around the enemy. But this army does not die easily…


Click here to read about the retreat of the Africa Corps.

The Death of the German Seventh Army (Yank Magazine, 1944) Read More »

The Bombing of Monte Cassino (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)

The bombing of the Medieval abbey at Montecassino was one of the saddest tactical errors of the Second World War. The decision to bomb the structure was a result an error in translating an intercepted German communique that lead the Allies to believe that there was Nazi battalion contained within the abbey. This was not the case. When the Allies sifted through the rubble they were surprised to find the remains of numerous Italian civilians and very few Germans. The attached article recalls the fantastic view that was enjoyed by the assembled U.S. and British troops as the bombs fell.

The Bombing of Monte Cassino (Newsweek Magazine, 1944) Read More »