World War Two – Page 58 – Old Magazine Articles

General Hap Arnold, U.S. Air Corps
(Coronet Magazine, 1946)

The famous smile which has won General Arnold the nickname of Happy is a pleasant front for a shrewd and grimly purposeful character. His real nature shows in his determined stride, his set jaw. He’s a fighter. He’s been fighting for our safety for almost forty years.

In his direction of the Air Force’s gigantic growth, General Arnold’s first thought was always for his men. The Training Command he planned and organized turned out, swiftly and safely, the thousands of air crews needed. He demanded, and got, the planes his men needed where and when they needed them. He directed our best doctors and scientists in medical and technological research that kept his men and equipment in the peak of fighting condition.

General Hap Arnold, U.S. Air Corps
(Coronet Magazine, 1946)

The American Sector
(United States News, 1945)

Written seven months after VE-Day, this article reported on life in the American zone of occupation:

Today, with every facet of his life policed by foreign conquerors, the German civilian faces the worst winter his country has known in centuries. And it is likely to be but the first of several such winters. He is hungry now, and he will be cold. Shelter is inadequate. His property is looted by his neighbor. Lawlessness and juvenile delinquency disturb him. Public health teeters in precarious balance which might tip the disaster.

The Man Who Designed American World War II Medals & Insignia
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

This YANK reporter, Sergeant Barrett McGurn, was amused by the seemingly aloof Arthur E. Dubois, who at the time was serving as Chief of the Heraldic Section, U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps in Washington, D.C. During his tenure in this office, DuBois had much to do with the design of American military insignia, medals and decorations. He was one of the designers involved in the creation of the Distinguished Flying Cross (1927) as well as the campaign ribbons that support both the Good Conduct Medal (1941) and the American Defense Service Medal (1942). Throughout much of the late twenties and thirties he was involved in some of the design of numerous uniform insignia for both officers and enlisted men, as William K. Emmerson makes clear in his book, Encyclopedia of United States Army Insignia and Uniforms<img src=http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=oldmagazinear-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0806126221 width=1 height=1 border=0 alt= style=border:none !important;

The Man Who Designed American World War II Medals & Insignia
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

The Sten Gun
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

The Sten gun was hastily created after the catastrophic retreat from Dunkirk when it was widely believed that the invasion of England was inevitable. The British Home Guard requested an easily produced sub-machine gun that could be quickly assembled and easily used by those who have never had any firearm training whatever. Dubbed the ten dollar gun, the Sten gun met all these requirements and more; over four million of them were manufactured throughout the Forties and although they were never used to defend the British Isles, they were parachuted en masse to the partisan armies in Europe.

The attached article is illustrated with six images and tells the story of the Sten Mark II and the small Canadian factory that produced them. Interesting stories are told and there are pictures of cute Canadian girls.

Remembering the Americans Who Didn’t Make It to Paris
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

YANK correspondent Saul Levitt was eyewitness to all the merriment that kicked-in when Paris was liberated. Regardless of the gaiety, he could not forget all the American blood that had so liberally been spilled during the previous weeks:

Despite all the bottles of champagne, all the tears, and all the kisses, it is impossible for those of us who are here to forget that we are here for the men of the American divisions who died or were wounded on the way to Paris… for all of those men who started out toward Paris but are not here to see it. We are here for the men of the 48 states who dream of home, and for whom the freeing of Paris is the way home.

Click here to read about the celebrations that took place in Paris the day World War One ended.

The Deserters from the U.S. Army
(See Magazine, 1948)

Illustrated with seven photographs, article was written some three years after the close of the war and reported on the efforts of the Allied Armies and local police authorities globally to track-down some 10,000 deserters from the U.S. Army. In the mid-fifties the Department of the Army had estimated that the total number of deserters from all branches of the American military added up to 21,000, but in 1948 the army was happy just to find these 10,000 men: the numeric equivalent of an entire division.

The article is composed of short, choppy paragraphs that present for the reader some of the more interesting stories of World War II desertion. A good read.

A W.W. II Hero Speaks Out About Heroes and Heroism
(Collier’s, 1945)

Carlton Rouh was awarded the M.o.H. for performing numerous acts of courage on the South Pacific island of Peleliu during the September of 1944; in this article he speaks bluntly about the nature of heroes and the discomfort they experience when being praised in a nation that was so deeply in need for such men.

Click here to read about another W.W. II Medal of Honor recipient.

Robert Best of South Carolina
(Pic Magazine, 1943)

On July 26, 1943, in the same U.S. Federal Court that tried the American poet Ezra Pound (in absentia) for treason, Robert H. Best (1896 – 1952), formerly of the Associated Press, was also convicted on the same charges. What Iva Toguri (the alleged Tokyo Rose) was believed to have done for Hirohito, and what Pound did for Mussolini is what Best did for Adolf Hitler: he had broadcast Nazi radio propaganda.

You might also care to read about the American Bund.

Fred Kaltenbach of Iowa
(Coronet Magazine, 1943)

Pencil-necked geek Frederick Kaltenbach was born in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1895. A former school teacher, he left the U.S. to earn a Ph.D in Germany but somehow ended up translating German texts into English for the Nazi aviation magazine, ADLER. By-and-by this eventually lead to his own radio program, just like all translation jobs always do.

Two Who Escaped the Germans
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

Remarkable for lacking bravado and deeds of cunning daring-do, this is a war story about two hapless GIs of the 84th Division who got themselves captured and, do to a heavy U.S. artillery barrage (that served as a backdrop throughout much of the story), were able to escape and allude further incarceration. The German officers who (briefly) lorded over these men are beautifully painted as dunderheads that will surely amuse. Wandering in a southerly direction through the frost of Belgium, they make it back to their outfits in time for a New Year’s Day supper.

Click here if you would like to read about a World War One German P.O.W. camp.

The Abusive Occupying Army
(Collier’s Magazine, 1946)

This editorial lends credibility to Andrei Cherny’s 2007 tome, The Candy Bombers, in which the author states that there was no love lost between the Berliners and the occupying American army in the immediate aftermath of the German surrender:

Stories keep coming back to this country about American soldiers sticking up Berlin restaurants, or beating up German citizens, or looting German homes. How much of this stuff goes on, we don’t know. We do know that some of it goes on, and that any of it is too much. Not that we believe in sobbing unduly over the German people, they let themselves be razzle-dazzled into the war by Hitler and his mobsters.

Nesei Homecoming
(Yank, 1945)

Who knows, perhaps the author of Bad Day at Black Rock, Howard Breslin, had read this striking bit of fiction from YANK MAGAZINE and felt such a deep sense of social injustice that it inspired him to write his novel about anti-Isei mob violence. Either way, this very moving, two column piece is a fictional account about the pathetic homecoming experienced by a member of the Nesei packed 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

It was written by YANK MAGAZINE’s Len Zinberg (1911-1968; a.k.a. Ed Lacy, a.k.a. Steve April); by that time, Zinberg was already an experienced writer with impressive credits and the magazine was lucky to have him. His writings at YANK helped to open the door at THE NEW YORKER, where much of his work was to be seen following the end of hostilities.

‘Loyal Japanese Fight for the U.S.A.”
(Click Magazine, 1943)

This photo essay from CLICK MAGAZINE consists of six black and white images illustrating the Nisei officers and GIs toiling under the merciless sun at Camp Shelby, Mississippi prior to being shipped out for combat duty in Italy. The accompanying paragraph sums up quite nicely their devotion to the United States, declaring that for these Japanese-Americans, democracy outweighs blood ties, yet says not a word about the internment camps.

CLICK HERE to read about the beautiful Blonde Battalions who spied for the Nazis…

A Pill Box in the Hürtgen Forest
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

During the last miserable days of 1944 came this one page, first person account by a common American soldier marching through a shell-pocked German landscape. The fellow went to great effort to describe the general discomfort experienced by all those GIs privileged enough to be posted at the spearhead of that winter advance through the Hürtgen Forest. Halting in frozen rain and blinding winds, his platoon languished around a liberated Nazi pillbox where it was decided that each of them should enjoy a three hour respite inside to escape the cold. When it was our hero’s turn he explains how nice it was to be surrounded by four walls and a roof.

Click here to read about the mobile pill boxes of the Nazi army.

The Policy Behind the Occupation of Germany
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

In the aftermath of World War II Germany found themselves occupied by four armies; in the attached article General Eisenhower explained what the policy of the German occupation was to be:

‘His idea is that the biggest job for right now is riding herd on the rehabilitation of Germany’s political and economic structure…We are working toward a government of Germany by the Germans under the supervision of the Allied General Control Council,’ he said. The government will pass more and more under German civil control. At first we’ll have to look down the German’s necks in everything they do.’