World War Two – Page 71 – Old Magazine Articles

America Prepares… (Pathfinder Magazine, 1941)

By late November, 1941, only children and the clinically optimistic were of the mind that America would be able to keep out of a war – as you’ll be able to assume when you read the attached article that appeared on the newsstands just ten days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. It extolls the industrial prowess of the United States as the country prepared for war:

• William S. Knudson (1879 – 1948), Director of the OPM, declared U.S. arms output will soon ‘assure Hitler’s defeat’. Proof of this claim was seen in the celebration in New Haven, Connecticut, of one company’s production of it’s 10,000th machine-gun within a year of the time the contract was signed to build a plant.

• The launching of the 35,000-ton battleship INDIANA at Newport News, Virginia, the third battleship to come off the ways this year, indicated the increased tempo of defense production, which Admiral Land, of the Maritime Commission, said neared ‘superhuman’.

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Life in Post-War Vienna (Yank Magazine, 1945)

Published six months after the German surrender was this account of post-war Vienna, Austria: the people, the shortages and the black-market. Originally liberated by the Soviet Army, the Americans occupied the city three months afterward; this is an eyewitness account as to what Vienna was like in the immediate wake of World War II. Reading between the lines, one gets a sense that the Viennese were simply delighted to see an American occupying force swap places with the Soviet Army, although the Soviets were not nearly as brutal to this capital as they were to Berlin.

In compliance with the Potsdam Conference, Vienna was soon divided into four zones of occupation.

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The Fifth Ranger Battalion Goes Home (Yank Magazine, 1945)

One quality that can be found in the memoirs of both world wars is a shared sense that the males of their respective generations had been singled-out for extermination, and when the end to these wars finally came, the most seasoned combat veterans were in a state of disbelief that they would be allowed to grow old, when so many had died. Some of this relief can be felt in this article from 1945 in which the battle-savvy men of the U.S. Army’s Fifth Ranger Battalion anticipated their return to civilian life now that the war was over.

I don’t believe it will do much good to talk about the war with civilians. I don’t think war is something that anyone can know about unless they’re actually in it. I would just rather forget I was ever in the army…

The Rangers underwent intense training in hand-to-hand combat, you can read about about it in this 1942 magazine article.

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The SS Prisoner at the U.S. Army Field Hospital (Yank Magazine, 1944)

This tight little essay, titled The German, serves to illustrate a small piece of life in a very big war. Written with a sense of melancholy by a winsome American medical orderly posted to a hospital not too far behind the front lines, it explains how he slowly got to know one of his German patients, a member of the SS, and how secretive and generally unpleasant he seemed to be.

Click here to read an article about the women of the SS in captivity.

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The 1938 Spies (Pathfinder Magazine, 1938)

Suddenly last June, a Federal grand jury in New York City hoisted the curtain on ‘America’s most significant spy prosecution since the [First] World War’ by indicting 18 persons for participating in a conspiracy to steal U.S. defense secrets for Germany. Subsequently, only four of the 18 could be found for trial. The others, including two high officials of the German War Ministry, were safe in – or had escaped to – the Fatherland.

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Broadway Theater in Wartime (Yank Magazine, 1945)

New York’s Broadway theater scene during World War II:

Show people will never forget the year 1944. Thousands of men and women from the legitimate theater were overseas in uniform -actors and actresses, writers, scene designers, stage hands – and all looked back in wonderment at what war had done to the business… Letters and newspapers from home told the story. On Broadway even bad shows were packing them in…

Click here to read a 1946 article about post-war Broadway.

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The Women of the U.S. Coast Guard (Think Magazine, 1946)

From the icy sweeps of Alaska to the tropical Hawaiian Islands, trimly clad girls in the dark blue of the Coast Guard SPARS have served since their organization was founded in 1942 to fill the shore posts of men at sea.

Communications and radio work were an important phase of their duty. Another field in which SPARS were exceptionally active was aviation, with young women in navy blue working in control towers, instructing fledgling fliers via the Link trainer, and parachute riggers…SPARS were also required to familiarize themselves with weapons.

Ranking woman officer is Captain Dorthy C. Stratton (1899 – 2006), Director of the Women’s Reserve, appointed on November 24, 1942).

The Women of the U.S. Coast Guard (Think Magazine, 1946) Read More »

The 9th Air Force on D-Day (Yank Magazine, 1944)

An eye-witness account of the U.S. Army Ninth Air Force A-20 bombers as they made their runs on D-Day:

There was no time to lose on this mission. Hitler’s armies might well be driving over those crossroads toward the beachheads at this minute. This was not just an ordinary mission. It was the beginning of a mission that some day might end all combat missions.

‘There’s London.’ Rafalow announced, over the intercom.
I glanced down. The acres of buildings looked quiet and peaceful.
You’d almost think there wasn’t a war on.’
A few minutes later his voice came over the intercom again, but this time it was high-pitched with excitement. We were over the English Channel where it was quite obvious there was a war on.
‘By God, look at the ships!’ he yelled.

The 9th Air Force on D-Day (Yank Magazine, 1944) Read More »

D-Day-Plus-One (Yank Magazine, 1944)

D-Day for my outfit was a long, dull 24-hour wait. We spent the whole day marooned in the middle of the English Channel, sunbathing, sleeping and watching the action miles away on the shore through binoculars. We could hear the quick roars and see the greenish-white flashes of light as Allied Battleships and cruisers shelled the pillboxes and other German installations on the beach.

On D-plus-one we took off for shore. Four Messerschmidtts dove down to strafe the landing crafts as we headed in, but a Navy gunner drove them off with a beautiful burst of ack-ack…

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Assessing the Late-War German Soldier (U.S. Dept. of War, 1945)

The German soldier is one of several different types depending on whether he is a veteran of 4 or 5 years, or a new recruit. The veteran of many fronts and many retreats is a prematurely aged, war weary cynic, either discouraged and disillusioned or too stupefied to have any thought of his own…The new recruit, except in some crack SS units, is either too young or too old and often in poor health.

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