World War Two

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

The Era of the Dictators (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

If necessity can be called the mother of invention, then deep public dissatisfaction can be called the mother of the authoritarian or ‘totalitarian’ state. In Europe, the [First] World War resulted in post-war conditions that walked arm-in-arm with profound social change. The aftermath was a great political and economic headache that grew slowly in intensity until it lead people to embrace anything that promised a cure… In Europe there are no less than 11 nations operating under systems far removed from democracy as we know it in this country.

The Era of the Dictators (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937) Read More »

Indian Sikhs Tell of Japanese Prison Camps (Yank Magazine, 1944)

Captured in the fall of Singapore, 66 soldiers of the 5/11 Sikh Regiment of the Indian Army were freed by our troops. Used as slave laborers since their capture in February 1942, the Indians were building jetties on Los Negros Island when they were rescued.

Asked how they were treated by the Japanese, the Sikhs shake their heads sadly, smile and say, ‘Not very well.’

Indian Sikhs Tell of Japanese Prison Camps (Yank Magazine, 1944) Read More »

Drawings of German POWs in America (Click Magazine, 1943)

This account of life aboard a U.S. train carrying Nazi prisoners of war to prison camps is an authentic bit of after-the battle reporting by an army MP who was a civilian artist. That his eye missed no telling detail is evident from both his first-person story and his on-the-spot pencil sketches.

The Nazis are extremely curious about America, they gaze out of the windows constantly…War plants along our routes are the real eye-openers to the Nazis; those factories blazing away as we travel across America day after day. At first the prisoners look with mere interest and curiosity, then they stare unbelievingly, and before we reach the camps they just sit dumbfounded at the train windows.


Click here to read about Hitler’s slanderous comment regarding the glutinous Hermann Goering.

Drawings of German POWs in America (Click Magazine, 1943) Read More »

German Prisoners Resisted Soviet Coercion (Pathfinder Magazine, 1949)

The article posted above pointed out that the American-held German P.O.W.s who participated in the U.S. Army’s Special Projects Division were all volunteers and willing participants in the program. These Germans had shown some enthusiasm and an interest to learn about democracy and little coaxing was needed. Contrast this with the column linked to the title above that illustrated the crude manner in which the unforgiving Soviet Army chose to propagandize the malnourished German P.O.W.s who fought at Stalingrad:

If communism provides the Utopia that Marx, Lenin and Stalin claim, why does Russia have to rule by the bayonet?


As many of you know, the U.S.S.R. did not release most of their German P.O.W.s until the death of Stalin in 1953.

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The Surrender of a Gestapo General (Yank Magazine, 1945)

Within the moldy, dank confines an abandoned brewery located within the walls of Metz, a troupe of exhausted GIs stumbled upon a German general who was earnestly hoping to avoid capture.

He turned out to be Major General Anton Dunckern, police president of Metz and Gestapo commander for Alsace-Lorraine. He’s the first big Gestapo man we’ve taken; he ranks close to Himmler and is one of the prize catches of the war.

The Surrender of a Gestapo General (Yank Magazine, 1945) Read More »

The Surrender of a Gestapo General (Yank Magazine, 1945)

Within the moldy, dank confines an abandoned brewery located within the walls of Metz, a troupe of exhausted GIs stumbled upon a German general who was earnestly hoping to avoid capture.

He turned out to be Major General Anton Dunckern, police president of Metz and Gestapo commander for Alsace-Lorraine. He’s the first big Gestapo man we’ve taken; he ranks close to Himmler and is one of the prize catches of the war.

The Surrender of a Gestapo General (Yank Magazine, 1945) Read More »

The GI Bill (Yank Magazine, 1944)

This tiny notice reported that the G.I. Bill of Rights was passed Congress, was now enacted into law. A list of all the original (1944) veteran’s benefits are listed for a quick read.The readers of YANK were the intended beneficiaries of this legislation and it seems terribly ironic that this news item was granted such a minute space in the magazine.


No matter how you slice it, few acts of Congress have left such a beneficial mark across the American landscape as this one.

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The Military Buildup in France and Britain (Literary Digest, 1936)

This 1936 magazine article reported that Germany had spent a considerable sum on munitions and armaments throughout much of the previous year and was not likely to stop anytime soon. In light of this fact, the French and British governments were moved to do the same:

Winston Churchill, a cherubic reddish-haired Cassandra, bobbed up in the House of Commons again last week to warn his countrymen of the ‘remorseless hammers’ of the world.

The Military Buildup in France and Britain (Literary Digest, 1936) Read More »

The Military Buildup in France and Britain
(Literary Digest, 1936)

This 1936 magazine article reported that Germany had spent a considerable sum on munitions and armaments throughout much of the previous year and was not likely to stop anytime soon. In light of this fact, the French and British governments were moved to do the same:

Winston Churchill, a cherubic reddish-haired Cassandra, bobbed up in the House of Commons again last week to warn his countrymen of the ‘remorseless hammers’ of the world.

The Military Buildup in France and Britain
(Literary Digest, 1936) Read More »