World War Two – Page 89 – Old Magazine Articles

Pearl Harbor’s Two Fall Guys
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1945

Recognizing that responsible commanders must always assume the blame for the failings within their respective domains, former U.S. General George C. Marshall and General Leonard T. Gerow stood up and claimed responsibility for leaving Pearl Harbor vulnerable to Japanese attack. Marshall had been FDR’s Army Chief-of-Staff since the Autumn of 1939 and Gerow had been serving as executive officer of the War Plans Division at the time of the sneak attack – however, To read this article is to understand that these men were responsible for Pearl Harbor’s lack of preparedness…

Black Lessons of the Bomb
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

The Senate special committee on atomic energy had heard both pros and cons on atomic energy control. Last week it heard another kind of testimony – a terrifying eyewitness account by Dr. Philip Morrison, nuclear physicist of the Los Alamos atomic bomb laboratory, [who] spoke of the effects on Hiroshima.

Humor in Uniform
(Yank Magazine, 1943)

In the years to come, he would be known as the Oscar Award winning screenwriter for A Place in the Sun, SANDS OF IWO JIMA and OCEAN’S ELEVEN – but in 1943 Harry Brown
(1917 – 1986) was writing tongue and cheek essays like this one on the history of warfare under the nome de guerre Artie Greengroin:

War is a very popular pass-time of humane beings. It is fought by men, on sides, with the popular intentions of killing people of the other side. The more people get killed the more you win. That is war. Historically, war has been fought for a long time and several people have won them. Some people have been Alexander, Julius Caesar and some other people…

1943 was truly the year that proved to have been the turning point in the war, click here to read about it…

Humor in Uniform
(Yank Magazine, 1943)

1943 was truly the year that proved to have been the turning point in the war, click here to read about it…

The First Two Weeks of the Battle of the Bulge
(United States News, 1944)

The American magazines that appeared on newsstands during late November and early December of 1944 are often found to have articles anticipating life in the post-war world or tips on how to welcome your returning husband home from the battle fronts. This line of thinking was put on hold in late December when the Germans launched their brutal counter offensive through the Ardennes Forrest in what has been nicknamed the Battle of the Bulge.

The Suffering Infantry
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

Men slept on their rifles to keep them from freezing. On bitter mornings they urinated down the barrels of automatic weapons to thaw them out… Some Yanks cut holes in their sleeping bags, wearing them underneath their overcoats and knee-length snow capes while sleeping and fighting.

American P.O.W.s Massacred
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

Nine Americans recalled witnessing the deliberate torture and killing of American prisoners of war by their Japanese captors on the Pacific island of Palawan.

The American began begging to be shot and not burned. He screamed in such a high voice I could hear him. Then I could see the Jap pour gasoline on one of his feet and burn it, and then the other. He collapsed…

Port of Embarcation
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

This one page article from YANK MAGAZINE by Irwin Swerdlow will give you a sense of the Herculean task that was involved in the transporting of so many men and supplies across the English Channel to breach Rommel’s Atlantic Wall:

The biggest job of coordination that the world has ever known was under way. Thousands of things had to happen at a certain time, things which, if they did not happen, would delay the entire movement.

Click here to read about unloading supplies on Iwo Jima.

Bloody Iwo
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

Some Jap officers, unable to face the prospect of defeat, dressed in their best uniforms, laid their samurai swords by their sides and then shot themselves in the head. Tokyo broadcast a plaintive admission from the Jap commander on Iwo Jima, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi:

‘This island is the front line that defends our mainland and I am going to die here.’

He was right on both counts.

The Invasion of Japan and the Importance of Iwo Jima
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

In our day, the significance of the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima is often dismissed as a campaign that should never have been waged; be that as it may, the following attachment is the U.S. Government explanation as to why the invasion of Iwo Jima was an essential part of the American strategy to invade Japan. Although you won’t find the information in this particular YANK article, the Marine and Army units that were to play leading rolls in the Japanese invasion were already selected and were at this point in training for the grim task before them (had it not been for the deployment of the Atomic Bombs, which hastened an end to the hostilities and saved hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides).