Author name: editor

The Lady was a Sniper... (Yank, 1944)
1944, World War Two, Yank Magazine

The Lady was a Sniper…
(Yank, 1944)

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This small notice from a post D-Day issue of YANK announced the capture of a German woman sniper named Myra. It is interesting to note that she was captured in civilian clothing; a male sharp-shooter would have probably been shot immediately. The popular reasoning on all sides during war stems from the fact that snipers do not take prisoners themselves, therefore why should they be afforded the privilege?


If you would like to read an article about women soldiers in W.W. I, click here.

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Prisoners of War

A Color Photograph of German Prisoners
(1915)

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A color photograph from the earlier part of the war, remarkable for it’s clarity and mood. It depicts ten German prisoners wearing their 1910 tunics, staring in a dazed stupor at eight truly bored Poilus struggling through their potato pealing detail.

US Army Deserters 1910 | Pre-WW I Desertion Rate
1910, Prelude, Recent Articles, The American Review of Reviews

The U.S. Army: Plagued by Deserters
(Review of Reviews, 1910)

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As a wise, old sage once remarked: You don’t go to war with the army that you want, you go to war with the army that you have -no truer words were ever spoken; which brings us to this news piece from a popular American magazine published in 1910. The reader will be interested to know that just seven years prior to the American entry into World War One, the U.S. Army was lousy with deserters and it was a problem they were ill equipped to handle.


Click here to read some statistical data about the American Doughboys of the First World War.

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Rumors of War (Review of Reviews, 1910)
1910, Prelude, Recent Articles, The American Review of Reviews

Rumors of War
(Review of Reviews, 1910)

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This article refers to a temperate review of Anglo-German relations as understood by Dr. Theodore Schiemann (1847 – 1921), confidant of Kaiser Wilhelm II and professor at the University of Berlin. Interestingly, the professor predicted some aspects of the forth-coming war correctly but, by enlarge, he believed Germany would be victorious:

A German-English war would be a calamity for the whole world, England included; for it may be regarded as a foregone conclusion that simultaneously with such an event every element in Asia and Africa that is hostile to the English would rise up as unbidden allies of Germany.

The Psychology of Fear in Combat (Yank Magazine, 1943)
1943, Recent Articles, World War Two, Yank Magazine

The Psychology of Fear in Combat
(Yank Magazine, 1943)

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The YANK MAGAZINE editors remarked that this brief column, which was intended to help American G.I.s deal with panic attacks during combat, was written by the National Research Council and appeared in the Infantry Journal of 1943. It is a segment from a longer article titled, Psychology for the Fighting Man. The psychologists who wrote it presented a number of examples of soldier’s panic (mostly from the last war) and illustrate how best the front-line soldier could deal with this stress while the bullets are flying. Happily, they made it sound so easy.


Click here to read about one other effect the stress of combat wrought upon the luckless men of the Forties.


From Amazon: Psychology for the Fighting Manstyle=border:none

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– also from Amazon: Cowardice: A Brief Historystyle=border:none

How the US Helped the Fascists Before Entering the War (Coronet Magazine, 1941)
1941, Coronet Magazine, Recent Articles, World War Two

How the US Helped the Fascists Before Entering the War
(Coronet Magazine, 1941)

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Although our friends in Asia, Europe and Canada had been fighting the Axis for at least a year and a half, American corporations continued to trade with the fascists all the way up until the U.S. declaration of war. This 1941 article, published seven months prior to that day, goes into some detail on the matter; although corporations are not named, it is pretty easy to identify them by their products.

One reason why America today is short of ships to fill Britain’s desperate needs is [due to] the fact that for six years or more, Japan and her scrap agents bought almost every American cargo vessel placed on the auction blocks, using them for scrap to feed the blazing steel mills of Nipon.

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Lincoln Remembered (National Park Service, 1956)
1956, Abraham Lincoln, Recent Articles, The National Park Service

Lincoln Remembered
(National Park Service, 1956)

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Shortly after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, William H. Herndon (1816 – 1891), Lincoln’s law partner, devoted much of his life to collecting as much original source material on the man as he could possibly find. Indeed, scholars have pointed out that there never would have been an accurate word written about Lincoln if not for the efforts of Herndon. The following description of Lincoln is from a lecture delivered by Herndon in 1865.

What Makes Songs Popular ('48 Magazine, 1948)
1948, 48 Magazine, Miscellaneous, Recent Articles

What Makes Songs Popular
(’48 Magazine, 1948)

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Knowing, as they did, that the Broadway composer Oscar Hammerstein II (1895 – 1960) was no slouch when it came to writing hummable tunes with snappy lyrics, hundreds of people would write to him daily seeking advice as to how they might be able to do the same (indeed, the search logs at Google indicate that this question is asked 369,000 times each month). No doubt fed-up with these never ending solicitations – Hammerstein penned this article, What Makes Songs Popular: in four pages he spewed-forth all that he knew about writing music and lyrics:

It seems to me that the most important element in a lyric is subject matter. A song had better be about something fundamental – which is why so many songs are about love.

must have been fed up with answering the hundreds of letters that he received daily begging him for tips as to how best to write songs and lyrics – he turned to the editors of ’48 MAGAZINE who were happy to print his article in which answered those questions

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The Lincoln - Douglas Debates: Defining Slavery (National Park Service, 1956)
1956, Abraham Lincoln, The National Park Service

The Lincoln – Douglas Debates: Defining Slavery
(National Park Service, 1956)

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The Republican Party, which developed rapidly as a new political force following the enactment of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in 1854, gathered its strength chiefly from those who opposed the extension of slavery into the territories. In the Lincoln – Douglas Debates this issue was paramount. Perhaps nowhere can a more concise and explicit statement of the position of the Republican Party on this issue be found than in Mr. Lincoln’s opening speech at Quincy [Illinois] in the sixth of the joint debates.

Salty Opinions from a Frenchman (Literary Digest, 1920)
1920, Foreign Opinions About America, Recent Articles, The Literary Digest

Salty Opinions from a Frenchman
(Literary Digest, 1920)

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Attached are the rantings of one Frenchman on the matter of American gullibility, solipsism and naive stupidity. While recognizing an innate sense of optimism that seemed natural to Americans, the Gaul also believed that within the American culture the seed of tyranny had been planted and would one day bloom.

And in this new and vigorous country they are going to make nationalism a great religion, the supreme intellectual and social motive. This means Prussianizing, pure and simple.

The Town Cars of 1922 (Harper's Bazaar, 1922)
1922, Cars, Harper's Bazaar Magazine

The Town Cars of 1922
(Harper’s Bazaar, 1922)

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This is a quick read from a 1920s HARPER’S BAZAAR comparing the European and American limousines (a.k.a., ‘coupe, town car, cabriolet’); these were the luxurious looking vehicles that we’ve all seen in pictures from that period in which the chauffeur was expected to perform his duties without the benefit of a roof over his head. The uncredited journalist talks about where cars such as these are likely to be found, their interiors, tufted seating upholstery, basket weaving applications, leather casings and more.

Click here to read about the first car radios.

Click here to read a magazine profile of W.W. I fighter ace Captain Eddy Rickenbacker.

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Things 'Americain' in France (Literary Digest, 1927)
1927, Foreign Opinions About America, Recent Articles, The Literary Digest

Things ‘Americain’ in France
(Literary Digest, 1927)

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Whether for good or for ill, the American people have left their thumb print on much of the French language – the liberal sprinkling of the adjective Americain was ever present in 1927, as it is today. This article seeks to explain the meanings and origins of such French expressions as Oncle D’Amerique or Homard a l’Americaine -among other assorted phrases inspired by the free and the brave.

File Sharing (United States News & World Report, 1948)
Recent Articles, Spying

File Sharing
(United States News & World Report, 1948)

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This is the story of how Russia got military secrets from the United States during W.W. II. It is a story that has little to do with the spy ring that congressional committees are trying to prove existed during the war period (The Gouzenko Affair: read about it here) . But it does throw light on the methods and purposes of the so-called ‘spy ring’.

Military information was going to Russia as a matter of routine, by official channels, on an organized basis, all during the period when United States Communists and their friends were supposed to be spying out bits of information to send… As an ally of the U.S. in the war against Germany, Russia had free access to far more information than the so-called ‘spy ring’ claims…

Jane Russell Sur la Plage... (Pic Magazine, 1941)
1941, Jane Russell, Pic Magazine, Recent Articles

Jane Russell Sur la Plage…
(Pic Magazine, 1941)

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When these eight pictures of Hollywood actress Jane Russell (1921 – 2012) were snapped in the spring of 1941, she wasn’t up to much. She was studying acting at Max Reinhardt’s Theatrical Workshop in Los Angeles and more than likely waiting for her seven year contract with Howard Hughes to expire. The film that she’d made with him the previous year, The Outlaw, would not [be widely] distributed for some time and so we imagine that she jumped at the chance to put on a bathing suit and clown around on the beach when she got the call from the boys at PIC MAGAZINE. With the onslaught of the Second World War, she would be doing much of the same sort of posing for the pin-up photographers.


In the attached photo-essay, the PIC editors went out on a limb and called her one of America’s greatest beauties.

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