editor – Page 43 – Old Magazine Articles

1940, General Marshall, The American Magazine

General George C. Marshall
(American Magazine, 1940)

By editor / February 28, 2022

A brief 1940 profile of the man President Roosevelt preferred over 33 other generals of higher grade: General George C. Marshall (1880 – 1959):

His most spectacular military feat occurred during the [First] World War, when, as operations chief of the First Army, he moved 500,000 men and 2,700 pieces of artillery from one battlefield to another without a hitch and without letting the enemy get wind of what he was doing.

Common Argument Against Socialism | Argument Against Democratic Socialism

1894, Recent Articles, The Literary Digest, The Nanny State

Who Pays the Bills Racked-Up in a Socialist State?
(Literary Digest, 1894)

By editor / February 28, 2022

This article was written long before the crumbling Euro and the economic collapse of Greece, Spain, Portugal, Venezuela, East Germany and the USSR – it is an 1894 editorial that outlines why socialism cannot not work:

He insists that all previous Social evolutions have meant an improvement in production and an increase in income, but the peculiarity of the Socialistic programme is that “it is to be not a money-making, but a money-spending evolution,” in which “everybody is to live a great deal better than he has been in the habit of living, and to have far more fun.

This 1946 article argued that Socialism is simply un-American…

Vesto Slipher | VM Slipher astronomy article

1933, Miscellaneous, Recent Articles, The Literary Digest

Discovering the Color of the Earth
(Literary Digest, 1933

By editor / February 28, 2022

Generations before satellite photography, and long before the T.V. cameras were placed on the moon, an American astronomer named V.M. Slipher (1875 – 1969) figured out the predominate color of our planet when seen from afar. Read on…

1923, Miscellaneous, Recent Articles, The Literary Digest

Discovered: The Tomb of King Tutankhamun
(Literary Digest, 1923)

By editor / February 28, 2022

One of the first American magazine articles heralding the November 4, 1922 discovery of the ancient tomb of King Tutankhamen (1341 BC – 1323 BC) by the British archaeologist Howard Carter (1874 – 1939); who was in this article, erroneously sited as an American:

What is thought may prove the greatest archeological discovery of all time has recently been made in Egypt, in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor. Two chambers of a tomb have been found filled with the funeral paraphernalia of the Egyptian King Tutankhamen, and hopes are entertained that the third chamber, yet unopened, may contain the royal mummy itself.

Spanish Influenza News Article | Spanish Flu Pandemic in Retrospect | Spanish Influenza vs Covid-19

1938, Miscellaneous, Recent Articles, Scribner's Magazine

The Pandemic of 1918
(Scribner’s Magazine, 1938)

By editor / February 28, 2022

The Spanish Influenza (February 1918 – April 1920) struck hard in the U.S. Army camps. Every fourth man came down with the flu, every twenty-fourth man caught pneumonia, every sixth man died.

By the time the virus ran its course in the United States 675,000 Americans would succumb (although this article estimated the loss at 500,000).

1945, Coronet Magazine, War at Sea

Admiral Mitscher, U.S.N.
(Coronet Magazine, 1945)

By editor / February 28, 2022

Admiral Pete Mitscher was one of the primary architects of American naval aviation during the 20th Century.In this column, one of the officers who served under him during the admiral’s command of carrier Task Force 58 recalls why he came to admire the man as deeply as he did.
One of Admiral Pete Mitscher’s officers recalls the man with tremendous admiration:

They used to think a carrier was a hit-and-run fighter, but Pete changed that. He said, ‘Hit’em and stay. Hit’em again tomorrow. And he did.’

Click here to read about Admiral Nimitz…

WW II Convoy Shipping | WW II War Shipping Administration Article | Lend Lese Shipping to Allies

1944, Collier's Magazine, War at Sea

The Atlantic Convoys
(Collier’s Magazine, 1944)

By editor / February 28, 2022

The War Shipping Administration is never at a loss for an answer when asked what’s been authorized, what’s in the works, what’s been shipped and where everything is at the moment? Nevertheless, the Transportation Inventory Department is a tidy place, with no visible signs of agitation. The TID has never lost so much as a bolt. Once it took twenty-two weeks to find a couple of airplane engines which had got themselves lost.

1946, The U.S. News and World Report, War at Sea

The Lack of German Naval Power
(United States News, 1946)

By editor / February 28, 2022

Not only did Germany limit the size of her fleet, but she failed to push technical developments. For example, she was behind the Allies in developing radar, and her torpedoes were mechanically deficient. She was ahead of the Allies in perfecting magnetic mines, but these proved to be a short-lived advantage… The priority for naval construction was so low that when the war began in September, 1939, the naval strength allowed in the treaty of 1935 had not been reached.

Thus, in the opinion of Admiral Doenitz, Germany, for the second time within 25 years, lost her bid for world supremacy because of her weakness at sea.

Click here to read about an American destroyer on D-Day.

1944, War at Sea, Yank Magazine

Death of a Baby Flat-Top
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

By editor / February 28, 2022

The baby flat-top Liscome Bay was sunk by a torpedo from an enemy submarine on the day before Thanksgiving of 1943. The Liscome Bay was on her first battle assignment, covering the occupation of Makin in the Gilbert [islands]…The torpedo struck a half an hour before dawn and it was still dark when Liscome Bay sank.

The ship went under in less than twenty-four minutes; up to that time it was the U.S. Navy’s second largest loss since the sinking of the Arizona at Pearl Harbor. Only 260 men survived.

1943, Pathfinder Magazine, Submarines

The Battle for the Atlantic
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1943)

By editor / February 28, 2022

The attached is an uncredited article from the later days of 1943 concerning the continuing struggle for supremacy of the North Atlantic:

It was plain to see that due to the Allied tactics which drove the U-boats from the seas last summer, sinking 90 subs in 90 days, something new had to be added… the newer [German] subs have larger conning towers, painted white this time instead of black – packing at least two new guns, and shooting it out in the open instead of from ambush… Brazil has recently reported 11 sinkings in the South Atlantic.

1960, Coronet Magazine, Submarines

The Bizarre End of the USS TANG
(Coronet Magazine, 1960)

By editor / February 28, 2022

During World War II, the officers and men of the U.S. Navy’s submarine Tang had a proud boast. Their submarine, they crowed, rarely wasted a torpedo. In less than a year of combat, the Tang mowed down Japanese transports, freighters and tankers with deadly accuracy. But it was her fifth patrol from September 27 to October 24, 1944, that gives a unique place in the annals of submarine warfare.

You see, the Tang was sunk by her own torpedo.

1943, Click Magazine, Submarines

Our Worst Enemy: The U-Boat
(Click Magazine, 1943)

By editor / February 28, 2022

Attached herein are a few authentic sketches [that] show the nerve center of a captured Nazi sub. accompanied by a few informative paragraphs about the beast:

Every inch of a U-boats space, every one of its 45 men, is utilized to the maximum. Each serves the sub’s principal weapon, the torpedoes which speed toward an objective at 45 knots. New models have one or two guns of 3.5-inch caliber or more which are effective against unarmored ships at ranges up to five miles.

1943, Click Magazine, Submarines

Life on a U.S. Navy Sub
(Click Magazine, 1943)

By editor / February 28, 2022

Illustrated with seven color pictures, this wartime magazine article served to give the folks back home a sense of what an U.S. Navy sub is capable of doing:

With a crew of 44 men, an American submarine in Pacific waters may reasonably hope to sink twenty or more enemy ships before the end of this war… By its very limitations, the submarine offers its crew opportunities to do damage to the enemy which are not given to sailors on other types of vessels. Ninety percent of the time during the war our pig boats (ie. submarines) are looking for the enemy. Cruisers and destroyers, on the other hand must often pass up the privilege of fighting in order to carry out some broad strategy objective; thus convoying, reconnaissance and scouting are a kind of boresome duty the submariner seldom knows.

They are a proud lot, our submarine men, but not boastful. They talk less of their exploits than the public likes. The brass hats apparently have decided to keep it that way.

Click here to read a unique story about the Battle of the Sula Straits…

1942, Newsweek, Submarines

U-507 In The Gulf of Mexico
(Newsweek Magazine, 1942)

By editor / February 28, 2022

For the first time, U-boats became active in the Gulf, evidently under command of men familiar with its shallow waters. Two freighters, one American and one Honduran, were sunk.

USN Submarines Off the Coast of Japan 1943 |WW2 USN Submarine Memoir |WW2 Story The American Magazine March 1943

1943, Submarines, The American Magazine

‘We Raid The Coast of Japan”
(American Magazine, 1943)

By editor / February 28, 2022

Proceed at once to the coast of Japan

Sometimes it is difficult to repress an impulse to whoop with delight, and this was one of them. This was the moment we had lived for, the moment every submariner dreams about… We were ready. War was our trade… Now we were playing for keeps. We were eager to get at it.

Click here to read about the rise of naval aviation.

1947, The U.S. Department of the Navy, War at Sea

The U.S. Navy’s War: Tarawa to Tokyo
(Dept. of the Navy, 1947)

By editor / February 28, 2022

Attached is a 1947 report by the U.S. Navy summing up the remarkable roll that naval aviation played during the last half of the war with Imperial Japan:

In the advance across the Central Pacific the carrier task force with it’s extreme flexibility and mobility had been the dominant factor. It established the conditions under which long-range amphibious advances were possible. It never failed to gain command of the air at the required time and place, successively overwhelming the air garrisons not only of the Japanese perimeter but of the major fortresses of Formosa and the Philippines, and maintained command of the air until shore-based air forces could be established.

To read articles about W.W. II submarines, Click here.

1947, The U.S. Department of the Navy, War at Sea

What the Navy Learned During the Pacific War
(Dept. of the Navy, 1947)

By editor / February 28, 2022

The following is an essay from the office of the Chief of Naval Operations concerning what the U.S. Navy learned about carrier warfare during the four year war against Japan.

1947, The U.S. Department of the Navy, War at Sea

Japanese Naval Losses Measured in Tons
(Dept. of the Navy, 1947)

By editor / February 28, 2022

Four graphs from a 1947 Naval study illustrate the amount of Japanese aircraft and assorted sea faring vessels that were destroyed during the course of World War Two.

Author name: editor