1942

Articles from 1942

The Well-Organized War
(Liberty Magazine, 1942)

In the attached column, Liberty Magazine publisher Paul Hunter responded to all the naysayers who were carping about how poorly the American war was being prosecuted, he would have none of it. Hunter pointed out that previous American wars were plagued with all manner of shortages and bureaucratic foul-ups that hampered military success but that was not the case with the current conflict. The war at that point was not even half-way over, yet Hunter seemed clairvoyant when he wrote these words that historians yet un-born would agree with:


“On performance to date it is an even bet this war will go down in the history books as the best-run war America has ever fought.”


A similar article can be read here.

Bringing the African-Americans On-board
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

Here is a small notice concerning the Office of War Information and the steps they took during the Summer of 1942 to ensure the patriotic enthusiasm of the African-American community in the war effort:


“Two well-known Negro newspapermen have been selected to supervise the gathering and issuance of Negro news. The head of the new division – still untitled – will be Ted Poston, former New York newspaperman. He will be assisted by [filmmaker] William D. Alexander [who will make newsreels].”

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Brazil’s German Problem
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

You can be sure that when Brazil declared war upon Nazi Germany in 1942, there was no talk of “our diversity is our strength” – for they were worried about the 1,000,000 Teuto-brasileiros (German-Brazilians) who dwelt among them who seldom, if ever, made much of an effort to assimilate:


“The Germans, in their towns and communities, have set up schools of their own, schools in which German teachers, with better equipment than the Brazilian national schools provide, have been preaching loyalty to the German fatherland… It was charged by investigators that German school children were being taught obedience to Hitler and the German clergymen were taking their texts from Mein Kampf.”

Preparing for Battle
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

“Brazil and the U.S.A. have signed a trade agreement whereby Brazil’s army gets needed war equipment in exchange for raw materials needed in the United States… During the last year, large quantities of arms and material have reached Brazil from the U.S. for development of defense at vital ports and construction of airdromes to guard Brazil’s 5,700 miles of seacoast.”

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Rommel Returned to Where he Began
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

“Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Axis forces in Egypt have been beaten back by British guns and planes. A Cairo communique said yesterday that the German armored divisions had retreated west of the British minefields to the starting line of his offensive which opened a week ago… Captured Axis prisoner disclosed how Rommel had touched off the offensive last Monday with a proclamation to his men that “we are off to Cairo.'”

”Nazis Halted at Stalingrad”
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

“Stalingrad continued to hold today. For three days now the Nazis have been stopped on both the northwest and southwest approaches to the key industrial city on the Volga, loss of which would be a grave blow to the Soviet war effort… Today’s first Soviet communique indicated that Marshall von Bock continues to pour in more men, more tanks and more planes, trying to overwhelm the Russian defenders by sheer weight.”

Yes, We Know There’s a War On
(Liberty Magazine, 1942)

This is an interesting editorial that pretty much implies that the U.S. Congress reigning in 1942 thought the American people were just as dumb as Congress does today. Although the Selective Service had reached into almost every household in the country and taken every able-bodied male, Congress behaved as if these households only cared about gas and sugar rationing:


“Don’t Think that We the People, can’t take anything you have to hand out. And don’t get it into your minds that we don’t know there is a war on… He won’t be home for dinner [again] tonight. And your worry about our rationing cards would be funny if it weren’t so pitiful.”

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The British Six-Pounder
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

“Six-pounder guns are being turned out in large numbers in one of the Royal Ordnance factories in England. Most of the workers who make them are women. The gun is highly mobile and is said to have a high rate of fire and remarkable armor penetration.”

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Fighting in Winter
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

Within a few weeks, Winter again will be sweeping down on the greatest battlefield in history… At Leningrad, the Fall rains are almost over. Now comes a month of dangerously dry, clear weather and then the snow. The Moscow zone will be thickly carpeted in white in seven or eight weeks. Allied strategists hope that the second Russian war Winter will bring a repition of the first, when Soviet skill in cold weather fighting finally drove the Nazis back.

‘Tanks Spearhead Nazi Offensive”
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

The largest tank battle in history was fought on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. In April of 1943, 6,000 German and Soviet tanks, supported by some 2,000,000 infantrymen, had-at-it near the Russian city of Kursk. This article was written a year before the clash, and it informed the readers that armored engagements were becoming larger and larger with each one.

A New Kind of Naval Warfare
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

In the seven months since Pearl Harbor the aircraft carrier has replaced the battleship as the true capital ship of modern naval warfare. The carrier’s rise to power reached a crushing climax in the battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway – the two most decisive naval engagements of the war thus far. Opposing fleets only struck at each other with bomber and torpedo planes and never fired a shot except in self-defense against aircraft.

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The Outcast Americans
(American Magazine, 1942)

Economically, the departure of the [Japanese-Americans] presented no particular problem in the cities… But it was different in the country. [They] had owned or controlled 11,030 farms valued at $70,000,000. They had produced virtually all the artichokes, early cantaloupes, green peppers and late tomatoes, and most of the early asparagus. They owned or controlled the majority of wholesale produce markets and thousand of retail vegetable stands. When they disappeared, the flow of vegetables stopped. Retail prices went up. Many vegetables vanished entirely. There were rumors of a food shortage.

Equal Pay for Equal War Work
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

The War Labor Board has decreed ‘equal pay for equal work’ for women in war industry… George W. Taylor, WLB vice-chairman, wrote the decision and said that any other condition than that of pay equality was ‘not conducive to maximum production’.

Stalingrad Turns in Favor of Reds
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

At Stalingrad the imitative appears to be slowly shifting into the hands of the Russians…The Russian attack was reported to be growing in vigor and German counterthrusts were repulsed with heavy losses.

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