A Segregated WAAC
(Click Magazine, 1942)
A single page from the early war period tells the tale of Natalie Donaldson
Click here to read about the African-American efforts during the First World War.
1942
Articles from 1942
The Pearl Harbor Story
(Yank Magazine, 1942)
When this article went to press the Pear Harbor attack was already over a year old – and like the articles that came out in ’41, these two pages capture much of the outrage that was the general feeling among so many of the American people. The article serves to give an account as to how the ships that were damaged that morning have largely recovered and were once again at sea (excluding the Arizona).
Five months after the Pearl Harbor attack the United States Navy defeated the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Coral Sea, click here to read about it…
How Americans Were Seen by The Japanese
(American Magazine, 1942)
In this article, photographer Frederick L. Hamilton recalled his two years in Japan prior to the Pearl Harbor attack; he let’s lose with all he learned concerning how the Japanese perceived the Americans:
They think we are soft, wasteful, irreverent and stupid…Most serious of all to the Japanese is their belief that we have no spiritual quality, no sense of honor.
Nighttime Tank Battle
(PM Tabloid, 1942)
Canadian war correspondent M.H. Halton reported from the Egyptian desert concerning one of modern war’s most dramatic spectacles – [a] battle of tanks in the dark.
The Man Who Stopped Rommel
(PM Tabloid, 1942)
– from Amazon: KEY WORDS: Lt General Sir Leslie Moreshead in North Africa 1941,British north african commander Lt General Sir
Brereton Steps Up
(PM Tabloid, 1942)
Major General Lewis E. Brereton (1890 – 1967) is the new commander of the U.S. forces in the Middle East.
Women In The War Effort
(PM Tabloid, 1942)
Eight months into America’s entry into the war came this article from PM reporting the War Manpower Commission and their data as to how many American women up to that point had stepped up to contribute their labor to the war effort (over 1,500,000):
Women have been found to excel men in jobs requiring repetitive skill, finger dexterity and accuracy. They’re the equals of men in a number of other jobs. A U.S. Employment Service has indicated women can do 80 percent of the jobs now done by men.
The Director: Frank Capra
(Rob Wagner’s Script, 1942)
This profile of director Frank Capra was written five years before he directed It’s a Wonderful Life and gives a tidy account as to the course of his career up until 1942, when he was inducted as a major in the U.S. Army Signal Corps.
Americans Answered The Call
(PM Tabloid, 1942)
When it came across the wire that Fall of 1942 saw the U.S. Navy enlistments increase by 150%, the editors of PM were not slow to dispatch a team down to the induction center to check it out (at 67 Broad St., NYC).
Many, many African-Americans answered the call as well, but with understandable reservations…
More about W.W. II induction can be read here
Saboteurs to be Tried in Military Court
(PM Tabloid & Yank Magazine, 1942)
The eight Nazi agents, who landed from U-boats on the shores of of Long Island and Florida, planning to cripple American war production, are in jail here [Washington, D.C.] under heavy guard, awaiting military trial on four charges that carry the death penalty.
The W.W. II Revival In Faith
(American Magazine, 1942)
When mobilization began, the government, as usual, undertook to provide spiritual ministry for the men. But many veteran clergymen doubted whether religion would catch on… But religion did catch on – and with such vigor that the chaplaincy services have been swamped by it. Army and Navy chapels are jam-packed. Demands for special services, for Bible study and for religious instruction, are more than can be met. Many men – Protestant and Catholic – are being baptized or confirmed. Some chaplains report an almost overwhelming interest in religion and church as a career.
Click here to read about the renewed interest in religion that existed on the home front…
Laval’s France
(Newsweek Magazine, 1942)
An article from the Spring of 1942 concerning the efforts of Premiere Laval to fool the French citizenry into loving their Nazi occupiers and hating the Allies.
Laval’s handicaps in reconciling the nation to the ‘new order’ are his personal unpopularity – careful observers estimate that 90 to 95 percent of the population spurn his policies – and the determination of the Nazis to stamp out resistance with terrorism.
Savoia Marchette SM 82: Italian Transport and Bomber
(Alertman, 1942)
The Savoia Marchetti SM 82 Canguru was a triple engine transport aircraft that was also put to use as a bomber. Produced by the Italians, it was additionally used by their German allies and was capable of seating 40 fully-equipped soldiers comfortably or 51 fully-equipped soldiers uncomfortably. At the time this article appeared, this long-range transport was being used to shuffle German and Italian soldiers to the collapsing fronts in North Africa.
The Japanese Zero
(PM Tabloid, 1942)
Soon after Pearl Harbor Americans began hearing about a Japanese warplane called called the Zero. It had an unusual name, it was virtually unknown, even to aircraft experts, and almost immediately it began to take on an air of sinister mystery. Information now available shows there is no good reason for the mystery, although the plane has been a big factor in the Jap drive… The Zero has no secret weapons or engineering developments. It is simply a pretty good pursuit or fighter.
The Japanese Aichi-99 Dive Bomber
(Alertmen, 1942)
When, on December 7, 1941, the bombers and fighter aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy came roaring out of the Hawaiian blue to reign death and destruction on Pearl Harbor, the Aichi-99 was among those present. The attached article from 1942 will tell you all that the American military knew about it at the time.
Read about another plane that was at Pearl Harbor that morning…
Gandhi Urges Revolution
(PM Tabloid, 1942)
Mohandas K. Gandhi tonight summoned India’s millions to rise in a struggle ‘for freedom or death’ after the full committee of the All-India Nationalist Congress approved by an overwhelming vote his call for mass passive resistance against British rule.
The Battle of Stalingrad
(Newsweek Magazine, 1942)
The Newsweek report on the under-supplied Red Army counter-offensive at Stalingrad.
Russia’s hope was Hitler’s despair. His schedule for the year had already been irreparably disrupted and none of his major objectives – Stalingrad, the Caspian Sea, the oil of the Caucasus – had yet been attained. And already the Nazi soldiers could feel the cold breath of winter through their summer uniforms…