Increased U-Boat Activity
(PM Tabloid, 1943)
“Informed London sources said Saturday that the number of U-boats operating against Allied shipping is increasing despite the improved defense record of the last six months.”
1943
Articles from 1943
Misery in Berlin
(PM Tabloid, 1943)
Here is an eyewitness account of the bleak lives lead by Berliners during the summer of 1943:
“The food situation in Berlin is horrible. At the [Grand Hotel Esplanade] there was no choice on the menu. You either ate what was there or went hungry… There was no bread or butter served at the hotel… The people of Berlin were unfriendly and distant. Although I could not speak their language, I could sense their fear of bombing and disgust with the war. They seemed to be mechanical men, robots, just following daily routine.”
In 1941 Hitler ordered the home front to send as much warm clothing as they could spare to the army on the Russian front – you can read about it here
Mission to Moscow
(PM Tabloid, 1943)
A few months after PM Daily was established, the editor announced that he had gone to great lengths to purge their ranks of Communists. However, as the attached movie review makes clear, they missed one. While the rest of the country was absolutely scandalized by the pro-Soviet Warner Brothers production, Mission to Moscow (1943), Peter Furst, the reviewer in question was absolutely delighted:
“The film reflects the undisguised admiration of [U.S. Ambassador Joseph E. Davies (1876 – 1958)] for Joseph Stalin and his government, as well as the Ambassador’s conviction that the famous Soviet ‘purge’ trials of 1936 – 38 were based on proof ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ that the former leaders punished were guilty of plotting with Germany and Japan for the overthrow of the Stalin regime.”
Mussolini Betrayed Italian Labor
(PM Tabloid, 1943)
After Hitler drafted everyone who could possibly be drafted, he found that he now had a labor shortage. He reached out to his fellow Fascist, Mussolini, asking for additional workers – Italy complied and numerous volunteers went forth. These Italians returned two years later and told how they were consistently abused:
“They were treated by the master race like the millions of Russian, Polish, French, Yugoslav war prisoners who are forced to produce for the Nazi war machine. Far from home, cut off from their families, the Italian workers suffered hardships often as great as the workers from Nazi-occupied countries.”
Detroit Spy-Ring Exposed
(PM Tabloid, 1943)
Here is told the tale of Countess Grace Buchanan-Dineen, a Detroit hostess and amateur Nazi spy. She was posted to Motor City in order to report on all the goings-on there to her pals in Berlin. The FBI turned her shortly after her her arrest and she began spying for them.
Inching Forward in Tunisia
(PM Tabloid, 1943)
“The Axis forces in Tunisia, fighting desperately from their mountain fortifications, have stalled for a little longer the day of their defeat…”
The Curtain Falls on the North African Campaign
(PM Tabloid, 1943)
“The chase is over in Tunisia.”
“Breathing hard, Rommel’s Afrika Korps has succeeded in outstripping its pursuers and taken refuge behind the fortress heights that guard the Tunis-Bizerte pocket. Pounding on the gates are the British Eighth Army of General Bernard Montgomery [and] Lt. General George Patton’s American and French Army…”
Oscars at War
(PM Tabloid, 1943)
War-torn Hollywood was at its best for the Academy Award Ceremony at the Coconut Grove Hotel in March, 1943. To no one’s surprise, Mrs. Miniver walked home with most of the most coveted trophies.
Child Labor During W.W. II
“Throughout the land, child labor is making a comeback as already inadequate laws buckle under pressure of fraudulent appeals to
The Nazi Spy Factories
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)
“From businesslike German schools come the professional spy and the saboteur – cunning, ruthless, superbly trained for their specific tasks. They’ll be hard to stop, says Mr. Hoover, and catching them – in time – is a job in which every American can give the FBI a hand.”
‘The Black Brain Trust”
(The American Magazine, 1943)
The Black Brain Trust consists of about 25 Negro leaders who have assumed command of America’s 13,000,000 Negroes in their fight for equality. They hold informal meetings to plan their strategy, whether it is to defeat a discriminatory bill in Congress or to overcome a prejudice against a private [in the army]. Few white men know it, but they have already opened a second front in America – a front to the liberation of the dark races.
The National Press Club During the War
(Click Magazine, 1943)
Throughout the decades, Washington, D.C. has had more than its fair share of private clubs for journalists – but they all failed for the same reason: each one of them granted credit to their members at the bar. It was not until 1908 that someone got it right – The National Press Club insisted that each ink-slinger pay-as-they-go. As a result, this club has been able to keep their doors open for well over one hundred years. This well-illustrated article explains what an important role the club played during the war years.
-recommended reading:
Drunk Before Noon: The Behind-The-Scenes Story of the Washington Press Corps
Sticking It To Berlin
(Newsweek Magazine, 1943)
[Berlin,] the target of 69 RAF raids so far, [the city] has been hit hard only a few times this year and underwent no raids during 1942. On the morale front it ranks ahead of all other German cities. When the others were raided the outcry of the Germans was bitter but local. When Berlin hit groans rose from all over Germany. If RAF night raiders should raze the capital by fire, as they did Hamburg, the whole German nation would suffer the shock of Berliners… Goebbels begged them to stand up under bombs as stoutly as the British did in 1940.
Was Mrs. Surratt Innocent?
(Newsweek Magazine, 1943)
Here is the book review for The Case For Mrs. Surratt
More on the assassination can be read here
The Rationing of Meat
(PM Tabloid, 1943)
Whale meat was not rationed…Click here to learn more about the American W.W. II home front…Read more …
Listening-In On The Enemy
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)
The FBIS – short for Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service – is the organization that listens to the world’s radios for Uncle Sam. It’s monitoring station in Washington has, besides editors and annalists, some sixty fantastic linguists on its staff – people who are fluent at anywhere from three or four – up to a couple of dozen, languages apiece. Their job is to intercept and translate the shortwave broadcasts of Rome, Berlin, Vichy and a score of lesser stations, which daily pour out Axis propaganda in more languages than were ever spoken in the Tower of babel.