1943 – Page 4 – Old Magazine Articles

The Battle for the Atlantic
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1943)

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.

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

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.

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

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…

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

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.

The Battle of Midway
(Yank Magazine, 1943)

Written months after the battle, this is the Yank report on the naval engagement that was the turning point in the war:

The Jap had failed to get a foothold on Australia. Strategists reasoned that he would now strike east, at an outpost of the North American continent. Alaska became the No. 1 alert; bombers were flown to Midway; carriers came north and Admiral Nimitz pushed patrols far out toward the Bonins and Wake islands… A navy patrol found the enemy first, in the early hours of June 3 [1942]… Reconnaissance showed a Jap force of about 80 ships approaching Midway.

– the contest that followed proved to be the first truly decisive battle in the Pacific war.

Click here to read more about Midway.

Robert Capa in Tunisia
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

Robert Capa’s (1913 – 1954) images of the American thrust through Tunisia.

Victory is Assured
(PM Tabloid, 1943)

While speaking at the 141st anniversary of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Chief of Staff General George Marshall gave a great big shout out to three American generals. Pointing out that all of them were graduates of West Point (as he was) the general could not help but conclude that the Axis didn’t have a chance.

Absolute, Total Morons on the Home Front
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

If you’re one of those types who tend to feel that Americans aren’t as smart as they used to be, this is the article for you: attached is a collection of quotes generated by eight home front dullards who were asked the question:

Do you know what you are fighting?

They all understood that their nation had just finished it’s second year fighting something called Fascism but were hard-pressed to put a thoughtful definition to the term:

A Kansas cattle raiser defined Fascism as ‘…the belief in a big industrial enterprise. Anyone who thinks that way is Fascist-minded.

Additionally, it is fun to see the pictures of all the assorted noobs who made such ridiculous statements.

Sugar Rationing Hits The Candy Industry
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1943)

The candy-makers of the nation are not having a such a sweet time of it, for, like most other manufacturers, they are bothered by scarcities of labor and materials and so must cut corners and find substitutes.

The article goes on to point out that the sugar that was available was largely devoted to military personnel (18 pounds a year); as a result of this candy rationing, movie-goers were introduced to popcorn as a substitute (you can read about that here).

Results of the Economic Boom On The Home Front
(United States News, 1943)

After suffering eleven years of the squalor brought on by the Great Depression, many Americans were in shock to find their pockets fully lined with cash and their days spent in gainful employment when W.W. II came along (in 1943, the U.S. unemployment rate stood at 1.9%). The bars and restaurants that were situated around defense plants found that for the first time in years they were fully booked with paying customers. This article points out that this new economic boom on the home front was not without complications: absenteeism. As more factory workers discovered the joy of compensated labor, the more frequent they would skip work – which was seen as a nuisance for an industrial nation at war.

Many workers, not just youngsters, are making more money than they ever made before in their lives.

The Japanese Home Front
(American Magazine, 1943)

This article was written by Max Hill, who was serving as the Tokyo bureau chief for the Associated Press at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack. The column consists of his observations as to how the Japanese home front operated during his seven month incarceration.

Click here to read about the Japanese home front during the early period of the Sino-Japanese War.

Click here to read about the W.W. II German home front.

‘Revolt in the Classroom
(The Saturday Review, 1943)

This 1943 article by the noted American sociologist, Willard Waller (1899 – 1945), reported on the impact that W.W. II was having on the American educational system. Waller pointed out that during the course of 1942-43 school year, as many as 189,000 teachers had left their classrooms in order to work in defense plants. The author argued four distinct points that would halt the mass exodus – among them was the cry that salaries of teachers must be raised to the point where they match favorably with industry.

A 1944 photo-essay on this topic can be read here…

Duke Ellington: Twenty Years in the Spotlight
(Click Magazine, 1943)

The top man in Negro music climbed on the bandwagon when he and his band played a hot spot called the Kentucky Club. That was twenty years ago, in New York City’s Harlem. This year, Duke Ellington (1899 – 1974) made another debut, at Carnegie Hall, goal of the great in music…Piano lessons bored Ellington when he was six years old. He never learned to play conventionally, but he was only a youngster when his flare for improvisation reaped attention and landed him a job in a Washington theater…one by one, his compositions hit the jackpot: ‘Mood Indigo’, ‘Sophisticated Lady’, ‘Ebony Rhapsody’, ‘Solitude’, ‘Caravan’.

Ellington calls his work Negro Music, avoids the terms ‘jazz’ or ‘swing’.

Slaughter of the Innocents’
(See Magazine, 1943)

Terrible accounts of the Nazi murders that took place in the occupied nations in Europe between 1939 through 1943. The journalist pointed out that these massacres were not the work of the SS or the Gestapo, but of the Wehrmacht.

I Still Believe in Non-Violence’ by Mahatma Gandhi
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

In the face of history’s most brutal war, as men the world over live by the rule of kill or be killed, India’s leader preaches a gospel of never lifting a weapon or pulling a trigger. Here he tells why:

The principle of non-violence means, in general terms, that men will deliberately shun all weapons of slaughter and the use of force of any kind whatsoever against their fellow men…Are we naive fools? Is non-violence a sort of dreamy wishful thinking that has never had and can never have any real success against the heavy odds of modern armies and the unlimited application of force and frightfulness?

Douglas Chandler of Illinois
(Coronet Magazine, 1943)

Douglas Chandler (1889 – ?) was one of several American expatriots to make radio broadcasts on behalf of Adolf Hitler and company. Believing that he was somehow providing a valuable service for the Free and the Brave, he smugly titled his radio program, ‘Paul Revere’.

German Letters from Stalingrad
(Coronet Magazine, 1943)

When 22 divisions were cut off by the Russians at the gates of Stalingrad, the Nazis had to rely on air transport for contact with the surrounded troops. One mid-December day a German cargo plane was shot down on its way from the ringed divisions. The wreckage yielded some three hundred letters from doomed soldier of der Fuehrer. The Soviets selected and published a typical one:

It is hard to confess even to myself, but it seems to me that at Stalingrad we shall soon win ourselves to death.

Click here to read an assessment of the late-war German soldier…

Pierre Laval: French Premier and Traitor
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

French collaborator Pierre Laval (1883 – 1945) is remembered as the Nazi tool who presided over France between 1942 and 1944, allowing for the deportation of Jews and French laborers into Germany. On D-Day, Laval stood before the radio microphones cautioning his countrymen not to join in the fight against the German occupiers. His many sins would be known a year later during the liberation of Paris, but this writer was very accurate in cataloging all his many failings, both as a citizen of France and as a Human Being.

Laval was captured in Spain; you can read about that here…

CLICK HERE to read about Laval’s Norwegian counterpart: Prime Minister Vidkun Quisling…