1944 – Page 21 – Old Magazine Articles

‘Invasion Fever”
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

As increasing aerial bombardment of Nazi-occupied Europe mounted in Fury day after day, every American civilian was talking last week about when and how the actual land invasion of the continent would begin.

Newspaper editors were already dragging out their largest headline type, and when more than 40 top Washington correspondents were called to the White House for what turned out to be a routine announcement, telephone lines from a dozen National Press building offices were being kept open in case this was ‘it’

Pre-Invasion Bombs
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

Invasion, however, will not begin until the Nazis have been virtually knocked out of the sky. The target of the moment, therefore, is the German air force. …From 500 airdromes scattered throughout Britain, Allied planes fly night and day – frequently every hour of the 24 – some in fleets of a thousand or more to battle the Luftwaffe…Air war as such is almost over in Europe; the Allied infantryman is preparing now to march across a continent, battling along a ‘road’ already cut wide and long by bombers and fighters four miles upward.

No Combat Pay for Combat Medics
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

The World War II pay raise that was granted to U.S. Army combat infantrymen in the summer of 1944 did not extend to the front-line medic for reasons involving the Geneva Convention Rules of War. This triggered a number of infantrymen to write kind words regarding the medics while at the same time condemning the Geneva restrictions:

…I’ve seen the medics in action and I take my hat off to them. Most of them have more guts then us guys with the rifles…I’ve seen them dash into cross-fire that would cut a man to ribbons to help a guy who was in bad shape. I say give them all the credit they deserve.

Indian Sikhs Tell of Japanese Prison Camps
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

Captured in the fall of Singapore, 66 soldiers of the 5/11 Sikh Regiment of the Indian Army were freed by our troops. Used as slave laborers since their capture in February 1942, the Indians were building jetties on Los Negros Island when they were rescued.

Asked how they were treated by the Japanese, the Sikhs shake their heads sadly, smile and say, ‘Not very well.’

The GI Bill
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

This tiny notice reported that the G.I. Bill of Rights was passed Congress, was now enacted into law. A list of all the original (1944) veteran’s benefits are listed for a quick read.The readers of YANK were the intended beneficiaries of this legislation and it seems terribly ironic that this news item was granted such a minute space in the magazine.

No matter how you slice it, few acts of Congress have left such a beneficial mark across the American landscape as this one.

A Pre-D-Day Interview with General Eisenhower
(Yank, 1944)

Written in the interest of promoting U.S. Army morale, this is a profile of five-star General Dwight David Eisenhower by an anonymous YANK MAGAZINE journalist. An interesting interview, it was printed six months prior to the Normandy invasion:

General Eisenhower’s rise is surely without parallel in American military history. From colonel to supreme commander and full general in two years – from the ‘mock’ war maneuvers in the delta country of Louisiana to the real maneuvers that face him now as he must figure out the when and how of the attack that must drive to the very heart of Nazi Europe – that is his story.

Click here to read about Hitler’s slanderous comment regarding the glutinous Hermann Goering.

Big Band Happenings in 1944
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

One of the most popular portions of YANK MAGAZINE was a that small corner devoted to the happenings within the Big Band world titled Band Beat. Attached herein is the Big Band news from that department for the Spring of 1944 which kept the far-flung Americans up to date as to what was going on with Vaughan Monroe, Lina Romay, Duke Ellington, Charlie Powell, Jon Arthur, Jimmy Cook, Red Norvo and Bob Strong’s orchestra.

The San Francisco Home Front
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

San Francisco played an active roll in World War Two and it was the largest port of embarkation, ferrying millions of American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines off to their unknown fates in the Pacific War. Between 1942 and 1945, the San Francisco population increased by some 150,000 – yet despite the growth, traffic along Market Street was just as heavy as it was before the war. Taxis were fewer and far more dilapidated, trolley car rides were raised to seven cents and despite a government restriction obliging all coffee vendors to charge no more than five cents for each cup, the caffeine-addicted San Franciscans paid twice that amount. U.S.O shows were plentiful throughout San Francisco and with so many of the city’s police officer’s called up, some parts of the city were patrolled by women.

True fans of San Francisco will enjoy this article.

Read about the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake…

From Amazon:

The Bad City in the Good War

Remembering the Americans Who Didn’t Make It to Paris
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

YANK correspondent Saul Levitt was eyewitness to all the merriment that kicked-in when Paris was liberated. Regardless of the gaiety, he could not forget all the American blood that had so liberally been spilled during the previous weeks:

Despite all the bottles of champagne, all the tears, and all the kisses, it is impossible for those of us who are here to forget that we are here for the men of the American divisions who died or were wounded on the way to Paris… for all of those men who started out toward Paris but are not here to see it. We are here for the men of the 48 states who dream of home, and for whom the freeing of Paris is the way home.

Click here to read about the celebrations that took place in Paris the day World War One ended.

A Pill Box in the Hürtgen Forest
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

During the last miserable days of 1944 came this one page, first person account by a common American soldier marching through a shell-pocked German landscape. The fellow went to great effort to describe the general discomfort experienced by all those GIs privileged enough to be posted at the spearhead of that winter advance through the Hürtgen Forest. Halting in frozen rain and blinding winds, his platoon languished around a liberated Nazi pillbox where it was decided that each of them should enjoy a three hour respite inside to escape the cold. When it was our hero’s turn he explains how nice it was to be surrounded by four walls and a roof.

Click here to read about the mobile pill boxes of the Nazi army.