Articles from 1944
In time, the American dead from D-Day and the Normandy campaign would be buried at the larger cemetery located in Colleville-sur-Mer, but in late July of 1944, these honored dead were interred at Cardonville, France.
The most striking thing about Germany today is its quiet. There is no noise. The people are sullen… There are no parades, no bands, no singing in Germany now. When American internees heard the Allied bombers, saw cities in flames and felt the shock of four-ton bombs, they knew why.
This account of war-torn Germany was written by one of those internees who was incarcerated since December of 1941 and subsequently released in March, 1944.
The attached two articles report on what the U.S. Army came to understand following the close examination of two German tanks: the Panzer III and Panzer IV.
The Panzer III was first produced in 1934 and the Panzer IV two years later; both tanks were used with devastating effect during the opening days of the Blitzkrieg on Poland, France and later the invasion of Russia. The developed a close and personal relationship with both during the North African campaign in 1943.
Click here to read about the German King Tiger Tank.
Frank Vicovari, veteran ambulance driver, was en route to North Africa on a neutral passenger ship called Zam Zam. He was traveling with numerous other men who would serve under his command; there were 21 top of the line ambulances in the hold that would be put to use by Free French forces when they landed. Zam Zam also carried some 200 American missionaries off to spread the good news south of the equator. This article is Vicovari’s account of his life onboard a Nazi raiding vessel after it sank Zam Zam in the South Atlantic. He eloquently describes how efficiently the crew fired upon other non-combatant vessels and, on one occasion, machine-gunned lifeboats.
Combat photographer Joe Dearing, deprived of his camera, endeavored to explain with words all that he had seen while he was embedded with an advancing infantry unit in France.
Reporting by radio from the city of Moscow, the celebrated Russian poet Vera Inber (1890 – 1972) gave an account of the difficult life lived by the civilians of Leningrad when the Nazi war machine laid siege to that city between September 8, 1941 through January 27, 1944:
I will never forget the winter of 1941 – 42, when the bread ration was 4.4 ounces daily – and nothing else but bread was issued. In those days, we would bury our dead in long ditches – common graves. To bury your dead in separate graves, you needed fourteen ounces of bread for the gravedigger and your own shovel. Otherwise, you would have to wait your turn for days and days. Children’s sleighs served as hearses to the cemetery.
A late-breaking news report from the fashion editors at Click Magazine announced that the pompadour hairstyle has been given the brush-off: grab your combs, girls, because parts are back in style…
During the Second World War, hair dye was not simply used by women;click here to read about the men who needed it.
There can be no doubt that the fashion-craving lasses of the Thirties and Forties had a tough time of it! Coming of age during the the Great Depression, they spent too much time window-shopping as a result of the all too widespread economic deprivations that were the order of the day – only to be greeted on the other end by the fabric rationing that accompanied the Second World War. They had some good news in the form of a swanky garment that was called Hostess Gowns which were seen as ultra-feminine and tailored in the finer fabrics of the day:
Top-notch fashion stores are finding a new wartime boom in luxury hostess gowns and pajamas; new styles for home reflect the latest dress fashion trends. Ruffles, waistline draping, beads, sequins and marabou add luxury; a number of dressy models might also be taken for dinner gowns…
New York fashion journalist Gertrude Bailey wasted no time in applying for her overseas press pass upon hearing the news that the Germans had been driven from the banks of the Seine in August of ’44. Although the fashion column she filed largely anticipated the glorious return of Paris chic, mention was also made of what Paris fashion was like during the German occupation – sitting ringside at one of the runways, Bailey found that
One found significance in the appearance of green as a color, and noted that the reason it had been absent for four years was because it was the color of the German uniform, which no Frenchwoman would wear until France was free.
Here is a small article, illustrated with five fashion images, about the types of intimate apparel and pajamas that were available to the home-sewing girls on the W.W. II American home front.
Click here to learn about the under garments that had to be worn to pull-off the New Look…
Launched by air or from catapults posted on the Northern coast of France, the German V-1 Buzz-Bomb was first deployed against the people of London on June 12, 1944. Before the V-1 campaign was over 1,280 would fall within the area of greater London and 1,241 were successfully destroyed in flight.
Accompanied by a diagram of the contraption, this is a brief article about London life during the Buzz-Bomb Blitz. Quoted at length are the Americans stationed in that city as well as the hardy Britons who had endured similar carnage during the Luftwaffe bombing campaigns earlier in the war.
The attached magazine article is a profile of Veronica Lake (1922 – 1973) who was characterized in this column as an artist at making enemies.:
One of the most acute problems in Hollywood is Veronica Lake. Where, and at what precise moment her time-bomb mind will explode with some deviation from what studio bosses consider normal is an ever-present question. Hence, the grapevine of the movie industry always hums with rumors that unless Miss Lake ‘behaves’, she will no longer be tolerated, but cast into oblivion.
Her response was eloquent.
Attached is a 1944 article from CLICK MAGAZINE about the touring performers of the U.S.O. during the Second World War. Illustrated with eight photographs picturing many of the most devoted and well-loved of the Hollywood entertainers (Bob Hope, Martha Raye, Al Jolson, Jack Benny, Wini Shaw) the article, by celebrated newspaper critic Leonard Lyons, goes into some detail as to the deep sense of gratitude these show people felt and how happy they were to give some measure of payback. It was estimated that the U.S.O. performed 293,738 shows by the time the war reached an end.
War correspondent Tom Treanor (1914 — 1944) of The Los Angeles Times was billed by writer Damon Runyon as one of the four best reporters developed in this war.:
Landing in Cairo just about the time Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was approaching Alexandria, Treanor went to the British to obtain an accreditation certificate as a war correspondent. But since the British didn’t know him they wouldn’t accredit him. Undaunted he went out and bought a set of correspondent’s insignia for 70 cents, borrowed an army truck, and made a trip to the front and back before the British realized he was gone. They stripped him of his illegal insignia, but in the meantime Tom had obtained material for several ‘hot’ columns. Treanor was killed in France shortly after this column went to press.
This snippet that appeared in Click Magazine during the early months of 1944 supports the argument posed by journalist Gerard Williams and the investigators on the program Hunting Hitler. It stated that a Nazi insider had defected to London where he informed British intelligence of a Nazi plan to launch a third world war from the confines of, it was assumed, another country.
Here are the U.S. Army casualty figures from December, 1941 through November, 1944. The provided graph points out the following major events that ushered in the larger numbers:
• The Philippine collapse
• The American landings in North Africa
• The Battle of Kasserine Pass
• The Sicily Landings
• Anzio
• D-Day
Shortly after this article appeared on the newsstands the Germans launched their winter counter-offensive in the Ardennes. The editors of this magazine anticipated the American losses for 1945 to be the highest yet.
Click here to read General Marshall’s end-of-war remarks about American casualty figures.
A G.I. Rememberance of the ETO dead…
Here is an article that was written on the third anniversary of the passage of the Lend-Lease Act and it lists the numerous munitions that were made available to the allied nations who signed the agreement:
By January, 1944, $19,986,000,000 in American aid had gone out – 14 percent of our total expenditures. To the original recipients – Britain and Greece – had been added China, Russia, Latin America, the Free French and a host of smaller nations.
A 1939 article about Lend-Lease can be read here…
Never had so many correspondents (450) poured so much copy (millions of words) into so many press associations, photo services, newspapers, magazine and radio stations (115 organizations in all). Representing the combined Allied press, some 100 reporters covered every phase of the actual battle operations. Their pooled copy started reaching the United States within four hours of General Eisenhower’s communiqué.
The first newspaper to get the scoop was The New York Daily News (circulation 2,000,999). The First radio station to announce the news was WNEW (NYC).
Click here to read about the extensive press coverage that was devoted to the death of FDR…
