1945 – Page 21 – Old Magazine Articles

The Paris Winter Collection
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

After years of material shortage, the accent is definitely on the feminine, with all of its flounces… A look at all the collections shows that black is the outstanding color for afternoon and dinner. Drapings, wrappings and swathings that girdle the hips are the outstanding line. The favored fabrics are velvet , velveteen, corduroy (used horizontally, as are other striped materials) monotone tweeds, Kashas (a twill-weave fabric of wool mixed with Cashmere), and some Scotch plaids.

The Navy Mourned
(Newsweek, 1945)

It was no secret around Washington that President Franklin Roosevelt was partial to the U.S. Navy. The admirals and other senior officers of the navy certainly knew – and loved it. The attached essay was an appreciative salute to FDR composed shortly after his death by Admiral William Pratt (1869 – 1957):

Other men, military in training and veterans of successful land campaigns, have sat in the White House, but never before in the history of our country has any man ever sat there whose instincts at heart were essentially those of a sailor.

A GI View of Japan
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

Reporter Robert Shaplen (1917 – 1988) filed this account of how the GIs have reacted to the strangest country they have ever encountered:

Looking at the Japanese, the average GI wonders how they ever managed to prosecute a war in the first place. Everything in Japan, even broken and blasted cities and factories, has a miniature toy-like appearance. Automobiles, the ones that are left, don’t work; trains bear little resemblance to the Twentieth Century Limited or a fast freight back home. The short, slight people are dressed poorly and drably.

Kyoto: The Japanese City That Was Never Bombed
(Yank, 1945)

An article touching on the war-weary appearance of Kyoto, Japan. Although the writer had been informed by the locals that Kyoto was very special to the Japanese, the dullard was really unable to see beyond the filth, rampant prostitution and general disrepair of the city in order to understand this.

What Might Have Been
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

Into the records of the Pearl Harbor investigating committee last week went a little-noticed document that added new mystery to the disaster of December 7, 1941:

Four months before the enemy struck, the Army and Navy air command at Pearl Harbor drew up a joint defense plan which correctly forecast the hour, the direction, the size of the force and the strategy by which the Japs actually attacked.

Killing Tiger Tanks in the Ardennes
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

This article follows the efforts of the Tank Destroyers (TD) in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge:

This TD work is among the most dangerous of the war. One of the chief reasons is that TDs are constantly up against superior enemy weapons. For example, none of our TDs (except possibly the M-36) can penetrate the 8-inch frontal armor of the King Tiger, whereas the German 88-millimeter anti-tank gun has been able to penetrate any American tank. And to kill the tiger, TDs must shoot for the tracks, then assault the disabled monster with high explosive, setting it afire.

Click here to read about the equipment and training of American tank destroyers during the Second World War.

Facts About WACS
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

Attached are a few interesting factoids about the American lassies who served in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps throughout the Second World War.

Pearl Harbor’s Two Fall Guys
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1945

Recognizing that responsible commanders must always assume the blame for the failings within their respective domains, former U.S. General George C. Marshall and General Leonard T. Gerow stood up and claimed responsibility for leaving Pearl Harbor vulnerable to Japanese attack. Marshall had been FDR’s Army Chief-of-Staff since the Autumn of 1939 and Gerow had been serving as executive officer of the War Plans Division at the time of the sneak attack – however, To read this article is to understand that these men were responsible for Pearl Harbor’s lack of preparedness…

Black Lessons of the Bomb
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

The Senate special committee on atomic energy had heard both pros and cons on atomic energy control. Last week it heard another kind of testimony – a terrifying eyewitness account by Dr. Philip Morrison, nuclear physicist of the Los Alamos atomic bomb laboratory, [who] spoke of the effects on Hiroshima.

The Suffering Infantry
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

Men slept on their rifles to keep them from freezing. On bitter mornings they urinated down the barrels of automatic weapons to thaw them out… Some Yanks cut holes in their sleeping bags, wearing them underneath their overcoats and knee-length snow capes while sleeping and fighting.

American P.O.W.s Massacred
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

Nine Americans recalled witnessing the deliberate torture and killing of American prisoners of war by their Japanese captors on the Pacific island of Palawan.

The American began begging to be shot and not burned. He screamed in such a high voice I could hear him. Then I could see the Jap pour gasoline on one of his feet and burn it, and then the other. He collapsed…

Bloody Iwo
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

Some Jap officers, unable to face the prospect of defeat, dressed in their best uniforms, laid their samurai swords by their sides and then shot themselves in the head. Tokyo broadcast a plaintive admission from the Jap commander on Iwo Jima, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi:

‘This island is the front line that defends our mainland and I am going to die here.’

He was right on both counts.

The Invasion of Japan and the Importance of Iwo Jima
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

In our day, the significance of the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima is often dismissed as a campaign that should never have been waged; be that as it may, the following attachment is the U.S. Government explanation as to why the invasion of Iwo Jima was an essential part of the American strategy to invade Japan. Although you won’t find the information in this particular YANK article, the Marine and Army units that were to play leading rolls in the Japanese invasion were already selected and were at this point in training for the grim task before them (had it not been for the deployment of the Atomic Bombs, which hastened an end to the hostilities and saved hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides).

Lt. Alexander Nininger, Jr.
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

Lt. Alexander Nininger, Jr. (1918 – 1942) was posthumously awarded the first Medal of Honor of the Second World War, but regardless of that fact he got the brush-off in this column which was primarily written in order to inform the public of a new CBS radio program. The radio show was titled CMH and was intended to tell the individual stories of each and every MoH recipient of W.W. II.

Captain Edward Steichen of the U.S. Navy
(Collier’s Magazine, 1945)

As informative as this World War Two article about photographer Edward Steichen (1879 – 1973) is, it fails to convey to the reader what an interesting soul he must have been. Steichen was a respected photographer in modernist circles prior to volunteering for service in the First World War, and by the time he joined the U.S. Navy for the second go-round, his stock was even higher.

Canadian Collaborators
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

A report from the trials that were held in late August, 1945, in order to prosecute those Allied POWs who collaborated with their Nazi captors. The four who were discussed in this column were all Canadians.

The Capture of Heinrich Himmler
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

A quick read, which begins with the story of how the British Army of occupation in Germany managed to detain and identify Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (1900 – 1945) when he was disguised in the Wehrmacht uniform of a sergeant. The remaining paragraphs are devoted to instructing the reader as to how similar ploys could be managed to identify other German war crimes suspects when they are in captivity.

‘Fascist Finale”
(Collier’s Magazine, 1945)

They killed Mussolini and his henchmen. They killed 1,000 persons in five days in and around Milan. Some Partisans thought the city was still not cleaned of Fascists when the American Army finally entered on Sunday afternoon April 29 and by their presence ended the assassinations.The fighting was about over; the even more difficult struggle was for stability was already beginning but with less excitement.