1945 – Page 3 – Old Magazine Articles

More About the Seabees
(All Hands Magazine, 1945)

“From the start the naval Construction Battalions were unusual outfits, mostly because of the men in them and because theirs was a new kind of warfare… Every Seabee found himself doubling in various trades. It was thus the construction men developed their most important tools – improvisation, ingenuity and guts. Often parts, materials and equipment had to be manufactured on the spot in shops hastily thrown together from salvaged enemy materials and tools… But as the Seabee organization grew (from an original force of 3,300 to a peak of 247,155, of which 83 percent were overseas) and its activities increased, the battalions picked up plenty of know-how, enabling them to smooth out and speed up operations.”

Un-Prepared for the First Six Months
(All Hands Magazine, 1945)

Looking back from a point four months after VJ-Day, this anonymous journalist recalled the first six months of the Second World War, and how ill-prepared the U.S. Navy was to take on the two-ocean war.

Un-Prepared for the First Six Months
(All Hands Magazine, 1945)

Sailors Who Served on Both Seas
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

Assorted well-campaigned swab-jockeys lounge-about and discuss their various experiences on both oceans.

Click here to read the observations of a general who fought both the Germans and Japanese.

SACO: Training Guerrillas in China
(All Hands Magazine, 1945)

“Another Now It Can Be Told story – one of the best kept secrets of the Pacific war – came out last month when it was revealed that a U.S. naval group had been operating with Chinese guerillas behind the Jap lines in China. Their combined efforts, the Navy disclosed, had been a vital factor in the smashing blows of the Pacific Fleet against Jap-held islands, the Jap Navy and, finally Japan itself.”

The Battle for the North Atlantic
(All Hands, 1945)

Throughout the course of World War II, there were three admirals who commanded to U.S. Atlantic Fleet: King, Ingersoll and Ingram. It was Admiral Jonas Ingram (1887 – 1952) who wrote the attached article about battle for the Atlantic:

“The Atlantic Fleet’s record speaks for itself. Since the declaration of war we have escorted 16,760 ships across the Atlantic. Of these, less than a score were sunk in convoy…We know definitely that we sunk 126 U-boats…”

Click here to read a related article.

The Battle for the North Atlantic
(All Hands, 1945)

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The Battle for the North Atlantic
(All Hands, 1945)

Click here to read a related article.

The Battle for the North Atlantic
(All Hands, 1945)

Click here to read a related article.

The Battle for the North Atlantic
(All Hands, 1945)

Click here to read a related article.

The Battle for the North Atlantic
(All Hands, 1945)

Click here to read a related article.

Planning an Assault
(Coronet Magazine, 1945)

Here is an interesting article from World War Two that goes into some detail explaining what is involved when a lieutenant colonel in an infantry regiment presents his plan of attack on a German town that is heavily defended. We hear him as he addresses the junior officers who will do the heavy lifting, and we get a sense of their concerns. Few reporters have ever paid any attention to this aspect of an assault.

New Yorkers See the Films
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

“New Yorkers sat in stunned silence yesterday as they watched the incontrovertible proof of the unbelievable – the U.S. Army Signal Corps motion pictures of Nazi horror camps and charnel houses… People came out of the theaters shaking their heads, or gazing blankly off into space, or cursing them under their breaths. They produced mixed reactions – a mixture of horror, of grief, of anger, of hate.”

“We should reduce Germany to dust. The Germans can’t be trusted, and we have to watch Argentina and Spain.”

VJ-Day on New York City
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

“Seven million New Yorkers let down their hair last night in the wildest, loudest, gayest, drunkest kissingest, hell-for-leather celebration the big town has ever seen.”

Click here to read about VE-Day in New York City…