Prison Bust in Libya
(Yank Magazine, 1942)
Click here to read more about W.W. II prisoners of war… KEY WORDS: Forgotten Story from Yank Magazine 1942,general rommel […]
Yank Magazine
Articles from Yank Magazine
The AWOL GIs in the Black Market of Paris
(Yank Magazine, 1945)
Attached is a four page article that reported on the deserters of the U.S. Army who organized themselves into Chicago-style gangs in post-occupied Paris, replete with gun-molls, hideouts, fencing contacts and all the trimmings of a third-rate-blood-and-thunder detective story.
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.
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.
Humor in Uniform
(Yank Magazine, 1943)
In the years to come, he would be known as the Oscar Award winning screenwriter for A Place in the Sun
(1917 – 1986) was writing tongue and cheek essays like this one on the history of warfare under the nome de guerre Artie Greengroin:
War is a very popular pass-time of humane beings. It is fought by men, on sides, with the popular intentions of killing people of the other side. The more people get killed the more you win. That is war. Historically, war has been fought for a long time and several people have won them. Some people have been Alexander, Julius Caesar and some other people…
1943 was truly the year that proved to have been the turning point in the war, click here to read about it…
Humor in Uniform
(Yank Magazine, 1943)
In the years to come, he would be known as the Oscar Award winning screenwriter for A Place in the Sun
(1917 – 1986) was writing tongue and cheek essays like this one on the history of warfare under the nome de guerre Artie Greengroin:
War is a very popular pass-time of humane beings. It is fought by men, on sides, with the popular intentions of killing people of the other side. The more people get killed the more you win. That is war. Historically, war has been fought for a long time and several people have won them. Some people have been Alexander, Julius Caesar and some other people…
1943 was truly the year that proved to have been the turning point in the war, click here to read about it…
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…
Port of Embarcation
(Yank Magazine, 1944)
This one page article from YANK MAGAZINE by Irwin Swerdlow will give you a sense of the Herculean task that was involved in the transporting of so many men and supplies across the English Channel to breach Rommel’s Atlantic Wall:
The biggest job of coordination that the world has ever known was under way. Thousands of things had to happen at a certain time, things which, if they did not happen, would delay the entire movement.
Click here to read about unloading supplies on Iwo Jima.
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).
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.
In France with the Canadian Army
(Yank Magazine, 1944)
Written four months after the allied invasion of Europe, and seven months to go until the war’s end, YANK MAGAZINE published this account of the Canadian march through France and their heroic stand at the Falaise Gap.
Click here to read about the Canadian POWs who collaborated with the Nazis.
The Planned Invasion of Japan
(Yank Magazine, 1945)
Published four months after the World War II Japanese surrender, the YANK MAGAZINE editors saw fit to publish the happily obsolete plans for the invasion of Japan: operations CORONET and OLYMPIC.
The Planned Invasion of Japan
(Yank Magazine, 1945)
Published four months after the World War II Japanese surrender, the YANK MAGAZINE editors saw fit to publish the happily obsolete plans for the invasion of Japan: operations CORONET and OLYMPIC.
War Stories from the Pacific
(Yank Magazine, 1945)
The attached article is comprised of numerous war stories from the GIs of the 96th Infantry Division who were assigned the pleasant chore of slugging it out with the Japanese in the Leyte Valley of the Philippines.
If You’re Captured…
(Yank Magazine, 1943)
This cautionary article seems like a collaboration between Emily Post, the Twentieth Century’s High-Priestess of manners, and Sigmund Freud. It concerns one-part social instruction and one-part psychology. It offers wise words to the Yank readers as how best to behave when being interrogated by Axis goons; American mothers would have been proud to know that their tax dollars were well-spent advising their progeny to keep in mind manners, manners, manners and always anticipate the direction of the conversation:
It’s best to call your enemy questioner Sir or his rank, if you can figure out what it is. Then when you answer I’m sorry, sir to his questions, there isn’t much he can do about it…
Click here to read an article about the American POW experience during the Korean War.
Army Medics on New Guinea
(Yank Magazine, 1943)
Moved by the devotion and fortitude of the U.S. Army combat medics serving in the New Guinea campaign, YANK correspondent Dave Richardson wrote this short article in praise of the selfless acts performed by four outstanding medics.
1943 was truly the year that proved to have been the turning point in the war, click here to read about it…
‘The Most Married Man in America”
(Yank Magazine, 1945)
As a result of the generous proxy-marriage laws allowed by the citizens of Kansas City, Kansas, many young women, feeling the urge to marry their beaus residing so far afield as a result of the Second World War, would board buses and trains and head to that far-distant burg with one name on their lips: Finnegan. This is the story of Mr. Thomas H. Finnegan, a successful lawyer back in the day who saw fit to do his patriotic duty by standing-in for all those G.I.s who were unable to attend their own weddings.
The Americans Who First Crossed the Rhine
(Yank Magazine, 1945)
The attached article tells the story of the first Americans to cross the Rhine river into Germany following the capture of the Ludendorf Bridge at Remagen, Germany.
One of the most striking incidents of the first day’s action on the bridge was the way German snipers opened up on their own men who had been taken prisoners. As each batch of PWs was lead across the bridge, a storm of sniper fire from the surrounding hills swept its ranks. Several were killed.
Pictured on page two is a photograph of the first American to make it across: Sgt. Alexander A. Drabik (1910 – 1993) of the 27th Armored Infantry Division.
Click here to read about a popular all-girl band that performed with the USO.