World War Two

Find old World War 2 articles here. We have great newspaper articles from wwii check them out today!

Preparing for Battle
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

“Brazil and the U.S.A. have signed a trade agreement whereby Brazil’s army gets needed war equipment in exchange for raw materials needed in the United States… During the last year, large quantities of arms and material have reached Brazil from the U.S. for development of defense at vital ports and construction of airdromes to guard Brazil’s 5,700 miles of seacoast.”

Violence Directed at Veterans
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

The White Crackers residing in California cared little about the triumphs of the 442: during the Spring of 1945, two honorably discharged Japanese Americans were fired upon by passing cars – the racists were never caught. Secretary of War Henry Stimson labeled the attacks as “an inexcusable and dastardly outrage.”

Rommel Returned to Where he Began
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

“Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Axis forces in Egypt have been beaten back by British guns and planes. A Cairo communique said yesterday that the German armored divisions had retreated west of the British minefields to the starting line of his offensive which opened a week ago… Captured Axis prisoner disclosed how Rommel had touched off the offensive last Monday with a proclamation to his men that “we are off to Cairo.'”

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”Nazis Halted at Stalingrad”
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

“Stalingrad continued to hold today. For three days now the Nazis have been stopped on both the northwest and southwest approaches to the key industrial city on the Volga, loss of which would be a grave blow to the Soviet war effort… Today’s first Soviet communique indicated that Marshall von Bock continues to pour in more men, more tanks and more planes, trying to overwhelm the Russian defenders by sheer weight.”

Yes, We Know There’s a War On
(Liberty Magazine, 1942)

This is an interesting editorial that pretty much implies that the U.S. Congress reigning in 1942 thought the American people were just as dumb as Congress does today. Although the Selective Service had reached into almost every household in the country and taken every able-bodied male, Congress behaved as if these households only cared about gas and sugar rationing:


“Don’t Think that We the People, can’t take anything you have to hand out. And don’t get it into your minds that we don’t know there is a war on… He won’t be home for dinner [again] tonight. And your worry about our rationing cards would be funny if it weren’t so pitiful.”

The Strategist

Here is a Collier’s profile of U.S. Admiral Raymond Spruance (1886 – 1969): “Our latest successes in New Guinea, the Solomons and

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The Bombed-Out Germans

A report by a Swiss journalist as to what becomes of the Germans who are left homeless after the bombings:

Canada Steps Up for Britain

In 1939, “Canada wisely decided that she could become an ideal training center for pilots and airmen generally. Canada could

American Leviathan

“It is the purpose of this article to show how in three years we have broken the shackles of all

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The Nazi Spy Factories
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

“From businesslike German schools come the professional spy and the saboteur – cunning, ruthless, superbly trained for their specific tasks. They’ll be hard to stop, says Mr. Hoover, and catching them – in time – is a job in which every American can give the FBI a hand.”

They Gave Their All for the Troops
(Liberty Magazine, 1945)

This is one of the more enjoyable reads on the site. Published during the Summer of 1945, with the war in Europe over and the Japanese capitulation only six weeks away, the Liberty editors saw fit to run an article that recalled the absolute devotion that so many USO performers displayed again and again in order to guarantee that American military personnel abroad was fully entertained and amused – no matter their proximity to the enemy.

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They Gave Their All for the Troops
(Liberty Magazine, 1945)

This is one of the more enjoyable reads on the site. Published during the Summer of 1945, with the war in Europe over and the Japanese capitulation only six weeks away, the Liberty editors saw fit to run an article that recalled the absolute devotion that so many USO performers displayed again and again in order to guarantee that American military personnel abroad was fully entertained and amused – no matter their proximity to the enemy.

The Hollywood Anti-Nazi League
(Click Magazine, 1938)

The Los Angeles of the late Thirties was plagued by a small coterie of Nazis; they were not terribly visible, but they were around, nonetheless. From time-to-time real Fascists from Europe would blow into town and they would be met by such groups as the Jewish Labor Committee, the United Anti-Nazi Conference and the Los Angeles Jewish Community Relations Committee. This article concerns another organization that worked shoulder to shoulder with these groups, but with a little more style: the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League. The League was 5,000 strong (likely an exaggeration) and within its ranks were Hollywood notables such as Herbert Biberman, Robert Rossen, Francis Edward Faragoh, Ring Lardner, Jr. and Dalton Trumbo.

U.S. General Benjamin Oliver Davis
(Coronet Magazine, 1944)

Civil Rights leader Walter White (1893 – 1955) recognized an historic moment when he saw one: during the summer of 1944 he wrote about the first African-American general – Benjamin O. Davis (1912 – 2002; West Point ’36):


“He had endured snubs because of his color and seen less able men promoted over his head without complaint. Some soldiers of his own race charge that he is not as militant as they think he should be in redressing their grievances. Non of this disturbs him.”

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The British Six-Pounder
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

“Six-pounder guns are being turned out in large numbers in one of the Royal Ordnance factories in England. Most of the workers who make them are women. The gun is highly mobile and is said to have a high rate of fire and remarkable armor penetration.”

An Eye-Full of Post-War Tokyo

An eyewitness account of the devastation delivered to Tokyo as reported by the first Americans to enter that city following the Japanese surrender some weeks earlier:

The people of Tokyo are taking the arrival of the first few Americans with impeccable Japanese calm. Sometimes they turn and look at us twice, but they have shown no emotion toward us except a mild curiosity and occasional amusement…They are still proud and a little bit superior. They know they lost the war, but they are not apologizing for it.


Click here to read about the humbled Japan.

Eating Crow
(PM, & Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

Four years after Pearl Harbor, the editors of the Japanese newspaper Asahi gazed out of the windows from their offices and saw the charred remains of their enemy-occupied homeland and recognized that they’d made a fatal mistake:

We once more refresh our horror at the colossal crime committed and are filled with a solemn sense of reflection and self-reproach…

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