World War Two – Page 22 – Old Magazine Articles

‘They Saw Hamburg Die” (Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

Here is a 1943 article that was cabled from Stockholm, Sweden, relaying assorted eyewitness accounts of the Allied bombing campaign over the German city of Hamburg in 1943:

The people of Germany have now learned, through the terror-filled hours of sleepless nights and days, that air mastery, the annihilating blitz weapon of the Nazis in 1939 and 1940, has been taken over by by the Allies…The most terrible of these punches has been the flood of nitroglycerin and phosphorus that in five days and nights destroyed Hamburg.

Click here to read about the bombing of Japan.

It was an Englishman nick-named Bomber Harris who planned and organized the nightly raids over Nazi Germany: click here to read about him.

The 6th Rangers on Luzon (Yank Magazine, 1945)

This notice was the Yank magazine account of what has come to be known as the Great Raid that was commanded by Lt Col. Henry A. Mucci (1909 – 1997). On January 30, 1945 Mucci lead a raiding party of 121 hand-picked men of the 6th Rangers accompanied by some 300 Filipino guerrillas into the jungles on Luzon (The Philippines) in order to liberate the survivors of the Bataan Death March from the Cabanatuan Prison Camp. At the loss of only two men, the raiders freed 510 American POWs.

Click here to read more about the Cabanatuan POW camp.

The Rangers Go Public (Newsweek Magazine, 1942)

The first time the American public learned of the existence of the now famous U.S. Army Rangers was through articles like this one, that appeared during August of 1942. This article made public the fact that fewer than 100 Rangers had participated in the not-terribly-successful raid on Dieppe.

The Rangers were named after Rogers’ Rangers, the rough and crafty Indian fighters of colonial days who battled near the Canadian border under their leader, Major Robert Rogers… All Rangers are volunteers, selected for strength and ability to use such weapons as daggers, grenades, fists, tommy guns and mortars.

German Army Thirsted for Grozny Oil (PM Tabloid, 1942)

The summer of 1942 found the German Army in the Soviet Union nearing the end of its oil reserves. It was decided that this problem could best be solved by seizing the Red oilfields of the Caucasus Mountains – and so began the Battle of the Caucasus (25 July 1942 – 12 May 1944).

‘They Dropped The A-Bomb On Me” (Tab Magazine, 1958)

During the Cold war, as many as 400,000 American military personnel were forced to witness Atomic explosions. Having been sworn to secrecy, this veteran wrote his testimony under the penname, Soldier X:

Then I saw the true power and fury of nature as a giant fireball sluggishly rolled upward through the thick layer of dust: I estimated its distance at about 1500 feet up. Surrounding the red mass are twisting white snakes of clouds….This is color as few humans have ever seen it, magnificent, threatening and horrible.

It All Began With Madame Curie (Literary Digest, 1921)

Here is a news article about Madame Marie Curie (1867 – 1934), it concerns the fact that although she discovered Radium, and conducted numerous important experiments upon it, she didn’t possess so much as a gram of the stuff. This problem was remedied by a coterie of American women of science who convened and agreed to provide her with the missing gram.

‘Uranium-235: Can It Win the War?” (Coronet Magazine, 1942)

Three years before terms such as Enola Gay and Atom Bomb would become household words, this five page article appeared in an American magazine informing the folks on the home front that this monstrosity was being developed silently behind the scenes.

We have no doubt that the FBI was knocking at the publisher’s door the very second that the issue appeared on the newsstands.

‘How We Escaped the Bomb” (Coronet Magazine, 1945)

Said Winston Churchill in offering thanks for Divine help in the race for atomic power, ‘By His mercy British and American science outpaced all German efforts.’

Thank God, to be sure. But it should not be overlooked that for this work He had an able servant in Lief Tronstad. As saboteur par excellence, the young professor was a ball and chain on Nazi ankles in this race to the atomic finish line.

British Attack Along The Mareth Line (PM Tabloid, 1943)

The British have struck heavily at the Mareth Line in what both sides call the opening blow of the long-awaited big battle of Tunisia.

(The Mareth Line was a system of bunkers built by France in southern Tunisia during the late Thirties. The line was intended to protect Tunisia against an Italian invasion from its colony in Libya.)

The Opening Campaign in Tunisia (Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

General Lunsford Errett Oliver (1889 – 1978) wrote this article about his experiences commanding the American Army in Tunisia. As many of you may know, the American efforts in North Africa were fraught with many difficulties, the least of them were the Germans. The biggest one referred to by the general was the total lack of air cover for his advancing army.

Click here to read about the retreat of the Africa Corps.