World War Two – Page 36 – Old Magazine Articles

Shooting Scenes Between Air Raids
(Stage Magazine, 1940)

An article about director Gabriel Pascal (1894 – 1954) and all the assorted difficulties set before him, his cast and his crew while filming George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara during the bombing of England in 1940.

Much of the article is composed of diary entries by an anonymous member of the cast:

After dinner we had a script conference off the lot and kept on working through the air raid sirens, relieved to be away from the studio discipline. Tonight the sky was one vast blaze of searchlights, and no sleep for anyone. It’s tough staying up all night and trying to work between raids all day…

Jimmy Stewart – One of the First Volunteers
(Newsweek Magazine, 1941)

A few weeks before this article went to press, actor Jimmy Stewart had been told by the hardy souls at the U.S. Army induction center that he was ten pounds under weight – too light for a man of his stature (6’4). A few visits to Chasens, among other assorted Hollywood eateries and he was all set to qualify as the first Hollywood star to enter the U.S. Army Air Corps.

Filming the War
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

The True Glory is a documentary film about the Allied victory in World War II using actual footage from the war; the film was a joint effort between Great Britain and the United States intending to show the team work that won the war. Beginning with the D-Day invasion of Normandy Beach, the film chronicles the collapse of the Nazi war machine on the Western Front:

This is the sort of film the Germans would never have made – because it shows our victories without gloating and admits setbacks like the Ardennes breakthrough; because it’s peppered with humor and because, at the end, it warns against repetition of such a war.

Front-Line Sergeants Talk Combat and Rant About Replacements
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

The editors of Yank assembled six veteran platoon sergeants to talk about mistakes that most U.S. Army replacements make when they go into combat, and to speak seriously about which weapons and small unit tactics work best when confronting the German enemy:

The first mistake recruits make under fire began T/Sgt. Harry R. Moore, rifle platoon sergeant from Fort Worth, Texas, is that they freeze and bunch up. They drop to the ground and just lie there; won’t even fire back. I had one man just lie there while a German came right up and shot him. He still wouldn’t fight back.

<Click here to read about how the Army addressed the problem of soldiers who wouldn’t pull their triggers…

Burying The American Dead
(Newsweek Magazine, 1944)

In time, the American dead from D-Day and the Normandy campaign would be buried at the larger cemetery located in Colleville-sur-Mer, but in late July of 1944, these honored dead were interred at Cardonville, France.

The Kamikazes That Weren’t
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

Luftwaffe Diva Hanna Reitsch (1912 – 1979) sitting under the bright lights of her interrogators cursed the name of Hermann Goring who rejected her plan to fly bomb-laden aircraft into the hulls of the Allied
ships sitting off the Normandy coast on June 6, 1944.

Inside Germany
(Collier’s Magazine, 1944)

The most striking thing about Germany today is its quiet. There is no noise. The people are sullen… There are no parades, no bands, no singing in Germany now. When American internees heard the Allied bombers, saw cities in flames and felt the shock of four-ton bombs, they knew why.

This account of war-torn Germany was written by one of those internees who was incarcerated since December of 1941 and subsequently released in March, 1944.

The Rebellious Souls in Post-War Germany
(Collier’s Magazine, 1947)

This Collier’s Magazine article from 1947 was penned by the German-speaking Sigrid Schultz (1893 – 1980) who’s report told on those discontented Germans who enjoyed tweaking the collective noses of the armies that lorded over them – oddly believing that a war between the Western Powers and the Soviet Union was the best answer to their hopes. Elements of the populace spoke openly about the good old days under Hitler and sang the old Nazi anthem, The Horst Wessel Song:

In Munich, the signs on the square named for ‘The Victims of Fascism’ were replaced by signs reading ‘The Victims of Democracy’. The police only acted after a Munich paper front-paged the story.

Read about American censorship in Occupied-Japan…

Reporter on Bataan
(Newsweek Magazine, 1942)

War reporter Nat Floyd (news service unknown) briefly explains how he was able to get out of Bataan just in the nick of time and avoid years of starvation at the hands of the Japanese Army.

Private Yori Wada, United States Army
(Script Magazine, 1942)

The attached article was written by a twenty-five year-old Japanese-American Army private named Yori Wada (1917 – 1997). Wada had joined the army some months prior to the Pearl Harbor attack and with all the good fellowship and optimism typical of youth, he explained with some enthusiasm, about how much he enjoyed army life and all the friends he had made within his unit. While the article makes no reference to the unfortunate lot of his family back home, Wada wrote that his future in the army as of April, 1942 was unclear; all he wanted was a fair shot to defend his country, and he didn’t think that he’d get it.

U.S. Post Office Stamps Honoring Army, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

The philatelists in our audience know well the G.I. stamps issued by the U.S. Post Office in 1945; what they may not know are some of the stories that lay behind them (some stories are sad and some are merely pathetic).

U.S. Post Office Stamps Honoring Army, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

70,000 American Prisoners of War
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

In a manly display of boastful trash-talking a few weeks before VE-Day, the over-burdened P.R. offices of the German high command issued a statement indicating that their military had in their possession some 70,000 U.S Prisoners of war. This was in contrast to the records kept by the Pentagon whose best guess stood in the neighborhood of 48,000.

The statement revealed that 27 of the 78 prisoner of war camps in Germany have been overrun by the Red Army and U.S./British forces, and that 15,000 Yanks have been liberated.

No, Joe Biden, U.S. Relations With Germany Were Bad Before W.W. II
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1939)

During the Presidential debate of October 22 (2020) Vice President Biden remarked that the American diplomatic corps made nice with Hitler up until the German invasion of Poland – the attached article from 1939 refutes this statement:

Eight months prior to the day when W.W. II would commence, diplomatic relations between Berlin and Washington got ugly; the carefully controlled German press declared that matters between the two camps were at their lowest point since 1917. Hitler’s diplomats demanded apologies and the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee clarified the American position by stating that the American people have a general dislike for Fascism. The Department of the Navy announced that it was expanding its presence in the Atlantic.

The Pershing M26 Tank
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

Although the the Pershing M26 didn’t get into the fighting in Europe until very late in the game (March, 1945), it was long enough to prove itself. This new 43-toner is the Ordnance Department’s answer to the heavier German Tiger. It mounts a 90-mm high-velocity gun, equipped with a muzzle-brake, as opposed to the 88-mm on a Tiger.

The M26 Pershing tank was the one featured in the movie, Fury (2014).

One of the First Letters to the Editor in Favor of the Bomb
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

Apparently the arguments that we still hear today concerning whether or not use of the Atomic Bomb in 1945 was justifiable popped-up right away. The following is a letter to the editor of Yank Magazine written by a hard-charging fellow who explained that he was heartily sick of reading the

-pious cries of horror [that] come from the musty libraries of well-fed clergymen and from others equally far removed from the war.

German Armor: Panzer III and IV
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

The attached two articles report on what the U.S. Army came to understand following the close examination of two German tanks: the Panzer III and Panzer IV.

The Panzer III was first produced in 1934 and the Panzer IV two years later; both tanks were used with devastating effect during the opening days of the Blitzkrieg on Poland, France and later the invasion of Russia. The developed a close and personal relationship with both during the North African campaign in 1943.

Click here to read about the German King Tiger Tank.

Praise for the Nesei Regiment
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

A member of the 34th Infantry Division wrote to the editors of YANK to let all members of the Army know how much respect he had for the Nisei soldiers in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.