Articles archive
Selected articles from past issues of the magazine's print edition in the categories
THE WAR. THE HOME FRONT. THE PEOPLE.
THE WAR
The war is over
It was the end. It was the beginning. It was hope. At home and around the world, Americans celebrated like never before. By Eric Ethier. Full story
The A-bomb: Views from here and there
Sixty years ago, a pair of atom bombs scorched Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Today, people who helped build them and people who felt their deadly power still grapple with the bombs' grim realities. By Terry W. Burger. Full story
A brief chronology of the A-bomb
On December 2, 1941, scientists at the University of Chicago set off the first controlled nuclear reaction. Less than four years later, atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Japan surrenders. Timeline
Truman: A reluctant destroyer of worlds
Responding to a letter from a hawkish US senator, President Harry Truman explains why he won't recklessly drop atomic bombs on Japan, despite the "pigheadedness" of its leaders. Excerpts from the letters
The ruinous raid on Hitler's oil
Ploesti was Hitler's oil supply, so it had to burn. In August 1943, 179 American bombers set out to do the job. A third of them and their crews never returned. By Jay A. Stout. Full story
The
puzzle of the 'Fifth Little Piggy'
To help boost Allied morale, British intelligence stated circulating a handout with drawings of four pigs that, when folded as directed, revealed a widely recognized fifth pig. Full story
Nazi spies land on the coast of Maine
A rubber raft splashed ashore at Bar Harbor on the night of November 29, 1944. Clearly, the men in the raft were up to something... By Richard Sassaman. Full story
Nazi sharks in American waters
It wasn't the US Navy or Coast Guard that controlled America's Atlantic waters in early 1942. It was the U-boats of Nazi Germany. By Brian John Murphy. Full story
A would-be Nazi James Bond
Forty-year-old Oskar Mantel failed at snooping on the United States for the Nazis, but he seemed to enjoy his stint as a spy all the same. Full story
The first 24 hours of America at war
The Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. Now they were heading for San Francisco, New York. Rumors ran rampant across America as the nation readied for war. By Carl Zebrowski. Full story
Six PT boats vs. the Japanese fleet
Just after Pearl Harbor, a half-dozen PT boats were the US Navy's only real fighting force in the Pacific. They went at their mission with a vengeance. By Joseph Hinds. Full story
Christmas under the gun
World War II changed the way Americans celebrated their winter holidays. But those holidays of light also changed the dark experiences of war. By Terry Burger. Full story
Patton's ghost army
The army General George Patton fielded for the 1944 Normandy Invasion was unlike any other. It was a complete and unabashed fake. By Brian John Murphy. Full story
The final march to victory over the Nazis
In the spring of 1945, Americans crossed the Rhine and crushed what was left of the Nazis. Revelers across the globe celebrated the end of the war in Europe. By Brian John Murphy. Full story
Stalag 17-B
The prison that inspired a movie and a TV comedy was a dingy, fleabag patch of hell for the Allied "kriegies" who got stuck there. By Eric Ethier. Full story
The fight with Japan begins...in 1937
The first American casualties in the conflict with Japan fell four years before the infamous surprise attack on Hawaii, on the Yangtze River in China. By James I. Marino. Full story
Facing the Fox
The GIs in Tunisia's Kasserine Pass were in trouble. Their equipment was outdated, their leadership was weak, and Desert Fox Erwin Rommel was aiming his army straight at them. By Brian John Murphy. Full story
Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam (and more Spam)
It was the grub GIs loved to grumble about—not because it wasn't tasty, but because it was always there, sometimes three times a day. By Bruce Heydt. Full story
Riviera D-day
Operation Dragoon was part two of Ike's one-two punch against the German's in France. The country's sunny southern coast was the target.By Eric Ethier. Full story
Cloak & dagger army: The OSS
Spies and saboteurs, rakes and femmes fatales, scientists and radicals: they all fought for Allied victory under the Office of Strategic Services. By John E. Stanchak. Full story
Nazis on trial
Sixty-five years ago, the world revolved around Nuremberg, Germany, where leaders of Adolf HItler's Third Reich faced trial for Nazi crimes against humanity. Full story
Trap with a gap
Two months after D-Day, the Allies were poised to capture two German armies near Falaise, France—if they could just cut through British-American red tape. Full story
The battling bastards of Bataan
They were starving, sick. Many were untrained. Their weapons were obsolete. And their top general lived elsewhere. Bataan's defenders were truly on their own. Full story
Pigeons of war
In fierce fighting and deep in enemy territory, American pigeons carried life-or-death messages that radio and field phones could not. Full story
The impossible raid
Just when Axis Japan felt invincible, Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle hit Tokyo with a daring bomber raid that shattered Hirohito's peace of mind. Full story
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THE HOME FRONT
A fine time to be an American
It was a time when cars had curves, cigarettes weren't bad for you, (most) movies were black and white, and war was good versus evil. By James P. Kushlan. Full column
The miracle of margarine
How did a little-known bread spread that looked like lard, and every bit as appetizing, win a permanent place on the American dining table? By Carl Zebrowski. Full story
Getting ready for air raids
From San Francisco to New York and Fargo to Birmingham, Americans worried that enemy planes might fly over at any moment and bomb their homes to rubble. They prepared for the worst. By Carl Zebrowski. Full story
Ynamre gets the bomb
Never mind that the 1944 story was set on another planet. The feds believed the deadly bomb of the evil Sixa powers sounded too much like the Manhattan Project's biggest secret. By Richard Sassaman. Full story
When Uncle Sam set the menu
Everything from rubber and leather to beef and cooking oil was scarce. What was it like to have the federal government telling you how much you could buy of what? Carl Zebrowski. Full story
The railroad's last hurrah
The iron horse was about to take its dying breath. But before it bequeathed the American landscape and imagination to the automobile, it stole one more moment of greatness. By Carl Zebrowski.Full story
Gardening for victory
Soon after the war broke out, America began to worry that there wouldn't be enough food to go around. So with help and encouragement from the federal government, citizens in city and country alike planted gardens so they could feed themselves. By Carl Zebrowski. Full story
How to collect home-front treasure
What were once everyday knickknacks and doodads in a nation at war are valuable antiques today. Learn how to start your own collection. By Martin Jacobs. Full story
Watching the radio
Music, news, and entertainment crackled warmly from radio speakers in living rooms across the country—uniting wartime Americans in a common cause and culture. By Judy P. Sopronyi. Full story
Fun at the pictures
Everyone loved the movies. People flocked to them for much needed diversion. Hollywood made a fortune. Even patriotism benefited—sometimes due to a little unsolicited intervention by Uncle Sam. By Carl Zebrowski. Full story
The number one song on Pearl Harbor Day
The day the United States was dragged into World War II, Glenn Miller and his big band had the best-selling hit in America—the quintessential train song "Chattanooga Choo Choo." Full story
The other national anthem
Kate Smith sang such a stirring rendition of "God Bless America" that a lot of people wanted to make it the new national anthem. Smith said thanks but no thanks. By Carl Zebrowski. Full story
Tanks and shacks and the American dream
As factories popped up all over the country to supply the war effort, workers migrated to them for good jobs. But often the short-term price for eventual prosperity was living in squalor in a wartime boomtown. By Carl Zebrowski. Full story
A heil of a wacky hit
Making fun of Hitler was a popular pastime during the war. When Spike Jones and His City Slickers recorded a tune from an anti-Nazi Donald Duck cartoon, it sold 1.5 million copies. By Carl Zebrowski. Full story
Norman Rockwell and FDR's Four Freedoms
When bold words from the State of the Union address stirred a beloved American artist to action, the result was a set of paintings that forever captured the country's spirit. By Bruce Heydt. Full story
FDR implores the nation to fight
In a speech delivered on January 6, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt spells out what what difficult steps America must take to protect the freedoms that make their nation what it is. Excerpts from the speech
Remember Pearl Harbor!
Striking a match, sending a postcard, or even getting dressed, WWII Americans heard the same rallying cry over and over: Remember Pearl Harbor! Full story
Play ball!
There was a day when "America's national pastime" was more than just a marketing slogan. During World War II, "the thinking man's game" was the game. By Carl Zebrowski. Full story
The ship that weeps for her dead in Pearl Harbor
A sombre monument honors the 1,177 men who died aboard the USS Arizona. In the water below, the sunken battleship still cries black tears after 65 years. By Allyson Patton. Full story
A product with legs
It was an age when women might have asked, "What's a girl to do without stockings?" When nylon had to be saved for military use, they had to find an answer. By Carl Zebrowski. Full story
Iwo Jima's heroes: Realer on film?
Mount Suribachi's flag-raisers step out of their iconic photograph as less and more than heroes in the Clint Eastwood movie now on DVD, Flags of Our Fathers. Full story
Jitter and jive
Once upon a time, couples actually danced together, moving in sync on the floor. Big bands supplied the music, and Saturday night became a night off from the war. Full story
A silly song for a sober time
"Mairzy Doats" wasn't exactly a classic tune. It wasn't written by Cole Porter or Irving Berlin. It wouldn't win any awards. It was just a nonsense ditty. And it worked. Full story
Guarding the home skies
When the Army Air Corps flew off to war, the civilian volunteers of the Civil Air Patrol filled the void left behind--even driving Nazi subs from US coasts. Full story
The heartfelt wish of homesick GIs
King of Yule Bing Crosby crooned right in tune with the hopeful holiday sentiment of an America at war in "I'll Be Home for Christmas." Full story
From Hollywood with love
Actresses of the silver screen inspired the boys overseas by posing for leggy glamour shots that adorned many a barracks wall. Full story
Smoke 'em if you got 'em
Movie stars smoked. FDR smoked. Moms and dads smoked. The tobacco business boomed like the gun business. Too bad about all those casualties. Full story
Americans for Hitler
On the eve of World War II, the German American Bund insisted the Nazi salute was as American as apple pie. Full story
That lovable Lili
The Germans weren't very popular. But somehow the most popular song in the world happened to be German. Full story
THE PEOPLE
Captain Swing
US forces got a secret weapon in the fall of '42: Glenn Miller, king of velvet swing. Miller revved Allied morale in Europe—then disappeared without a trace. By Tom Huntington. Full story
Lucky Louie Zamperini
Lou Zamperini was lucky. He survived a risky, put-up-your-dukes childhood and made it into the Olympics. But in May '43, in a B-24 over the Pacific, his luck seemed to run out. By Martin Jacobs. Full story
The navy cook who fought back
Because Dorie Miller was black, the navy didn't let him do much more than household chores. But when Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor, he dropped the laundry he was collecting, manned a big gun, and earned himself the Navy Cross. Full story
America's most decorated WWII hero
There Rejected twice for war service, the scrawny Texas farm boy Audie Murphy finally found his way into the army and then proceeded to earn more medals for bravery than any other veteran. And he became a movie star, too. By Tom Huntington. Full story
GIs return home with foreign brides
First came love. Then came marriage. Then came life in a strange new land, and farewell to everything familiar. Most GI war brides wouldn't have traded it for the world. By Brenda J. Wilt. Full story
The war bride: A symbol of peace and promise
About a million foreign women married GIs they met during the war. Many left their homes to settle in a United States aglow with optimism. These war brides stand as symbols of the possibilities of a world at peace. By James P. Kushlan. Full column
Get your veteran to tell his or her war stories
A recorder, a few guidelines, and a little patience are all you need to collect gripping, eyewitness history from the WWII vets in your life. By Judy Sopronyi. Full story
Who were America's most famous kissers?
Did the sailor and the nurse in the famous V-J Day kiss scene know each other? No, they didn't. Do we know who they are today? Well, maybe... By Tom Huntington. Full story
Haunted by the horrors of war
Did the soldiers of the Good War really come home psychologically unscathed by the horror and stress they experienced? Or did they simply suffer in silence? By Mark D. Van Ells. Full story
Ken Burns and the 'Good War'
Ken Burns's PBS series The War paints World War II as earth's darkest hour—and the Americans who endured it as people whose stories we need to hear. Full story