Showing 24577–24592 of 24744 results
When World War II engulfed the nation, the men and women of Akron dutifully played their part in the epic struggle. Keyes Beech ducked grenades as marines raised the American flag at on Iwo Jima. Newspaper magnate John S. Knight watched the Japanese surrender on the USS Missouri just five months after his son was…
Within weeks of Pearl Harbor, German U-boats arrived off the Delaware coast and attacked numerous ships along the vital shipping lanes to Philadelphia and Wilmington. On February 28, 1942, two German torpedoes hit the destroyer Jacob Jones, which was carrying more than one hundred American sailors. It sank in less than an hour. A center…
World War II changed America, and the history of Upcountry South Carolina during this era testifies to the war’s deep impact. On the homefront, Upcountry residents grew victory gardens, supported recruits at local bases and soldiers abroad, and manufactured textile goods, including uniforms and parachutes, crucial for the war effort. As thousands of young men…
On December 7, 1941, war came to Arroyo Grande when two local sailors were killed on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. People from the small town were thrust into great circumstances and quickly answered the call for action. A local storekeeper’s son won the Silver Star after he brought his flaming B-17 safely back…
In April 1942, a little over two years before the Tenth Mountain Division officially obtained its name, the U.S. Army began the unprecedented construction of a training facility for its newly acquired ski and mountain troops. Located near Pando in Colorado’s Sawatch Range, the site eventually known as Camp Hale sits at an elevation of…
Author Gretchen Knapp brings to life the challenges and contributions of daily life in World War II Buffalo. When President Roosevelt visited Buffalo in November 1940, he found a hardworking city with a large immigrant population manufacturing aircraft for the Allies. Nearby Fort Niagara inducted over 100,000 young men, resulting in an acute labor shortage….
Akron Beacon Journal cartoonist Web Brown was one of the best political cartoonists in America during World War II. After serving in the Spanish-American War, Brown returned to the States and began a forty-six-year career lasting from 1899 through 1945. Before and during the Second World War, Brown’s cartoons lampooned Hitler, Mussolini and Japan with…
Chicagoans united in their World War II effort against the Axis powers. They signed up for military service, rallied to the call for increased wartime production, and aided the war effort through the rationing of food and gasoline. From fast growing victory gardens to mini-monuments to local servicemen-Chicago, the “City of Neighborhoods,” saw all of…
World War II transformed Cincinnati from a relatively important but parochial midwestern city into a teeming bastion of military might. While thousands served in the nation’s armed forces, others contributed to rationing programs, salvage drives, blackouts and war bond rallies. Scores of community-based programs blossomed as Cincinnatians on the home front threw themselves wholeheartedly into…
On his twenty-sixth horrifying mission over the hostile skies of Nazi Europe, a charismatic bombardier, seated at the nose of a B-17, strapped on his parachute as his disintegrating bomber dropped uncontrollably to the ground. What got him to this point, the ensuing months behind barbed wire and his daily letters written to his family…
Amidst the chaos and uncertainty of World War II, one soldier found solace and strength in letters from home. An Army Air Corps serviceman from a prominent Madison family, Bob Gay paints a vivid picture of a young man’s journey through a tumultuous era, revealing the profound love he held for his family. As Gay…
In World War II Hawaii, experience the untold stories of Hawaii at war where children worked the pineapple fields and women served in armed volunteer units. Makeshift bomb shelters were constructed, trenches dug around public buildings, and barbed wire strung on beaches. This tropical paradise transitioned into an active war front where over one million…
Few historical events shaped the city of Atlanta more than World War II. A hub for the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, Atlanta is now home to over four million people and serves as national headquarters for a dozen Fortune 500 companies. It would never have developed to such prominence, however, without…
Few Florida communities felt the impact of World War II as much as the Atlantic-coast town of Fort Pierce. With a population that soared along with its economy, the small city made an important contribution to Allied victory by hosting a major military training base. Prior to that, the war had come only as close…
For the first time in the lives of many Medina County residents, places across the world became real, not just dots on a map. With the outbreak of World War II, men and women who had never left their corner of Ohio were encircling the globe. They were at Pearl Harbor and the Canal, Anzio…
On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941 the world changed for the North Stateand the nation. A national call to arms by President Franklin D. Roosevelt after the bombing of Pearl Harbor spurred local residents to action, and the normal rhythm of life immediately and dramatically changed. By Christmas of that year, everyone understood their roles….
