 Yank, The Army Weekly, April 13, 1945 Cover art of Rifle Company Medic by Sgt Howard Brodie | |
| Frequency | Weekly |
|---|---|
| First issue | June 17, 1942 |
| Final issue | December 28, 1945 |
| Company | United States Army |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | New York City |
| Language | English |
Yank, the Army Weekly was a weekly magazine published by the United States military during World War II.
The idea for the magazine came from Egbert White, who had worked on the newspaper Stars and Stripes during World War I. He proposed the idea to the Army in early 1942, and accepted a commission as lieutenant colonel. White was the overall commander, Major Franklin S. Forsberg was the business manager and Major Hartzell Spence was the first editor. [1] White was removed from the Yank staff because of disagreements about articles which had appeared. [2] Soon afterward, Spence was also assigned to other duties and Joe McCarthy became the editor. [3]
The first issue was published with the cover date of June 17, 1942, [4] as a 24-page weekly tabloid, with no ads, costing five cents. [5] The magazine was written by enlisted rank (EM) soldiers with a few officers as managers, and initially was made available only to the US Army overseas. [6] By the fifth issue of July 15, 1942, it was made available to serving members within the US, however it was never made available on the newsstands for public purchase. [7] Yank's circulation exceeded 2.5 million in 41 countries with 21 editions. [8]
The last issue was published on December 28, 1945. [9] Joe McCarthy remained the editor of Yank until the official closure of the office on New Year's Eve 1945. [10]
The magazine's April 28, 1944, issue included a letter from a black corporal, Rupert Trimmingham, complaining that white German prisoners of war were being treated with more respect than black American soldiers. [11] The reaction to the letter was strong and immediate. In a follow-up letter published 28 July 1944, Trimmingham said that he had received 287 letters, 183 from whites, supporting his position. The editors reported that Yank had received "a great number of comments from GIs, almost all of whom were outraged by the treatment given to the corporal." [12] The same year, the letter inspired a short story by Robert E. McLaughlin, "A Short Wait between Trains," [13] and in 1945, a one-act play by Ruth Moore. [14]
Sketch artists such as Robert Greenhalgh, [15] Victor Kalin and Howard Brodie worked on the magazine, which also featured the "G.I. Joe" cartoons by Dave Breger and the Sad Sack cartoons by Sgt. George Baker. The cartoons of The Family Circus creator were featured in Yank, and artist and author Jack Coggins spent over two years with the publication, first in New York, then in London, producing illustrations and articles in more than 24 issues. [16] John Bushemi was a photographer, who photographed the Pacific War and provided covers for Yank. [17]
In 2014, the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas, revived Yank as the official publication for the brigade. Each cover of the 1/1 Yank features soldiers from the brigade recreating a cover photo from the original Yank magazine. [18]
SNAFU is an acronym that is widely used to stand for the sarcastic expression Situation normal: all fucked up. It is a well-known example of military acronym slang. It is sometimes censored to "all fouled up" or similar. It means that the situation is bad, but that this is a normal state of affairs. The acronym is believed to have originated in the United States Marine Corps during World War II.
William Henry Mauldin was an American editorial cartoonist who won two Pulitzer Prizes for his work. He was most famous for his World War II cartoons depicting American soldiers, as represented by the archetypal characters Willie and Joe, two weary and bedraggled infantry troopers who stoically endure the difficulties and dangers of duty in the field. His cartoons were popular with soldiers throughout Europe, and with civilians in the United States as well. However, his second Pulitzer Prize was for a cartoon published in 1958, and possibly his best-known cartoon was after the Kennedy assassination.
Life is an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, a monthly from 1978 until 2000, and an online supplement since 2008. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, Life was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest magazine known for the quality of its photography, and was one of the nation's most popular magazines, regularly reaching one-quarter of the population.
The Americal Division was an infantry division of the United States Army during World War II and the Vietnam War.
The Second Australian Imperial Force was the volunteer expeditionary force of the Australian Army in the Second World War. It was formed following the declaration of war on Nazi Germany, with an initial strength of one infantry division and related auxiliary components. After considerable expansion of this force, three divisions were sent to the Middle East and North Africa, while the 8th Division was sent to garrison British Malaya and Singapore.
The 80th Training Command is a formation of the United States Army Reserve.
The 92nd Infantry Division was an African American, later mixed, infantry division of the United States Army that served in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. The military was racially segregated during the World Wars. The division was organized in October 1917, after the U.S. entry into World War I, at Camp Funston, Kansas, with African American soldiers from all states. In 1918, before leaving for France, the American buffalo was selected as the divisional insignia due to the "Buffalo Soldiers" nickname, given to African American cavalrymen in the 19th century. The divisional nickname, "Buffalo Soldiers Division", was inherited from the 366th Infantry, one of the first units organized in the division.
The 93rd Infantry Division was a "colored" segregated unit of the United States Army in World War I and World War II. However, in World War I only its four infantry regiments, two brigade headquarters, and a provisional division headquarters were organized, and the divisional and brigade headquarters were demobilized in May 1918. Its regiments fought primarily under French command in that war and saw action during the Second Battle of the Marne. They acquired the nickname Blue Helmets from the French, as these units were issued horizon blue French Adrian helmets. Consequently, its shoulder patch became a blue French helmet, to commemorate its service with the French Army during the German spring offensive.
Sad Sack is an American comic strip and comic book character created by Sgt. George Baker during World War II. Set in the United States Army, Sad Sack depicted an otherwise unnamed, lowly private experiencing some of the absurdities and humiliations of military life. The so-called "unnamed private" was actually Ben Schnall, a true-life private in the US Army during World War II, member of Yank magazine and good curmudgeonly friend of Sgt. George Baker. The title was a euphemistic shortening of the military slang "sad sack of shit", common during World War II. The phrase has come to mean "an inept person" or "inept soldier".
Irving David Breger was an American cartoonist who created the syndicated Mister Breger (1945–1970), a gag panel series and Sunday comic strip known earlier as Private Breger and G.I. Joe. The series led to widespread usage of the term "G.I. Joe" during World War II and later. Dave Breger was his signature and the byline on his books. During World War II, his cartoons were signed Sgt. Dave Breger.
Jack Banham Coggins was an artist, author, and illustrator. He is known in the United States for his oil paintings, which focused predominantly on marine subjects. He is also known for his books on space travel, which were both authored and illustrated by Coggins. Besides his own works, Coggins also provided illustrations for advertisements and magazine covers and articles.
The 38th (Irish) Brigade, is a brigade formation of the British Army that served in the Second World War. It was composed of North Irish line infantry regiments and served with distinction in the Tunisian and Italian Campaigns. Following the end of the war, the brigade was disbanded, but was reformed in sixty years later in 2007 and remains the regional formation for Northern Ireland.
Bert "Yank" Levy was a Canadian soldier, socialist, and military instructor who was the author/pamphleteer of one of the first manuals on guerrilla warfare, which was widely circulated with more than a half million published. During his career, Yank served with irregular forces in several parts of the world throughout the 1920s and 1930s, most notably in the Spanish Civil War, and was a significant figure at the Osterley Park training school for the British Home Guard during World War II. Similar combat training was provided to forces in the United States and Canada, and he was an itinerant lecturer and provocateur on the subject.
John A. Bushemi was an American, best known for his service as a World War II combat photographer and filmmaker for the U.S. Army. Bushemi, the son of Sicilian immigrants, was born in Centerville, Iowa, and grew up in Taylorville, Illinois, and Gary, Indiana. He joined the Gary Post-Tribune in 1936 as an apprentice photographer and became known for his sports photography. While working at the Post-Tribune he earned the nickname of "One Shot" for his abilities to capture moments on film with one click of his camera shutter. Bushemi enlisted in the army in June 1941. After taking basic training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, he remained there as a staff photographer in its public relations office. In June 1942 Bushemi was reassigned as a staff photographer to Yank, a weekly magazine for enlisted men, and was based in its editorial office in New York City. In November 1942 Bushemi was transferred to Hawaii, where he and Yank correspondent Merle Miller opened its Pacific bureau.
During World War II, Egbert White (1894–1976) had a major role in establishing newspapers for US soldiers that were written and edited by enlisted men, not by the Army top command. He had served with the Stars and Stripes newspaper during World War I and between the wars worked in advertising.
The First Canadian Army was a field army and a formation of the Canadian Army in World War II in which most Canadian elements serving in North-West Europe were assigned. It served on the Western Front from July 1944 until May 1945.
The Frog Skin, also known as Duck Hunter, is a battledress camouflage pattern with mottle and disruptive coloration to blend into the environment similar to a frog's crypsis skin.
Rupert Stanley Trimmingham was a corporal in the United States Army Corps of Engineers during World War II who is noted for writing a letter that was published in Yank, the Army Weekly that attracted wide attention to the plight of black American soldiers in World War II. It was an early step in the process that, along with other publicized outrages involving black American soldiers, eventually resulted in President Harry S. Truman issuing Executive Order 9981, which desegregated the United States armed forces. Beginning within months of publication, the letter has been an inspiration for literature and the performing arts highlighting racial inequality.
Yank, the Army Weekly was a weekly magazine published from 1942 through 1945 and distributed to members of the American military during World War II. Yank included war news, photography, and other features. It had a circulation of more than 2.6 million. One of its most popular features, intended to boost the morale of military personnel serving overseas, was the weekly publication of a pin-up photograph.
Their CO, 1st Lt. Edward O'Donovan of Cohoes, N.Y., once a member of the AAF, has an easy answer to the debate about whether the Fubars are soldiers, sailors or marines; he says they're probably being carried as AWOLS in Washington. ...FUBAR? It means 'Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition.'
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