Some have said that America's first introduction to Latin culture came with "Ricky Ricardo"; others say Carmen Miranda, Xavier Cugat, Charo or Chico and the Man. The dilettantes at OldMagazineArticles.com are not qualified to answer such deep questions, but we do know that for a bunch of unfortunate Nazis and their far-flung Japanese allies, their first brush with "la vida loco Latino" came in the form of Private Anibal Irizarry, Colonel Pedro del Valle and Lieutenant Manuel Vicente: three stout-hearted Puerto Ricans who distinguished themselves in combat and lived to tell about it.
In 1917 the U.S. Congress granted American citizenship rights to the citizens of Puerto Rico - but they didn't move to New York until the Fifties. Click here to read about that...
Click here to read an article about Latinas in the WAACs. Writing about the bitter fighting on Okinawa some years after the war, Marine veteran Eugene Sledge remarked that he and his comrades had been reduced to "Twentieth Century savages". Much of what he said is confirmed in the attached Yank article from 1945 that clearly illustrated the terror that was experienced by G.I.s and Marines on that island after the sun went down. A light and breezy review concerning the findings of a U.S. government study regarding the effectiveness of the Allied strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany: "...the survey authorities report that although air power might have been more advantageously applied in this case or that, its decisive bearing on the victory was undeniable...At sea, its contribution, combined with naval air power, brought an end to the enemy's greatest naval threat -the U-boat; on land, it helped turn the tide overwhelmingly in favor of allied ground forces."
Articles about the daily hardships in post-war Germany can be read by clicking here.
The story of Sergeant Frank Kwiatek, a W.W. I veteran who remained in the U.S. Army long enough to serve in the next war and have-at the Germans all over again. His distaste for German snipers was remarkably strong.
Written four months after the allied invasion of Europe, and seven months to go until the war's end, YANK MAGAZINE published this account of the Canadian march through France and their heroic stand at the Falaise Gap.
Click here to read about the Canadian POWs who collaborated with the Nazis.
Read about the French-Canadians who resisted the draft... |