greatest generation

American black widow spiders bring victory in World War I and II →

Few people are aware of how black widow spiders contributed to the World War II effort, but they had a significant impact. In fact, a LIFE magazine article published on August 30thof 1943 credited each of several government employed arachnids with spinning between 100 and 180 feet of thread a week (1). This thread was then used to make cross hairs in the gunsights of U.S. Army instruments of war.

Didn’t believe it until I read the article. Awesome!

Read more from the Columbus Dispatch and the American Surveyor.

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As a World War II veteran, Bea Cohen has spent more than 70 years of her 102-year-old life giving back to the United States and supporting the American military. She collected black widow spiders and sent them to the University of Southern California so that their strong webs could be used in the crosshairs in the sites of submarine periscopes during the Second World War. She also expressed her patriotism by working at Douglas Aircraft Company and becoming a “Rosie the Riveter,” - a national icon during the war as women entered the workforce, and one of the thousands of female factory workers who contributed to the war effort by producing munitions and war supplies. Ms. Cohen wanted to give more to the country who gave her and her family their newfound freedom. She believes that immigrants have made America what it is today; and veterans are carrying on what immigrants began.

So Ms. Cohen left Douglas Aircraft Company and joined the U.S. Army. She traveled all over the United States and was assigned for service overseas. During her stay in Stone, England, she witnessed history in the making - American planes on their way to invade Normandy.

As Private First Class Abrams assigned in Elveden, England, about 90-miles from London, Ms. Cohen worked in the communications department with top-secret mimeographed documents, kitchen patrol and relieved the stress of being in the military by singing in a choir and playing in an all female baseball team, a sport she loves.

She hopes people will remember the service of Women Veterans, who were pilots, doctors, dentists, clerks, nurses and much more. She believes that there isn’t anything a woman cannot do. (via Local Hero: Bea Cohen | KCET)

From Citizen to Enemy: The Tragedy of Japanese Internment →

Although World War II is covered in most school curricula, the story of American citizens who were stripped of their civil liberties here, on American soil, during that war is often omitted. Yet what happened to first-generation Japanese immigrants, or Issei, and second-generation Japanese Americans, or Nisei, during World War II, is critically important to understanding the intensity of feelings prompted by the attack on Pearl Harbor and to assessing the impact of that war on our nation.

Another great essay over at Gilder Lehrman!

Every Citizen a Soldier: World War II Posters on the American Home Front →

World War II posters helped to mobilize a nation. Inexpensive, accessible and ever-present, the poster was an ideal agent for making victory the personal mission of every citizen. Government agencies, businesses, and private organizations issued an array of poster images, linking the military front with the home front and calling upon every American to boost production at work and at home. Deriving their appearance from the fine and commercial arts and expressing the needs and goals of the people who created them, posters conveyed more than simple slogans.

Great essay over at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History!

German newsreel about the invasion of Normandy

"Our citizens can now rejoice that a momentous victory is in the making. Perhaps we will be forgiven if we claim we are about midway to our objective."

—

Admiral Chester Nimitz

June 1942

(Source: worldwar-2.net)

I’m proud of my two soldiers

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An ecstatic group of girls celebrating news of Germany’s surrender in the streets of London.