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Introduction

Taken mainly from the book 'Service Newspapers of the Second World War' by Michael Anglo, Jupiter, London 1977, this selection of predominantly British Empire and some US publications covered both local theatre/command news and the war world-wide. Most were issued free. Unfortunately there appear to have been few purely naval magazines.

Apart from such major national, theatre and service magazines and newspapers as these, there were also hundreds of individual ship, unit, squadron newspapers ranging all the way down to handwritten wall newsheets.

If you happen to own or find such 'ephemera' - my only collection is an incomplete set of the British 'Neptune for Merchant Seamen' - they give a interesting insight in to the Second World War.

Gordon Smith 

 

 

 
     


AUSTRALIAN

 

Armed Forces - Mediterranean 'A.I.F. News' - For Australians forces serving in North Africa
Armed Forces - Pacific 'Guinea Gold' - Published in Port Moresby for Australians serving and fighting in New Guinea against the Japanese. American edition of 'Guinea Gold' also produced for US troops and flown daily to Buna, Gona and Milne Bay
Army - Mediterranean 'Tobruk Truth' - Newspaper produced in February 1941. Described as the father of Desert papers. Started by and edited by Australian Bill Williams, early copies printed on the back of captured Italian army forms (latter information supplied by his great-nephew Tim Condron, 24/9/04)

 

BRITISH

 

Air Force 'Royal Air Force' - Official fortnightly magazine
Air Force 'TEE EMM'  - for the RAF. First copy issued April 1941. Introduced Pilot Officer Prune [who did everything wrong] and also introduced the Order of the Irremovable Digit (thanks to David Hamilton. Click this and following images for enlargements).
Air Force 'Evidence in Camera' - not exactly a service magazine in the usual meaning of the word, but it was a regular RAF issue (with thanks to David Hamilton - "I got them from my father who was RAF, and RNAS in WW1)
Air Force - Mediterranean 'Royal Air Force Journal, Middle East Edition' - Number 20 by 27th February 1943
Armed Forces 'Blighty' - Published in London from late 1940. On sale to the public but distributed free to British forces abroad including the Royal Navy
Armed forces - Africa 'Jambo, Magazine for the Services in East Africa', East Africa Command magazine for all three services and for East African troops serving outside the Command. Published in Nairobi, Kenya. Price 50 cents. Still in circulation February 1944
Armed forces - Africa 'Review' - East Africa Command. More serious fortnightly publication which included advertising to offset production costs
Armed Forces - Asia 'Ceylon Review, Ceylon's Weekly Journal for the Royal Navy, Army, R.A.F, Merchant Navy and Civil Defence Services'. Initiated in late 1942 by Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton, C-in-C Ceylon (Shri Lanka). No 15 Vol V by October 7 1944
Armed Forces - Asia 'Contact' - Newspaper published fortnightly for British servicemen in India and Ceylon. Vol 2, No 72 by 12 April 1945
Armed Forces - Asia 'Phoenix' - South East Asia theatre
Armed Forces - Asia 'SEAC, The Services Newspaper of South East Asia Command'. The editor, 2nd Lt Frank Owen late editor of the London 'Evening Standard' was given complete editorial freedom by Admiral Mountbatten, SEAC C-in-C. Printed by 'The Statesman' in Calcutta. Edition No 291 of Thursday 26 October 1944 was priced at One Anna and headlined the Battles of Leyte Gulf that started the previous Monday. Special SEAC edition included 'Laugh with Seac'
Armed Forces - Asia 'Victory, Service Copy', Indian Command weekly magazine, Price 4 Annas
Armed Forces - Mediterranean 'Parade' - Middle East theatre weekly
Armed Forces - Mediterranean 'Parade, Middle East Weekly', Price 15 mills, 20 mills in Palestine. First published in Cairo, Egypt August 1940 and later published in Arabic, Greek, Polish and Turkish. Edition No 46 Vol 4 by June 28 1941.

The Christmas Number dated December 18 1943 had reached No 175, Vol 14. The cover page also indicates the wide circulation (and range of prices) - Egypt PT 2, Cyrenaica PT 2, Cyprus 4 1/2 Pts, Eritrea 55 Cents, Iran 3 1/2 Rials, Italy 10 Lire, Lebanon 30 S Pts, Malta 6d, Palestine 25 Mils (up 5 Mils!), Sicily 10 Lire, Sudan 20 Mills, Syria 30 S Pts, Transjordan 25 Mils, Tripolitania 12 M A Lire, Turkey 10 Krs

Armed Forces - Mediterranean 'Union Jack' - British Army newspaper amalgamated with 'Eighth Army News' and first published in Tunis in September 1943. Appeared three times weekly, but then became the 'Daily Newspaper for the British Fighting Services'. Later editions included Western Italy, Eastern Italy, Central Italy, and Greece. Edition No 42 by July 31 1944 cost Two Lire. Special twelve-Page issue Christmas Issue 1944 was issued free.
Army 'Soldier' - First produced fortnightly for Gen Montgomery's 21st Army Group by the War Office from early 1945 in Brussels. Still published for the British Army 55 years later.
Army - Mediterranean 'Crusader, Eighth Army Weekly Issued to the Fighting Forces in the desert', North Africa. First published in May 1942, No 21, Vol 2 by September 21, 1942
Army - Mediterranean 'Eighth Army News' - North Africa
Army - Officer Cadets 'Battle Dress, The Cadet Magazine' - OCTU (Officer Cadet Training Unit) magazine published in Aldershot, England. Price 1/-, No. 2 by February 1940
Merchant Navy 'Neptune, for Merchant Seamen', attractive and well illustrated magazine that ended with edition E.N. 62 mid-1945. Interesting War Diary concludes with request to 'pass on details to any shipmate who cannot read English'
Navy 'Barbary News' - Royal Navy news-sheet
Navy 'Navy, The' - Official publication for the Royal Navy produced by the Navy League
Navy 'Flight Deck'  - Fleet Air Arm. Start date uncertain; includes October 1944 Vol 1, No 3. Last one January1946. Semi-official, classified Restricted which was red tape, everybody had them. A mixture of Service news, safety advice, humour, letters from personnel etc. (thanks to David Hamilton).
Navy - Asia 'Brand Flash' - Published by Lt J C Andrews RNVR in an old railway shed at Port Swettenham, Malaya within 24 hours of the naval landing in 1945
Navy - Pacific 'Pacific Post' - Daily newspaper for the British Pacific Fleet published in Sydney from August 1945. Described as the 'first paper written, edited and printed by men of the Navy for men in the Navy'.

 

CANADIAN

 

Armed forces 'Canadian Press News' - Four page weekly published in London for Canadian forces overseas starting in May 1942, just three months before so many Canadian troops were lost in the Dieppe raid
Armed forces 'Maple Leaf' - Published from January 1944 for Canadian forces in Italy. Later in 1944 also produced in Caen, France for Canadian armed forces on the Western Front

 

INDIAN

 

Armed Forces 'Fauji Akhbar ('Soldiers Newspaper') - English language magazine for all Indian servicemen with circulation from Persia and North West Frontier to Ceylon and Burma. Included Indian Navy pages.

 

NEW ZEALAND

 

Army - Mediterranean 'New Zealand Times' - For NZ troops in Italy

 

SOUTH AFRICAN

 

Armed Forces - Mediterranean 'Springbok' - for South African forces in the Middle East, first published in Cairo October 1941

 

UNITED STATES

 

Air Force 'Air Force Magazine' - USAAF magazine
Armed Forces - Asia 'C.B.I. Roundup, India - Burma Theater' - US weekly newspaper for US forces in China, Burma and India. Vol III, No 31 by April 12 1945. Published in Delhi
Armed Forces - Britain 'Stars and Stripes, Weekly Newspaper of the U.S Armed Forces in the British Isles', Price 3d - Vol 2 No 2 by April 25 1942. Published in London, England
Army 'Army Motors' - US Army Ordnance magazine
Army 'Yank, The Army Weekly' - By the men .. for the men in the service' for the US Army. British edition cost 3d and reached Vol 1, No 39 by Mar 14, 1943. Vol 1, No 31 of Jan 17 1943 was a 'Navy Issue' with a lovely overhead cover shot of cruiser 'San Franciso' arriving in SF after being damaged in the Guadalcanal area
Navy 'Bureau of Naval Personnel Magazine'


 

GERMAN

 

Army 'Die Wehrmacht, Herausgegeben vom Oberkommando der Wehrmacht', 5th Year Nr 17 by 16 August 1944 - German Army magazine. Published in Berlin.
Army 'Signal' - German Army (Wehrmacht) glossy magazine, circulated throughout occupied Europe. One interesting painting shows Italian Bersaglieri troops with their distinctive feathered helmets attacking Russian bunkers on the Eastern Front.

 

JAPANESE

 

Military - Asia 'Syonan Shimbun' - Japanese single sheet English language newspaper by the Japanese military printed in Singapore on the presses of the 'Straits Times'

 

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revised  5/12/10