The Stars and Stripes was a soldiers’ newspaper, published during World War II in dozens of editions from military operating theaters across the globe. The paper’s stories were written by a small staff of enlisted men or reprinted from stateside newspapers and covered items of local and international interest.
In the British Isles edition, there were reports of eagerly awaited Red Cross recreation centers opening across Northern Ireland and poems written by Army privates. In the Middle East, the paper put a humorous slant on the challenges faced by field nurses living on a houseboat in Iran. In North Africa, reporters covered the capture of the Tunisian town of Sened by American forces.
The papers were designed to boost troop morale. Ample space was devoted to American sports scores, stories about sports heroes enlisting in the army and glamour shots of Hollywood starlets.
Keep up with news from the front during World War II by reading The Stars and Stripes newspapers in the Edward L. Munson papers at UW’s American Heritage Center.
For more information, visit the American Heritage Center site.