The Stars & Stripes, London Edition

This description of Stars and Stripes was excerpted from Wikipedia online and gives a good overview of the history of the publication as it relates to World War II. The collection below belonged to William H. Feeser (Assistant Crew Chief and Airplane Inspector / 367th Bomb Squadron, 306th Bomb Group at Thurleigh, England) and was donated by his son, Bill. The originals will be deposited in the 306th Bomb Group Historical Collection held by the Mighty Eighth Memorial Museum in Pooler, Georgia. These digital copies are offered for research purposes by the Feeser family.

Stars and Stripes is an American newspaper that reports on matters affecting the members of the United States Armed Forces. It operates from inside the Department of Defense, but is editorially separate from it, and its First Amendment protection is safeguarded by the United States Congress, to whom an independent ombudsman, who serves the readers’ interests, regularly reports. The newspaper has its headquarters in Washington, D.C.

During World War II, the newspaper was printed in dozens of editions in several operating theaters. Again, both newspapermen in uniform and young soldiers, some of whom would later become important journalists, filled the staffs and showed zeal and talent in publishing and delivering the paper on time. Some of the editions were assembled and printed very close to the front in order to get the latest information to the most troops. Also, during the war, the newspaper published the 53-book series G.I. Stories.

After Bill Mauldin did his popular “Willie and Joe” cartoons for the WWII Stars and Stripes, he returned home to a successful career as an editorial cartoonist and two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Former Stars and Stripes staffers also include 60 Minutes’ Andy Rooney and Steve Kroft, songwriter and author Shel Silverstein, comic book illustrator Tom Sutton, author Ralph G. Martin, painter and cartoonist Paul Fontaine, author and television news correspondent Tony Zappone, cartoonist Vernon Grant (A Monster Is Loose in Tokyo), Hollywood photographer Phil Stern and the late stock market reporter and host of public television’s Wall Street Week, Louis Rukeyser.

A photograph in Stars and Stripes loosely inspired the exploits of PFC Jack Agnew in the 1965 novel and the 1967 film, The Dirty Dozen.

The newspaper has been published continuously in Europe since 1942 and in the Pacific since 1945.