From Feb. 8, 1918, to June 13, 1919, by order of Gen. John Joseph Pershing, the U.S. Army published a newspaper for its forces in France, "The Stars and Stripes." When "The Stars and Stripes" began publication, American forces were dispersed throughout the Western Front, often mixed at the unit level with British, French and Italian forces. The newspaper's mission was to provide these scattered troops with a sense of unity and an understanding of their part in the overall war effort. The eight-page weekly featured news from home, sports news, poetry and cartoons, with a staff that included journalists Alexander Woollcott, Harold Ross, and Grantland Rice. Printing the paper on presses borrowed from Paris newspaper plants, the staff used a network of trains, automobiles and a motorcycle to deliver the news to the doughboys (as the American soldiers were called). At the peak of its production, "The Stars and Stripes" had a circulation of 526,000 readers. |
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The newspaper began during the Civil War as a resource for Union troops. It was then published during World Wars I and II, and has since been published continuously since 1942 in Europe and 1945 in the Pacific. The complete 71-week run of the newspaper's World War I edition is online in "The Stars and Stripes: The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919". In the "Special Presentation" called "A Closer Look at The Stars and Stripes," advertisements, soldier-written material, sports, and women and the war effort are highlighted. The section also includes a World War I timeline and historical map that you can zoom in on to get en even closer look. |
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