Why did World War II happen? What was it like? What can we learn from it?
You may know that Colonel So-And-So’s regiment took a strategic hill on this date, a Pacific island was secured on another date, or that five of our ships were lost in the Battle of Fill-In-The-Blank Sea. The data survives, but the conflict’s human experiences have largely faded away. Generations later, countless stories of courage and sacrifice have largely been reduced to numbers and categories.
The World War II Chronicle provides readers a different take on history by publishing each day’s newspaper from 80 years ago. Today we can read an encyclopedia article or watch a show that will give us numbers, categories, and dates but that strips out the human element what it was like to experience the war. By transporting readers into the war as it happened, one day at a time, we can wrap our mind around the individual events and gain a better understanding of why events played out the way they did. Meanwhile, we can recreate some of the suspense and witness the personal side of the war experienced by our ancestors that has been lost over time.
Read as much or as little of the paper as you’d like. We will highlight certain stories along the way to analyze, bridging that 80-year gap by combining our understanding from looking back and theirs from being there. Given the tremendous scope of the war, much of the stories will be left for the reader to discover on their own.
The Chronicle works on your computer monitor, phones and other mobile devices, but you may find a tablet and a cozy chair to be the most enjoyable method. The entire newspaper is at your disposal; get lost in a historical virtual reality or just read the classified ad and comics if you want. But hopefully you will enjoy our take at re-animating World War II.
See the calendar below to begin your experience.
Click here for 1941 | 1942 | 1944 chronicles
January 1943
Februrary 1943
March 1943
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | | | |
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April 1943
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
| | | | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |
May 1943
June 1943
July 1943
August 1943
September 1943
October 1943
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
| | | | | 1 | 2 |
| 3 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 | | | | | | |
November 1943
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | | | | |
December 1943