Description

This is Signal magazine, Issue Nr. 2, 1945.

44 pages scanned.

The tone is even more desperate than Issue Nr. 1. The cover shows German soldiers in winter combat, projecting defiance while Allied forces were closing in on Germany from both east and west. The contents reflect a regime in its final weeks: heavy political commentary attacking the Yalta Conference and Allied post-war planning, framing the war as a civilizational struggle for European independence against both American capitalism and Soviet communism; continued coverage of the Eastern Front presented as heroic defensive fighting; domestic human-interest features projecting normalcy and resilience; and technical military content on new weapons and tactics.

The magazine still carried advertisements for German consumer brands — Mercedes-Benz, Siemens, Pelikan — a surreal juxtaposition against the reality of a country being bombed into rubble.

Content:
Facts speak for themselves – 10 workers’ families in the sixth year of war
Standardized impoverishment – the goal of allied terror bombing
A building in Koeln and an American terror pilot
Political soldiers in Europe; text by Cornelius v. d. Horst; photo of SS Leon Degrelle at water fountain
The USA after elections – the end phase of Roosevelt; text by Gisehler Wirsing
Large color photo of SDKfz234 Puma, 8-wheeled armed reconnaissance vehicle; photo by war correspondent Hanns Hubmann
Captured allied gliders and drop containers with red, blue and yellow parachutes; photos by war correspondent Rieder
Italian Front; the war of meters and its masters; text by Ralf Ruehle
The Soldbuch nr 80 of Oberleutnants Langer now at Italian front
German speed boats; text and photos by Leutnant Fritz Boeltz
The every day life of German workers and their families
Color photo of a German family playing music
Kids watching a Muppet play
Dorndorf
Elin
Medicine against Civilization; text by Dr. Heinz Graupner
Hertha Feiler
Drawing by Hans Juergen