Dr. Jerry SansonLouisiana Maneuvers and Military MuseumNovember 2025 Thanksgiving dinner, Italy, 1944. https://www.wwiimemorialfriends.org/blog/thanksgiving-1944 World War II affected virtually every aspect of life in the United States including holiday celebrations. Some holidays became occasions to promote the war effort as when characters wearing Mardi Gras dress roamed Canal Street in New Orleans selling war bonds in […]

Reforming the Country’s Morals Dr. Jerry Sanson Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum November 2025 Louisiana residents generally maintained a good relationship with Army planners and the thousands of troops sent to the Pelican State for training during World War II. One of the reasons the Army chose Central Louisiana as the site of the Louisiana […]

Dr. Jerry Sanson Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum November 2025 The Lewis machine gun is often identified with the British Army which used it in large numbers during World War I. It was, however, developed by an American who offered it first to the United States Armed Forces whose leadership turned down the offer because […]

Dr. Jerry Sanson Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum October 2025 The development and use of tanks during World War I opened a new arms race in which the United States fell behind during the post-war years. The U.S. fell so far behind that Poland was able to field approximately 700 armored vehicles when German tanks […]

Dr. Jerry Sanson Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum October 2025 Even though the U.S. Army and other military forces involved in World War I used vehicles of many different types, World War II was the first truly mechanized war. A collection of Camp Beauregard Quartermaster Corps records from 1941 in the Louisiana Maneuvers and Military […]

The battleship USS Missouri is best known as the site of the surrender ceremony during which Japanese and Allied officials signed the document that ended World War II, but its fighting life had just begun as it lay anchored in Tokyo Bay that early September morning in 1945. The Missouri was a relatively new ship; […]

Dr. Jerry Sanson Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum An American propaganda poster from World War II featured an image of Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto and a quote attributed to him: “I am looking forward to dictating peace to the United States in the White House at Washington.” The Instrument of Surrender that ended the biggest […]

Dr. Jerry Sanson Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum Above: Japanese Flag from Hiroshima Even though Americans celebrated the end of World War II and the imminent return home of their loved ones when Japan surrendered, some raised questions about the unconventional weapons that led to the speedy conclusion of the war. Louisiana newspaper editorial writers […]

Dr. Jerry Sanson Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum Louisiana residents looked forward hopefully to the end of World War II between Germany’ surrender on 6 May 1945 (Louisiana time), and Japan’s surrender on 15 August. Many of them thought about the consumer goods that would be available once again when the conflict was over. The […]

Dr. Jerry Sanson Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum As we begin the month of August that commemorates the 80th anniversary of the physical end of World War II, (the official Japanese surrender ceremony did not occur until September 2) it is worth thinking back about how enormous that conflict was and the cost in human […]