World War, 1939-1945--United States

Scope and Contents This collection pertains to Oliver “Bud” Anderson who served as a Ship Fitter Second Class aboard the USS Clifton (IX-184) during World War II. The collection contains letters Anderson sent to his mother, father, and brother Nolan while stationed in various locations in the United States, Australia, New Guinea, the Philippines, and Japan. Anderson's letters discuss mail, his high school sweetheart, Indigenous peoples, weather, entertainment, a furlough, rationing, and training. His government documents, several menus, and reflections from 2000 on his war experiences are also included. The collection also includes letters Anderson’s brother-in-law, Boyd...

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This collection contains a manuscript memoir of Anthony Catalino's WWII service in the U.S. Army Field Artillery and staff work at Army hospitals and supply depots in North Africa and Italy.

Scope and Contents This collection includes letters written to Arnold Busch, a basketball coach for Calvary Methodist Church in Lakewood, Ohio, by the students he previously coached. Whether drafted or enlisted, many of the men kept up a correspondence with Busch throughout the war years. This collection also includes Calvary Church newsletters and pamphlets, pamphlets regarding persons registered for service, ration books and other rationing documents, and letters returned to Busch because their recipients were MIA, deceased, or relocated. Also included are photographs of Calvary Church activities on the Homefront, the basketball team, and the Calvary Church’s V-J Day service as well as a copy of an...

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The William R. Auld papers include over 800 photographs taken by Major William R. Auld who served with the 31st Photo Reconnaissance Squadron of the Ninth Army Air Force following General George S. Patton throughout the United States, England, France, and Germany.  The William R. Auld papers also include various sketches done by one of his comrades, a promotion notice, and two poems.

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This collection contains a transcript provided by the Reichelt Program for Oral History. Benjamin Epstein was a Jewish American serviceman who served in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1942-1946, and he trained at Fort Logan, Colorado. He was transported on the U.S.S. Dorchester, which was torpedoed by a German U-Boat in February 1943. He described escaping from the sinking ship and swimming to one of two lifeboats. He was picked up by the U.S.S. Escambia and taken to Greenland. He remained in Greenland until January 1945 where he was transferred to Fort Totten, New York and remained there until discharged in 1946.

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This collection relates to Harold E. Bergman's (Army Counter Intelligence Corps). The collection contains a memoir of his service. He volunteered in December 1939, spent two years in ROTC, and was later assigned as a clerk for Medical Replacement Training Center (MRTC), within the 54th Training Battalion.

Content Description

This collection relates to Archie William Birchwood who served with the U.S. Coast Guard as a border patrolman and the U.S. Merchant Marines during World War II. With the Coast Guard, Birchwood searched for illegal immigrants along the Coast of Florida between Miami and Pensacola. This collection includes an oral history transcript and supporting documents including radio licenses, salary, and a merchant passport.

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This collection contains two oral histories; one with Dr. Philip Gilman, Jr. and one with James Izumizaki. It also includes the reprint of a letter by Pvt. Lavern Borg, Jr. written on April 2, 1945. The letter tells about his experiences with the 5th Marine Division of the U.S. Marine Corp in the battle of Iwo Jima. The next document includes a service record and medallist dated June 1967, January 1969, and August 1973. A pamphlet collected by the Pajaro Valley Arts Council, California entitled Nihen Bunka Japanese Culture: One hundred years in Pajaro Valley is also in the collection.

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This collection contains one published Arma Corporation, Brooklyn, NY color lithograph World War II paper war bond cover.

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This collection relates to Corporal Robert L. Butler, who served with the U.S. Army Air Corps in the U.S., and his wife Virginia Butler. This collection contains letters sent between Robert and Virginia while he was training at six different locations from 1944 to 1945. Also included in the collection are letters to Robert from his mother Vedale Butler (née Irwin) and letters to Robert from his brother Charles. The letters are personal but some discuss Robert’s daily routine while in training. Virginia’s letters mostly discuss her day-to-day routine at home in Michigan and the lives of their friends and family.

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The collection of Arthur W. Card contains an oral history transcript of an interview conducted by or for the Institute on World War II. He discusses bringing US troops to and from Europe, as well as returning German POWs to Germany at the end of the war. He also discusses his work in the engine room (where he felt proud to be "more important" to the soldiers on the ship because they relied on his work to keep them safe) and his time ashore in Naples, Italy.

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Second Lieutenant Robert H. Cardinell served with the 65th Infantry Division in Europe during the latter part of the Second World War and the occupation forces afterward. The collection includes two manuscripts. One is entitled "65th Infantry Division." The other is titled "Battle of Struth-Roscus at Dorna." The manuscript contains recollections of the Struth-Dorna battles fought on 7 April 1945. It also contains an account and photos of a return visit to Dorna in 1988 by several members of the division. Also, the manuscript gives an account of the battles by a German participant. Both manuscripts are both about the 65th Infantry Division in the European Theater (ETO).

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The papers of Carl Lavin contains a transcript provided by the Reichelt Program for Oral History. Carl Lavin served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1946 as an infantryman in the European Theatre of Operations with the 69th Infantry Division. He operated a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) in the advance across Western Europe in 1944 to 1945, and he relates numerous anecdotes from his combat experiences.

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Charles Campbell was bombardier on a B-17 who was shot down over Linz, Austria and captured by the Germans. While in captivity, he was sent to Mauthausen concentration camp and managed to keep a journal of his experiences there. He served with the 483rd Bombardment Group. Just prior to the war's end, Campbell was transferred to an unidentified Stalag and credits this with saving his life. The collection includes reproductions of 483rd Bomb Group artwork, a statement and picture of the Mauthausen concentration camp from after the war, a World War II memoir with pictures and documents and a copy of his obituary.

Scope and Contents This collection relates to Private First Class Craig Darius Whitesell who served as an armorer with the 3rd Search Attack at Langley Field, VA during World War II. He was stationed in Atlantic City, NJ, Buckley Field, CO, Langley Field, VA, Florence, SC, and Great Bend, KS. This collection includes letters, documents, postcards, photographs, and newspaper clippings. The letters in this collection were written by Whitesell to his parents throughout his time in the Army Air Corps. His letters detail the life of a mainland armorer in the Army Air Corps, which includes training classes, KP and guard duty, and relations between privates and their superiors. He also discusses...

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Crispen Nissen served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army Air Corps with the 12th and 18th Weather Squadrons during World War II in the United States, England, North Africa, and Italy. This collection includes an original diary Nissen kept from 1941-1942, describing his daily thoughts, experiences, and observations about the general war effort. The collection also includes Vmail and handwritten letters, written by Nissen to his fiancee and future wife, Etrulia Ellis, as well as the letters she sent to him.

Scope and Contents This collection pertains to Barbara Lane Daley who served in the US Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARS) from 1944 to 1946. She was stationed at the US Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington D.C. The collection contains a photocopy of a scrapbook, photographs, newspaper clippings, ephemera, and various documents including pamphlets, postcards, menus, a restaurant placemat, and certificates. The newspaper clippings in this collection include photocopies as well as the original newspaper clippings of major U.S. events during WWII, such as President Roosevelt's death, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Japan's surrender. Daley's scrapbook includes photographs of herself, military friends, and...

Scope and Contents Deborah Gierach's collection of photographs were taken by her late father-in-law (no name given), a B-17 pilot in Europe during the Second World War. The collection consists of scanning from three photograph albums (in German) compiled and produced for the Nazi government as a means to show what the Third Reich was doing during the war. Subjects include Nazi rallies, Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Goering, soldiers, military vehicles, as well as Hitler playing with children and socializing with others. Captions are in German. Organized month to month for separate calendar years of 1939, 1940, 1942. Note: the majority of the photographs do not contain the...

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Donald Nelson served in the 59th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 6th Armored Division and the 36th Field Artillery in the European (ETO), North African, and Mediterranean Theaters. Nelson was a technician, 5th grade (medic). The collection includes a memoir of his experience covering the period January 27,1942 to October 30, 1945.

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This collection includes a manuscript description of the 161st Station Hospital, personal photographs, and other small paper ephemera related to Edna Upham who served as a U.S. Army nurse during World War II in the US American Theater with the 161st station hospital.

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Elmer Hubbard served as Radioman Second Class in the US Navy's 1st Naval Beach Battalion in the Mediterranean and European Theaters, as well as the Pacific Theater aboard the U.S.S. Buckingham attack ship during World War II. Hubbard participated in the amphibious landings at Anzio, Salerno, and Southern France. The collection consists of original wartime transcribed, typed, and mimeographed letters from original handwritten letters Hubbard wrote to his parents.

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Ernest Hubacker served in the U.S. Army in the United States and in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater. The collection includes a manuscript entitled One Veteran's Remembrance of WWII. It also includes photocopies of documents relating to induction and discharge as well as a photograph of Hubacker on an Army horse dated 1943.

The manuscript gives his account of his experiences in Myitina, his time as he kept watch in foxholes, the sneak attacks on soldiers, and the sanitation and ration situations. He discusses his involvement in battles in India and China as well.

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Essie Nirider served in the Army in the 2nd Infantry in the Atlantic and European (ETO) Theaters during World War II. The collection contains a diary titled "2nd Infantry in Iceland: A Diary," which covers the time period for the year 1942 when Nirider served in Iceland with the 2nd Infantry, in which he rose from private to corporal. The collection also includes a 66-page manuscript entitled "World War II Reflections" about time with the Army in the Atlantic and European Theaters. Also included is a summary of the 5th Infantry's activities in the pages of "Diamond Dust."

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This collection contains the oral history interview of Lieutenant Colonel Everett Walker conducted by the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience. Walker was forced to bail out very near the target on his eighteenth mission as a bombardier and gunner on a B-24. He discusses his rescue from the water, his interrogation experience and the conditions of his internment. He also talks about the many different escape attempts made by the American POWs at Stalag Luft III.

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This collection relates to Ensign Madison D. Farnum, a staff member for the commander of the Amphibious Forces, U.S. Pacific Fleet during World War II. Farnum participated in the campaigns for Iwo Jima, Saipan, and Okinawa. Farnum was assigned on the Flagship USS Eldorado under Admiral R.K.Turner in the South Pacific Theater 1944-1945. The collection includes photographs, documents, and letters.

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This collection relates to Celia Shanker Fine who served as a secretary at the Department of Agriculture on the Home Front in Washington, DC, during WWII. She was a typist and stenographer for the school lunch program, and her collection reflects her viewpoint as a Jewish-American civilian.

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The collection of Francis I.G. Coleman contains an oral history transcript of an interview conducted by or for the Institute on World War II. Coleman served in the European Theater (ETO). He briefly discusses his childhood and the Depression. Coleman frequently discusses politics in his interview. During his service, and discussed in his interview, he was witness to the treatment of Axis POWs, and French treatment of Arabs/subject peoples, Halifax bombing runs, French police, traitors, executions, ambushing German convoys along the Rhone River, and the liberation of France.

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This collection contains the oral history interview of Frank Turosik conducted by Jack Sigler on January 2, 2004. Turosik served as a combat engineer in the Pacific theater of war.

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This collection relates to Fred H. Taeger who entered active service in the US Army on March 10, 1943. Taeger was stationed at Camp Forrest, TN where he worked as a German interpreter with the intelligence section of the prisoner of war (POW) area and directed interrogations of the German POWs. During this time, Taeger collected 65 drawings and paintings completed by German POWs. In addition to the artwork, the collection includes personal photographs and Taeger's discharge papers.

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This collection contains the personal letters of Technical Sergeant Frederick Lawler to his wife, Marion, and daughter Mary Ann. Lawler served in the US Army Air Corps between June 1943 and April 1945, first as an instructor of demolitions and then later as an aircraft mechanic. Lawler served in the Pacific Theater during World War II in New Guinea and the Philippine Islands.