World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American

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...

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...

Content Description

This collection relates to Maydene Asbury who worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory separating Uranium-235 from Uranium-238 during World War II, which was part of the process for building the atomic bomb. This collection contains an oral history interview transcript.

Content Description

This collection relates to Nicholas Baldino who served in the U.S. Army Air Corps with the 5th and 11th Bomb Groups in the Pacific Theatre and his wife Jeanne Baldino. This collection contains an oral history transcript detailing Nicholas Baldino's military service and how Jeanne met Nicholas Baldino.

Content Description

This collection relates to Robert B. Barnick who served in the European Theater of Operations as part of the Italian campaign with the 10th Mountain Division, 604th Field Artillery. This collection includes a manuscript titled "In My Right Mind," newspaper clippings relating to his service, and photographs.

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This collection pertains to Technician Fifth Grade Zeddie P. Barron, Jr., who was stationed in Virginia, Kentucky, Ireland, Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, and Germany between 1943 and 1945. As a clerk in the 552nd Railhead Company, Barron was attached to the First Engineer Special Brigade. The collection contains personal letters sent from Barron to his wife throughout his period of service, military documents including a ration book, Barron's military record and entrance physical, as well as newspaper clippings, envelopes, and an unpublished poem by Eugene S. Masters reacting to the use of the atomic bomb.

Content Description

This collection relates to Daniel Dean Becker who served in the 110th Signal Company, 10th Mountain Division in Italy during World War II. This collection contains a veterans questionnaire and memoir entitled "Memoirs of a Signalman: 110 Signal Company, 10th Mountain Division, Italy World War II."

Scope and Contents This World War II collection relates to Gertrude Margaritte Ivory Bertram, an African American nurse who served in the U.S. Army. The collection consists of letters, photographs (depicting herself and her fellow nurses in uniform, as well as African American G.I.s, and a few photographs from her time in West Africa), personal items, books, manuscripts, newspaper clippings, and interviews. The materials mainly document Bertram's time at Fort Bragg, NC, but there is some information concerning her life before enlistment, travels during enlistment, and life after enlistment. Most of her enlistment was spent in West Africa and at Fort Bragg, NC. This collection is important, as it covers the...

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Cecil Blumenstein (served 1943-1945) discusses his experiences in the 13th Armored Division in Germany in the winter and spring of 1945. Blumenstein was captured and spent a brief period of time in a POW camp before being liberated and sent back to the front. He fought in several engagements. This collection consists of an interview transcript.

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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 related to Raymond Morton Borgman (U.S. Army 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division). Borgman served in the European Theater of Operations, first as a truck driver. The collection consists of documents related to the service of an American Army soldier, letters sent to his mother during World War II, and photographs taken during his service. The documents include his induction order, customs declaration, and discharge papers. The letters discuss his transit across the Atlantic Ocean, service in France in July 1944, and his time in hospitals in December 1944. The photographs consist of images of the soldier and his comrades during his military service.

Content Description

This collection relates to Hazel Louis Bowman who worked for the Signal Corps and lived in India with the American Red Cross for two years. Bowman's collection contains six full boxes, one oversize box, a phono records box, and two photograph boxes. Four of the boxes include letters written to and from Hazel to her parents, family, neighbors, and friends. The collection also contains an oral history transcript, newsletters and bulletins, American Red Cross publications, her diary, a book written by Bowman, photograph albums, and ephemera.

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This collection relates to Melvin Brown who served in the U.S. Army from 1941 to 1945 in the European Theatre. This collection contains an oral history transcript detailing his service and life after the war.

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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.

Content Description

This collection relates to Judie Campbell who served in the U.S. Army with the 3104 General Quartermasters attached to the 450th Engineers in the European Theater of operations during World War II. This collection contains an oral history transcript where Campbell recounts his experiences in Liverpool, England, and throughout Europe as an African African. Campbell discusses desertion, his experiences being a squad leader, his experiences with European women, other soldiers who fathered children, and his experiences with race and racism.

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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.

Content Description

This collection relates to Kenneth H. Cardwell, who served in the Army Air Corps from 1941 to 1945. The collection contains a bound memoir of Cardwell's service which details his experiences in Australia and New Guinea. Included as well in the memoir are photographs from his service, diagrams, cartoons, and Cardwell's certificate of training and service.

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This manuscript relates to Sergeant Charles Alden Haug who served with Company B, 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division during World War II in the European Theater of Operations. He was awarded the Combat Infantry Badge and Bronze Star Medal. This collection contains an unpublished manuscript memoir.

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This collection consists of an oral history interview transcript of a U.S. Army Air Corps cook and baker, who served in England during World War II in the 2003rd Ordnance Unit at Melchbourne Park. This collection also contains a unit history.

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This collection contains an oral history transcript of Staff Sergeant Charles Diedling, a flight engineer on a B-24 with the 460th Bomb Group at Spinazola, Italy. Charles Diedling discusses his training as a flight engineer and waist gunner for the B-24 at Keesler AFB, Mississippi and Loredo AFB, Texas.  In June of 1944, he was assigned to the 460th Bomb Group of the 15th Air Force in Spinazola, Italy. Diedling was shot down over Germany becoming a prisoner of war.

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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...

Content Description

This collection pertains to Francis Bryant Crews, who served as a Boatswain's Mate for the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theater during World War II. This collections contains various photographs, a two-page manuscript, and a Veteran's Questionnaire. The manuscript details Crews' duties minesweeping and assisting the Navy Photographer on and around the island of Iwo Jima. The photographs included were taken by the Navy Photographer.

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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.

Content Description

This is an oral interview transcript relates to Dwight R. Crum regarding his service with the 119th Anti-Aircraft Battalion in Europe during World War II. He was initially drafted into the 95th Coast Artillery Corps in 1941. He served at Pearl Harbor in 1942 before being transferred to the European Theater where he served as a 2nd LT with the 119th Anti-Aircraft Battalion.

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This collection relates to David Westheimer who served as a 1st Lieutenant Navigator on a B-24 Bomber with the 457th Bomb Group during World War II and was shot down over Italy where he became a POW. This collection consists of an oral history transcript of David Westheimer.

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This collection contains a transcript of an interview conducted with Stanley and Elsie Davis on June 12, 2000. Stanley Davis served in the U.S. Army in the Military Railway Service in the European Theater during World War II.  The collection also contains 6 photographs, a photocopy of Stanley and Elsie's marriage certificate, and a copy of Kaiserzeit: Journal of the Imperial German Military Collector’s Association vol. III, summer 1974.

Content Description

This collection relates to Louis Dodaro who served in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1945 in the Pacific Theatre. This collection contains an oral history transcript where Dodaro describes his military service and life after the war.

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This collection relates to Daniel Duffy who served as a U.S. Navy executive officer in the Pacific Theater during World War II. This collection contains an oral history transcript where Duffy details his experience with the U.S. Navy, the V-12 program, descriptions of his time in the Pacific theater, and the GI Bill.