Rhine River

Scope and Contents

The collection of Alvin Dinsmore White consists of three letters and a V-mail written by Army officer Jim White of the 42nd "Rainbow" Infantry Division during World War II.  Also, in the collection is a news article and email describing his two other family members' actions during the war. Fort Benning, Georgia, and Rotenberg, Austria are the two discernible locations where Jim wrote his letters.

Scope and Contents Private First Class Jack Appel's oral history transcript details his life before and during World War II where he served with the 17th Signal Operations Battalion in the United States Army in the European Theater of Operations. His oral history elaborates on his early life, contracting Spinal Meningitis, completing basic training, trying to apply to Officer Candidate School, becoming a driver/messenger, arriving in Europe, landing at Normandy, traveling through France Belgium, and Germany, witnessing Battle of the Bulge, visiting the concentration camp Buchenwald, interacting with civilians, gambling on leave, the discharge point system, returning home, and his experiences with...

Scope and Contents

Eugene S. Brown served as a member of the 78th Infantry Division in the European Theater during World War II. He served from 1943-1946. His unit arrived in France in November of 1944. He performed duties as a runner and a jeep driver for his unit. This collection contains a transcript from an interview conducted June 7, 2000.

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.

Scope and Contents

Henry Loewenthal served in the U.S. Army with the 645th Battalion, 45th Division, II Army Corps, 7th Army, in the North African, Mediterranean, and European (ETO) Theaters. This collection consists of a 77-page manuscript written in 1995 entitled "World War II - A Soldier Remembers" by Loewenthal on his experiences during the war. The memoir begins with his memories as a Jewish American Serviceman at the beginning of the war in Europe and continues through V-J Day.

Scope and Contents

This collection contains a transcript of an oral history interview with Lyle Salisbury who served with the 537th Engineer Light Pontoon Company during World War II in the European Theater from 1944 to January 1946.

He describes seeing the small Regen and Cham concentration camps. He also discusses the camaraderie with German civilians after the war was better than it was with the French.

Scope and Contents

The Sergeant Robert L. Wilson transcript describes his experiences as a truck driver in the 63rd Infantry Division in France and Germany during World War II. Wilson describes his basic training, the poor leadership among his officers, the backgrounds of his comrades, German civilians, traveling from city to city, losing supplies, the Allied victory, seeing Dachau, the Nuremberg Trials, coming home, and resuming his education at Duke University.

Scope and Contents

This collection relates to Private First Class Roger Luther Peters who served with the 1143rd Engineer Combat Group in the European Theater during World War II. The collection contains three short memoirs.

Scope and Contents The collection of Carlton K. Smith, who served with the 185th Field Artillery during World War II, contains an oral history transcript of an interview provided by the Reichelt Program for Oral History.  This collection also contains a World War II history magazine, correspondence with French General Pierre Denis, summaries of unit actions, personal letters to family, newspaper clippings, unit newsletters, a binder with photocopies of newspaper articles, and one copy of Liberty's Victorious Conflict: A Photographic History of the World War I. In the oral history interview, Smith discusses the combat situations in which he was involved including the...