War Letters: World War II Letters from the Legacy Project

By Andrew Carroll | World War II  | 2 comments  |  Print This Post  |  Email This Post

The "War Letters" department of World War II magazine features letters written from the battlefields and the homefront, prepared for our readers by Andrew Carroll to honor and to provide insight into the generation who knew the war first hand.

Andrew Carroll is the editor of several New York Times bestsellers, including Behind the Lines and War Letters, which was the basis of the critically acclaimed PBS documentary of the same name. He is the founder of the Legacy Project, a national, all-volunteer initiative that honors U.S. troops and veterans by preserving their letters and e-mails. To date, the Legacy Project has received more than eighty thousand never-before-seen correspondences from every war in American history. He has received, among other accolades, the DAR’s Medal of Honor and The Order of Saint Maurice, bestowed by the National Infantryman’s Association.

If you have a World War II letter you would like to share, please send a copy (not originals) to the Legacy Project, PO Box 53250, Washington, DC 20009, or e-mail WarLettersUS@aol.com.

From the November 2008 issue: Sure, War is Hell – But Just Try Writing a Love Letter.
Crafting the perfect love letter can be difficult under any circumstance, but for normally stoic GIs, the muse could be especially uncooperative. Newly married William Waldeck, a machinist’s mate who served on the USS Baldwin, found this to be the case when he struggled to write an affectionate missive to his wife Mary after leaving for naval training in the spring of 1943. Waldeck ultimately relied on his somewhat mischievous—and gently bawdy—sense of humor to get him out of the pinch. The letter is undated but believed to have been written in March 1943. Read Entire Article.

From the September 2008 issue: Welcome Home. Now Brace Yourself . . .
As American troops over the years returned to the States following lengthy tours overseas, the culture shock that many of them experienced has become the subject of widely circulated humorous letters. One recent e-mail offered advice to the spouses of troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan on helping their loved ones acclimate to a more comfortable — although potentially disorienting — life back home . . . Read Entire Article

From the July 2008 issue: Words of Reassurance from a Brutal Front
Just two months after the Battle of Guadalcanal, twenty-five-year-old Arthur W. Hodan, a sergeant in the Americal Division, handwrote a sixteen-page eyewitness account of his regiment’s fight to take Hill 27. Hodan had the letter smuggled home to his parents in Cicero, Illinois; in it, he describes in vivid detail what he and his men endured . . . Read  Entire  Article

From the April/May 2008 issue: A Soldier Strips the Romance Out of Life at War
Military censorship and a desire not to worry loved ones at home kept most troops from disclosing the strains and hardships they faced in battle. But when they heard stories of war fatigue on the home front or sensed that the public did not fully grasp the enormity of combatants’ and civilians’ suffering, a spark of frustration could emerge . . . Read Entire Article

From the March 2008 issue: An Immigrant’s Plea to a Powerful Man
The plight of Japanese immigrants and Japanese American citizens interned in the 1940s is well known. But German and Italian immigrants in the United States also faced possible internment, relocation, travel restrictions, and property confiscation . . . Read Entire Article

From the January/February 2008 issue: A Chaplain’s Saga of Love, Valor, and Loss
Valentine’s Day was fast approaching, and Alexander Goode wanted to make certain that his beloved, Theresa Flax, received his letter in time. Goode would go on to become a legendary figure in World War II as one of the four “Immortal Chaplains,” . . . Read Entire Article

From the December 2007 issue: ‘Life Gave Me a Christmas Present a Couple of Hours Ago’
For servicemen and women far from their loved ones during war, holidays often prompt mixed emotions. Thoughts of friends and family gathered together trigger fond memories, but they can also make the troops all the more homesick. . . . Read Entire Article

From the November 2007 issue: A Soldier’s Death Far from the Field of Battle
Thousands of American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines lost their lives in World War II during training exercises, their sacrifices often overlooked. On August 28, 1944, a woman in Quincy, Washington, Mrs. W. C. Grigg, witnessed one of these casualties firsthand . . . Read Entire Article

From the October 2007 issue: A Combat Nurse’s Exhausting Sorrows, Unexpected Joys
Army nurse June Wandrey stood five feet two inches tall with, in her words, “finely honed muscles that were dynamite ready.” That forceful spirit was evident in her wartime letters as well; Wandrey did not mince phrases
. . . Read Entire Article

From the September 2007 issue: A Downed Navigator Flees for His Life Behind Enemy Lines
“My darling Cornie — This is my first letter to you in almost five weeks!” twenty-three-year-old Lt. Richard G. Fowler, a U.S. Army Air Forces navigator from Minnesota, wrote to his wife Cornelia on May 25, 1944. “And I’m writing it not knowing when I’ll be able to mail it, since believe it or not, I’m behind enemy lines . . ." Read Entire Article

From the July/August 2007 issue: Two Letters Frame the Moment Paradise Lost Its Innocence
“There is a pineapple field right outside our window,” twenty-four-year-old Guy Bair wrote in an October 17, 1941, letter to his mother, describing a lush island oasis of palm trees, tropical flowers, and cloud-encircled mountains . . ." Read Entire Article

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