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 firsthand.

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in World War II magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

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 80,000 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 March/April 2010 issue: Nothing Seemed the Same After the Battle of the Bulge—Even Snow
When Frank J. Conwell was a child, wintry conditions meant frolicking outside in the snow. But in the frozen forests of the Ardennes, where much of the Battle of the Bulge occurred, the conditions meant something else altogether… Read Entire Article.

From the January/February 2010 issue: Patrick Hitler Makes a Case to Fight the Reich
William Patrick Hitler, the half-English nephew of Adolf, arrived in the United States from Germany in March 1939, and promptly began exploiting his infamous last name on a paid speaking tour—revealing, as one advertisement trumpeted, "the sensational truth about the leaders of Nazi Germany." But his first attempt to register for military service was denied because of his kinship to his more famous uncle. After war was declared Hitler, then 29, appealed directly to the president in his effort to join the U.S. military… Read Entire Article.

From the November 2009 issue: A Pilot's Family Finds a Gift at the End of a Long Wait
"It is now the 26th of the month and I still have received no word," Lt. Don W. Moore wrote to his wife Doris in August 1943 from England. "I am kind of beginning to wonder a little bit." The newly married couple was expecting a child, and the 25-year-old B-17 pilot from Toledo, Ohio, could hardly wait. Don's son, Douglas, was born almost two weeks later on September 7, 1943—the same day Doris received a message from the War Department informing her that Don was missing in action. Now she was the one nervously waiting for news… Read Entire Article.

From the September 2009 issue: An Army Nurse Describes a Deadly Attack on a Hospital Ship
An estimated 460 American women died as a result of their service in World War II. In 1943, U.S. Army nurse Vera Lee came close to being one of them. On September 9, Allied forces launched a ferocious six-day invasion of Salerno, Italy. Lee was with the 95th Evacuation Hospital in the Gulf of Salerno, aboard the hospital ship for the Eighth Army, the HMHS Newfoundland, which was attempting to deliver nurses to the Salerno beaches. Although the white ship bore giant red crosses and was brightly illuminated at night, the Luftwaffe repeatedly bombed it, killing six nurses and all medical officers aboard, and damaging the ship to such an extent that the Allies had no choice but to scuttle it on September 14. Ten weeks later Lee wrote to her family in Lewellen, Nebraska, to describe the attack and how lucky she was to be alive… Read Entire Article.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to