World War II Resources in the Special Collections Research Center

This collection relates to Albert Raymond, an American who was one of the organizers of the Volunteer Ambulance Corps in France and was captured by German troops on May 15, 1940. It includes his recollections, family correspondence, newspaper clippings, and photographs. An inventory is available in the SCRC (Mss 1995.64).

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of this William and Mary alumnus who became a surgeon at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. One box includes his correspondence during World War II from the Pacific theater, where he commanded a military hospital. An inventory is available in the SCRC (Mss 91 K83).

Three Blizzard brothers wrote regular letters home to their mother and sister in West Virginia. By the war’s end, Arthur was a first sergeant, Russell a technical sergeant, and Arlie (who entered as a private) a captain, all in the army. None saw much combat, but the letters do provide a lot of details about training and work in combat support units during their service in World War II (Mss 2007.28).

Lowance was an Army counterintelligence officer during World War II. The collection includes papers relating to his military career, including correspondence with his wife Elizabeth Austin Lowance. An inventory is available in the SCRC (Mss 94 L95).

Mary Coleman, wife of Williamsburg mayor George Coleman, wrote frequently to her dear friend Julia Tyler Wilson, during the war, commenting on the war and providing news of friends and relatives’ military service and events in Williamsburg, such as the 1945 escape of German POWs from Camp Peary.

1943-1945: diary of a soldier who served as an interpreter for the U.S. Army describing his experiences through France, Beligium, and Germany, including the work of the engineering battalion he accompanied and his own work interrogating prisoners and locals (SC 00901).

1918-1981, include numerous World War II-era letters revealing starins on the home front, as Henry gets his training as a chiropractor and joins the military (Mss Acc 2008.31).

Recht was stationed outside of Williamsburg for much of the war and wrote his wife virtually every day. An inventory is available in the SCRC (Mss 2001.31).

Among the papers is a notebook with Morpurgo’s commentary and observations about his wartime experiences in the British military, where he attained a rank of lieutenant colonel. In addition, there are poems he wrote while in the military during the war. Morpurgo was the first British citizen to graduate from William and Mary since the American Revolution (Mss .2000 M67).

The papers include 148 letters from Emily Janney at “Roaring Springs” in Gloucester County to her brother, Lt. Cmdr. Samuel Janney, while he served in the Navy in the North African and Sicilian campaigns. Another 13 letters are to other people who were serving in the military. The letters recount the situation in wartime Gloucester (Mss 1996.7).

The son of a William and Mary professor, Admiral John Lesslie Hall, Jr. served in major campaigns throughout World War II. The collection includes material relating to Operations Torch, Big Husky, Avalanche, Neptune/Overlord, as well as his work with the USO, the Naval War College, the Army War College, and the Armed Forces Staff College. There is an inventory available in the SCRC (Mss 78 H14).

This collection includes letters written by Robert Johnson (William and Mary Class of 1933) to his parents in Williamsburg during World War II (Mss 1998.33)

Among the papers is a typescript account of the Battle of Midway by Joseph P. Pollard, a flight surgeon in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps. (SC 01195)

Among the papers are 82 items relating to an egg project for the war effort, run by Mary Cheek at “Faraway Farm,” the Cheeks’ property in western North Carolina (Mss 98 C41).

A nurse in the China-Burma theater wrote these letters to her aunt and uncle, 1942-1945 (.SC 01198)

This collection includes diaries, class notes, photos, and an “Aircraft Warning Service” armband (UA 5.005).

Switzer was a nurse during World War II, landing in France one week after D-Day. This collection includes letters to and from Switzer as well as photographs. The collection was being processed at the time this guide was created (Mss 2006.65).

Thirteen letters; 1942-1944; written by Polish-Lithuanian Princess and émigré Mathilda Bornemisza de Kaszon Sapieha-Kodenski (b. 1894) while residing in the United States during World War II. Her outgoing correspondence written from Pennsylvania and Florida document the perspective of a Polish émigré during the wartime period. In great detail her letters express distaste for Bolshevism, Nazism, the fate of Poland, the lack of Allied help given to Poland, emerging details about the Nazi Holocaust, and her life in the United States (Mss 2007.77).

1928-1943, the final diary includes Decker's World War II experiences in an artillery unit on the home front (Mss Acc 2008.131)

1942-1953: This Virginia woman wrote brief entries about the War, especially the particpation of her son, who was in the Army Air Corps serving in Italy (Mss 2009.531).

This collection has twenty letters from Nancy Astor in England to her friend Lilly Harrison Hill Smith Bradbury in Virginia, including several during World War II (Mss Acc 1996.8).

1944-1945, consist of letters home written by a file clerk for the 5th Army headquarters in Italy (Mss Acc 2008.25)

Includes diary and letters written by Eugenia Van Dyke Robb describing her work with the American Red Cross in the Philippines and Japan with the Allied Ocupation Force, 1945-1947, and in Germany, 1947 (Mss 65 R54).

A former William and Mary sociology professor was interviewed in 2005 and 2009 recalling his family's experiences in a Japanese-American relocation center during World War II. Online at https://scrcguides.libraries.wm.edu/repositories/2/digital_objects/1147 and https://scrcguides.libraries.wm.edu/repositories/2/digital_objects/1227

Compiled by Miss Margaret Goodwin, these clippings concern the involvement of W&M students, faculty, and alumni in World War II (University Archives Bound Volume Collection, No. 32).

This includes photocopies of 16 letters from Lt. Ellsworth Ayers, Jr., to Bill Royall in Williamsburg (Mss 2000.56).

Includes numerous letters from family members in the military during World War II, including Herbert Strout, who was stationed in Germany in 1945 (Mss Acc 2008.22 and 2008.23).

These papers consist of more than 1,000 letters and V-mails from a military surgeon in the Pacific theater, especially Guadalcanal, to his wife, 1942-1946 (Mss 2007.21).

Among the items in this collection is a memoir written by Ellis Tucker concerning his years in China as a math teacher and internment in a Japanese concentration camp during the war (Mss Acc. No.1984.16). Ask Staff for Assistance.

The University Archives has transcripts of numerous oral history interviews, including the following with specific World War II content (UA 43):

-Brooks, Richard Boynton, pp. 1-10 (Army Specialized Training Unit)
-Cunningham, Hughes Westcott, pp. 5, 13-14, 15 (Chaplain’s School) and pp. 34-38 (Students—World War II)
-Frechette, Fred Leon, Jr., pp. 1-18 (Work-Study Program)
-Gibbs, Wayne Fulton, pp. 16-17 (Work-Study Program)
-Guy, Gladys Bennett, pp. 37-41 (William and Mary Victory Ship)
-Jones, William Melville, pp. 43-44 (Students—World War II)
-Kernodle, R. Wayne, pp. 3-4, 17-19 (Hampton Roads-Peninsula War Studies Committee of the College of William and Mary)
-Lambert, J. Wilfred, pp. 66-68 (Army Specialized Training Unit) and pp. 65-66 (Chaplain’s School)
-Miller, James Wilkinson, pp. 21-24 (Army Specialized Training Unit) and pp. 20-21 (Chaplain’s School) and p. 31 (Students—World War II)
-Thorne, Thomas Elston, pp. 44-47

This collection consists of letters among Vozza, a Navy ensisted man serving in the Pacific, to his fiancee and then wife (Mss 2008.36).

In 1995, the Alumni Magazine sent surveys to alumni asking for information about their experiences during the Second World War. Their responses are typically 1-4 pages and provide a very personal view of the conflict (UA 66).

Letters by a sergeant to his wife, son, and parents as well as some by his wife to him, 1943-1945, that focus on family matters, but he also discusses his training, tank, and the war (Mss 2007.42).

The book gives names, home addresses, service addresses, dates, places met and comments about the people the compiler met. Places met include Dutch Harbor, Alaska and Camp Peary, VA. Includes photographs of sailors and officers and Christmas cards sent to Richard C. Webster, Clark Webster and Walter E. Webster (SC 01217)