Forty-Five Letters from a World War Ii Sailor

Forty-Five Letters from a World War Ii Sailor PDF Author: Robert W. Bradshaw
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1491771860
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 107

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Book Description
As an eighteen-year-old young man, Frank B. Bradshaw Jr. served in World War II as a sailor in the Merchant Marine Corps from 1944 to 1946. In Forty-Five Letters from a World War II Sailor, Robert W. Bradshaw presents a collection of letters his father, Frank, wrote to his parents during a two-year period. It was a dangerous time in history when mariners died at a rate of one in twenty-four, the highest rate of casualties of any service. From a cold-blooded slaughter in the Ukraine, to illicit sex on the high seas, to coping with food shortages and a loony captain, Frank shares the day-to-day happenings of the life of a sailor on a cargo ship. Forty-Five Letters from a World War II Sailor delivers firsthand World War II global insights and a unique historical perspective from the view of an eighteen-year-old man. It provides fodder for future generations to fulfill their American dreams.

Forty-Five Letters from a World War Ii Sailor

Forty-Five Letters from a World War Ii Sailor PDF Author: Robert W. Bradshaw
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1491771860
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 107

Get Book Here

Book Description
As an eighteen-year-old young man, Frank B. Bradshaw Jr. served in World War II as a sailor in the Merchant Marine Corps from 1944 to 1946. In Forty-Five Letters from a World War II Sailor, Robert W. Bradshaw presents a collection of letters his father, Frank, wrote to his parents during a two-year period. It was a dangerous time in history when mariners died at a rate of one in twenty-four, the highest rate of casualties of any service. From a cold-blooded slaughter in the Ukraine, to illicit sex on the high seas, to coping with food shortages and a loony captain, Frank shares the day-to-day happenings of the life of a sailor on a cargo ship. Forty-Five Letters from a World War II Sailor delivers firsthand World War II global insights and a unique historical perspective from the view of an eighteen-year-old man. It provides fodder for future generations to fulfill their American dreams.

Dearest Kitty

Dearest Kitty PDF Author: Kathryn Kimzey Judkins
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1491741651
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Dearest Kitty is a non-fiction book of letters written from a sailor, Elbert "Bert" Judkins, to his girl back home, Kathryn "Kitty" Kimzey during World War II. Kathryn kept all Bert's letters their entire married life and when Bert passed away in 2008, she got them out and began reading them. She worked for several years compiling them into manuscript format adding bits of her life, history, thoughts and feelings between the letters. Kathryn passed away in 2012 without seeing her manuscript in print. Her children have followed through with publication so that this bit of history will be around for Bert and Kathryn's children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to cherish.

So Long for Now

So Long for Now PDF Author: Jerry L. Rogers
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806158786
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
Elden Duane Rogers died on March 19, 1945, one of the eight hundred who perished on the aircraft carrier USS Franklin that day. It was his nineteenth birthday. Write home often, the navy told sailors like Elden, thinking it would keep up morale among sailors and those waiting for them stateside. But they were told not to write anything about where they were, where they had been, where they were going, what they were doing, or even what the weather was like. Spies were presumed everywhere, and loose lips could sink ships. Before a sailor’s letter could be sealed and sent, a censor read it and with a razor blade cut out words that told too much. So Long for Now reconstructs the lost world of a sailor’s daily life in World War II, piecing together letters from Elden’s family in Vega, Texas, and from his girlfriend, the untold stories behind Elden’s own letters, and the context of the war itself. Historian Jerry L. Rogers delves past censored letters limited to small talk and local gossip to conjure the danger, excitement, boredom, and sacrifices that sailors in the Pacific theater endured. He follows Elden from enlistment in the navy through every battle the USS Franklin saw. Flight deck crashes, kamikaze hits, and tensions and alliances aboard ship all built to the unprecedented chaos and casualties of the Japanese air attack on March 19. “So long for now,” Elden signed off—never “Goodbye.” This moving work poignantly confronts the horrors of war, giving voice to a young sailor, the country he served, the family and friends he left behind, and the hope that has sustained them.

The Kissing Sailor

The Kissing Sailor PDF Author: Lawrence Verria
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612511279
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
On August 14, 1945, Alfred Eisenstaedt took a picture of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square, minutes after they heard of Japan’s surrender to the United States. Two weeks later LIFE magazine published that image. It became one of the most famous WWII photographs in history (and the most celebrated photograph ever published in the world’s dominant photo-journal), a cherished reminder of what it felt like for the war to finally be over. Everyone who saw the picture wanted to know more about the nurse and sailor, but Eisenstaedt had no information and a search for the mysterious couple’s identity took on a dimension of its own. In 1979 Eisenstaedt thought he had found the long lost nurse. And as far as almost everyone could determine, he had. For the next thirty years Edith Shain was known as the woman in the photo of V-J Day, 1945, Times Square. In 1980 LIFE attempted to determine the sailor’s identity. Many aging warriors stepped forward with claims, and experts weighed in to support one candidate over another. Chaos ensued. For almost two decades Lawrence Verria and George Galdorisi were intrigued by the controversy surrounding the identity of the two principals in Eisenstaedt’s most famous photograph and collected evidence that began to shed light on this mystery. Unraveling years of misinformation and controversy, their findings propelled one claimant’s case far ahead of the others and, at the same time, dethroned the supposed kissed nurse when another candidate’s claim proved more credible. With this book, the authors solve the 67-year-old mystery by providing irrefutable proof to identify the couple in Eisenstaedt’s photo. It is the first time the whole truth behind the celebrated picture has been revealed. The authors also bring to light the couple’s and the photographer’s brushes with death that nearly prevented their famous spontaneous Times Square meeting in the first place. The sailor, part of Bull Halsey’s famous task force, survived the deadly typhoon that took the lives of hundreds of other sailors. The nurse, an Austrian Jew who lost her mother and father in the Holocaust, barely managed to escape to the United States. Eisenstaedt, a World War I German soldier, was nearly killed at Flanders.

Every Thought of You

Every Thought of You PDF Author: Paul L. Edwards
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781432772574
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 676

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Book Description
After Berryann found her father's World War II letters, she realized they showed her father's love for his wife, and their love created her. So to complete the circle of love she compiled all the letters as a lasting tribute that will appeal to women and men of all ages, lovers, baby boomers, history buffs, and military families.

Letters from Dad

Letters from Dad PDF Author: Compiled by and David Stimac
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781973466130
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 125

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Book Description
An intimate collection of letters from my Dad to his sister while he was aboard ship during World War II in the Pacific. A true "slice of history" from the viewpoint of someone who lived it.

Letters from the Greatest Generation

Letters from the Greatest Generation PDF Author: Howard H. Peckham
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253024609
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
A collection of personal letters from overseas that reveal in day-to-day detail what it was like to serve in World War II. Recounting victory and defeat, love and loss, this is a remarkable and frank collection of World War II letters penned by American men and women serving overseas. Here, the hopes and dreams of the greatest generation fill each page, and their voices ring loud and clear. “It’s all part of the game but it’s bloody and rough,” writes one soldier to his wife. “Wearing two stripes now and as proud as an old cat with five kittens,” remarks another. Yet, as many countries rejoiced on V-E Day, this book reveals that soldiers were “too tired and sad to celebrate.” Filled with the everyday thoughts of these fighters, the letters are by turns heartbreaking and amusing, revealing and frightening. While visiting a German concentration camp, one man wrote, “I don’t like Army life but I’m glad we are here to stop these atrocities.” Meanwhile, in another letter a soldier quips, “I know lice don’t crawl so I figured they were fleas.” A fitting tribute to all veterans, this book brings the experience of war—its dramatic horrors, its dreary hardships, its desperate hope for a better future—to vivid life. “An intimate portrait of the mundane and remarkable, of heroism and terror, of friendship and loss . . . Timely, compelling, and important reading.”—Matthew L. Basso, author of Men at Work

A Young Sailor at War

A Young Sailor at War PDF Author: Theodore Catton
Publisher: Kent State University Press
ISBN: 9781606353936
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
While a number of published collections of World War II letters are available to readers, few rise to the level of war literature. A Young Sailor at War: The World War II Letters of William R. Catton Jr. is remarkable for the narrative skill of its letter writer, for his exuberance and candor, and for his youthful but thoughtful commentary. Edited by his son Theodore, Catton's letters give us a truly intimate look into an essential piece of history. William R. Catton Jr. volunteered for navy service on his 17th birthday in January 1943 and served as a plane handler onboard the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga from August 1944 through the end of WWII. He learned how to rebuild an aircraft engine and fire a 50-caliber machine gun before he was 18 and made two voyages across the Pacific and saw a year of combat before he was 20. He was wounded in a devastating kamikaze attack in January 1945, and he was on deck to watch the sunrise on Mount Fuji when Ticonderoga entered Tokyo Bay after the Japanese surrender seven months later. Bill was a prolific correspondent who displayed a wide-eyed sense of adventure and a self-conscious pride in being a witness to history. He reported events and personal interactions in clear, often colorful prose. Upon returning home, his sea stories mostly went untold, his Purple Heart medal and stripes went into a box of mementos never to be shown, while his letters from the war--carefully saved by his mother--went unread until his son began to examine them after his father's death. Bill Catton, who went on to become a sociologist well known for his work on the environment and human ecology, has indeed left us a unique commentary.

Good Night Officially

Good Night Officially PDF Author: Yeoman James Orvill Raines
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429720238
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 403

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Book Description
My interest in USS Howorth originated during my thirty-three months of duty in the Pacific Fleet destroyer Hamner, named after Howorth's gunnery officer killed at Okinawa, Lieutenant Henry R. "Pete" Hamner. His legacy jncluded the Reader's Digest subscriptions his mother presented each year to the wardroom and crew. Later, as executive officer in the hydrofoil Plainview, exasperated by the endless stream of logs and records demanded by higher authorities, I peevishly tested the navy's record system and wrote away for information on Lieutenant Hamner and Howorth. I was surprised by the magnitude of the material documenting Howorth's Pacific War, ranging from hourly barometric readings and seawater injection temperatures to ammunition effectiveness reports.

A Sailor's Letters Home During World War II

A Sailor's Letters Home During World War II PDF Author: Allen Westerberg
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This book is my father's letters home to his family during World War II. They start on March 30, 1944 when he went off to Boot Camp and end on September 23, 1946 when he is on his way home from war. The letters were written almost daily and show a young man's journey from rural Minnesota into the greatest conflict in the 20th century and after.