Lucy Wood Butler's diary provides a compelling account of an ordinary woman's struggle to come to terms with realities of war on the Confederate home front. Married at the start of the war, she would become a widow by mid-1863; her account of life in the Confederacy explores her life in Virginia, her mourning period for her deceased husband, and her views on the waning prospect of Confederate victory. Now available in book form for the first time, The Diary of a Civil War Bride brings to light a vital archival resource that reveals the mindset of women in the Civil War South.
Love Letters from the Marine Wolf is a biography of the World War II hospital and troop transport ship USAT Marine Wolf. The story is told from the perspective of Sergeant Michael Makros Jr., ship's complement surgical technician, and other shipmates under Army Transportation Command 9222 TSU TC. Their letters, photographs, documents, memorabilia, and testimonials take history below deck to find the human experience of a wartime ship at sea.
A unique perspective on the last months of WWII and the allied occupation of Europe, this personal, yet universal, story highlights the "overwhelming sense of the continuity of history." Jim McKay heads for combat as his troop ship leaves New York in November, 1944. The young battalion surgeon leaves his bride, Liz, behind for an ordeal that will shape his life. Jim's letters portray an ambitious young doctor struggling to treat the 500 men of his battalion, lead his medics, and keep himself sane while longing for the woman he left behind. Within a week of landing, Jim's battalion is thrown into the Battle of the Bulge. Through the next five months of combat and 15 months of occupation, Jim describes his anger and frustration, his challenges and rewards, and his love for Liz. He emerges a top-notch doctor with a world view that will carry him through his long life. Well-educated and sophisticated, fluent in German and French, Jim's view of Europe is quickly shattered. After a week of combat his pre-war respect for German culture turns to revulsion. After the war, he is assigned to establish a hospital in Germany. He comes to terms with the defeated Germans around him, including prewar German friends struggling to survive. The author is Jim's son Tim, who weaves excerpts from Jim's letters with the memories they provoke and research into his father's battalion, both at the National Archives and in Europe. Letters to a War Bride is both an intimate portrait of a driven, honorable, and loving man, and a fascinating glimpse into the formative years of the Greatest Generation.
The long awaited sequel to Diane Moody's, Of Windmills and War. When the war finally ended in May of 1945, Lieutenant Danny McClain made good on his promise to come back for Anya in Holland. He expected her to put up a fight, but instead found her exhausted and utterly broken. Maybe it was unfair, asking her to marry him when she was so vulnerable. But this much he knew: he would spend a lifetime helping to make her whole again. The war had taken everything from Anya--her family, her friends, her home, her faith. She clung to the walls she'd fortressed around her heart, but what future did she have apart from Danny? At least she wouldn't be alone anymore. Or so she thought. When the American troops demobilize, Danny is sent home, forced to leave Anya behind in England. There she must wait with the other 70,000 war brides for passage to America. As England picks up the pieces of war's debris in the months that follow, Anya shares a flat with three other war brides in London and rediscovers the healing bond of friendships. Once again, Danny and Anya find themselves oceans apart, their marriage confined to little more than the handwritten pages of their letters while wondering if the shadow of war will ever diminish.
For readers enchanted by the bestsellers The Astronaut Wives Club, The Girls of Atomic City, and Summer at Tiffany’s, an absorbing tale of romance and resilience—the true story of four British women who crossed the Atlantic for love, coming to America at the end of World War II to make a new life with the American servicemen they married. The “friendly invasion” of Britain by over a million American G.I.s bewitched a generation of young women deprived of male company during the Second World War. With their exotic accents, smart uniforms, and aura of Hollywood glamour, the G.I.s easily conquered their hearts, leaving British boys fighting abroad green with envy. But for girls like Sylvia, Margaret, Gwendolyn, and even the skeptical Rae, American soldiers offered something even more tantalizing than chocolate, chewing gum, and nylon stockings: an escape route from Blitz-ravaged Britain, an opportunity for a new life in affluent, modern America. Through the stories of these four women, G.I. Brides illuminates the experiences of war brides who found themselves in a foreign culture thousands of miles away from family and friends, with men they hardly knew. Some struggled with the isolation of life in rural America, or found their soldier less than heroic in civilian life. But most persevered, determined to turn their wartime romance into a lifelong love affair, and prove to those back home that a Hollywood ending of their own was possible. G.I. Brides includes an eight-pages insert that features 45-black-and-white photos.
This is the first collection of letters by a member of the legendary 442nd Combat Team, which served in Italy and France during World War II. Written to his wife by a medic serving with the segregated Japanese American unit, the letters describe a soldier's daily life. Minoru Masuda was born and raised in Seattle. In 1939 he earned a master's degree in pharmacology and married Hana Koriyama. Two years later the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor, and Min and Hana were imprisoned along with thousands of other Japanese Americans. When the Army recruited in the relocation camp, Masuda chose to serve in the 442nd. In April 1944 the unit was shipped overseas. They fought in Italy and in France, where they liberated Bruyeres and rescued a "lost battalion" that had been cut off by the Germans. After the German surrender on May 3, 1945, Masuda was among the last of the original volunteers to leave Europe; he arrived home on New Year's Eve 1945. Masuda's vivid and lively letters portray his surroundings, his daily activities, and the people he encountered. He describes Italian farmhouses, olive groves, and avenues of cypress trees; he writes of learning to play the ukulele with his "big, clumsy" fingers, and the nightly singing and bull sessions which continued throughout the war; he relates the plight of the Italians who scavenged the 442nd's garbage for food, and the mischief of French children who pelted the medics with snowballs. Excerpts from the 442nd daily medical log provide context for the letters, and Hana interposes brief recollections of her experiences. The letters are accompanied by snapshots, a drawing made in the field, and three maps drawn by Masuda.
"In a stunning tribute to his wife of 45 years, Michael Forrester's Tsuchino, My Japanese War Bride is a compelling narrative that gives readers history and insight into the little-known and understudied story of Japanese war brides in America. Before leaving to serve in the US military in the occupation of Japan, New York-born Irish Catholic Forrester was cautioned by his grandmother to not return home with a Japanese bride! Fortunately, Michael Forrester did not heed the warning and in 1958, he married Tsuchino Matsuo ? a strong-willed and determined woman who confounds any stereotypes readers might have had about Japanese war brides. Michael and Tsuchino's story of love transcends cultural and language barriers at a time in American history when marriage between two different races was a rare occurrence." ? Regina F. Lark, Ph.D., UCLA Center for the Study of Women and Women's Studies Programs
January, 1920. Young Englishwoman Margaret Dalton is full of excitement as she arrives in Sydney to begin a new life in the warm, golden land of Australia. She leaves behind the horrors of WWI and can't wait to see her husband, Frank, after two years of separation. But when Margaret's ship docks, Frank isn't there to greet her and Margaret is informed that he already has a wife . . . Devastated, Margaret must make a new life for herself in this strange city, but she soon falls in love with its vibrant harbour, sweeping ocean and clean sea breezes. A growing friendship with army sergeant Tom McBride gives her a steady person to rely on. But just as Margaret and Tom begin to grow closer, news arrives that Frank may not have abandoned her. Will Margaret's life be thrown upside down once again? And where should her loyalties lie: with the old life or with the new? Inspired by the true stories of war wives who arrived in Australia, THE WAR BRIDE is a gorgeously romantic, inspiring story of love and forgiveness, of healing hurts past, and of making a new home for yourself on the other side of the world, by the author of THE SOLDIER'S WIFE.
