World War II Resources in the Norwich Archives: Personal and Family Collections

Edward Hale Brooks Papers:

• 6 boxes (5.5 linear feet)
• Reflects Brooks' military career, including with the 2nd Armored Division in 1944 and as commander of the VI Corps, 1944-1945, through correspondence, papers, and photographs
• Photographs and documents received by Brooks about concentration camps near Landsberg, Germany, are available online

James Montross Burt Papers:

• 5 boxes (4.5 linear feet)
• Documents Burt's life and military service with the 2nd Armored Division, including his actions in the Battle of Aachen, for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor
• The collection is not available online

Ernest Nason Harmon Records and Harmon Family Papers:

• 21 boxes (21 linear feet)
• Content related to Harmon's role as commander of the 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions and the U.S. Constabulary is limited to photographs, scrapbooks, certificates and awards, 1940-1948, and unpublished memoirs (both by Gen. Harmon and by his wife, Leona Harmon)
• The collection is not available online

Briard Poland Johnson Papers:

• 9 boxes (9 linear feet)
• Reflects Johnson's service with the 2nd Armored Division, ca. 1941-1946, through orders, correspondence, and other military records
• The collection is not available online

Isaac Davis White Papers:

• 60 boxes and 7 flat poster-type units
• Extensive collection documenting White's entire military career, including as commander of the 2nd Armored Division in 1945
• The collection is not available online

Perley Dustin Baker Papers:

• 3 boxes (3 linear feet)
• Contains records related to Perley Dustin Baker's military service, 1921-1957, including in the European theater and at  Biarritz American University
• The collection is not available online

Karl Ferguson Baldwin Papers:

• 1 box (.5 linear feet)
• Includes Baldwin's lectures on topics related to international relations and national defense, ca. 1932-1945, as well as propaganda and other materials related to psychological warfare in the Pacific theater
• The collection is not available online

William Henry Barrington Papers:

• 1 box (1 linear foot)
• World War II materials in the collection reflect Barrington's stateside service in the war, particularly at Officer Training School and the 68th Army Air Forces College Training Detachment at Bowdoin College, ca. 1942-1944
• The collection is not available online

Elwyn Warren Blanchard Papers:

• 4 files
• Consists of papers and photographs from Blanchard's service with the 3rd Armored Division, 1941-1946, including citations related to Bronze Star and Silver awards
• The collection is not available online

Malcolm Wesley Courser Papers:

• 2 boxes (1.25 linear feet)
• Collection documents Courser's service in the European theater, including as an officer in the Publicity and Psychological Warfare Section, 1st Army
• The collection is not available online

John Roderick Finn Papers:

• 1 box (.5 linear feet)
• Contains Finn's letters home from service with the 8th Armored Division in the European theater, including while recovering from a hand wound
• World War II correspondence in the collection is available online

Ritchie Garrison Papers:

• 2 boxes (1.5 linear feet)
• Includes both military records related to Garrison's service as an intelligence officer in the South Pacific as well as his later research on Task Force 9156 and the 3rd Island Command
• The collection is not available online

Alexander G. Olsen Papers:

• 10 files
• Letters and telegrams document Olsen's final communications with his family before he was reported missing in action in the Bataan Death March
• World War II materials within the collection are available online

Alfred E. Peloquin Papers:

• 1 box (1 linear foot)
• Primarily consists of photographs, diary, and papers documenting service with the 726th AmTrac Battalion (Armored Amphibian), 81st Infantry Division, including in the Palau Islands and the Battle of Okinawa
• The collection is not available online

Lesslie Walker Smith Papers:

• 1 box (1 linear foot)
• Includes scrapbook and papers documenting Smith's service with the 5th Armored Division, ca. 1941-1946
• The collection is not available online

Clifford Edwin Snow Papers:

• 7 files
• Collection documents Snow's service in the Pacific theater, 1942-1946, including his death from disease at Luzon, Philippines
• The collection is not available online

Homer Lucien Somers Papers:

• 3 files
• Contains correspondence relating to Somers' experiences as a prison guard to the poet Ezra Pound at the Mtousa Disciplinary Training Center
• The collection is not available online

Allen Stanton Wilder Papers:

• 1 box (1 linear foot)
• Consists of scrapbook and ephemera from military service in the 1940s, including with the 1st Armored Division in Africa and Italy
• The collection is not available online

Robert MacDonald Simpson Papers:

• 4 files
• Contains photographs and published writings related to Simpson's service with the Marine Corps in the South Pacific, including the during Guadalcanal and Bougainville campaigns
• The collection is not available online

Clarence Joseph O'Donnell Papers:

• 1 box (.5 linear feet)
• Collection documents both O'Donnell's research on the history of the Marine Corps in World War II and his service in the Pacific theater, including the Marshall Islands campaign, the Saipan and Tinian operations, and the Battle of Iwo Jima
• The collection is not available online

Thaddeus Buczko Papers:

• 5 files
• Includes records and photographs related to Buczko’s service aboard the U.S.S. Bearss in the Pacific in 1945
• The collection is not available online

Carl Robert Johnson Papers:

• 3 files
• Consists of the "Daily Work Book", 1943-1944, of a sailor serving in the Pacific theater during World War II, including in the invasions of the Marshall Islands and the Mariana Islands
• The collection is not available online

Walter Lyons Mersheimer Collection:

• 1 box (1 linear foot)
• Includes articles about mobile surgical units for use in combat zones, authored by Mersheimer during his naval service with amphibious units in the Pacific theater
• The collection is not available online

Fred Weed Taylor Papers:

• 5 files
• Contains papers and photographs from Taylor's service in the Navy, primarily in the Pacific theater but also including time at the U.S. Naval Construction Training Center at Camp Endicott (Davisville, RI)
• The collection is not available online

 

Letters from Stephen D. Martin to Janice Martin, 1944

Example of V-mail from a father stationed overseas to his young daughter:

Documenting student life for Norwich cadets during World War II:

• Edmund John Zaleski Photograph Album (at Norwich, ca. 1936-1940)
• Gordon Boyce Wheeler Photographs (at Norwich, ca. 1938-1942)
• Henry Russell Wheeler Scrapbook (at Norwich, ca. 1939-1943)
• Louis Charles Frattini Papers (at Norwich, ca. 1941-1943)
• John W. Day Photographs (at Norwich, ca. 1941-1943 and 1946-1947)

Documenting student life for returning veterans and new students immediately after the war:

• A. Ralph Kristeller Photographs (at Norwich, ca. 1946-1950)
• Donald O. Nell Photographs (at Norwich, ca. 1946-1950)
• Charles E. Skolfield Scrapbooks (at Norwich, ca. 1946-1950)
• Walter Thomas Burch Scrapbook (at Norwich, ca. 1947-1951)
• Rodney Homeister Peterson Photographs (at Norwich, ca. 1947-1951)

Interviews related to alumni experiences in World War II:

• Robert William Christie (with the 33rd Armored Regiment)
• Robert F. Crecco (as a Norwich cadet and in the Army in Normandy)
• Priscilla Hatch Dole (Northfield and Norwich University during the war)
• George Abbott Lucey (prisoner of war and escape from Oflag 64)
• Philip Marsilius (with the 11th Armored Division in Europe)
• R. William Pemberton (experiences in the Civil Air Patrol)
• Jack Pimm (as a Norwich cadet and in the Battle of the Bulge)
• Maurice Smith (with the 1st, 4th, and 10th Armored Divisions)

Sign for the 91st Evacuation Hospital in Giessen, Germany, 1945:

From the Edgard R. Hyde Papers

Richard Cutts World War II Recollections:

• 1 volume
• Short typescript recounting Cutts' experiences as an Army musician stationed in the Aleutian Islands from about 1943-1946
• The collection is not available online

William David Hassett Papers:

• 1 box (1 linear foot)
• Contains letters, memorabilia, and copies of diaries from Hassett's time as secretary to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and as aide to President Harry Truman
• The collection is not available online

Leslie J. Hurley Papers:

• 4 files
• Includes typescript memoirs and photographs related to Hurley's service in the 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment during World War II
• The collection is not available online

Edgar R. Hyde Papers:

• 1 box (1 linear foot)
• Contains photographs, journal, and other papers documenting experiences with the 91st Evacuation Hospital, a 400-bed semi-mobile unit, primarily in the European theater, 1942-1945
• Photographs, typescript journal, and reminiscences from the collection are available online

William Leonard Levy Papers:

• 2 boxes (1.25 linear feet)
• Collection documents both the wartime experiences of Dr. Levy as a dental surgeon in the U.S. Army and the impact of the war on his family and dental practice in the U.S.
• The collection is not available online

Clifford Ellwood Lippincott Papers:

• 1 box (1 linear foot)
• Includes photograph albums and other records from his time as a U.S. Army intelligence officer in North Africa and Europe, ca. 1940-1948
• The collection is not available online

Leonard Fish Wing Papers:

• 5 boxes (5 linear feet)
• Collection documents the military career of Leonard F. Wing, with particular focus on his time commanding the 43rd Infantry Division in the New Guinea, Northern Solomons, and Luzon campaigns in the Pacific
• Several letters between Major General Wing and his son, Leonard Fish Wing, Jr., are available online