The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Charles Scheffel. Scheffel grew up in Oklahoma and enlisted in the Army ROTC in 1940. He was called up in 1941 after Pearl Harbor. He was allowed to finish out his senior year of college and was married in March 1942. He embarked on the Queen Elizabeth from New Jersey in September 1942. As leader of 200 men, he landed in Scotland and drove with them to Whittington Barracks where they joined with the British 51st Highlanders. He lists the three main survival lessons he learned from the seasoned English soldiers: having a batman to back you up, digging a two-man foxhole, and waiting for the ""crack and thump."" Scheffel how the ""crack and thump"" lesson would later save his life when he was seriously wounded when attacking the Siegfried Line. From England he went to Algeria with the British troops on the Scythia. The ship is torpedoed off the coast limps into Algiers. Scheffel made the decision to leave the British Highlanders and join up with American 9th Division in February 1943. The division went into Tunisia. Then he was sent to spend another month with the …

Script from the WBAP-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, relating a news story.

Script from the WBAP-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, relating a news story.

Letter from John Todd Willis, Jr. to his parents Clara and John T. Willis, Sr. on March 10, 1944. He asks for more short bread, and tells his mother he will buy her a cameo from the market. The shops are required to lower their prices or the US army will make them off limits to their soldiers. Included in the envelope is a pass that gives permission for Todd Willis to be absent from his post from 1:00 to 4:30 to visit Casablanca.