Interview with Homer L. Haile, an Army Air Corps veteran (489th Squadron, 2nd Air Division, 8th Air Force), concerning his experiences as a crew member of a B-24 in the European Theater during World War II. Stateside training, raid to Kiel, Germany; raid to Oschersleben, Germany; other raids.

Joe Olexa enlisted in the US Army in December 1940, figuring that if he was going to be in a war, he might as well start training. Assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, nicknamed “The Big Red One,” he served in Company L of its 26th Infantry Regiment for the next four years. Along the way he trained with the division in maneuvers in the United States; shipped to England in 1942; landed at Oran, Algeria, in the Operation Torch landings of November 1942; and fought in Tunisia, Sicily, Normandy, Belgium, and Germany. Olexa was one of the first group of enlistees that brought the division up to full strength in the buildup prior to Pearl Harbor, and was a sergeant by the time he went overseas. He served as a squad leader, platoon sergeant, and acting platoon leader, outlasting nearly all the men in his company. His memoir features accounts of unusual adventures in Tunisia when his battalion was detached from the rest of the division, and presents a detailed and intense account of his platoon’s experiences at El Guettar. Later, Olexa became a “Sea Scout,” going ashore on Sicily the night before the invasion to provide signals to …

Interview with Walter Littmann, a businessman, chemist, and former German prisoner-of-war of the United States during World War II. Littmann discusses his involvement in the Afrika Korps, miliary conflicts, life at the internment camp in Mexia, Texas, and eventual repatriation.

Interview with General Alexander R. Bolling, Jr., concerning his experiences as an infantry platoon leader (3rd Platoon, 3rd Battalion, 302nd Regiment, 94th Infantry Division) in the European Theater during World War II.

Interview with Homer L. Haile, an Army Air Corps veteran (489th Squadron, 2nd Air Division, 8th Air Force), concerning his experiences as a crew member of a B-24 in the European Theater during World War II. Stateside training, raid to Kiel, Germany; raid to Oschersleben, Germany; other raids.

Transcript of an interview with Keith Shelton, journalist, concerning his childhood in Oklahoma; family history; journalism training and career; Cold War military service in Germany; work for Dallas Times Herald; coverage of John F. Kennedy's 1963 Texas visit and assassination; coverage of Jack Ruby's trial; UNT journalism department; teaching journalism. Appendix includes various photos of Shelton, a letter from President Lyndon B. Johnson, a copy of a press release from The White House, and copies of Shelton's press passes.

Transcript of an interview with Paul Hudgins, U.S. Army World War II Veteran, illustrator, and author. Hudgins discusses his childhood in Texas; family history; enlistment in U.S. Army as a medic; staged in France on V-E Day; stationed on hospital train running between Germany and France; post-war college; artistic career; writing career; Honor Flight trip. Appendix includes illustrations and short stories by Hudgins as well as photographs.

Transcript of an interview with Gudrun Raschen, a German-born immigrant to Denton, Texas, and adjunct professor of Music at Texas Woman's University. Raschen shares concerning her childhood, and education in Kiel and Hamburg, Germany; family history; parents' move to South Africa; own move to South Africa; discovery of the cello and decision to study it seriously; involvement in anti-apartheid movement; decision to move to the U.S. for graduate school; attraction of UNT Doctorate of Musical Arts program; first impressions of the U.S. and of Denton; comparison and contrast of life in Germany, South Africa, and the U.S.; plans for the future.

Transcript of an interview with James Hudson, Army veteran (3rd Platoon, 36th/83rd Quartermaster Trucking Company, 470th Quartermaster Regiment), concerning his experiences in the European Theater during World War II. Hudson discusses his youth in segregated Yalobusha County, Mississippi; his reaction to being drafted, December, 1942; basic training, Camp McCain, Grenada, Mississippi, 1942-43; segregated training facilities; maneuvers at Camp Polk, Louisiana, 1943; training in truck maintenance and operation; relations between white officers and black enlisted men; entertainment on and off base for black soldiers; illiteracy among black troops; voyage to Europe, February, 1944; pre-invasion training around Cardigan, Wales; transfer of the unit to Swansea for further pre-invasion training; his observations of the Normandy landings, June 6, 1944; the landing of his unit on June 7 at Omaha Beach; establishment of beach supply depots; his participation in the activities of the "Red Ball Express," August-September, 1944; his description of war damage in German towns and cities; postwar adjustments to segregated society in Mississippi. Appendix consists of photocopy of "Honorable Discharge" (1 page).

Transcript of an interview with Raymond Schneider, attorney and Army Air Forces veteran (710th Bomb Squadron, 447th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force), concerning his experiences as a B-17 pilot in the European Theater during World War II.

Transcript of an interview with Roy D. Much, Army veteran (987th Field Artillery Battalion), concerning his experiences in the European Theater during World War II. Much discusses his pre-war education and employment; basic training in the artillery, Camp Bowie, Brownwood, Texas, 1942; and general comments about his experiences at Normandy, Saint-Lô, liberation of Paris, Huertgen Forest, Remagen Bridge, Battle of the Bulge, and the liberation of Czechoslovakia.

Transcript of an interview with Harry Bradford Urey, Jr., a mechanical engineer and Army Air Forces veteran (454th Bomb Squadron, 323rd Bomb Group, 9th Air Force), concerning his experiences as a B-26 pilot in the European Theater during World War II.

Transcript of an interview with Thomas Richard Young, artist and Army Air Forces veteran (463rd Bomb Group, 774th Bomb Squadron, 15th Air Force), concerning his experiences as a B-17 pilot and a prisoner-of-war in the European Theater during World War II. Appendix includes a photocopy of a drawing titled, "North Compound, Stalag Luft III, Sagan, Germany, January, 1945."

Transcript of an interview withGeorge B. Andrews, Army Air Forces veteran (526th Fighter Squadron, 86th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force), concerning his experiences as a fighter pilot in the European Theater during World War II. Appendix includes thirty-six pages of recollections from the interviewee.

Transcript of an interview with Harry C. Strawn, Army Air Forces veteran (31st Fighter Group, 12th Air Force; and 413th Fighter Group, 14th Air Force), concerning his experiences as a fighter pilot in the European, Mediterranean, and Pacific Theaters during World War II. Appendix includes the introduction to "In a now forgotten sky: the 31st fighter group in WW2" by Dennis C. Kucera.

Warren Whitson, Jr., a businessman and an Army Air Corps veteran (493rd Bomb Group, 860th Bomb Squadron, 8th Air Force), concerning his experiences as a B-17 pilot in the European Theater during World War II. Whitson discusses his pre-flight and flight training in 1943, his assignment to the 493rd Bomb Group, 860th Bomb Squadron at Stone, England, the characteristics of the B-17G, his first mission in Berlin, problems with flak, tactics to counter German radar, his engine trouble and crash landing in eastern Germany, his rescue by Russian troops, his trip by C-47 back to England via Poltava, Tehran, Cairo, Tripoli, and Dijon, his assignment to a new crew, being shot down by German fighter planes on his seventeenth mission, his brief experiences as a POW, and his liberation by British troops.

Transcript of an interview with William D. Whitson, a businessman and an Army Air Corps veteran (442nd Bomb Squadron, 8th Air Force), from Denton, Texas, concerning his experiences as a B-17 pilot in the European Theater during World War II. Whitson discusses flight training, his flight from the U.S. to Grafton-Underwood, England, his personal relationship with Curtis Le May, his missions and German defenses, his nineteenth mission and crash landing, and his twenty-fifth mission.

Army WWII veteran John L. Hancock's autobiographical accounts of his service with the 259th Field Artillery Battalion in the final months of the European Theater. The book features five separate accounts on the Battle of the Bulge, Remagen, liberating Buchenwald, occupation duty in Germany, and returning to the US.

Interview with Ed Rowan, a Army Air Corps WWII veteran from Gadsden, Alabama. Rowan discusses his family background, education, work, purchasing an airplane, flying over the the wreck of the Hindenburg, joining the National Guard and flying coastal patrols, becoming a bomber pilot, his B-17 crew, the various missions they flew in the European Theater, fighters, flak, equipment, tactics, leaving the service, and working as an airline pilot. In appendix is a photo of Rowan's civilian plane, his Distinguished Flying Cross citation, his appointment to the Reserves, a list of missions, flight logs, and a fact sheet about the 381st Bomb Group,

Interview with William H. Haugh, a Army WWII veteran from Wrightsville, Pennsylvania. Haugh discusses growing up in Wrightsville, getting his own farm, the wartime economy, being drafted into the Army, becoming a machine gunner in the 35th Infantry Division, arrival in Metz and advancing to the Battle of the Bulge, artillery, experiences in combat, the Rhineland Campaign, the Ruhr Valley, being wounded, the German surrender and the Army of Occupation, reflections on combat, and returning to civilian life.

Interview with Lisa Jane Lachance-Skier, a Air Force veteran from Phoenix, Arizona. Lachance-Skier discusses growing up, participating in Junior ROTC, enlisting in the Air Force in 1976, experiences as a woman in a newly integrated Air Force, sexual harassment and assault in the military, service in England, attending ROTC and becoming an officer, her marriage, service in Germany, her work during the Gulf War, being forced out as part of a personnel drawdown, transitioning to the civilian world and her post-Air Force career, her involvement in the Grace After Fire program for assisting female veterans, problems facing female veterans and lack of support, the 2014 lifting of the combat ban on women in the US armed forces, the WASPs, and advice for servicewomen. In appendix is a summary of Lachance-Skier's USAF career, three photos of her Meritorious Service Medal certificates, and a Grace After Fire booklet.

Interview with Col. Gail Halvorsen, a Air Force veteran from Salt Lake City, Utah, who took part in the Berlin Airlift. Halvorsen discusses his family background, growing up, learning to fly, joining the Air Corps and flying various missions around the Atlantic during WWII, experiences in the Berlin Airlift, and relationships with Germans he affected. In appendix are various photos of and by Halvorsen from throughout his career, and letters he received from German children.

Interview with William Schiff, a Holocaust survivor from Kraków, Poland. Schiff discusses his family, antisemitism before the war, the invasion of Poland, being put into forced labor by the Germans and Poles, the ghetto and survival there, getting married, experiences in internment at Kraków-Płaszów, Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen, and Buchenwald concentration camps, liberation, returning to Kraków and finding his wife, and life afterwards.

Interview with Inga Pennock, a Holocaust survivor from Berlin. Pennock discusses her family background, experiencing antisemitism and the start of Nazi rule, trying to leave Germany and hiding, increasing violence, Kristallnacht, losing family, fleeing to Shanghai, Japanese occupation and the ghetto, working as a nurse for the Japanese, living conditions, liberation, and life afterwards.