In late 1943/early 1944, Humphrey Bogart and his wife Mayo Methot went on an 2-1/2 month entertainment tour of military bases in North Africa and Italy for the USO. Their party also included actor Don Cummings and accordionist Ralph Hark. In addition to giving shows, Bogart and his wife visited hospitals and undertook other morale-boosting … Continue reading Private First Class Bogart
Today's post was written by Duncan Bare, archives technician at the National Archives in College Park. Winston S. Churchill famously described the Battle of the Bulge as “undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and […] an ever-famous American victory.”[1] As the German offensive commenced at around 5:30 am on December 16th, 1944, however, … Continue reading Marking the 80th Anniversary of “an ever-famous American victory”: A Look at the US National Archive’s Battle of the Bulge Records
Today’s post is by Rachael Salyer, Subject Matter Expert for Modern Military Records at the National Archives in College Park, MD. Photograph of WAC Officers Inspecting the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, Feb 15, 1945 (NAID 531249, Local ID: 111-SC-200791) In early 1945, the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion became the only Women’s Army Corps … Continue reading The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion and the Women’s Army Corps (WACs) in World War II
Today’s post is by Rachael Salyer, Archivist in the Textual Reference Branch at the National Archives in College Park, MD. End of First Phase Map of France, June 1944 (NAID 18558251) The Textual Reference Branch at the National Archives in College Park, MD (Archives II) has custody of numerous records that document U.S. Army operations … Continue reading “Blood and Determination and Then Victory” – Digitized Operations Reports Related to D-Day
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives at College Park, MD. On November 27, 1941, Lt. Cmdr. Edwin T. Layton, Fleet Intelligence Officer, United States Pacific Fleet, met with Colonel Edward W. Raley and the Intelligence Section of the Hawaiian Air Force, to discuss the B-24 reconnaissance mission. … Continue reading Prologue to Pearl Harbor: The Spy Flight that Wasn’t, Part II
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher and Dr. Sylvia Naylor, Archivists at the National Archives at College Park. During the summer of 1940, as German military forces overran France, many Americans began to support the need for compulsory military training in the event that the United States entered the war in Europe. In … Continue reading Major League Baseball, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and World War II, 1941-1942
Today's post was written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Archivist at the National Archives at College Park. The Oregon State College (now Oregon State University) Beavers football team, under Coach Lon Stiner, started the 1941 season winning two games and losing two games. One of those victories was a 10-0 shutout of Stanford University and one … Continue reading The [Transplanted] 28th Rose Bowl, Oregon State vs. Duke – January 1, 1942
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Archivist at the National Archives in College Park The Civil War was swiftly coming to an end on April 3, 1865, when the President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, his wife Varina, and their children abandoned Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy. On … Continue reading The National Archives and Jefferson Davis’ Cloak, Shawl, and Spurs
Today’s post was written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives in College Park. An excellent source for answering the questions posed in the title of this post, and other military questions, is the records of the Office of the Adjutant General (Record Group 407). Specifically, to answer the official designation question, … Continue reading How and When Did World War II Officially Become World War II?
Today's post was written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives in College Park. In looking at some boxes of the Reference Collection of the Departmental Records Branch of the Army’s Office of the Adjutant General (Record Group 407), I stumbled upon two boxes labeled “Protection of Monuments.” They carried the designation “Document … Continue reading The American Defense, Harvard Group’s Committee on the Protection of Monuments
