WWII Papers Private Collections, WWII PC

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Papers reflecting the service of Storekeeper 2/c James Bryan Creech of Four Oaks (Johnston County) in the U.S. Navy, stationed in New Guinea and the Admiralty Islands, 1944-1945. The bulk of the personal correspondence consists of letters to his parents, Barham Bryan Creech and Bertha Mae Langdon Creech of Four Oaks. While in service, he wrote a column that was published in The Smithfield Herald. Creech retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1958. He died in 1993. Other papers of James Bryan Creech are located at the Johnston County Heritage Center in Smithfield.

Processing Information note:

Finding aid revised by Brynn Hoffman, September 2011

Biographical/Historical note:

William S. Powell was born in 1919 in Johnston County, North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1940, having transferred to Chapel Hill after two years at Mitchell College. Powell was sent to Fort Bragg in July 1941 by his local draft board. On July 15, he was formally inducted into the U.S. Army and sent to train at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Because of his high scores on the Army General Classification Test and the fact that he was a college graduate, Powell was pulled out of basic training and sent to the new Armored Force School at Fort Knox. He eventually served in the military intelligence branch in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Powell remained in the Armored Force School for several years and gained experience as a court martial clerk, watching and reporting on signs of suspicious activity of foreign students and military personnel. During his schooling, Powell was sent to several different locations, including Ohio State University, to learn intelligence; and briefly to Wisconsin and Mississippi.

Eventually Powell was transferred to the 1164th Engineer Combat Group and dispatched to the Philippines. His unit was stationed in Manila and contained a small group of men and officers who supervised units building landing strips, bridges, roads, water systems, and various other structures, as well as providing reconnaissance. Powell stayed in Manila until Japan surrendered in September 1945, and was then sent to Tokyo Bay to continue the same type of work the unit had been involved with in the Philippines. After being in the army for about four and a half years, Powell was sent home and discharged at Fort Bragg on January 8, 1946.

After his time in the army, Powell returned to Chapel Hill to earn degrees in both history and library science. He served as a librarian at Yale University for one year and then returned to North Carolina to work as a research historian at the North Carolina Department of Archives and History. In 1952 Powell became an assistant librarian in the North Carolina Collection at UNC, and in 1958 he was appointed curator. Powell became a professor of history at UNC in 1973 and continued to teach until his retirement in 1986. During his career, Powell has written and edited many books and articles, several of which are still used as textbooks in classrooms today. In 2000 Powell was presented the North Carolina Award for Literature.

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The William S. Powell Collection consists of a large variety of papers and documents. Nearly one half of the collection is composed of newspapers and magazines that he saved during the war; these are all grouped together and arranged chronologically. There are also several boxes containing novels, Bibles, prayer books, and War Department manuals and guides. The last box contains more than fifty posters created during World War II that convey various messages. There is very little correspondence, photographs, or personal papers included in the collection, but it is rich with publications published during the war years.

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Papers reflecting the service of Lt. David K. Brooks of California (later Raleigh) in the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

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Papers reflecting the service of Seaman 1/c Homer Fletcher Fleming of Greensboro (Guilford County) in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Drexler (DD-741). After the sinking of the Drexler by Japanese kamikazi aircraft near Okinawa on May 28, 1945, Fleming was reported as missing in action. He was declared killed in action on August 2, 1945.

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Papers reflecting the service of Cpl. Tryan Clinton McFarland Jr. of Southern Pines (Moore County) in Battery A, 84th Field Artillery Battalion, 9th Infantry Division, who was killed in action in Germany on March 9, 1945.

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Papers reflecting the service of Electrician's Mate 2/c and musician William Holt Harrington Sr. of Erwin (Harnett County) in the 23rd U.S. Naval Construction Battalion (Seabees) in Alaska. Harrington received training at Camp Allen and Camp Bradford, Virginia, Davisville, Rhode Island, and Port Hueneme, California, before shipping out to Alaska in November 1942, where he served through the end of 1943. From February 1944 to May 1945, he was stationed at Camp Parks, California, where he played trumpet in the Construction Battalion Replacement Depot military band and Recreation Band #1. The five boxes of personal correspondence contain letters, V-mails, postcards, greeting cards, and telegrams to and from his mother, father, sisters, brother Si (also in the U.S. Navy), other relatives, female friends, and friends and relatives in the service, including James A. Boykin, A. L. Crafton, C. M. Crawford, J. D. Crawford, Lloyd Grubb, Allen Hall, Wade Lucas, W. H. McNeill Jr., and Ed Wade.

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Contains twenty-seven issues of The Flash, quarterly publication of the 78th (Lightning) Infantry Division Veterans Association, 1992-1999.

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Papers reflecting the service of Lt. Comdr. Fraser Sinclair Knight of Salisbury (Rowan County) in the U.S. Navy aboard the heavy cruiser, USS Salt Lake City, and the submarine, USS Bonefish (SS 223), which was sunk in Toyama Bay on June 18, 1945. Knight was a 1940 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.

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Papers reflecting the service of Lt. Lathrop Peloubet Smith Jr. of New York and Greensboro (Guilford County) in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Black (DD 666) and as a teacher in naval training centers.

Processing Information note:

Finding aid by Kenrick N. Simpson, April 14, 2011.

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These papers were collected by the Wilson County Historical Society to capture the stories and materials of World War II veterans from Wilson County. The files were originally contained in nine 3.5-inch 3-ring binders, copies of which were also to be filed in the Wilson County Public Library and the academic libraries at Barton College and Wilson Technical Community College. John N. Hackney, Jr., a veteran of World War II, and Betty Ray McCain, former secretary of the Department of Cultural Resources, were the primary collectors of the materials. The collection includes files concerning 268 World War II soldiers from Wilson County, as well as 30 veterans from nearby counties, mostly friends and relatives of Hackney. These files contain copies of personal reminiscences; enlistment and discharge papers; cards and letters; orders; photographs; newspaper clippings; obituaries; correspondence with the project coordinators; and a few compact disks. Some original materials are also included. Miscellaneous records include project correspondence and publicity; information concerning similar projects in other states; lists of soldiers; unit histories; publications; files concerning four World War I soldiers from Wilson County; and a small cache of original records from World War II.

Processing Information note:

Processed by Brynn Hoffman, November 2011.

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The Mary A. Brogden Collection contains the papers of two of her relatives, Blackwell M. Brogden and Blackwell Markham, who served in the United States armed forces during World War II. Lt. Blackwell M. Brogden was the husband of Mary A. Brogden. They were married in 1949 and had eight children together. Blackwell Brogden was born April 25, 1921, in Durham, North Carolina, and he spent the majority of his life there. He had a brother, W. J. Brogden Jr., who joined the U.S. Army during World War II. Brogden attended Durham High School, and in 1942 he received a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina (UNC). In 1948, Brogden earned a law degree from UNC as well. After college graduation in the fall of 1942, Brogden joined the U.S. Navy and served for the duration of the war. Brogden spent the majority of his service in the South Pacific on two different ships, the USS Mississippi and the USS Ingraham. He was present in Tokyo Bay when the treaty was signed ending the war against Japan but was not on the USS Missouri where the formal surrender took place.

Capt. Blackwell Markham was the uncle of Lt. Blackwell M. Brogden. He was born in Durham, North Carolina, on March 31, 1897, the youngest of eleven children. He was the only one of his siblings that did not attend Trinity College (now Duke University) and instead went to UNC on a scholarship. He earned a degree from UNC in 1917 and participated in the Army ROTC program while there. In 1918 he earned a master's degree from UNC, then attended the first two years of medical school there. In 1920 Markham transferred to Harvard Medical School, where he completed his medical degree in 1922. Markham never married and in 1942, at the age of 45, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and served until the end of the war. He served mostly in North Africa and Italy. According to Mary A. Brogden, Markham never operated on another patient after he returned from the war.

The Mary A. Brodgen Collection contains a few pieces of military and personal correspondence from both men, as well as some papers concerning their military service. There are also some photographs and a large collection of picture postcards. Half of the collection is comprised of a variety of publications that they collected during their service overseas. For more information about Capt. Blackwell Markham and Lt. Blackwell M. Brogden, contact the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina, where most of their personal papers have been deposited.

Processing Information note:

Processed by Brynn Hoffman, July 2012.

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George E. Hicks is the former CEO of the National Civil War Museum, director of the Airmen Memorial Museum, and director of the Museum and Historical Services Division of the Greenwich Workshop, Inc., in which capacity he served as coordinating producer of the video, Enola Gay: The First Atomic Mission, which was included in The Final Act exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM), 1994-1995. The George E. Hicks Papers contain research files, including copies of official documents, diaries, crew reminiscences, and correspondence; photographs; transcripts of oral interviews; U.S. Air Force unit histories; newspaper and magazine critiques of the controversial exhibit at NASM; script of the exhibit; DVDs; and audiocassettes.

This collection covers many aspects of the development and use of atomic bombs in 1945. Therefore many different codenames were used to describe the people, places, and events that occurred during this time. The Manhattan Project was the research and development project that eventually led to the creation of the atomic bomb, starting in 1939. Trinity was the code name for the first test of the atomic bomb that took place on July 16, 1945. Silverplate was the code name for U.S. Army Air Forces participation in the Manhattan Project. Originally it was just an airplane modification project that would allow B-29 bombers to carry and drop the atomic bombs, but it eventually grew to include operational and training aspects as well.

When using this collection, it will also be helpful to know the names of the planes used to drop the atomic bombs, as well as the crew members involved. Of the B-29 planes used in the atomic missions, The Great Artiste was the only plane to fly on both missions. It was used to take photographs and drop scientific instruments used to measure different aspects of the atomic bombs. The crew on The Great Artiste for the Hiroshima mission was Crew C-15, the normally assigned crew. However, the crew on The Great Artiste for the Nagasaki mission was Crew C-13, the crew normally assigned to Bockscar. Because of last minute scheduling changes, the crews for Bockscar and The Great Artiste were switched for the Nagasaki mission.

The crewmembers of the Enola Gay were Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr. (pilot and aircraft commander), Capt. Robert A. Lewis (co-pilot), Maj. Thomas Ferebee (bombardier), Capt. Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk (navigator), Capt. William S. "Deak" Parsons (weaponeer and bomb commander), Lt. Jacob Beser (radar countermeasures), 2nd Lt. Morris R. Jeppson (assistant weaponeer), T.Sgt. George R. "Bob" Caron (tail gunner), T.Sgt. Wyatt E. Duzenbury (flight engineer), Sgt. Joe S. Stiborik (radar operator), Sgt. Robert H. Shumard (assistant flight engineer), and PFC Richard H. Nelson (VHF radio operator). The members of Crew C-13 were Capt. Frederick C. Bock (aircraft commander), 1st Lt. Hugh C. Ferguson (co-pilot), 1st Lt. Leonard A. Godfrey (navigator), 1st Lt. Charles Levy (bombardier), M.Sgt. Roderick F. Arnold (flight engineer), Sgt. Ralph D. Belanger (assistant flight engineer), Sgt. Ralph D. Curry (radio operator), Sgt. William C. Barney (radar operator), and Sgt. Robert J. Stock (tail gunner). The members of Crew C-15 were Maj. Charles W. Sweeney (aircraft commander), Capt. Charles Donald Albury (co-pilot), 2nd Lt. Fred Olivi (regular co-pilot), Capt. James Van Pelt (navigator), Capt. Kermit Beahan (bombardier), M.Sgt. John D. Kuharek (flight engineer), S.Sgt. Ray Gallagher (gunner, assistant flight engineer), S.Sgt. Edward Buckley (radar operator), Sgt. Abe Spitzer (radio operator), Sgt. Albert Dehart (tail gunner), Cmdr. Frederick L. Ashworth (weaponeer), Lt. Philip Barnes (assistant weaponeer), and 2nd Lt. Jacob Beser (radar countermeasures).

The collection is divided into two separate series. The first series contains materials related to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum's proposed exhibit commemorating the Enola Gay and the fiftieth anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The exhibit, scheduled to open in 1995, was a point of controversy between the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) and veterans' groups, particularly the Air Force Association. The exhibit was eventually scaled down drastically because of public outcry. The various materials in the George E. Hicks Papers related to the controversy include newspaper clippings, articles Hicks authored against the opening of the exhibit, and the original exhibit and layout script as proposed by NASM. The materials that were received in labeled folders were kept in their original order and retain the titles assigned them by Hicks.

The second series in the George E. Hicks Papers contains materials related to a documentary that Hicks made about the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. These include his research files; interviews with the crew of the Enola Gay, Bockscar, and The Great Artiste; publications related to the atomic bomb; and photographs.

The photographs included are mostly of crew members, with occasional photographs of their family members and other armed services personnel. As with the previous series, these materials have been labeled exactly as Hicks had them.

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Papers reflecting the service of Capt. Joseph L. Conneen of New Jersey and Waynesville (Haywood County) in the U.S. Army Air Forces, including personal correspondence, 1926-1957, n.d., and miscellaneous. Much of the correspondence consists of pre-war letters between Joseph and Jane prior to their marriage in 1942; letters to Jane from other suitors; and correspondence between Jane and her mother, Miriam Walker, both of whom spent considerable time in Europe between the wars.

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Papers of Seaman 1/c Charles April Lloyd of Rolesville (Wake County) reflecting his service in the U.S. Navy Armed Guard and his role as chairman of the national U.S. Navy Armed Guard World War II Veterans organization.