Archival Collections

This collection relates to the 484th Bombardment Group (Heavy) that was assigned to the 5th Air Force and based in Torretta, Italy as a component of the Foggia Airfield Complex during World War II and assigned B-24 Liberator heavy bombers.  The materials contained in this collection were subsequently assembled during the post-war period by the 484th Bombardment Group Association.  The collection contains official reports, data sheets, statistics, newspapers, Missing Air Crew Reports, personal histories, photographs, and unit histories.

Alan May served as a gunner on a B-24 Bomber with the 451st Bomb Group during World War II in Italy and was shot down during a mission to Ploesti, Romania, and became a POW.  May was awarded the Purple Heart, Air Medals, 2 Presidential Unit Citations, and the Distinguished Flying Cross. Included in this collection is a footnoted manuscript diary of missions.

The collection of Alvin Dinsmore White consists of three letters and a V-mail written by Army officer Jim White of the 42nd "Rainbow" Infantry Division during World War II.  Also, in the collection is a news article and email describing his two other family members' actions during the war. Fort Benning, Georgia, and Rotenberg, Austria are the two discernible locations where Jim wrote his letters.

The collection of Carlton K. Smith, who served with the 185th Field Artillery during World War II, contains an oral history transcript of an interview provided by the Reichelt Program for Oral History.  This collection also contains a World War II history magazine, correspondence with French General Pierre Denis, summaries of unit actions, personal letters to family, newspaper clippings, unit newsletters, a binder with photocopies of newspaper articles, and one copy of Liberty's Victorious Conflict: A Photographic History of the World War I.

This collection contains an oral history transcript of Staff Sergeant Charles Diedling, a flight engineer on a B-24 with the 460th Bomb Group at Spinazola, Italy. Charles Diedling discusses his training as a flight engineer and waist gunner for the B-24 at Keesler AFB, Mississippi and Loredo AFB, Texas.  In June of 1944, he was assigned to the 460th Bomb Group of the 15th Air Force in Spinazola, Italy. Diedling was shot down over Germany becoming a prisoner of war.

Donald Nelson served in the 59th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 6th Armored Division and the 36th Field Artillery in the European (ETO), North African, and Mediterranean Theaters. Nelson was a technician, 5th grade (medic). The collection includes a memoir of his experience covering the period January 27,1942 to October 30, 1945.

This collection relates to Private First Class Edward Carrow who served with the 665th Engineer Topographical Company, 4th Regiment, in the European Theater of Operations during World War II.  The collection contains numerous letters dating from July 1943 to October 1945. The collection also contains a scrapbook containing telegrams, playbills, several photographs, two maps of Europe and the Pacific, and several currency notes from France, Germany, and Austria.

The Edwin Ivy papers illustrate 2nd Lieutenant Ivy's service in the Army Air Corps in the 485th Heavy Bombardment Group, 831st Squadron, from 1942-1945 in Italy, France, and Austria where he was shot down and became a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III. Ivy's oral history encompasses the majority of his collection and provides detail of his military training, time spent in the Army Air Corps, as a prisoner of war, and being discharged. His papers also include the first chapter of Old Man in a Baseball Cap by Fred Rochlin. The chapter describes the significance of remembering the past and passing down experiences to others.

Essie Nirider served in the Army in the 2nd Infantry in the Atlantic and European (ETO) Theaters during World War II. The collection contains a diary titled "2nd Infantry in Iceland: A Diary," which covers the time period for the year 1942 when Nirider served in Iceland with the 2nd Infantry, in which he rose from private to corporal. The collection also includes a 66-page manuscript entitled "World War II Reflections" about time with the Army in the Atlantic and European Theaters. Also included is a summary of the 5th Infantry's activities in the pages of "Diamond Dust."

This collection contains the oral history transcript of Lieutenant Colonel Eugene A. Dance pertaining to his World War II service as a First Lieutenant serving in Europe. Oral history transcript states that Eugene Dance (served 1941-46) discusses his experiences in the 38th Infantry Division and the 101st Airborne in World War II.