A Voice From the Past – WWII ” Letter on a Record” Digitized!

June 13, 2013June 13, 2013 / portraitsofwar / 27 Comments

WWII USO “letter on record”

I have to admit that this is a first for me. 99% of my posts have been dedicated to photos mixed with the occasional letter and/or youtube video. This is the first time I’ve digitized a WWII record! The process was incredibly laborious and the results were scratchy and hard to listen to. Given the condition of the record as well as the limited audio digitization available, I think I did a decent job.

Here’s the story – I purchased a set of WWII “Letter on Record” wax and paper records produced by the USO in WWII. They were put out by the USO in affiliation with organizations such as the National Catholic Community Service. According to my research, over 350 recording booths were available during the war with a total production of 350,000 +/-. They were printed on wax and paper records using a recording booth where the sitter would talk while the machine “cut” their voice into the record. They were then sent home to be listened to by loved ones. I can’t imagine they were made to survive 70 years, but these two copies remain in decent condition. I purchased them for $1.50 each at a local flea market.

The discs were recorded by a Eugene “Gene” Daly who was stationed at an Army Air Corps base in Charleston, SC during the war. He was a member of Crew 620 of Sub Unit E. I’m not entirely sure what this group did but it may have to do with sub patrol on the East Coast. It was sent to Bunny Echenique of 122 Bedford Ave, Grant City, Staten Island, NY in February of 1945.

I played the disc on my record player at 33 speed and held my iPhone up to the speaker and recorded what played. I could hear a slowed down version of human speech so I knew that the process was working. From there I sent the audio file to my computer where I fiddled with Audacity to tweak the speed. I was able to speed up the voice by 1.6X. A voice from 70 years ago played on my speakers. From there I created a video with the actual record as the visual and posted it to youtube. Listen for yourself! I still have a few additional sides to record, but this one gives you the general feeling of Gene Daly’s “letter on a record”.

Envelope details

WWII Photo Negative – German Prisoners Captured in Munich, May 1945 – Event Captured on Film!

June 9, 2013 / portraitsofwar / Leave a comment

It’s not often that I’m able to link an amateur still photograph with a professional moving film, but I’ve been able to do it here. In this particularly crisp shot, a member of the Anti-Tank Company of the 222nd Infantry Regiment snapped a shot of a group of Munich city officials and policemen surrendering in the main center of Munich. I thoroughly researched this set of images and was able to track down living members of the Company who remember the events in the images. A rare opportunity!

222nd Munich

Here’s a video that captures this exact scene. http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675075225_German-officers_United-States-officers_conference_prisoners-marched-along-street

Please skip ahead to 00:44 to view the quick clip of this scene. Trucks of the 222nd Anti-Tank company can be seen escorting thousands of German POW’s in the next scene. I’ve included a screengrab for those of you who can’t view the video. The film was shot by Sgt. Fred Bornet, a well-known combat photographer who made recent news when he gave an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered in 2004. Please check out this: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1914938

222nd Screengrab

The Sadness of WWII: Original Snapshot of Nordhausen Concentration Camp – Family Finds Lost Mother

April 27, 2013May 6, 2014 / portraitsofwar / 2 Comments

Casual followers of this blog will know that I never post photos of death or destruction. My main goal is to present historic photography in a way to help educate internet followers about the world of war. In this case I will post a photo that may be hard for some viewers to see. I have hundreds of photos of concentration camps in my collection, yet have never been moved to post any of the photos to the web.

This image called to me. The composition, the subject, the setting. It’s all there. A soldier snaps a shot at Dachau of a man holding the feet of his dead wife while his injured son watches on. A procession of armored division soldiers file by as this tragic event unfolds; the event captured through the lens of an unknown soldier of an unknown family. This scene was likely replicated tens of thousands of times at the tail end of the war.

KZ154bc ‘

WWII Veteran Story: Bataan Death March Survivor of the 16th Infantry Division Rescued by 6th Army Rangers

April 7, 2013 / portraitsofwar / 2 Comments

A recent visitor to PortraitsofWar was kind enough to send along some info on a local Guilford, CT veteran who passed away a few years back. He was a Bataan Death March survivor, photographer, and member of the 16th Infantry Division. Special thanks to Chistina Schaefer for providing the info and scans.

Richard Sperry Chapman, 1915-1976. Guilford native, photographer and POW. After graduating from high school in Guilford in 1934, Dick made the Army his career. In 1941 he was a member of the 16th Infantry Division, the “Golden Water Buffalo” Division. In 1941 he was stationed on the island of Luzon, Philippine Islands.

He survived the Bataan Death March, one of only three of 500 men in his battalion to do so.

He was incarcerated in Bilibid POW camp where he was tortured and starved. He was later transferred to Cabana Tuan were he was tortured and starved.

Just before the end of the war he was rescued in a daring raid led by Col. Henry Mucci and his raiders of the Sixth Army Ranger Battalion.

The Friendly Photographer is Taken Prisoner

WWII Christmas Card Identification Research: Henry Behrens of Grand Island, Nebraska

March 30, 2013July 18, 2016 / portraitsofwar / 4 Comments

UPDATE: This Christmas card has been returned to the Son of Mr. Henry Behrens. He found this post while searching for information about his father online. I’m pleased to have returned yet-another WWII photo to it’s rightful place.

Followers of PortraitsofWar will know that I love to do in-depth research to ferret out the names and stories of WWI and WWII veterans through the photographs they left behind. In this case, I purchased an inexpensive World War II postcard on eBay with the hopes of doing some sleuthing to find the identity of the sender. I already have a huge backlog of material to post, but I figured I would add yet another to the collection.

A Pilot Christmas Card

The card was interesting, and had nice composition. These style cards were often sent home by veterans to family members back home. With this in mind, I flipped over the card to check the reverse. Bingo. A name and address. Figuring that he likely send the card home to a family member (and not to himself) I began a quick ancestry.com search for the name. John Behrens of Grand Isalnd, Nebraska. I pulled the 1930 census record for the Behrens family to see if there were any likely candidates for the sitter in the photo. My initial guess was the he was likely 20-25 years old.

The address matched up on another record, so I’m 100% confident that this is the John Behrens named on the reverse of the postcard. John had two sons named Willie and Henry. Both were born in Germany and eventually emmigrated from Germany to the United States in the 1920s. I thoroughly researched both brothers and eventually found a reference to Henry having been in the air corps during WWII. His obituary also confirms that he was born in Eckenforde, Germany. It also sounds like he was a lifetime Air Force veteran.

Here’s his obituary:

Marin Independent Journal
Saturday, June 29, 1985

HENRY BEHRENS

A memorial service for Henry Behrens of Novato will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Redwood Chapel Funeral Home in Novato.

Mr. Behrens died unexpectedly Wednesday at his residence. He was 67.

He was a native of Eckenforde, Germany. He spent 31 years in the U.S. Army and the Air Force. He retired from Hamilton Air Force Base in 1966.

His most recent job was office service manager for Mission Equity Insurance Co. in San Francisco.

He is survived by his wife, Runee Behrens of Novato; two sons, William H. Behrens of San Jose and John W. Behrens of Fairfield; a daughter, Linda P. Garrecht of Irvine; his mother, Alwine Behrens of Grand Island, Neb.; and three grandsons.

Inurnment will take place at 3 p.m. Tuesday during a graveside service at the San Francisco National Cemetery at the Presidio.

The family prefers memorial gifts to the American Heart Fund.

WWII Photo: The Long Journey of the Isted Lion – Returned to Berlin After 65 Years

March 8, 2013March 8, 2013 / portraitsofwar / 8 Comments

Snapped over 65 years ago at the Lichterfelde-Berlin SS Barracks in October of 1945, this shot gives us a rare glimpse of the US Army unit that transported the famous Isted Lion from it’s home in Berlin back to it’s ancestral lands of Denmark. Danish sculptor Herman Wilhelm Bissen created the monument for installation as a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for the common Danish soldier. The statue we see today was completed and unveiled in 1862 with the following inscription:

Isted den 25. Juli 1850. Det danske Folk reiste dette Minde
(Isted, 25 July 1850. The Danish people set this memorial)

The statue was then taken in 1864 by the Germans after a bitter Danish defeat at the Battle of Dybbol. From there it was put on display, attacked by German nationalists, dismantled, copied, reconfigured and moved to the arsenal in Berlin, moved again to the barracks at Lichterfelde where it rested until October of 1945. This is where my recent photograph acquisition comes into play.

Isted Lion is Lifted

Lion on the Move

This pair of incredible photographs was privately taken by a member of a US Army engineering unit who were stationed in Berlin right after the end of the war. This shot shows the engineers loading the wandering lion into the bed of a heavy-duty truck. I can’t find any other shots of this scene. Also, there aren’t many soldiers in the shot…… this could be the only photograph of this scene on the web. From there, the lion was transported back to Denmark where it rested until 2010. Please watch the video below to finish the story!

WWII Original June 6th, 1944 D-Day Snapshot off Omaha Beach – 62nd Armored Field Artillery

January 13, 2013 / portraitsofwar / Leave a comment

The 62nd Armored Field Artillery landed on Omaha Beach on June 6th, 1944 and earned a Presidential Unit Citation for it’s actions that day. A recent eBay purchase provides us with a view the 62nd saw that day before the delayed landing at 1830. This photo is a rare glimpse of the activity off the shore of Omaha Beach on that fateful day. Note the puffs of smoke and landing craft zipping across the waves. Although not unheard of, June 6th landing photos are a holy grail amongst collectors. Enjoy!

WWII 388th Bomb Group Post – Radio Mechanic Cpl. Roland Downs Fixing a B-17 in Knettishall, England

September 18, 2012 / portraitsofwar / 9 Comments

My obsession with the 388th Bomb Group stems from a chance encounter with a collection of negatives and photographs taken by an artist attached to the 388th in Knettishall, England. Followers of PortraitsofWar already know the story, so I won’t go into great detail, but anyone interested should search for Alva Alegre in the search bar.
Anyway, I recently purchased a small group of photos that providentially yielded a handful of identified photos of members of the 388th BG. In my typical fashion, I’ve fleshed out historical details and hopefully will give Mr. Downs a proper place on the internet.

I found the following info penciled on the back of the photo: “Roland Downs, Cpl. Alabama”

ALABAMA Inked on Cap

Judging by the inked info on his upturned mechanics hat, I felt that this was a likely identification of Mr.Downs. With this info in hand I visited the 388th Bomb Group website: http://www.388bg.info/

Darn! They already had his photo, but at least I was able to learn that he was a radio mechanic, something obvious after inspecting what he’s doing in the photo. My next stop brought me to ancestry.com, where I do most of my genealogical research on mystery photos. From a little bit of searching I was able to discover that he was indeed born and raised in Alabama and born on July 8th, 1923 and passed away on April 19th, 1980. He served in the Airforce (USAAF) from 1942 until 1971.

1940 Census Record

WWII Photo Post – First Integrated Combat Unit – Company K, 394th Infantry Regiment, 99th Division

September 17, 2012 / portraitsofwar / 3 Comments

The 5th Platoon of K Company was assigned to the 394th Infantry Regiment of the 99th Division, making the African-American men of the platoon the first integrated combat soldiers since the Revolutionary War. Of the nearly 1,000,000 African-Americans to serve in WWII, only a small handful were put in front line combat duty, and even fewer fought shoulder to shoulder with White comrades.

A recent eBay find turned into an interesting research piece for me. I had no idea black soldiers fought in the 99th Division, and the Purple Heart and Combat Infantry Badge present in the photo are indicators of a battle-hardened veteran of combat. All we know about his identity is that the photo was taken in November of 1945 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Maybe someone knows a way to narrow down the list of K Company men and discover his identity?

Want to read more about this topic? Check out the following sites for a slew of interested articles and photos:

http://www.historynet.com/african-american-platoons-in-world-war-ii.htm

http://5thplatoon.org/infantry.html

WWII Photo – Incredible D-DAY Flyover View off the French Coast – June 6th, 1944

August 30, 2012 / portraitsofwar / Leave a comment

Followers of PortraitsofWar will know that photos taken on D-Day are some of the most sought after images for WWII photo collectors. I only have a few dozen in my collection, and this is the first taken from the skies above the English Channel on that fateful day. The massive fleet was the largest ever put together in world history, and must have been a sight to behold. This post goes out to my Great-Uncle Brendan who made the landing with the 29th Division.

Portraits of War

Snapshots in Time

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