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Love
Stories of
World War II
Reviewed by Patricia M. Lee
Time stands still as the past emerges in a new book of love stories compiled by Larry King along with John Malone and Tom Steele. These tales chronicle 33 true stories of men and women who reveal the events and unique circumstances that brought them together during World War II. They represent members of the army, navy, air corps and marines from enlisted personnel to career officers, even one from West Point. They fought in legendary battles across the Pacific and European fronts. Those who survived credit the war for the opportunity to meet the love of their lives.
Black-and-white formal and casual photos of the couples enhance their stories along with pictures of symbolic memorabilia like the paper footprints of a newborn daughter a soldier carried into battle. V-mail letters, certificates of marriage, Christmas cards, cartoons, rings and pins are just a few of the sentimental attachments also included.
Couples found each other in a variety of different circumstances. Some married hometown sweethearts, while others discovered that special person in places such as U.S.Os, military bases and hospitals in cities across the nation and countries around the world.
One navy WAVE, an airplane mechanic, worked in a defense plant with a Machinist First Class who later became her husband. He said, “I was washed over by a wave!”
Even
though Americans weren’t accepted in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
(WAAF) of England’s Royal Air Force, one woman — American-born but
adopted by a Welsh couple — overcame many obstacles to join. She married
a U.S. Army Private in England. The Duchess of Marlborough arranged an elegant
wedding for them in an ancient Episcopal church on the grounds of Tidworth
House.
Even with no fraternization allowed between officers and enlisted personnel, one Army Air Corps captain encountered a WAVE Yeoman Second Class in a hospital where they saw one another without anyone’s knowledge. It wasn’t until after they were married they were arrested for fraternizing.
Other Americans met their love in foreign countries such as Italy, Belgium and England. Some families accepted the relationships while others didn’t and worried about their daughters leaving to live in America. The brides describe the reunion with their husbands after the war, and tell of the hardships and adjustments endured sailing across the Atlantic to live in a new country.
The men and women in these stories felt luck played a great part in their survival and relationships. To this day many of the men have never told their war stories but they are forever grateful to talk about the love they found which continues to this day. In these stories love transcends war.
Love Stories of World War II, Crown Publishers, New York, N.Y., Random House, Inc., 328 pages, $25.
Editor’s Note
The
story of our own Patricia Lee and her husband Chuck is among those heartwarming
stories. The photo is of them on their first date.
Book Corner