Love letter from 1940 unearthed

Story · Mar 4, 2008

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. - A love letter written by a Rhode Island woman during World War II is being incorporated into a choral performance at Carnegie Hall in New York this week.

Marjorie Gaunt, 88, wrote the letter in March 1944 to her husband, Rowland, an Army Air Force second lieutenant, before she knew that he was missing in action.

"I love you so darling," the letter reads in part. "I get all tongue-tied when I try to tell you. When I go to (Grace) Church these noontimes, I kneel and I start to pray, and I can‚Äôt describe the feeling that comes over me."

The letter is among those quoted in a choral piece titled "Songs of Love and War," which was written in 1997 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec. It is scheduled to be performed Tuesday evening by the Oratorio Society of New York.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/northeast/view.bg?articleid=1077428&srvc=rss

Story · Mar 4, 2008

I swear there was a thread on this already...

..but this is such a good ending to a good story, with plenty of images for you satchel fans.

Lost WWII desert satchel returned
Friday, 29 February 2008, 14:34 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lancashire/7271300.stm

An Egyptian tour guide who found a World War II soldier's bag which was lost in the desert for 60 years has returned it to the man's family. Kahled Makram travelled 2,339 miles (3,765km)

from Cairo to Burnley, Lancs, to return the leather satchel lost by 8th Army despatch rider Alec Ross.

*
"It's incredible, not just the condition of the items, but it brings Alec back to me," she told the BBC.

Mrs Porter said her brother was a member of a unit known as Popski's Private Army***, one of a number operating behind enemy lines.

Mr Makram found the bag lying in the sand in the Sahara desert during an excursion in November 2007.

It is likely to go on display at a local museum later in the year.

Inside Alec Ross's bag (for you video voyeurs)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_7110000/newsid_7119900?

Backstory

Wartime letters of love that were lost in the desert have been dug up from the sands of Egypt after 65 years.

They were discovered in a bag belonging to Second World War soldier Alec Ross.

And they reveal that the brave dispatch rider was a bit of a lad - with two sweethearts on the go back home in England.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2007/12/01/ww2-love-letters-found-89520-20188256/

16 good pics. Somebody wake up Bellytank
http://www.bbc.co.uk/lancashire/content/image_galleries/war_bag_gallery.shtml?6

*** http://www.amazon.com/Popskis-Private-Army-Vladimir-Peniakoff/dp/0304361437

Micawber · Mar 5, 2008

I spent some years as a curator of a museum based within an active military camp over here in the UK. The base itself is pre WWII and as time went on there were obviously numerous modernisation schemes one of which was to upgrade all the accomodation - both married and single.

We usually managed to brief the various contractors involved in these schemes that if in the course of their work they came across anything not obviously from the last few years we should know about it. During work on housing that was used by senior ranks, which included USAAF personnel during WWII, a bundle of wartime dated letters hidden under some upstairs floorboards where discovered and acquired our museum.

I while I can't remember the exact specifics I do recall the letters were written by a desk officer and included letters to and from his wife back in the U.S plus others to and from one or two 'significant others' in the locale.

A little research revealed the officer involved was still alive and had shipped back to the States with the rest of his outfit around May / June '45. This then prompted the debate if we should contact the gentleman to let him know that his hidden letters had been found. Rightly or wrongly after much, much thought, knowing that the letters had obviously been hidden for a reason, we decided that the delicate nature of some of the contents meant that they had the potential to still impact on his relationship with his still living wife. The letters were subsequently accessioned and added to the museum archive.

Willys Gal · Mar 5, 2008

What beautiful stories. It's amazing to glance inside of these peoples lifes for their brief moments and know what they were feeling.

It's got the makings of a very romantic movie. Maybe one with short love stories during WWII. Filmed partly in black and white?

Story · Mar 30, 2008

They just keep surfacing.

Ok, this is just bizarre.

Mystery WWII Letter Found In New Pants
Clothing Was Made In China

POSTED: 7:12 am EDT March 28, 2008
UPDATED: 9:58 am EDT March 28, 2008
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/mostpopular/15729941/detail.html

BOSTON -- A mystery surrounds a long-lost love letter sent from a soldier serving in World War II to his wife in Massachusetts.

The mystery is where that letter ended up.

It was found recently in a Tennessee shopping mall, inside the pocket of a new pair of pre-washed pants, which were made in China.

The date on the letter is Oct. 28, 1943, and it was addressed to an Anna Scott of Massachusetts from her husband, William.

The people who found the letter are hoping someone will recognize it and solve the mystery of its round-the-world trip.

Story · Jun 9, 2008

Watch that's back from the seabed... And it's still working, after 67 years

By Jaya Narain
Last updated at 1:17 AM on 09th June 2008

The last time Teddy Bacon saw his expensive gold watch it was sinking down into the harbour in Gibraltar.

That was in 1941, and the watch had slipped off his wrist when Lieutenant Bacon threw a line to shore from his ship, HMS Repulse.

After two divers failed to find his lost treasure, the young officer gave up on ever seeing it again.

But 67 years later, it turned up on his doormat - still ticking.

The Bulova Automatic, wrapped in a brown paper bag, did not seem at all the worse for wear after decades on the ocean floor.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ts-seabed--And-working-67-years.html?ITO=1490

Warden · Sep 25, 2008

A mothers letters to her son, go under the hammer

See BBC news report

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/7634045.stm

Harry

Smithy · Sep 25, 2008

Thanks for posting that Harry. An absolute treasure trove of information in those letters.

MrsJingles · Sep 29, 2008

This whole thread is so beautiful... Why don't people write letters anymore??

Story · Aug 28, 2009

Home remodeler turns over WWII diaries to rightful heir

Short, 40, of Akron, who discovered the Navy diaries of Raymer more than two years ago while remodeling a Kenmore home, was making plans to meet Dick Raymer, 63, of Clearwater, Fla., at Greenlawn Memorial Park in Akron, at Bert Raymer's grave.

Short was surprised to learn that the grave is about 35 yards from where his mother, Goldie McCune, was buried last year.

''It is karma,'' said Dick Raymer today after Short gave him seven diaries written during World War II.

''It's almost like God wanted someone to find these before they were destroyed,'' he said.

http://www.ohio.com/news/break_news/55478087.html

Tabasco Joe · Sep 19, 2009

Badluck Brody said:
While moving things from my mother's I found an old metal chalk box with negatives and pictures that my grandpa and his brother took in WWII when they were stationed in the pacific. They even include some pics of when his "tough as nails" mother went to visit him.

Wow that a really cool treasure to "unearth.

Story · Jan 9, 2010

http://www.army.mil/-news/2010/01/06/32508-wallet-owner-reunited-after-61-years/

ANSBACH, Germany -- In spring 2009, a U.S. Army Garrison Ansbach employee found a wallet. A few months later, the item's owner, Jack Grose, was reunited with the leather billfold and all its contents, after having been without it - for 61 years.

Story · Jun 4, 2010

Jun 3, 6:04 AM EDT

Wallet lost in 1941 returned to Utah man

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- It took 69 years, but a World War II veteran from Sandy, Utah, finally has his wallet back.

Eighty-eight-year-old Robert Bell lost it at a Navy vocational school in Chicago in 1941. Among other things it held his Social Security card and photos of the youthful Bell and his future wife.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that electrician Bob Jordan found it in the mid-60s in a school crawl space. He tried unsuccessfully over the years to find the owner.

Late last year, a Chicago-area American Legion post and Congressman Peter Roskam got involved. They enlisted the aid of the Social Security Administration, which tracked him down.

Bell was stunned by its return and is now looking forward to showing the photos to his son.

Warden · Apr 18, 2011

Very much on the same theme. Click here for news story

A postcard lost by a World War I soldier being treated in a village hall hospital has been returned to relatives.

Warden · Nov 15, 2011

A search is under way to find the family of a soldier who died during World War II after a copy of his will was found in a lost property office.

Read BBC news story here

Story · Dec 19, 2012

Wartime German Christmas letters stolen by Jersey youths finally delivered to soldiers' relatives
When teenagers in occupied Jersey stole a cache of Christmas letters posted home by German soldiers, it was a small act of wartime resistance. Seven decades later and after a painstaking search, descendants of the troops have finally received them.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/...-finally-delivered-to-soldiers-relatives.html

Story · Nov 11, 2013

Tale of a Purple Heart
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/11/us/journey-purple-heart/

A Bomber General · Nov 21, 2013

Just an incredible series of stories guys. Thanks for posting them.

Love letter from 1940 unearthed

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