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My father, Pfc. William W. Taylor Jr. served in the 100th. Infantry Division, 399th. Regiment, Co. A. His Division saw duty in France and Germany spending 185 consecutive days on the battle line. He wrote nearly 300 letters home chronicling his service to our country. Like so many combat veterans of the War he spoke little of his experiences, but these letters tell the story.
My Hero
As a young boy my heroes were from books. Fighting men like Captain Horatio Hornblower and Francis Marion "the Swamp Fox" fired my imagination. More than anything I wanted to be like them, strong, brave, and heroic. One day, while rummaging around my father's closet I came upon a large box. Arranged within the box were 5 or 6 dusty, dirty cigar boxes. Inside the boxes were hundreds of old letters. They were numbered, in sequence and in the original envelopes. I opened the first letter and started to read. From that day on, my hero became not Horatio Hornblower or Francis Marion, but Pfc. William Wellington Taylor, Jr., my father. The letters were his letters home from World War II.
NOTE: The letters in this collection appear in reverse order. To read them in chronological order starting with the first letter go to the link at the bottom of this page entitled "Read letters in order starting with Letter 1"
NOTE: The letters in this collection appear in reverse order. To read them in chronological order starting with the first letter go to the link at the bottom of this page entitled "Read letters in order starting with Letter 1"
About Me
Followers
100th Infantry Division
100th. Infantry Patch
Read letters in order starting with Letter 1
Read the letters in this collection in the order they were written, from first to last in my new website at:
http://wwiiwwtaylor.wordpress.com/
http://wwiiwwtaylor.wordpress.com/
The penmanship of your father is very legible and it is easy to read the letters with the "click on" enlarged format. The pre-printed number 1959 in the letterhead threw me for a loop the first time I saw it, until I realized it was the number of the Service Command Unit and not the date. Looking forward to reading more of the letters as you have the time to post them. Something to think about at this stage is the bit-size of the documents you post so as not to chew up anymore of your allotted blog space as is necessary. Find a letter scan size that is large enough to read, but no larger, and use that image size for posting these letters. These look like they might be scanned at 100% and perhaps 75% will be suffiecient? Just a thought. -- wg
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion. I will see what I can do. I currently have transcribed 75 of the letters and have thought about posting mostly transcripts with an occasional scan done only if the letter has an interesting letterhead or sketch (my father was an excellent artist and the letters contain many great sketches depicting army life) This would save space. I just want to make the letters as enjoyable and informative as possible.
ReplyDeleteI have added Letter 2 as a transcript with a short summary above it. I am also getting a better feel for the design aspect of the blog. I'm open to suggestions from everyone, even a 111 year old, as this is my first go in the "blogosphere".
ReplyDelete