NJ WORLD WAR II BOOK CLUB

DR. JOHN J. MCLAUGHLIN 10 FARMSTEAD ROAD, SHORT HILLS, NJ 07078 MODERATOR

August 20, 2011 Volume 2,# 9

A New Season This is the start of a new and exciting season for our World War 2 Book Club, and we have a great set of programs for the balance of year 2011. Tuesday September 20: Jack Satterfield, author of a new book about to be released about Father Joseph O'Callahan, the first military Chaplain to be awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroics on the aircraft carrier USS Franklin during the Okinawa campaign in the last stage of World War 2 Tuesday October 18: Marilyn C. Solvay, PhD, Director of the Sullivan Museum and History Center at Norwich University will discuss the history of this proud military college, the first private military school in the United States, founded in 1819 from which many of our military leaders have graduated. Dr. Solvay will also discuss the current program of World War 2 studies. Tuesday November 15: Blaine Pardoe, author of of Lost Eagles One Man's Mission to Find Missing Airmen in Two Wars will discuss his award winning book. Mr. Pardoe weaves together the fascinating story of one man who devoted his life to developing technology and a methodology for locating the remains of missing airmen. He established the procedure,

still in place today, of imprinting the serial numbers of the aircraft on every single piece of equipment used in the aircraft so the plane can be identified even when a crash scatters the parts over a large area. Traditional Holiday Party Our annual Holiday Party will be held again this year at Pal's Cabin West Orange on Tuesday December 13. Mark the date. Our guest speaker will be Nancy Webster who has been video taping all the lectures which are now available on the web. She will discuss the current state of technology in videotaping and show clips of the lectures that have been recorded this year including many pictures of our members. Dr. Steven Lomazow Our concluding lecture of the spring was by Dr. Steven Lomazow who lectured on President Roosevelt's last illness and the impact it had on important strategic decisions made during the last year of World War 2; especially the fateful implications of the Yalta Conference, the consequences of which are still with us. We had 80 in attendance. Biography of General Wedemeyer Author John McLaughlin's biography of General

Wedemeyer will be published in the spring of 2012 by Casemate Publishers of Pennsylvania. Mr. McLaughlin is working feverishly to meet the publishing deadline of September 30 and thanks author Richard Lucas for introducing him to Casemate, which specializes in military publications. Further Research John McLaughlin has just completed a trip to the General George Marshall Library at the Virginia Military Institute and also the Army War College in Carlisle Barracks PA where fascinating new documents and pictures have been uncovered. Andrew Nagorski Our members well remember our first speaker who kicked off the lecture series in June 2009 with a great talk about the Battle of Moscow. We keep in touch with our speakers and just learned that Andrew has completed a new book entitled Hitlerland: American Eyewitnesses to the Nazi Rise to Power. Incidentally, General Wedemeyer is included in the list of people who were there during that time and his two years at the Kriegsakademie is covered in the book. We are now talking to Andrew about coming back for another lecture sometime in the spring of 2012 after his book is published by Simon and

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Schuster. I am sure the book will be a great success. Andrew said he remembers the enthusiasm of the audience and is looking forward to another trip to Millburn. We are now working on a date which will coincide with publication of his book so we will be able to offer it for sale when he comes. Knowledge of World War 2 It is regrettable but true that many of our citizens, mostly young, are not knowledgeable about the tremendous sacrifices made by our young men and women during World War 2. In an effort to tell the younger people about the war we have embarked on a mission to deliver lectures to local schools about the subject of World War 2. John McLaughlin lectured to the 4th Grade Class of Glenwood School in Millburn in June and was absolutely amazed at the interest and desire these young boys and girls had for the subject. We covered three topics which the children loved: (1) what it was like at home during the war with rationing, blackouts, and being without brothers, sisters, and fathers who were in the service; (2) the paratroop drop at Ste. Mere-Eglise,(featured in "The Longest Day") and the heroic tending of the graves by the wife of the Mayor of the town, Simon Renaud; (3) dogs in the war and how they aided the allied cause. The students loved it. Each one wrote an individual thank you note, and later that year they put on a play featuring what they had learned. A prize was awarded for the best composition by a girl and a boy, and the winners read their compositions at the last World War 2 Book Club meeting. The audience loved hearing from these charming 10 year old

students. Efforts are being made to continue the lecture series at other schools, and the children's pictures were prominently displayed in the local paper. Incidentally, one of our members, Tom McArdle, himself a former paratrooper and a close friend of the Renaud family will deliver a lecture and show a CD about the paratroop drop at Ste. Mere-Eglise in January 2012. Tom leads group tours to Normandy and is very knowledgeable about the contribution of the paratroopers in the D-Day invasion. Videos of Our Lectures Members are reminded that Nancy Webster is videotaping our lectures and they are available for viewing on the internet as they are completed. Currently you can view the following:

also allowed in the special room to which the general public is excluded where all the archives are stored and preserved. While there Ursula's personal artifacts were brought out including a diary that Ursula maintained after her release. Ursula donated these precious items to the museum many years ago and was surprised to learn that Nancy had made special arrangements to have them brought our for her to view. The emotional scene is caught on the video and is very moving.

Paul Watkins: http://vimeo.com/user6256852/ paulwatkins Ursula Pawel: http://vimeo.com/24720446 We expect the video of Dr. Lomazow's June lecture to be available soon. Trip to The Holocaust Museum On June 6 John McLaughlin, Mary Jean McLaughlin, Nancy Webster and Ursula Pawel traveled to Washington DC to visit the Holocaust Museum. The entire trip and the tour of the museum was arranged by Nancy Webster who communicated with the proper authorities at the museum and arranged for a special tour and videotaping before the museum opened in the morning for the general public. We were