World War II | Oral History

World War II

OH 0059

Artist, Army veteran (2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery, Texas National Guard), member of the “Lost Battalion.” His experiences as a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese during World War II. Fall of Java and capture; imprisonment in Surabaja, 1942; Changi Prison Camp, Singapore, 1942; hell ship to Japan, 1943; Nagasaki shipyards; Tokyo, 1943-45; liberation.

OH 0396

His experiences with the 35th Infantry Regiment at Schofield Barracks during the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

OH 0848

His experiences while aboard the battleship West Virginia during the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

OH 1876

Flight instructor at Tuskegee Army Airfield. Childhood in Macon, Georgia; Army Air Corps flight training; selection as a flight instructor; assignment to Tuskegee Army Airfield; segregation at Tuskegee; reaction of white community to black pilots; reassignment as a bomber pilot; transition to Reserves at end of war; discharge form Reserves; thoughts on time at Tuskegee; post-military life.

OH 0957

His experiences in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Assignment to 2nd Marine Division; landings on Gavutu and Tanambogo in Florida Islands; Tarawa landing; Marianas campaign and Tinian landing.

OHB 0032

NEWMAN, Rowe B. Founder and chairman of board, Russell-Newman Mfg. Company, Denton, Texas. Boyhood; early work experiences; education; store manager, Montgomery Ward; store manager, Butler Bros.; founding Russell-Newman, 1939; decision to specialize in lingerie; World War II; growth and expansion; financing methods; chain store accounts; decisions on designs; fabrics, dyes; government regulations; minority hiring; family members in business; employee relations; developing management team. MARTINO, Frank. President, Russell-Newman Mfg. Company. Family background; early work

OH 1058

His experiences while aboard the destroyer USS Melvin during World War II in the Pacific Theater. Marianas invasion; Carolines invasion; Battle of Leyte Gulf; Battle of Surigao Strait; Iwo Jima; Okinawa; Kurile operations and occupation of Japan.

OHB 0034

Co-founder (with husband Herman, deceased) of Tex Glass, Inc., Decatur, Texas. Family background; education in Brooklyn, N. Y.; teaching career; her knowledge of husband’s family background and his life in Europe during Hitler era; his technical training, work in glass factories; starting his own glass factory in Vienna; fleeing Nazis and migrating to Greece; Jewish underground in Central Europe; fleeing to Egypt, Palestine; migration to U.S.; their meeting and marriage; work in Canada and Mexico; opening glass factory in Athens,