WWII SCRAPBOOK PHOTOS EPHEMERA LETTERS WRITTEN TO A SOLDIER 63rd & 80th Divisions

Item #512

This large (11 ¾” x 14 ½”) scrapbook is overstuffed with newspaper and magazine clippings, a Thanksgiving Day program, postcards, tourist brochures, a few soldiers’ uniform patches, a couple of matchbooks, various Army publications and handouts (“Army Hit Kit of Popular Songs,” for instance), a Christmas Dinner menu from 1943. There’s even a rather lengthy radio script celebrating “Blood and Fire,” which was the nickname of the 63d Infantry Division, raised during WWII. At the end of the album, added to the binding, there is a copy of the famous last issue of Yank, “The Army Weekly.” But the heart of the scrapbook is letters: letters, letters, letters, all written to Raymond W. Watson, Jr., a young soldier who seems to have had a wide circle of friends. There are letters on paper almost as thin as tissue paper, handwritten letters, typed letters, V-mail. At least twice, Private Watson’s address changes, and he includes the change of address notices (on one of which he has written “Send at least a dozen coat hangers, but quick”).

The scrapbook has 33 pages, a couple of which towards the end are unused. The album paper is yellowing acidic construction paper, showing edge wear but not crumbling. Much of the material in the album has either come loose, or was never glued down. One page has black photo corners indicating where photos were, but no photos. However, there are at least 17 photos in the album---there may be more in some of the envelopes which contain some of the letters. Other letters are loose pages with no envelopes.

The letters in the scrapbook come from all over---West Virginia, Minnesota, Arizona, New York, at least some from unspecified locations in Germany, some from fellow soldiers, one from a friend who seems to have been wounded and mustered out of the Army. Although there are no letters from home, or girlfriends, Ray appears to have had a wide, loyal, and admiring circle of friends in the Army. He was stationed at various locations in the states: Camp Forrest in Tennessee, Camp Van Dorn in Mississippi, but eventually he was separated from his original unit and given a new posting to Panama, where he apparently served for the duration of the war.

What is poignant about this album is the contrast between the mundane details the letters often give, and the more substantive news the writers provide and the inquiries they make about their fellow soldiers. In the beginning of the scrapbook, for instance, there is a photograph of a soldier named Al. Later on, in a letter, a correspondent reports that Al hasn’t been heard from in 8 months. Other letters comment on friends who are missing, or friends who have been wounded. Several of the newspaper clippings are obituaries of fellow soldiers, presumably ones Ray knew.

A large printed photograph pasted to the inside front cover shows two soldiers from the 80th Division of the 3rd Army. This seems to have been Ray’s original outfit. At some point, Ray was transferred out of the 80th, and, as noted, he ended up in Panama. His buddies write to him expressing sympathy for his suffering from the heat and humidity of the jungle. The irony of receiving a letter from a soldier who had just survived The Battle of the Bulge expressing sympathy for a soldier posted to the jungle could not have been lost on either the letter writer, or Ray. The letters do make clear that Ray was well-respected, and would have preferred to be with his buddies in Europe, despite the hardships and danger they faced. Ray seems to have been a heck of a guy, to have this many friends.


There are several items for the Blood and Fire, 63rd Infantry Division. Inside one such item is written: “Dear Ray: As one of those who helped create the 63rd Division, I know you will want this booklet. I am only sorry you didn’t stay with us for I know you would have been a credit to the Division while you were under fire….Bob.”

“ Keep sweet - think straight - and hang on,” one writer says to Ray. In this scrapbook, the mundane and the tragic meet head-on. The result is sobering.

Price: $350.00