Book Review: "From Foxholes and Flight Decks: Letters Home from World War II" by Rod Gragg

From Foxholes and Flight Decks: Letters Home from World War II by Rod Gragg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Amazon Book Description

An interactive book of fully-removable facsimilie letters written by World War II soldiers to their families and friends back home

History comes alive in this beautifully produced four color scrapbook of World War II letters and other documents. The reader will be able to hold in their hands and read twenty authentic letters written by soldiers to their loved ones waiting in America. The book covers the war from Pearl Harbor to V-E and V-J Days, chronicling American involvement both on the fronts and at home. The correspondence includes:

* a worm's eye view of basic training
* a love letter to a fiance left back home
* a WAC's perspective on the North African front
* the dreaded Western Union telegram that announced a son had been wounded overseas
* a jubilant letter recording first impressions of the Japanese surrender



Part of the Museum in a Book series that gives you the opportunity to interact with reproductions of actual letters sent home to loved ones during different phases of a soldier's life from induction to the battlefield, notices of casualties sent to family members, requests from family members as to the status of their loved one, and notice from a POW camp. The letters are heartbreaking in many cases, especially one from a soldier who was involved in the liberation of Dachau who wrote of the atrocities he witnessed and how that would impact him the rest of his life. The presentation and format of the book is very nice as it takes the reader chronologically through the beginning of WWII through VE Day.