THE ATLANTIC WAR REMEMBERED - An Oral History Collection

From the U-boat plagued convoys in the North Atlantic to the beaches of Normandy and the Big Three Conference at Yalta, twenty-eight men and women here relive their experiences in the Allied defeat of Hitler. Drawn from a vast collection of oral histories recorded by John T. Mason, Jr., between 1960 and 1982, these extraordinary eyewitness accounts are readily available once again to the public.

Through an invasion commander's binoculars  and a frogman's face mask, readers share the horror, grit, and humor of combat. With unqualified realism Admiral H. Kent Hewitt describes the landing at French Morocco, America's first major amphibious operation, and Captain Phil H. Bucklew recalls how one of his beach scouts at Sicily held a flashlight to mark invasion lanes while backed up against a German pillbox firing a machine gun over his head. The home front gets equal attention, for here, too, are the stories of those who supported the war effort in the United States. These and other  personal narratives presented make memorable reading and give far more insights into historic  events than most scholarly analyses.

John T. Mason Jr. (1909–1998) was a trained historian with an advanced degree from George Washington University. He was also an Episcopal priest and graduate of General Theological Seminary. From 1940 to the end of World War II, he served with the Office of National Intelligence in Washington, D.C. From 1960 to 1969, he was associated with the oral history research office of Columbia University under the guidance of the noted American historian Allan Nevins. In 1969, Mason established an oral history program at the U.S. Naval Institute, and it soon led to one of the most extensive collections of naval oral history transcripts in the country. In 1982, he retired as director of the Naval Institute Oral History Program, which continues to carry on his legacy today.