North Carolina at Home and in Battle in World War II

Subjects

Eighth-grade social studies and language arts
Eleventh-grade United States history

Competency goals

Social studies: 6
Language arts: 1, 2, 3
United States history: 10

Instructional materials

Virtual scrapbook (in this workshop)
information sheet: V-Mail
information sheet: Feeding the Troops
information sheet: Words from the War: Life in the Service
information sheet: Puckett Family Letters (in this workshop)
article: Breaking the Race Barrier: Navy B-1 Band (in this workshop)
article: Westray Battle Boyce: Story of a WAC (in this workshop)
article: Veterans’ Memories of War (Adobe Acrobat file)
article: The Battling 101st (Adobe Acrobat file)

Introduction

Today soldiers on active duty can e-mail family and friends or call them on satellite phones. Digital videos and photos can be sent over the Internet, allowing members of the armed forces and their loved ones to stay in touch. But during World War II, the only way servicemen stationed overseas could communicate with people stateside was by sending letters through the mail. Students will learn what those letters might have contained and why they were important.

Procedure

1. Show the virtual scrapbook in class or in the media center, if possible.
2. Read and discuss the quotations from "Words from the War: Life in the Service" and "Words from the War: Letters from the Home Front."
3. The students will write letters as if they are soldiers writing their wives, children, parents, siblings, or friends during wartime. They should already have some idea of the physical and psychological hardships American servicemen faced overseas. They may read all or portions of the articles listed above. "Veterans’ Memories of War" and "The Battling 101st" provide good insights into soldiers’ day-to-day thoughts. Remind the students that, like the soldiers in World War II, they may not mention troop numbers or movements, unit names, locations, names of fellow soldiers, or other sensitive information. But their descriptions of general events should be historically accurate; for example, a soldier writing from the Battle of the Bulge (December 16, 1944, to January 25, 1945) would talk about winter rather than summer.
4. Students will read their letters to the class and discuss how and why they came to their conclusions about the war and those involved in it.

Extension activity

Students will read a book about any conflict (Civil War, Vietnam War, etc.) that includes letters to or from members of the United States military and their families. The students may either write an evaluation of their book or make a report to the class connecting the book to their study of World War II.