Stories by Media
Stories by Location
The War, Ken Burns’ seven-part documentary series directed and produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, was the most-watched PBS series of the past 10 years. It explored the history and horror of the Second World War from an American perspective by following the fortunes of so-called ordinary men and women who become caught up in one of the greatest cataclysms in human history.
WILL-TV’s Central Illinois World War II Stories was developed in conjunction with the Ken Burns’ series.
Visit The War web site on PBS.org
Share Your Story
PBS is gathering WWII stories from viewers across the United States. Upload your story to PBS for sharing with all other viewers. If you need assistance, contact Mary Barrineau or Jack Brighton at 217-333-1070.
This project supported in part by:
Clark Lindsey Village
Ecowater Systems
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers #601
Strawberry Fields
Steamatic
WETA
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
WILL Stories
In stories on WILL radio, television and the Web, WILL looks at the war from many perspectives: men in battle on land and at sea, Japanese-American families in internment camps, conscientious objectors, women in the service, African-Americans at Chanute Air Force Base, German POWs in Hoopeston.
Oral History Interview: Perry Rannebarger of Champaign
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Perry Rannebarger was drafted into the Illinois National Guard in September 1941 prior to the U.S. entering World War II. He became part of an infantry regiment and was sent to Australia just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He was among the first soldiers to become part of the Americal Division. He fought in the Battle of Mount Austen during the Guadalcanal campaign.
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Oral History Interview: Frances Schneider of Champaign
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Frances Schneider was a civilian instructor during World War II, teaching Morse Code to enlisted men at Scott Field in Belleville, Ill. Her late husband, Jack Schneider, was a section chief in the Army Air Corps. He was the radio operator in connection with the Enola Gay on its flight to Japan.
Schneider was having fun at a skating rink when the shocking announcement of the bombing of Pearl Harbor was made over the loud speaker. She remembers vividly how life changed. Two of her brothers were already in the service. Her other brother enlisted in January after the attack. Frances talks about how her family learnedwhat her brothers (and later her husband) were doing and where they were.
Wanting to contribute something to the war effort, Schneider left her position as office manager in a mail order house in Chicago and took tests to study at a radio school in Chicago. That led to her assignment at Scott Field teaching Morse Code to men who would serve as radio operators as well as gunners on B-17s. Her memories paint a poignant picture of the times. She talks about students who left the school as boys and returned as war-weary men, of discrimination issues for blacks, and of the courage of families who faced losses and carried on. She talks about the funny, sometimes sad, human events that also occurred during the war. Her story weaves together the lives of those who served abroad with those who remained in this country.
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Oral History Interview: Charles Bruns of Champaign
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Charles Bruns served as an engineer in the 3rd Infantry Division in Africa, Sicily, Italy and other locations in Europe.
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Oral History Interview: Robert Green of Champaign
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Robert E. Green signed up for the U.S. Naval Reserve Midshipman School in June of 1940, the same month he turned 21, and graduated as Ensign, USNR a year later. During the war, he served in the Navy in the Pacific, except for six months during 1943 when he returned stateside to pick up a new ship in New York. In the North Pacific, he served at Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands in 1943. In the South Pacific he took part in the Guadalcanal campaign in 1942 and the Battle of Tarawa in 1943. He earned a Silver Star for his service at Tarawa, and earned four battle stars for his service on his first ship, an APA (attack transport). During the final two years of the war, he was first lieutenant of a floating drydock at Manus Island in the Bismarck Sea, where ships were quickly repaired so that they could return to action.
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Oral History Interview: Robert Whitson of Champaign
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Robert Whitson served in the U.S. Navy, participating in the invasion of Sicily and the Normandy invasion. His worst day was Christmas Day, 1943, in the North Atlantic when he didn’t know if his ship would stay in one piece the next time a wave came. He served on board a cruiser and then a destroyer. He left farming to join the Navy, and went back to farming after he came home.
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Jill Knappenberger, Champaign
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Knappenberger was one of three women serving on the front lines during the Battle of the Bulge. Working for the Red Cross operating a refitted truck dubbed a “clubmobile,” she passed out donuts, coffee and cigarettes to weary soldiers. She talks to WILL-TV producer Denise La Grassa about being trapped for eight days during the Battle of the Bulge, surrounded by the enemy. Her brother, John Joseph Pitts III, an Army captain, was in the heat of battle only a few miles away. Knappenberger, shown at left with the clubmobile, said she joined the Red Cross effort because she was itching to get into the action of World War II. The soldiers taught her how to use a gun and she even got a few shots off at the Germans.