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.
University of Illinois' WWII Veterans Presentation
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Three hundred people attended a community conversation August 28, 2008 at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center at the University of Illinois IL featuring musical storytelling emphasizing the events of WWII and prominent songs of the period with vocalist and narrator Dena Vermette , Don Heitler and his jazz trio with Ben Taylor on bass and Jeff Magby on drums. The musical performance will be narrated by veteran John Weaver. The musical performance was followed by a video screening of people who lived and trained at the U of I during WWII and discussion with panelists plus an archival display.
Speaking were Katie Harper Wright, who attended the U of I from 1940 to 1944 and was one of a small number of black students on campus; Jim Stallmeyer, who was drafted into the Navy and trained at the U of I from 1944-1946; Earl Swanson, who attended the U of I before joining the Army in 1943; William Prather, a soldier in the Army who trained on campus, and Kathryn Luther Henderson, a student from Champaign.
The event was co-sponsored by co-sponsored by WILL, the U of I Alumni Association, and the U of I Archives’ Student Life and Culture Archival Program, funded by the Stewart S. Howe Endowment.
The panel and audience discussion were moderated by Tom Rogers of WILL AM-FM-TV.
RealVideo archive:
Three Urbana Women Remember WWII
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Seventy-five people attended a community conversation October 4, 2007 at the Urbana Free Library in Urbana, IL featuring three women who had very different experiences of WWII. Speaking were Yukiko Okinaga Llewellyn who, as a little girl, was interned with her mother at Manzanar camp in California; Iris Lundin who, as a member of the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve, taught navigation to Navy pilots; and Jill Knappenberger who 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. The event was co-sponsored by WILL AM-FM-TV and the Urbana Free Library. The panel and audience discussion were moderated by U of I history professor Mark Leff.
RealVideo archive:
Oral History Interview: George Boyd of Urbana
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George Boyd was 7 years old and living in Urbana when Pearl Harbor was attacked. His homefront memories of the war years are sharp and reflect much of what children living in this country experienced. He did the things children did, playing and going to movies and helping with liberty gardens. He gives a good picture of life in middle America where everyone was involved in some way in the war effort. At the same time he heard adults talk and radio reports and knew when neighbors or family members were hurt or had died in battles. Children of this period in our history were changed by what was happening and in some ways were adults well before they might have been if the war had not happened.
RealVideo archive:
Oral History Interview: Jim Hull of Urbana
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Jim Hull served all over Europe in many of the major campaigns. He was in the Army for about three years, serving with the artillery in places like the Argonne Forest and Normandy. His artillery group followed the troops in on the beaches on D Day and went with Patton through France. Hull was in the Battle of the Bulge and talks about the bitterness of the cold 7 degree temperatures. He shows samples of the K rations that soldiers ate—small boxes containing a canned dinner or a breakfast/lunch combination, and cigarettes. Hull shares the letter all soldiers received from Gen. Dwight Eisenhower before they hit the beaches. At the time, he said, he and his buddies were so ready to go that he didn’t think much of it, but reading it after surviving the war and looking back, he realizes how much that letter meant. His group was the only one to hold a bridge over the Elbe River, a bridge they called the Truman Bridge. His group served as part of the Army of Occupation when the battles ended.
RealVideo archive:
Oral History Interview: Lloyd Lain of Urbana
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Lloyd Lain served in the U.S. Navy from Nov. 3, 1942, to Jan. 26, 1946. He was involved in scouting the South Pacific for submarines.
RealVideo archive:
Oral History Interview: Alice Lain of Urbana
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Alice Lain served in the WAVES Women’s Navy Reserves from June 1944 to March 1946. She installed radar in the torpedo bomber Avenger and the Wildcat fighter.