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.
Iris Lundin, Champaign
Aired on WILL-TV's "Prairie Fire" at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7
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When World War II broke out, Iris Nigg Lundin of Champaign left her small town in Minnesota and joined hundreds of other women in the newly formed Marine Corps women’s Reserve. She became one of the first four female navigation instructors.
Producer Denise La Grassa said that in her conversations with Lundin, she was impressed by the strength of this woman who left a secure life in Minnesota to join the ranks of the Marines, the toughest of the tough. “This was the first time many of these men who were her students had encountered a female instructor and she really held her own,” said La Grassa. “When I listened to her stories, I was moved by her description of how she went to bat for African-Americans on the military bases where she worked. She was brave enough to tell a higher-ranking officer that he shouldn’t be treating a steward in a demeaning manner. Later in her life, equality was very important to her.”
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Battle of the Bulge
Aired on Monday, Dec. 17, on WILL-AM
Sixty-three years ago, Germany was mounting its last major offensive in World War II. Months later, the Nazis would fall and the guns of war would finally go silent in Europe. In the following decades, we heard about bits and pieces of the conflagration, hundreds of thousands of individual stories from those on the front lines. Now, one by one, those voices are also falling silent. AM 580’s Tom Rogers lets area residents Harold Cox, Hoopeston; Harold “Sparky” Songer, Danville; Malcolm Davis, Urbana; Frank Mula, Monticello; and Jill Knappenberger, Champaign, tell their stories of the war’s bloodiest battle.
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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: Harry Reed of Danville
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During World War II, Harry Reed was a flight engineer on a plane that was the equivalent of today’s Air Force II. His plane carrying Secret Service members flew about 20 minutes in front of the plane carrying the President and landed in time to give the Secret Service people adequate time to secure the area for the President and other dignitaries. His assignments included flying Eleanor Roosevelt after FDR died (The President’s body was moved by train). Reed’s plane flew the President and others to vital meetings at places like Yalta and Pottsdam, as well as making a flight to South America that gave the U.S. options for a possible new way to reach Japan by air. The plane also broke the round trip speed record to Paris. Harry Reed will tell you that is proud that he was able to serve his country and that he sees himself as being very lucky to have gotten the assignments he did.
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Oral History Interview: Joseph Hamburg of Urbana
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Joseph Hamburg served in the Army infantry in Europe, participating in the Normandy campaign and the battle for the city of Brest in the Brittany region of France. He also served in the army of occupation in France and Belgium.
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Oral History Interview: Alexander Samaras of Danville
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Alexander Samaras was the commanding officer of an LCT in the Navy, and fought at Utah Beach on D-Day. He and his men worked to ferry in troops and equipment, and then later on to ferry out the dead and prisoners. His LCT also carried in crucial equipment used to set up communications for both Omaha and Utah Beach.
He joined his LCT in New Orleans, and the LCT was taken across the Atlantic on a larger LST. As a junior officer, he had to take his turn standing watch on the LST. During rough weather one night while he was on watch, three of the ships in his convoy were struck by torpedoes and blown up. That same night, his LST was hit by a torpedo, but it was dud. The entire hold of his LST, the length of a football field, was filled with ammunition. The torpedo put a dent in the stern. “It made me a fatalist,” he says.
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