Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the W. Dennis Meeks papers #4674-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased from Charles Apfelbaum of Valley Stream, N.Y., in September 1993 (Acc. 93127).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

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• England--Description and travel.
• Meeks, W. Dennis.
• Soldiers--United States--Correspondence.
• South Carolina--Social life and customs.
• United States. Army Air Forces. Bombardment Group (H), 385th.

Letters, 1942-1945, chiefly from W. Dennis Meeks, serving with the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, to his wife Carrie in Columbia, S.C. Also included are a few letters from Carrie to Dennis and from Dennis's buddies to Carrie. The few letters in 1942 are to and from Dennis with the 18th Bomb Wing at Camp Rapid, Rapid City, S.D., where he worked in some capacity in the unit's war room. Letters dated 1943 through 1945 are chiefly from Dennis, who appears to have been a clerk at the headquarters of the 385th Bombardment Group somewhere in England. Besides descriptions of the occasional bicycle trip, Dennis wrote little about his activities in England and less about the conduct of the war. Instead, Dennis told Carrie about the letters and packages he had received and responded to what Carrie told him of her life in South Carolina, where she held a series of temporary office jobs and kept up with the activities of friends and relatives. In 1945, censorship relaxed and Dennis was able to give his location as Great Ashfield, Suffolk, and discuss his impressions of England with his wife. The penultimate letter in the collection is from England and dated 12 June 1945; the last letter is dated 9 November 1945, by which time Dennis was back in the United States, perhaps in California, contemplating what he might do when he left the army.