“I very easily remember and will never forget that Sunday, afternoon, December 7, 1941. I was seated in a comfortable chair in the front room as a news broadcaster interrupted an orchestra and gave the report that Japan had struck Pearl Harbor ‘several minutes ago.'”

– Private Irvin Schwartz, in a letter written on December 4, 1943 while the young soldier was stationed in England and training for D-Day. Read the full letter here.

In 1944, the native of Pine Grove, Pennsylvania invaded Normandy with the US Army’s 1st Division and fought through Europe until V-E Day in May 1945. His letters home to the West Schuylkill Press-Herald, his hometown newspaper, were featured in our Letters from War project.

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