M.C. and E.D. Humphrie WWII Journal Collection

The collection consists of two handwritten journals and their tipped-in photographs, held as digital surrogates. It is arranged in two series, one per creator.

Series I. Elbert D. Humphries Journal ("Life Overseas"), 1944–1945. A first-person diary and memoir kept by Pfc. Elbert D. Humphries of a field artillery survey section. Entries begin on November 10, 1944, with his embarkation at Boston aboard the U.S.S. Wakefield, and continue through the Atlantic crossing, staging in England (Gloucester and Portland), and the move through France and Belgium into Germany. The diary documents the opening of the Battle of the Bulge, his unit being shelled and overrun, and his capture near Luxembourg on December 19, 1944. It then records the forced march through Prüm, the boxcar transport during which prisoners endured air raids, dysentery, and near-starvation, and his arrival at Stalag IV-B at Mühlberg. Subsequent entries describe labor commandos in Dresden and an extended eyewitness account of the firebombing of the city on February 13 and 14, 1945, including both the American daylight raid and the RAF night raid seen from the ground, closing with the reflection that "the only people who suffer from wars are the poor people." Final entries follow the April and May 1945 evacuation march and the approach of liberation. The journal also contains extensive lists of foods (candies, pies, cakes, sandwiches, and full menus), a recognized feature of prisoner-of-war "hunger diaries," and records the names of fellow soldiers killed or wounded. The rear cover bears his serial number (44176166) and Dresden prisoner number (312090).

Series II. M.C. Humphries Journal (U.S.S. Griggs Log Book), 1945. A personal log kept by M.C. Humphries, a Navy pharmacist's mate, aboard the attack transport U.S.S. Griggs (APA-110). Entries begin April 14, 1945, with the ship's departure from Norfolk, Virginia, carrying roughly 1,400 Marines, and follow its passage by way of Cuba and the Panama Canal into the Pacific. The log records shipboard conditions, troop movements, and the ship's arrival in the Okinawa area, and captures the end of the war as experienced from the anchorage, including the news that "Washington has accepted the peace terms" and the celebratory firing of flares and forty-millimeter guns ("a great night for all of us"). Later entries, written in red ink, follow occupation-period transport duty and the writer's transfer to the Naval Dispensary at Tutuila, Samoa, and to another transport (APA-57), closing on December 3, 1945, as he got underway for Pearl Harbor and home. The volume also serves as a keepsake album, with tipped-in photographs including a signed group portrait of shipmates at Cristobal, Panama, a souvenir photograph taken in Norfolk, formal portraits of the writer's parents (Mr. and Mrs. W.P. Humphries) and grandmother (Mrs. W.H. Humphries), and home snapshots of young women identified by first name.