Introduction

You are invited to join the families of Winfred G. and Clifford S. Maxwell as we relive the experience of WWII in a different way –

           Experience the war in real-time, as the parents, receiving letters from their enlisted sons.  

Beginning in December 2022 and for the next three years, over 300 postcards and letters sent home by Winfred, his younger brother Clifford and friends, to the ‘Folks’ and family, will be posted on the date eighty years after they were originally mailed.

Coming from a small, Midwestern town, the eldest son of Guy and Cressie, Winfred G. Maxwell was twenty-one years-old when he was drafted and enlisted in the Army Air Corps.  After a year of training stateside, he served in 8th Army Air Force in Europe as a radio operator on the B-24 Liberator “Hoo Jive.”  He flew twenty-nine missions – two on D-Day.  Personal journal entries he made after each of these missions will also be posted.  He returned to the States, transferred to the ATC – Air Transport Command, received additional training, and finished the war in the Pacific.

Clifford (19) enlisted a few months after his older brother and served in the U. S. Army.  After basic training in California, Clifford served in the West Coast Artillery for most of a year as part of the Harbor Defense of Puget Sound. He was then sent to Texas to receive additional training, became a member 768th Field Artillery Battalion and fought in Europe from December 1944 until the war’s end. Clifford’s battalion operated mobilized 155mm Howitzers. His unit then served helping to keep the peace after the war.

                                         After returning home, neither of the boys ever spoke of the war to any of their family members.

These letters were saved by the boy’s parents, Guy D.  and Cressie M. Maxwell.  Guy served as the Postmaster of their hometown of Irondale, MO.  The letters were found in a small cardboard box in the attic after Winfred’s wife Pat went to be with him.  They are being presented in this way so his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and others can share in the Maxwell’s experiences during WWII.