PRESENTATIONS

"The First Composite Air Strike Force & Lebanon in 1958 "

by WWII Roundtable member Ron Darrah, Participant in Operation DOUBLE TROUBLE

(More in our September & October 2023 Newsletter, page 2, Preview of Our Fall Programs.)

Historian Ron May explores Indiana’s World War II legacy by highlighting the former bases and current memorials, monuments, and museums across the state.

Featured Program

WWII Roundtable February Dinner Program

Monday, February 26, 2024

SPEAKER:

B-29 in flight. By media.defense.gov, Public Domain, wikipedia.org

"In February 1945, the 11th U.S. Airborne Division and six Philippine guerrilla units operating on Luzon devised a plan to liberate a Japanese internment camp (holding) the second largest concentration of civilian allied men, women, and children in the Philippines, including "a few U.S. Navy nurses who had been incarcerated since their capture on Corregidor in 1942."

"The sole reason for the entire mission: the liberation of the 2,147 internees from almost certain death."

Photo: Air Transport Command C-46 Commando flying "The Hump" over the Himalayan Mountain Range from Burma to China, 1945. (Source =The Army Air Forces In World War II, Volume Seven "The Services". Wikimedia, Public Domain)

WWII Roundtable Program

 Monday, September 22, 2025

Featured July Program

Featured Program with Live Speaker

"Secretary of War Stimson, Lt Gen Clark and Maj Gen Ryder reviewing 34th division soldiers, 1944"

Richard Eisgruber

WWII Roundtable Executive Board Member

with Mrs. K. Carlson, WWII Roundtable Member

***Featured Program with Guest Speaker***

1st Combat Communications Group

'First In - Last Out'

Loader and gunner in the Sherman tanks

Two Purple Hearts, wounded twice in battles across France and Belgium into Germany
Enlisted in the Army in 1942
In training at Camp Polk, one year+
Arrived on June 6, 1944, D-Day – the Allied invasion of France and in Normandy a few weeks after D-Day

Source: Cindy Holbrook, University Communications Staff, Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio, Nov. 11, 2022.

https://www.wittenberg.edu/news/11-11-22/saluting-our-veterans

Please click on this photo to link to the slide show.

Becky Holbert: "I'll be speaking about the Ernie Pyle & Veterans Memorial that's in the works and we'll soon be breaking ground. I'll also be adding some personal touch as the daughter of a WWII veteran/POW.
I'm on the Friends of Ernie Pyle WWII Museum Board of Directors. I currently live close to Dana, IN, hometown of Ernie Pyle and am originally from Fortville, IN."

Dale E. Gillespie's High School profile
Dale's High School yearbook graduation photo and snippet of his sport and extracurricular interests.

Source: Contributed by a WWII Roundtable Member and military history researcher.

Featured Program:

"Eva Kor & the CANDLES Museum"

Guest speaker: Alex Kor, Vice-President of Community Engagement

Alex is the son of Michael and Eva Kor. Both parents were Holocaust survivors.

Eva Kor was founder of the CANDLES Museum in Terre Haute, Indiana.

JULY PROGRAM:

Liberation of Los Banos in the Philippine Islands

SPEAKER: Jeremy C. Holm, WWII airborne historian and author

Mike Stockman

Harold Ray Finley, Jr., Author

"The Red Bull in the Winter Line of Pantano, Italy – 29 Nov. to 3 Dec. 1943."

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program

Monday, March 25, 2024

429TH BSQ

Featured Program

DALE E. GILLESPIE:

A WWII Hoosier "Para-Medic," Part 2

by Annette Moore,

featured guest speaker, author

Certificate Award

(Left to right:)

Robert L. Gangwere, author, guest speaker and

Kathryn Lerch, WWII RT VP Exec board member

Professor Jason Lantzer from Butler University will speak on the topic of Eisenhower and the Holocaust.

"...My central thesis is that encountering the Holocaust altered how Ike saw the war he had been waging, bringing a moral tone to what heretofore had largely been a conflict of "us vs. them." Jason Lantzer

"FROM THE HEART'S CLOSET

A Young Girl's World War II Story" by Anneliese "Lee" Krauter

February 23, 2026 Program

"My father SFC George J. Matta Sr., Korean War POW"

Guest Speaker

George J. Matta Jr.
Author of: "Journey of a POW, The Survival of a Korean War POW"

Journey of a POW, The Survival of a Korean War POW is the memoir of my father George J. Matta Sr’s imprisonment during the Korean War. It begins with his capture, follows him through captivity in five POW camps, and ends with his repatriation in Operation Little Switch in 1953. He was starved, frozen, isolated, and denied medical care after a beating with a rifle that caused a serious head injury. He saw his men murdered and their corpses abused. And yet, his story of wartime atrocities and the murder of innocents is also a story of bravery, loyalty, and patriotism. Please note that the book does not include graphic details of the worst of what he saw, nor does it contain any embellishments of his description of events.

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program

Monday, July 22, 2024

"PFC Walter Stitt in Action Across France & Battle of the Bulge"

WWII Veteran PFC Walter Stitt, 33rd Armored Regt., 3rd Armored Division

Speaker: Walter Stitt

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program - Monday, February 27, 2023

"From the Heart's Closet: A Young Girl's World War II Story" by Anneliese "Lee" Krauter (Schatzi Press, 2005) is a memoir recounting one of the lesser-known chapters of WWII: the internment of German-Americans.
Krauter was born in New York City in 1935 to German immigrant parents. Because of her father Otto's immigration status, the FBI seized him, wrongly suspecting him of harboring a spy. The family was subsequently interned at Crystal City, Texas, alongside Japanese-American internees, and eventually "repatriated" to Germany just as the war was entering its final, most destructive phase — arriving to a country under bombardment.

The book, told through young Lee's eyes, covers themes of separation, intolerance, fear, and hunger, set against the shock of living through Allied bombing, but is ultimately framed as a story of courage, determination, and family solidarity. Krauter wrote it after fifty years of silence on the subject, and it stands as one of the few published accounts of German-American internment, a history far less documented than that of Japanese-American internment. Krauter, fluent in both German and English, has since spoken to schools and civic groups about her wartime experience." -Claude AI

Sources:
From the Heart's Closet – German American Internee Coalition
Goodreads: From the Heart's Closet
Amazon listing"

Research and Summary Credit:

Claude AI

"Irena McCrary inspired my WWII historical novel, "DISPLACED: A Family without a Country."

Sue Stewart Ade

Featured Guest Speaker

Featured Program:

"WWII Campaign in Burma"

Featured Speaker: Tom Slemons, WWII Roundtable Member

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program - Monday, May 22, 2023

"The Italo Balbo Column is a monument located in Chicago near Soldier Field. Balbo was a famous Italian pilot in the 1920s & '30s. In 1933 he led a flight of twenty-four Savoia-Marchetti S.55 flying boats on a round-trip flight from Rome to Chicago during the Century of Progress exposition. Mussolini donated the column, a 2,000 year-old artifact from the Italian port of Ostia, to commemorate this feat. Balbo was also Mussolini's Minister of the Air Force and Governor-General of Italian Libya..." Brad Damon

Lukas-Harold Corporation ("Naval Ordnance Plant")

"Louis Edward Curdes, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, was the only American pilot during World War II to shoot down enemy aircraft from all three major Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan), as well as to intentionally shoot down an American plane. For the last-mentioned act, his commanding general actually commended him." Bradley Damon

Cpl Kenneth L. Moore

"Eisenhower and the Holocaust"

Linda E. Minton, author

The author's presentation included a live interview of three of her special guests, war Veterans of the Vietnam War and contributors to her book. There followed a Q&A and a book signing event with Linda Minton.

World War II Indiana Landmarks

Speaker: Ronald P. May

Author, Historian, Public Speaker, and Preserver of Life Stories

Featured Program

Germany's National Socialists Take-over of German Society

Featured Speaker: Charles Braun, lawyer, historian, radio show host, public speaker and official reenactor for President Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd U.S. president

Louis Edward Curdes, American WW2 Ace

Ira W. Rhodes, age 98

Corporal, U.S. Army,

WWII Veteran

Featured Program

"Red Bull"

34th Infantry Division mascot image

"SPLIT ARROW SQ"

"An American Unsung"

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program

Monday, June 24, 2024

Beirut, Lebanon

AMAZING SPIRIT,

A Tribute to Dad

Annette Moore

speaker, author, & daughter

(Left - Right:) Walter Sherman and Ronald Montague,

Indianapolis Metropolitan Military Honor Guard

"555th Tactical Fighter Squadron's Vietnam Missions"

"Blanche Barnes and the American Red Cross

Clubmobile Program"

Featured program:

“History in Your Own Backyard”
Sergeant Major Robert Brown, born in Rushville, IN in 1927, enlisted in March 1945; he intended to go into the Merchant Marines, but by accident became a Marine. Post-WW2, he was a drill instructor in Korea as well as in Vietnam!

Guest speaker:

Sgt. Major Robert Brown, US Marine Corps
with interviewer, Karl Kleinbub (not shown here)

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program

 Monday, February 24, 2025

The newest book from the Park Tudor Legacy Initiative Project

"...A great read about Europe as it descends into war and chaos...The letters of Alma De Luce concerning her travels with her correspondent husband, Dan, in the days preceding the outbreak of World War II...Great detail descriptions...The voyage on the SS Normandie to Europe...The escape from Calcutta to the U.S. on the USS President Madison...And the caique escape from Athens in 1941..."

Dean Armstrong, retired airline pilot who leads WW2 tours to Normandy and the Pacific.

Christopher Sifers

Military Communications Expert

Kathryn W. Lerch, editor and Legacy Initiative Project coordinator

March 23, 2026 Program:

“Role of the US Coast Guard in America’s Wars”

"Gillespie was a paratrooper and medic with the 82nd Airborne Division. He made four combat jumps and was in six battles/campaigns in Europe in 1943-1945. This program is a continuation of Part 1 of Dale’s story, which covered his service in the Mediterranean Theater in 1943 and which I presented at a meeting in 2024." -Brad Damon, speaker

Story of “Don Graves and the Battle of Iwo Jima”—honoring a living veteran

Presenter: Steve Hogan, WWII Roundtable Member

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program

Monday, October 23, 2023

Sue Stewart Ade

Featured Speaker:

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program

 Monday, October 28, 2024

"Remembering Vietnam Vets"

Featured Guest Speaker: Linda E. Minton, author

YouTube lecture & slide presentations:

Battle of Nomonhan - Part 1 & Part 2

by John Shively, 2023

"Nomonhan, The Antecedents of World War II - Part 1": https://youtu.be/cW2TYkdD_9k

The Friends of Ernie Pyle developed the Ernie Pyle & Veterans Memorial Park to honor the beloved Indiana journalist and famed WWII correspondent and the soldiers he wrote about.

Source: https://erniepyle.org/news-and-events/

Featured program:

"Our Service Our Stories, Indiana Veterans Recall Their World War II Experiences," Volume 3

Two guest speakers:

1. Ron May, author of "Our Service Our Stories" highlighted the stories of Indiana Veterans whom he had interviewed and written about in his latest book.

2. World War II Marine William A. Branic gave a summary of his service in the Pacific during WWII.

Speaker/Presenter

US Congressman Jim Baird,

Indiana

Featured June Program

"Testament to Courage" By Cecilia Resin, the concentration camp diary 1940-1945 of a courageous German woman (the guest speaker's grandmother) who risked her life to save others.

Photo source (left): By Library of Congress: Women Who Came to the Front, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17731180

Photo source (right): By United States Army Air Forces - http://www.americanairmuseum.com/media/225, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38407447

Monday, August 26, 2024 Program

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program

Monday, April 24, 2023

by Robert L. Gangwere,

featured guest speaker

"Clearly shown in the painting is a guerrilla armed with a bolo knife divesting a Japanese sentry of his rifle. Crouched behind the foliage and clutching U.S. issued .30 caliber M1903 series rifles, are other members of the force who wait to assist the 11th Airborne force landing in front of the camp."

Credits: The American Soldier - U.S. Center of Military History history.army.mil,

https://www.history.army.mil/html/artphoto/pripos/amsoldier-print/1945phillip-p.html

Sue Stewart Ade

“Dale Eugene Gillespie, 86, passed away on January 17, 2011. Born on March 15, 1924 in Whitley County, Indiana, he was a life-long Hoosier. Gillespie graduated from Columbia City High School in 1941. He enlisted in the Army on his 18th birthday in 1942. He served with the 82nd Airborne for three and a half years.
Gillespie was a paratrooper, making combat jumps in Sicily, Italy, Normandy and Holland. Among other awards, he earned a Bronze Star in Sicily and six major campaign stars.”

Source: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/dale-gillespie-obituary?id=30929717

Anneliese Krauter, author

Dayton Edie, combat vet of WWII and Korea. Member of the first US intelligence agency, Office of Strategic Services (OSS) & Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC). American hero "remembered for his actions at the Battle of the Bulge."

WWII Roundtable November Dinner Program

 Monday, November 25, 2024

Christopher Sifers

US Army Military Communications Expert

NOTE: In July 2026, "DISPLACED" will be awarded the 2026 EDUCATORS BOOK AWARD from DKG, an international teacher's sorority. (See award letter at the bottom of this column.)

Guest Speaker

"Finding a monument for fallen WWII Soldier
Pvt. Robert J. Whalen"

Guest speaker: Catherine Whalen Purdy, Pvt. Robert J. Whalen's niece

..."How a family in Indiana discovered the ﬁnal story of "Pvt. Robert J. Whalen, who was the only American soldier killed in action on August 29, 1944, during the liberation of Vailly-sur-Aisne in northern France."...

Combat chronicle

"The (34th) division participated in six major Army campaigns in North Africa and Italy. The division is credited with amassing 517 days of front-line combat, second only to the 654 days of fighting by the 32nd Infantry Division. One or more 34th Division units were engaged in actual combat for 611 days."

In Honor of Memorial Day

Dale Gillespie’s remarkable military experiences will be the feature of two programs, the first will be in May. Each guest attending on May 19th will receive a gratis copy of Words of War: Wartime Memories - Oral Histories from WWII (Vol. IV).

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program

 Monday, May 19, 2025

Bradley Damon, speaker

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program

 Monday, November 24, 2025

Featured Program: 

"He Never Complained:
Stories of an Everyday Man"

Guest dinner speakers:

David and Evan Humphrey

The speakers shared the story of their family member, the late Pvt. George Humphrey, who served in the 36th Infantry Division in North Africa, Italy and France and who was a recipient of numerous medals.

Dayton pictured front row, far left with some fellows of the 605th Tank Destroyer Battalion, Dayton's primary unit during World War II.

Featured Program:

"Lt. John G. Wallace & Guadalcanal"
Hosted by: John Shively,

WWII Roundtable member & WWII Pacific historian

Guest Speaker: CDR Jack Wallace, USNR (Ret),

son of Lt. John G. Wallace, U.S. Navy

Jack gave a slide presentation about his father’s experiences on the USS San Francisco during the WWII battle of Guadalcanal. Jack reported on enemy and friendly strategies and attacks and their wins and losses during their battles.

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program - Monday, January 23, 2023

Guest Speaker

Speaker: Thomas Slemons

Member, WWII Roundtable

Featured Program

Political Prisoner of the Nazis in WW2:

"Testament to Courage"

"Ernie Pyle & Veterans Memorial"

Featured Speaker: Becky Holbert, daughter of a WWII veteran/POW

WWII Roundtable January Dinner Program

Monday, January 22, 2024

Indianapolis Metropolitan Military Honor Guard:
"We Practice To Do It Right"
Speakers: Ronald Montague, Commander, USAF Veteran Walter Sherman, Senior Trustee, USAF Veteran,

Indianapolis Metropolitan Military Honor Guard

"My Experience in WWII"

by Corporal Ira W. Rhodes, U.S. Army, 34th Division, 5th Army

Presenter:

Steven Hogan, WWII Roundtable Board Member

Walter Stitt receiving his WWII Roundtable Recognition Award certificate from Kathryn Lerch, Vice President of the Indianapolis WWII Roundtable - Ernie Pyle Chapter.

Click on the B-29 photo to go to John Shively's latest posting on YouTube.

It's "the first of a planned three part lecture series on the Strategic Bombing Campaign of Japan. This lecture is on the Boeing B-29 Superfortress as a strategic bombing platform and its first use to bomb Japan from China prior to the capture of the Mariana Islands." John Shively

Please click the following link to go to this lecture on YouTube: https://youtu.be/JgzsApji0L8

"Operation Matterhorn was a military operation of the United States Army Air Forces in World War II for strategic bombing by Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers based in India, Ceylon, and China. Targets included industrial facilities in Japan, China and Southeast Asia. The B-29s were based in India but staged through bases around Chengdu in China's Sichuan province. Since the Japanese had cut the Burma Road in 1942, the only line of communications with China was over "the Hump", as the air ferry route to China over the Himalayas was called. All the fuel, ammunition and supplies used by American forces in China had to be flown in." From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dale E. Gillespie Military Service Summary:

War or Conflict: World War, 1939-1945
Branch of Service: Army
Service Unit/Ship: Medical Detachment, 2nd Battalion, 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division
Location of Service: Camp Claiborne, Louisiana; North Africa; Sicily; Italy; Northern Ireland; England; France; Holland; Belgium, Germany; European Theater
Highest Rank: Corporal
Collection Number: AFC/2001/001/47227
Dates of Service: 1942-1945
Military Status: veteran
Source: (Library of Congress-Veterans History Project) https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.47227/

(L-R:) Sue and Irena

Featured Program

WWII Roundtable November Dinner Program

Monday, November 27, 2023

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program - Monday, June 26, 2023

(L-R) Kathryn Lerch, VP WWII RT Exec. Board and

Ronald P. May, US Navy Reserve, author

WWII Roundtable Monday, September 23, 2024 Dinner Program

The B-29 & Operation Matterhorn

Strategic Bombing of Japan

SPEAKER: John Shively, author/historian and WWII Roundtable member

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program

 Monday, April 28, 2025

(L - R:) WWII Roundtable member (and WWII veteran) Bob Begeman shown with our guest speaker, Sgt. Major Robert Brown,
U.S. Marine Corps, Feb. 27, 2023.

Vice Admiral Terry M. Cross, USCG, Ret.

24th Vice-Commandant

of the United States Coast Guard

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program

 Monday, June 23, 2025

“Modern Military Communications”

Featured October Program

(This was originally scheduled for September)

"The Balbo Monument in Chicago, Illinois: Mussolini's Tribute to a Flying Fascist"

Featured Speaker: Bradley Damon, WWII Roundtable Board Member, At Large

WWII Army medic, Cpl Kenneth L. Moore of the 83rd Infantry Division served in Europe for 15 months. He was in the first wave on D-Day, 1944, as well as the Battle of the Bulge.

January 26, 2026

(January meeting and program were cancelled due to a heavy snow storm)

Featured Program (Rescheduled for October)

"US Congressman Baird is a decorated Vietnam War veteran, as his distinguished service to our country was recognized with a Bronze Star with V device and two Purple Hearts. He and his unit were inducted in the United States Transportation Corps Hall of Fame. One of the Gun Trucks from the unit, “The Eve of Destruction” is on display in the Transportation Museum in Ft. Eustis, Virginia."

Quoted from Congressman's "Biography" page on his website, https://baird.house.gov/about/

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program

Monday, September 25, 2023

"Louis E. Curdes: A One-of-a-Kind-Ace"
SPEAKER: Bradley Damon, WWII Roundtable Board Member

15th AIR FORCE

Monday, April 27, 2026 Program

Norden bombsight

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program

Monday, April 22, 2024

REMINDER:

Book Signing Event, Sunday, April 28, 2-5PM

Park Tudor School

"Nomonhan, The Antecedents of World War II - Part 2": https://youtu.be/Wwb6XgeWcoE

All comments and constructive criticism welcome.
John Shively

indjcs@aol.com

PFC Walter Stitt

Guest Speaker:

Featured Program

"The 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron, known as the "Triple Nickel," was highly active during the Vietnam War, becoming one of the top MIG-killing units with 39 confirmed kills.

They primarily flew F-4 Phantom II aircraft, conducting air superiority, ground attack, and close air support missions throughout the conflict." vetfriends.com

Monday, June 22, 2026 Program

Special Credit: From the article in Stroll Cambridge magazine, Jan. 2026 edition,

published by Anne Manley

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program

 Monday, July 28, 2025

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program

Monday, May 20, 2024

Featured August Program

Guest Speaker

"2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry & la Drang Valley"

Guest speaker: Bud Alley, U.S. Army Vietnam War Veteran and author of "The Ghost of the Green Grass"

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program

 Monday, October 27, 2025

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program - Monday, August 28, 2023

"The American Red Cross Clubmobile program during WWII was a vital morale-boosting service where female volunteers, known as "Donut Dollies," operated mobile social clubs in repurposed trucks and buses. These units served coffee, fresh doughnuts, and comfort items to frontline soldiers in Europe, delivering a "piece of home" and entertainment to battle-weary troops." by Google

"The Plight of the Lithuanians in WWII"

Monday, July 27, 2026 Program

"Your European Correspondent

Alma De Luce 1939-1941"

Speaker: Kathryn Lerch, Editor
and WWII Roundtable Board Vice President

Monday, May 18, 2026 Program

WWII ROUNDTABLE MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2026 PROGRAM:

“Steyr Raid"

Feb. 24, 1944

by Walter F. Kutschera, Col. USAF (Ret.)

This is the story about the "other D-Day" - the August 1944 invasion of southern France, which took place two months after the June 6th, 1944 Allied D-Day landings in Normandy.

Ron Darrah

***Featured Program***

Featured Program

"Operation Dragoon, The 2nd D-Day"

Featured Speakers: Kathryn Lerch & Marlene Mendonsa

34th Infantry Division photos and quotations credits: Wikipedia

2023-2024-2025-2026 Presentations

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program

 Monday, March 24, 2025

"History of Lukas-Harold, WWII and Beyond"

Presenters: Karl Kleinbub & Steve Hogan, WWII Roundtable Members

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program

 Monday, January 27, 2025

Four WWII veterans & members of WWII Roundtable are shown posing with Walter Stitt (center), our guest speaker at our November 27, 2023 dinner meeting.

"Crociera aerea del Decennale," an Italian documentary film by LUCE of Balbo's round-trip flight from Rome to Chicago.

Please click on picture or web address to watch video on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b1T7wBE6u8

by Bradley Damon,

featured guest speaker, military history researcher & historian

with Linda E. Minton, author,

"Remembering Vietnam Vets"

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program - Monday, July 24, 2023

***Featured Program***

WWII Story of Holocaust Survivor Jack Bronicki

Speaker: Laurie Freeman, Daughter of Jack Bronicki

"He escaped a concentration camp and joined a resistance group."*

*Read more in January newsletter by Kathryn Lerch, WWIIRT Jan. 2024 Newsletter

Print created by Don Holloway, artist/historian

Featured Program

My Vietnam War Experience: "Gun Trucks of Vietnam"

Featured Speaker: Jim Baird, Vietnam War veteran and US Congressman

https://youtu.be/qFyS7z7aFxw?si=smGwEOs9rtRCdwgY

(Link to "Gun Trucks of Vietnam" on YouTube)

Book Signing Event with Kathryn W. Lerch, editor, Sunday, April 28, Park Tudor School

Kathryn Lerch will be offering to sign her newest "Legacy Initiative Project" book edition, "Your European Correspondent Alma De Luce 1939-1941".

John Shively

Julie Freeman

Author of

"DISPLACED: A Family without a Country"

34th Infantry Division, U.S. Army

"The 34th Infantry Division...was the first American division deployed to Europe in World War II, where it fought with great distinction in the Italian Campaign."

WWII Roundtable Dinner Program - Monday, March 27, 2023

William A. Branic, WWII Marine

Northside Events & Social Club (formerly "Knights of Columbus")

2100 E 71st Street, Indianapolis, Indiana

Doors open - 5 PM. Dinner - 6 PM. Program - 7 PM.

Where History and Heroes Meet

INDIANAPOLIS WORLD WAR II ROUNDTABLE - ERNIE PYLE CHAPTER

"Corporal Don Graves, USMC, Ret. was a flamethrower operator who fought on Iwo Jima in World War II. The aver- age life expectancy of a flamethrower on the battlefield was less than ten minutes." More in July & August 2023 Newsletter article, Page 2 by Kathryn Lerch.

"A gripping, vivid and powerful true life story of the daily struggle to survive in the prisoner of war (POW) camps during the Korean War. Documented are the long march into captivity and over 800 days of desperation, treachery and brutality." Kathryn Lerch

Professor Jason Lantzer

Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana

"Discussion with Vietnam War Veterans"

Credit: "March - April 2024 Newsletter", by Kathryn Lerch, page 4.

Ernie Pyle Museum link.

Battle of Nomonhan

"This is the first of a two part lecture series on the battle of "Nomonhan, The Antecedents of World War II". This first lecture is about the battle of Nomonhan that took place on the Mongolian Steppe in the summer of 1939 that was consequential for both the war in Europe and the looming war in the Pacific.

The second part of this lecture will be about the behind the scenes diplomacy, primarily between the Soviet Union and Germany but also with England and France leading up to the outbreak of the Pacific war and the attack on Pearl Harbor, that was influenced, in part, by the outcome of the battle at Nomonhan."

by John Shively

Irena

Featured Program