Video Resources:

- Library of Congress Veterans History Project Interviews

* Interview with PFC Ellis Alexander Smith, Recon Co., 634th TD Bn.

* Interview with 1stLt Fred Barrett, A Co., 634th TD Bn. Thanks to Mr. Gary Miller, Mr. Barrett's nephew, for sharing the video. Although the interview is part of the Library of Congress Veterans History Project, the video has not been posted for viewing from that web site.

Audio Resources:

- Radio Broadcast Recordings:

Almost all of the war correspondents that covered WW2 wrote for various newspapers, magazines, or news agencies such as the Associated Press or United Press International. However, there were also a few radio broadcasters who managed to bring the war right into the living rooms of millions of Americans. In the early years of the war, the War Department would only provide press credentials to broadcasters from national networks like NBC, CBS, and ABC. Thus, the early radio broadcasts of the war were from national broadcasters such as Edward R. Murrow, William L. Shirer, and Walter Cronkite. In 1944, the War Department began to offer press credentials to independent radio stations. WHO radio (1040 AM) was an independent station in Des Moines, Iowa with a 50,000-watt transmission that was able to consistently reach all of the Midwest as well as many other parts of the country.

At that time, Gordon Gammack and Frank Miles were two newspaper columnists from Iowa who would yell out that they were looking for “Boys from Iowa”, and then always give them preferential treatment by including their names in the news. In 1944, WHO radio sent Herb Plambeck to England. Most of his early broadcasts centered on agriculture, which had been his most popular topic back in Iowa. It soon became obvious that in addition to agriculture, listeners wanted to hear about their relatives and neighbors who were training in England.

Jack Shelley was the news director for WHO radio and he was eager to report on news from the front lines. The independent radio stations were only allowed to have one reporter at a time in the war zone. When Plambeck’s three-month tour in England was completed, Jack Shelley went overseas in November 1944. He made several broadcasts from Paris in the later half of November.

His first broadcast from the frontlines was on December 3 and contained a vivid description of the devastation he witnessed in Aachen. The broadcast of December 5 involved mention of several officers in the 634th Tank Destroyer Battalion. During subsequent broadcasts on December 8 and December 10, Shelley mentioned many additional men in the 634th TD Bn.

* Recording: WHO Radio's Jack Shelley reports from Aachen, 3 Dec 1944

* Recording: Jack Shelley mentions several 634th TD Bn officers, 5 Dec 1944

* Recording: Jack Shelley covers the 634th TD Bn's Iowa connections, 8 Dec 1944

* Recording: Jack Shelley continues his series from Germany, 10 Dec 1944

--- Background research and links courtesy of Jay Olson. Audio recordings of Jack Shelley's broadcasts are maintained by Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa ---

- Radio Program Transcripts:

* Transcript of a 1946 radio interview with two 634th TD Bn officers, Maurice Nathanson and Don Prohaska, of Cedar Rapids, IA. Transcript courtesy of Maurice Nathanson's son, Henry.