2006-06
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/31/2006
An extremely interesting and vividly descriptive correspondence of what we would guess to be just over 60 letters, entirely multi paged and filling about half a shoebox, written by Lieutenant W.A. Craft to his wife while serving onboard the U. S. S. Pasadena in 1944 and 1945. While Craft was willing to and did what was required of him to serve his country, like the vast majority of soldiers on any side in any war, his mind remained occupied, perhaps even obsessed, with his wife and newly born child at home. These letters, the vast majority of which are EXTREMELY personal, are all the more entertaining because of the Lieutenant's excellent ability at turning a phrase and his decent artistic ability, which he sometimes utilizes to bring home a point. While his letters are predominantly concerned with matters regarding his libido, when the U.S.S. Pasadena is in harm's way Craft provides excellent descriptions of these events as well. The rules aboard this ship stated that the sailors could write home about a battle and describe it very accurately, but the letters could not leave the ship until at least one month after the event, when the contents therein would be of little use to the enemy. While we have only read a representative sample of his letters, among these we found an excellent illustrated letter describing his first hand perceptions of the assault on IWO JIMA, and we assume that any other letters concerning combat are written in the same fashion. Here we quote his excellent Iwo Jima letter in part:"… targets Undated Pacific Warfare, written on February 21, 1945…Today we have been Bombarding the stubborn Jap stronghold Iwo Jima Island in the volcanoes. FOR FIVE DAYS ALEADY THE MIGHTY BIG FIFTH FLEET HAS POURED TONS OF HIGH EXPLOSIVESS INTO THIS LAVA COVERED HEAP OF ROCK TO COVER THE ADVANCEOF THE GROUND . I can say fifth fleet since the newspapers already have released that dope. The Pasadena wheeled up close early this morning and has been practically stationary all day while our main & secondary batteries threw lead at [targets] spotted by the planes over the Island. WE ARE SO CLOSE THAT IT LOOKS LIKE A SNIPER COULD PICK US OFF OUR DECKS, BUT AS CLOSE AS WE ARE THE D.D.S AND D.E.S ARE WAY INSIDE OF US... THEY PRACTICALLY HUG THE SHORELINE AND BEG SOMETHING TO MOVE. At night the air is filled with spitting gun flashes and the innumerable parachute flares that we keep the Island illuminated with. This strike is so much more interesting than that we made in Tokyo last week ( yup, I was there too ) ….Every hunk of steel that hits that island exults me because it is one step closer to you…". Near this letter's conclusion Lt. Craft draws a fair rendition of Iwo Jima, with Mount Suribachi clearly displayed but not named, and what he calls the "lava hills" though in truth the Island was made up of little else. He also mentions in a later postscript that he participated in the Second Tokyo Strike and the first bombing of Okinawa. Of course, the lion's share of Craft's letters are focused on an entirely different sort of combat. Considering the extreme heat with which they are written, Crafts Love letters miraculously manage to convey 100 per cent of his meaning without using pornographic words. Believe me, he didn't really need them. A letter from September of 1944 is a typical example of one of these letters, reading in part:"…I want to kiss your lips, your eyes, your ears, and lay my face against yours, and feel the softness of your cheek. How badly I need the soft roundness of your arms around my body, pressing close to you until our hearts beat like one…I'll kiss your breasts, Yes, and your finger tips and all the way down to the intoxicating arch of your feet, past the full swell of your lovely legs and end with each little toe. I want to feel you tremble with desire under my caress and return it full fold…" You get the idea. An almost priceless set of illustrations are found on a, letter written on July 13, 1945, shows Craft standing naked behind a sheet while his wife irons his uniform, admiring her while she stands in front of him (clothed) Dots have been placed on her illustration on the places he has indicated he intends to kiss her, and a small lump appears at the appropriate section of the sheet where one would expect it to be. It is the writer's opinion that this correspondence rather than the blood and guts variety is by far the most representative of letters sent home from the war, as the fighting men clung to images of wives or sweethearts as a means of escaping the horrors around them. Very good to fine.
Click on a thumbnail above to display a larger image below
Hold down the mouse button and slide side to side to see more thumbnails(if available).
Click above for larger image.