World War II Letters On The Typewriter

Back in World War II, you had two choices when writing a letter: handwritten or typewriter.

There was no computer you could write a letter on and send via email or Twitter. There were no cell phones were you could send a text message or Snapchat. Just a good ol’ pen and paper, or typewriter.

When you step foot into Pearl Harbor Warbirds headquarters on a Admiral’s Warbird Adventure, you’ll notice a few things. You’ll see several vintage WWII pinup poster girls. You’ll notice the distinct smell of Old Spice. And, you’ll hear the sound of the typewriter clicking away as an Admiral types out commands.

We recently came across a website called The Moss Letters, a site dedicated to sharing World War II letters from an American soldier named Harold Grove Moss. In this letters Moss shares his fears, tears and years over the time he served in WWII.

The collection of letters was transcribed by the daughter of Harold Moss, with his grandson putting together the website. The letters are quite the insight into the mindset of a soldier during the era.

Particularly, one letter really stands out. On December 2, 1941, Moss was stationed at Camp Roberts in California. In a letter to his parents, Moss wrote, “Something seemingly a little unusual happened yesterday and that was all the Japanese boys were taken out of our battery.”

Moss didn’t dwell on it, but of course five days later, news of the attack on Pearl Harbor filtered through the ranks and through America.

Here’s the December 2nd letter. We’d encourage you to look at the December 7th letter, as well as all the other letters posted on the site. They’re gems.