Scenes From a Soldier's Point of View
Imagine yourself in Africa during World War II. You are an American Soldier. You miss your wife, your country, and your home. Of course, you don't have a camera either. So in order to describe what it's like, you draw what you see. Then when you mail the pictures home to your wife, they're kind of like photographs.
This is exactly what my Grandfather did. The pictures on display here were drawn by him...as he saw the scenes. Some of them exude a touch of humor, and some a sense of awe. Be prepared to take a step into a War long since past (or has it?).
This is a scene depicting the make-shift kitchen. You can see all of the utensils hanging on and set down near the fence. In the foreground, you can see a can of water to the left, and there is an annotation that says "Taher". Taher is one of the several villages that the soldiers were stationed in. In the background, you can see the landscape of mountains, and even the sun. If you look even closer, you can see two airplanes dropping bombs. This is what my Grandfather saw...this is how they lived.
This is a picture of his "pup tent". It is surrounded by sand bags for some protection. Notice the other tents in the background, and how they are surrounding a piece of weaponry.
"Thanksgiving Day Everyday" is the annotation to this scene. My Grandfather told me that this soldier "Hoover" was always cooking something up! It's pretty much self explanatory...but what probably does not show up clearly on the computer screen is the "pot" with the insignia on it that's cooking over the fire. Look closely and you might recognize an upside down Nazi helmet.
This depiction lends a bit of humor as we see a soldier whose nickname was "Boozer" wishing that the "P.X." wasn't "closed for inventory"! (The P.X. was the Army Store). You can see that he's thinking about beer! The annotation at the bottom which reads "How Dry I Am - Beer" says it all!
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