About

These are the letters John H. Lauten wrote home during World War II to his wife, Ginny, and their daughter, Linda. They come from the family's collection and are shared by his granddaughter.

How the letters are transcribed

Every letter is transcribed word for word, with his spelling, abbreviations and dashes kept as he wrote them. A word in brackets with a question mark, like [word?], was hard to read. The scan sits beside the text on every letter page, so you can zoom in and check any reading yourself.

What is left out

Family street addresses and his Army serial number are blurred on the scans and left out of the transcriptions. Nothing else is changed.

The history

Wartime censors kept him from saying where he was or what was coming. The Big Picture and Where He Was sections on each chapter and letter fill in what he could not write, drawn from published histories, unit records and newspapers of the time.

Follow along

New letters are posted on Instagram at @ww2lettershome. If you can make out a word we could not, or you have a connection to John or the men of the 16th Infantry, send a message there.