More Than War: A World War II Soldier's Story of Love, Beauty and Brotherhood

In the Spring of 1943, college students embraced their role in the war, participating in scrap metal drives and military drills. Turner Williams, a junior at North Carolina State University, was ready for more: he eagerly awaited Army orders to show up for active military duty. Inspired by patriotic fervor, he also imagined that he would return as a commissioned officer better positioned for his future. It didn't turn out that way. Turner's experience of war would be shaped as an infantryman trudging through war-torn Europe, sweeping for mines along the way. In his letters to his girlfriend, Alexa, he shares his disappointment as he bounces from one training camp to another. As his involvement in World War II progresses, he writes letters filled with humor, love for his "darling Lex" and platoonmates, and his search for beauty. It is a coming-of-age story, against a backdrop of the horrors of war. His vivid details provide an unusual view into Army training camps, the Army Specialized Training Program and Congress's decision to defund it, and troop experiences in the 69th Division, 273rd Infantry of the Army in the last major defensive and offensive battles in the European Theater. Turner also tells a story rarely told of being a part of the occupation army in Germany after the war. Turner's daughter, Ann McColl, used military records to fill in troop movement and the role of minesweepers in protecting soldiers from Germany's war machine. More than War is a portal to the full collection of Turner Williams' war experience documents, including over four hundred letters, held at the Library of Congress, Veterans History Project.