Memories of love forged in a time of war, bequeathed by a mother to her daughter. A retelling of Flora Aguilar’s harrowing experiences as a young bride of a soldier who fought with various Filipino guerilla units in Mindanao, Cebu and other parts of Eastern Visayas during World War II.

For readers enchanted by the bestsellers The Astronaut Wives Club, The Girls of Atomic City, and Summer at Tiffany’s, an absorbing tale of romance and resilience—the true story of four British women who crossed the Atlantic for love, coming to America at the end of World War II to make a new life with the American servicemen they married. The “friendly invasion” of Britain by over a million American G.I.s bewitched a generation of young women deprived of male company during the Second World War. With their exotic accents, smart uniforms, and aura of Hollywood glamour, the G.I.s easily conquered their hearts, leaving British boys fighting abroad green with envy. But for girls like Sylvia, Margaret, Gwendolyn, and even the skeptical Rae, American soldiers offered something even more tantalizing than chocolate, chewing gum, and nylon stockings: an escape route from Blitz-ravaged Britain, an opportunity for a new life in affluent, modern America. Through the stories of these four women, G.I. Brides illuminates the experiences of war brides who found themselves in a foreign culture thousands of miles away from family and friends, with men they hardly knew. Some struggled with the isolation of life in rural America, or found their soldier less than heroic in civilian life. But most persevered, determined to turn their wartime romance into a lifelong love affair, and prove to those back home that a Hollywood ending of their own was possible. G.I. Brides includes an eight-pages insert that features 45-black-and-white photos.

Interviews with war brides from England, Italy, France, Germany, and the Far East depict their courtship, first impressions of America, and the challenges of starting a new life

“Stunning photographs” and firsthand accounts propel a book that “brings together the memories of more than 200 child survivors of the Blitz” (Daily Mail). It was not just the upheaval caused by evacuation and the blitzes that changed a generation’s childhood, it was how war pervaded every aspect of life. From dodging bombs by bicycle and patrolling the parish with the vicar’s WWI pistol, to post air raid naps in school and being carried out of the rubble as the family’s sole survivor, children experienced life in the war zone that was Britain. This reality, the reality of a life spent growing up during the Second World War, is best told through the eyes of the children who experienced it firsthand. Children in the Second World War unites the memories of over two hundred child veterans to tell the tragic and the remarkable stories of life, and of youth, during the war. Each veteran gives a unique insight into a childhood that was unlike any that came before or after. This book poignantly illustrates the presence of death and perseverance in the lives of children through this tumultuous period. Each account enlightens and touches the reader, shedding light on what it was really like on the home front during the Second World War.

Irene Hope Hedrick writes Z99 candor and grace about her life as a British war bride in Montana Irene Hope met her serviceman husband in WWII England and came to the United States to live on the borders of the Salish-Kootenai Indian Reservation in the 1

Gwendoline Cramer was one of the 48,000 war brides transported to Canada by the Canadian government between 1942 and 1947. Many of them were escorted across the water and handed over to their husbands with nothing more than a handsake and a cookbook. Following her heart to rural Saskatchewan, Gwen felt like a fish out of water. She couldn't milk a cow or cook with a wood stove. And then she had the in-laws to contend with...

Some memories last forever... Forty memories, like forty grains of sand on an endless stretch of beach, seem insignificant by comparison, until a glint of brilliant sunshine or a hint of human inspiration illuminates them and sets them free. Ellen Brennan Williams, inspired by profound tales of courage and sacrifice by the men, women, and children in her own hometown, has done just that. Determined to share with others and preserve these important pieces of history, she dove head-first into the profound memories of World War II veterans, loved ones left behind, war brides, youth on the homefront, and civilians struggling in Allied and Axis nations abroad. This book is about struggles and conflicts, sacrifice and courage, determination and victory-a wonderful read that will remind you that the human spirit cannot be broken.