This week’s column is about a big book. Big because it weighs more than 20 pounds, measures 12.5 x 15.75 inches and is 3.25 Inches thick with 986 pages. Big because it is a rare compilation of thousands of photos and news reports about people, places, and battles of World War ll. The book is the work of Ray Carroll who lives in Cumming and consists of the contents of three scrapbooks that Ray’s grandmother Esther Johanna Carroll (1894-1967) maintained throughout the war. Esther, known as Nanny, married Mark Carroll, a mill worker, in 1912. The couple lived in Nashua, N.H., with their five sons, all deceased, and their dog Buster.
World War ll began on Sept. 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. Three days later the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany. The war ended Aug. 14, 1945. It turned out to be the costliest war in history, with 46 million people killed.
Esther’s history of the war is not the work of a professional historian. Rather, it is the product of one woman’s “love of her family and acquaintances who went away to war and those who loved them,” according to Ray. Esther’s scrapbooks were well organized, and she diligently added new materials regularly.
She had three scrapbooks, two of the European Theater and one of the Pacific Theater. She cut out articles from Life Magazine and other sources and made annotations on some of the entries which were pasted on the scrapbook pages. It took Ray four months to convert the scrapbooks into a book which was published by BookLogix in Alpharetta.
The book contains often little known detailed stories of battles, ruined cities and the soldiers, sailors, airmen, doctors and nurses who fought and often died in battle or from wounds. It portrays life inside wartime Germany and other countries, describes the weapons of war and conferences convened by the Allies. It…
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