In honor of Pearl Harbor Day, we are making the largest interactive WWII collection on the web free to the public during December. Featuring over 10 million records, documents and photos from the National Archives, this collection helps family members and historians better understand the people and events of WWII.
Included in this exclusive collection is the Interactive USS Arizona Memorial. This online version allows people to view the actual wall of names and search for those they know. An interactive box for each name on the wall features additional information about each veteran and includes a place where anyone can contribute photos and stories. View the Captain of the USS Arizona, Franklin Van Valkenburgh, on the interactive wall.
It’s estimated that a little over 2 million WWII veterans are still alive in the United States today. However, thousands of veterans are passing away every month taking with them many of the stories from WWII. Footnote.com is making an effort to help preserve these stories by digitizing documents from the National Archives and providing interactive tools to help people connect with each other.
Christina Knoedler from Pennsylvania used the Missing Air Crew Reports on Footnote.com to discover information about her father-in-law, who is a WWII veteran. “The other night, I showed him what I had found,” explains Christina. “He couldn’t believe that these papers existed. They had not only his name but also his buddies’ names. He started to reminisce and it was quite an evening. This will allow me to go back and document many more events in our family’s history for the generations to come.”
The Missing Air Crew Reports are just one of the record collections found on Footnote.com. Other WWII collections on Footnote.com include:
- Pearl Harbor Muster Rolls
- U.S. Air Force Photos
- Submarine Patrol Reports
- Japanese Air Target Analysis
- Army JAG Case Files
- Navy JAG Case Files
- Naval Press Clippings
- Allied Military Conferences
- Holocaust Records
“People are making fascinating discoveries in these records,” says Russell Wilding, CEO of Footnote.com. “Reading some of the first-hand accounts helps you develop a different view and appreciation of our WWII heroes and what they went through.”
To experience the Interactive USS Arizona Memorial and the World War II visit www.footnote.com/wwii/.
I’m glad Footnote has made this available, especially with free access for a month. I posted about a wish of mine – http://is.gd/5hvnt
Thanks for the comment and the nice blog post.
Like you, we are excited for the time when we can responsibly combine the various pages about an individual (there are 3 for my grandpa). In some cases, it gets a little complicated, so we want to be sure we think things through before jump in, but it is definitely on our minds.
For now, you can use the “Related Page” feature and choose the “Same Person” option. That will flag those pages for us so that when we get the details sorted out, we can get those pages together in a better way.