"August 31, 1943: We were huddled in the darkness of the smelly hold and we could hear all the noises of combat… anti-aircraft firing, the crescendo of planes crossing over our ship, the shudder of bombs going off nearby. It hit me suddenly: this is real." (Memoir, page 1)

Henry Walker McIver

Detail from a drawing of Henry McIver in camp [Letter to Mother 6/4/1944] War: World War, 1939-1945 Branch: Army Unit: 1st Armored Signal Battalion; 6828th Signal Service Detachment; 5th Army Group; 6th Army Group Service Location: Algeria; Italy; France Rank: Corporal

Henry Walker McIver enlisted in the Signal Corps in 1942, while he was in art school, and was promised that with some pre-induction training, he could secure a spot in Officer Candidate School. Instead, he found himself assigned to cryptographic repair, working with a SIGABA encoding device. In the letters that he sent to his family from Algeria, Italy, and France, he described his living conditions, his interactions with the local populations and French colonial troops, and the scenery of each place--and he began each letter with a detailed pen-and-ink sketch to accompany his narration.