New Hampshire author and journalist Joe McQuaid will join the Institute to present a true New Hampshire story about his parents and World War II, with War Fronts Home Fires: A WWII correspondent's remarkable coverage, his wife's indomitable spirit.
As a World War II newspaper correspondent, B.J. McQuaid covered American and British front lines from the frozen Aleutian Islands of Alaska, to the steaming jungles and seas of the South Pacific, at Tarawa and Guadalcanal and then to Europe from D-Day forward in France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany.
B.J. interviewed Sir Bernard Law Montgomery during the Battle of the Bulge and went toe-to-toe with U.S. Third Army General George S. Patton. He interviewed and got the names of frontline soldiers and sailors, providing a link to their families back home in towns and cities across the United States. His stories ran in more than 80 American newspapers through the Chicago Daily News Service.
He was separated from his wife, Peg McQuaid, and two small children for three years. Peg kept the Home Fires burning back in New Hampshire, providing for herself and their two small children. She dealt with food, oil, and gasoline rationing while writing faithfully and regularly to her husband overseas.
Theirs is a story of love, of sacrifice, and of hope. Even 80 years after D-Day in Europe, it will still resonate with many Americans.
Books may be purchased in advance at your local bookseller or online.
Free and open to the public.
