Sep 24, 2020 - Sale 2546

Sale 2546 - Lot 255

Price Realized: $ 938
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(WORLD WAR TWO.) Blanche, John Kent. Letters home from a judge advocate serving in Attu, Hawaii, and Kwajalein. 101 items sleeved in one binder: 71 letters (autograph, typed, and V-Mail) to wife Monita Lucille Brandt Blanche and their son in Pasadena and San Marino, CA, 1941-44 (many with original envelopes; a few with passages deleted by censors) * 15 photographs (most about 3 x 5 inches, some with mount remnants) * a pair of 7th Army Division insignia * 11 letters from son Kent Jr. as a naval ensign in Japan, 1956-58 * and 2 other letters from friends to Monita Blanche from 1943 and 1944. Vp, 1941-58
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Additional Details

Before the war, John Kent Blanche (1903-1964) was an attorney for the telephone company in Pasadena, CA. He joined the Army in June 1941 and served in the Pacific Theater with the 7th Division as a judge advocate, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was awarded a Bronze Star for his service in the liberation of the Philippines. The large majority of the letters are dated from November 1943 (when he arrives in Hawaii) to August 1944. He often includes description of life in Hawaii, and sometimes refers back to his earlier service on Attu Island in the Aleutians earlier in the war. His 7 February 1944 letter discusses the Battle of Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands: "The whole thing was so quick and neat, it almost seems like a dream. We went down there and back, and went right through the Marshals and might just as well have been sailing to Catalina. We didn't see a single hostile airplane, we didn't have a submarine scare, and should have been in a pretty precarious position being right in the middle of a hornet's nest." He elaborated 5 days later: "I was given command of three islands, to one of which the natives were evacuated, so I had charge of them as well. . . . In one case 90 of our men attacked an island where there were 102 Japs entrenched with machine guns. We lost a man and had six or seven wounded, but wiped them all out except one who surrendered." He describes his experiences with the Marshall Islanders at length over the course of several letters. His 2 July 1944 letter describes a concert by the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin. 15 photographs are included, some or all apparently from his experience at Kwajalein. One (illustrated) is captioned on verso: "This is the day we hit the jackpot. Genl. Cramer is accepting the sword in surrender of a Jap Navy Captain, his 17 officers and 360 men."