Scope and Content Note
The papers of John Willard Toland (1912-2004) span the years 1944-1965. The collection consists of correspondence, notes, interviews, military reports, reminiscences, maps, photographs, and wide ranging production material, including drafts, galleys, and proofs, of Toland's books on World War II and gangsterism in the 1930s. The papers are organized according to title of work plus General Correspondence and Oversize series.
In addition to The Last 100 Days (1966), an account of the destruction of Nazi Germany and the fall of Berlin, the Toland Papers contain material relating to Ships in the Sky (1957), the story of the great dirigibles; Battle, The Story of the Bulge (1959), which was re-issued in 1966 as Battle of the Bulge; But Not in Shame (1961), the story of the Pacific war in the six months following Pearl Harbor; Dillinger Days (1963), a study of gangsterism in the 1930s, with its primary focus on the Dillinger gang; and Flying Tigers (1963), the story of Claire Lee Chennault's World War II flying squadron.
The material for The Last 100 Days includes background reports (individuals, military groups, task forces, institutions, locales, etc.); interviews in Europe (Austria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and Yugoslavia); an extensive group of German interviews concerning such figures as Martin Bormann, Karl Dönitz, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring, Adolf Hitler, Albert Kesselring, Hasso von Manteuffel, Otto Skorzeny, and Wernher Von Braun; two large files on Operation Sunrise (the surrender of Italy to the Allied forces), and the taking of the Remagen Bridge over the Rhine; a large group of miscellaneous interviews; correspondence; book drafts; proofs and galleys; maps, photographs, and miscellany.
Battle, the Story of the Bulge material on American forces in the fight includes files on the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th Armed Divisions; the 17th, 82nd, and 101st Airborne Divisions; the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 9th, 26th, 28th, 30th, 35th, 76th, 80th, 83rd, 84th, 87th, 90th, 99th, and 106th Divisions; 14th Calvary Group; the VII and VIII Corps; the Air Force; and other military units. Special files include the Massacre of Bande; the Fall of Bastogne; Battle of Malmédy; Saint-Vith; Stavelot; the Wiltz Offensive; and day-to-day files on the period December 15-23, 1944. In addition, there are multiple drafts and typescripts of the book; readers' reactions to typescript excerpts; proofs; photographs, maps, and miscellany.
The material for Dillinger Days includes personal interviews and reminiscences, newspaper and magazine articles, photographs, and interview notebooks. There are files on the Barker-Karpis gang; Barrow gang; the Chicago Crown Point escape of Dillinger; the holdups in Bluffton and Dayton, Ohio; Dillinger's Indianapolis background; the South Bend and Greencastle, Indiana, holdups; the Urschel kidnapping; Dillinger's capture in Tuscon , Arizona; the shooting at Little Bohemia Lodge, Manitowish, Wisconsin; and incidents in Mason City, Iowa, Michigan City, Indiana, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and St. Paul, Minnesota; the Kansas City Massacre; and Dillinger's ultimate entrapment by “the Lady in Red” at the Biograph Theatre, Chicago, where he was killed by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents as he left the cinema. In addition, there are multiple drafts; readers' comments on typescript excerpts; Look magazine condensation galley proofs; and reviews of the book.
The background material for But Not in Shame , which covers the period December 7, 1941 to May 6, 1942 (when the Philippine Islands fell to the Japanese), also contains a large research file. Special topics include Philippine, American, British, and Japanese armed units; the battles of Midway and the Java Sea; the fall of Hong Kong; the Bataan Death March; Pearl Harbor; the fall of Singapore and Wake Island; the fight to save the Philippines; the death of the Houston; and the fall of Corregidor. Other material includes several drafts; readers' reactions to the typescripts; proofs; and the condensation in Lookmagazine.
Material for Ships in the Sky contains files on the lighter-than-air craft Graf Zeppelin, Macon, Shenandoah, Akron, Hindenburg, R.38/ZR-Z, America, and others, as well as the pioneering flights of the Brazilian aeronaut Alberto Santos-Dumont. The file includes notebooks, photographs various book drafts, proofs, the American Heritageversion, and a television version of the work.
The smallest amount of material pertains to Flying Tigers . It includes interviews, correspondence, and the original draft of the book.
In addition to the material on Toland's six books is a large group of professional correspondence covering the years 1948-1965, the bulk concentrated in the period 1957-1962.