21-Year Old WWII Soldier’s Sketchbooks Offer a Stunning View of a Horrific War

If you’re an artist, you know that no day is complete if you’ve had no way to create. I’m an author, and even on days when I don’t write, my brain is working on unsnarling plots, registering new ideas, or chatting with characters in my head. For 21-year-old Victor Lundy, he took his sketchbook everywhere – even to war.

Victor Lundy

Thanks to his passion (Lundy described drawing as “sort of synonymous with thinking”), we have an archive of intimate sketches of his friends, enemies, travels, and experiences as he and his fellow soldiers fought on the front lines and schlepped through a shattered Europe during World War II.

En-route to Europe. Promenade Deck. “And you know, we were far from even thinking of combat. They didn’t tell us. We didn’t know what was going to happen, once we landed…you know, the day it happens they tell you.” (September 2, 1944)
Photo Credit: LOC

The images were created between May and November 1944, when Lundy was wounded, and they take us on a trip from training camp in Fort Jackson to the front lines in France. The pictures evoke a multitude of emotions – longing, irreverence, and sorrow, among others.

Part of the Atlantic Wall, Quinéville 6 men from L Co. hurt here, 6 killed. (September 21, 1944)
Photo Credit: LOC

Bill Shepard. (June 6, 1944)
Photo Credit: LOC

“Pat” (T/Sgt. Patenaude) zeroing in with the 60 mm mortars in front of the 3rd platoon. (November 1, 1944)
Photo Credit: LOC

France. Cracking the Zeigfried [i.e. Siegfried] line, air raid over Germany Seen on a morning hike. "...we would see that in Normandy but also when we were in combat, at least two times, and boy, did that cheer us up on the ground." (September 13, 1944)

Cracking the Zeigfried [i.e. Siegfried] line, air raid over Germany. Seen on a morning hike. “We would see that in Normandy but also when we were in combat, at least two times, and boy, did that cheer us up on the ground.” (September 13, 1944)
Photo Credit: LOC

Sunday. (May 14, 1944)
Photo Credit: LOC

Before pay day—shooting craps for cigarettes. (June 1, 1944)
Photo Credit: LOC

One of the 4-men German patrol who didn’t get back. (November 1, 1944)
Photo Credit: LOC

View from my bunk. (August 28, 1944)
Photo Credit: LOC

Café where the 2 French girls bought us 4 bottles of cider, Quinéville. (September 19, 1944)
Photo Credit: LOC

Shep. (May 10, 1944)
Photo Credit: LOC

Ted Lynn. (June 9, 1944)
Photo Credit: LOC

House where Kane & I got the roast chicken & cognac. (September 16, 1944)
Photo Credit: LOC

Camouflaged German gun position, beach in Quinéville. (September 19, 1944)
Photo Credit: LOC

En-route to Europe. “… I remember getting on the deck and here were these guys, and that’s just what they were saying, Son of a bitch!” (August 27, 1944)
Photo Credit: LOC

Troop Train. (August 25, 1944)
Photo Credit: LOC

Bourg de Lestre. (September 19, 1944)
Photo Credit: LOC

Ready to go. (September 7, 1944)
Photo Credit: LOC

France! #7 When in our first camp (B-53) in France near St. Martin d’Audeville.
Photo Credit: LOC

June 1, 1944 – Home Sweet Home
Photo Credit: LOC

Lundy went on to have a successful career in architecture, and he donated his 8 sketchbooks to the Library of Congress in 2009. You can view them online here.

h/t: My Modern Met

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