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Before Harold, we were SEARCHING FOR CHARLESAt 1100 AM the pubs are opened. By 1120 the days quota of scotch has been sold – by 1135 the beer is sold – by 1145 the whiskey is sold out – the rum and gin hold out quite a bit longer. The Australians blame all such shortages on the Yankees. Not being a Yankee, naturally I am not to blame.
North Carolinian Ray Carleton,
Camp Strathpine, Queensland, Australia, 1943
For a family separated by war but united through mail, what happens if the letters stop?
As World War II ravages the globe, one scattered American family is held together by ink, paper, and hope. Harold Carleton is in Europe with one of his brothers; another is in the jungles of the Pacific islands; a nephew is training pilots in Texas; his brother wants to leave school and join the fight.
At home, those left behind face a quieter battle against rationing, anxiety, and the suffocating weight of the unknown. The mailbox becomes a lifeline; it’s the only link to the boys they love. Every letter feels like a victory; every silence, a haunting threat. Which will arrive next: the US Post Office with a treasured letter, or Western Union with a dreaded telegram?
Searching for Harold is the poignant, intimate portrait of a family caught in the crosswinds of history’s greatest conflict, told through the letters that kept their hopes alive.
The child of an Air Force family, Stephen Watts was born in West Germany. He is the grandnephew of Harold Carleton.
Stephen began organizing his family’s genealogical files, tracing his lineage, and transcribing the family correspondence in 1996. His English immigrant great-great-grandfather’s correspondence inspired his first book, the award-winning Searching for Charles, published in 2022.
Stephen grew up to serve in the Air Force himself. After nine years, he left to begin a three-decade career in the insurance industry before retiring in Georgia, where he lives with his still-tolerant wife, Karin.
This book is an absolute treasure...a beautiful, sobering collection that reminds us of the heavy personal costs of history.
Well-organized and easy to follow, the letters transport readers to the time before instant
communication, when loved ones’ notes traveled slowly. The writers’ hopes, dreams, fears,
grief, and hardships come through in a tangible way. Women’s anxiety about receiving a
dreaded telegram, even as daily life went on, is palpable.
What struck me most were the firsthand accounts contained in the letters; they brought the experiences of that generation to life in a way that history books simply cannot.
These letters...offer an intimate, unfiltered look at what life was like for American families during WWII....you’re transported directly into the rhythms of 1940s life: rationing, factory work, radio broadcasts, newsreels, and the constant hope for good news from overseas.
A fascinating account of an American family before, during, and after World War II.
Through comprehensive research and a thoughtful editorial approach, Stephen Watts transforms a collection of family letters into a moving and insightful historical narrative. Searching for Harold: One Family’s World War II Story in Letters is a heartfelt and deeply genuine tribute to the ordinary people whose lives were forever changed by World War II.
The whole Carleton/Watts crew charmed me, even when the watermelon crop went bad.
IR Approved: ★★★★★ July 12, 2026 A family historian pieces together the life and loss of his great-uncle through decades of preserved correspondence, creating an intimate portrait of one American family’s World War II experience. SEARCHING FOR HAROLD: One Family’s World War II Story in Letters is, at its heart, an …
Charles Watts Press, 422 pages, (ebook) $8.99, 979-8-234-03590-5, (Reviewed: June 2026) Harold Watts, the author’s great uncle, enlisted in the U.S. Army during WWII, became a corporal, and was killed in action in Germany in 1944. This book tells his story, and that of his extended family, through letters sent …
Genre: Nonfiction / History / WWII, reviewed by Madeleine James, July 3, 2026. A genuine, textured portrait of a family on the front lines and home fronts of WWII. Searching for Harold: One Family’s World War II Story in Letters is Stephen Watts’s second venture into epistolary family history. Watts’s …
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