This is a true WW2 war story. My father, Thomas E. Andes, was a physician who served in the Army Air Corps in North Africa in 1942-43. He ran a medical supply group and provided medical care to various squadrons of fighter and bombers as the Army moved westward across the "Maghreb" from Egypt to Tunesia. He didn't talk much about the war. But he did talk about one incident that happened on that trip, in the area of Benghazi, Lybia. It was a story of the death of one soldier, a death that particularly disturbed him.

Long after the death of my father I made the acquaintance of Phyllis Noble, who was the daughter of that man whose death was the center of the episode that my father still talked about years later and the center of this story. The "book" that follows is a facsimile of a small book, a replica of my fathers photo album and scrap book from that time, modifed to tell the story of how Phyllis and I shared and merged our fathers' stories.

To "read" the story, go to the first page, below. You navigate the book as follows: to page forward, click on the paper of the right hand page. To page, on the paper of the left page. If there is an envelope pictured on a page, click on the envelope to see and read the contents. If it is a letter of more than one page, click on the first page to see the second. If it is a one page letter, or if you have read the second page, clicking on it will return you to the page.

This story, ;Benghazi 1943 is about that time and how Phyllis and I rediscovered our shared history.