From Boston to Berlin

When Roland Regan and Frederick Mauriello went off to fightthe Germans in World War II, they packed cameras and notepaper and documented their experiences, Roland with photos, Frederick with letters to hisfamily. Roland's photos, developed after the war, never went through Armycensorship and show an honest firsthand view of the war from the eyes of anenlisted man. Frederick's letters show a young man's devotion to his family,his good-will, and his growing distrust of military authority. As a whole, thiscollection is a testimony to the courage, faith, and loyalty of all the men whoserved during World War II. These priceless documents, presented by their sons inthis book, offer readers an intimate glimpse at a unique aspect of the Americanexperience.

In the summer of 1995, I came upon a box of photos that myfather had taken during his service in World War II from 1943-1945. While I hadknown of the existence of these photographs for thirty-five years, I had notfully appreciated the meaning and impact these photographs had on my father'smemory of the war nor my understanding of my father's role in the 20thcentury's most important event. As I looked through these black and whitememories of World War II, I began to feel a commitment to my deceased fatherand his generation to make these photos public so that others could share thiswartime experience.

Between the summers of 1995 and 1998, I began to constructhow I wanted my father's photos to be viewed and preserved for latergenerations. I contacted several publishers to learn more about what steps Iwould need to take in order to publish my father's photos. Simultaneously, Icontacted several national universities and colleges to possibly donate thesephotographs to their history departments for use in research and teaching WorldWar II.

To my surprise, theresponse from both publishers and universities was very encouraging. However,organizing and presenting such a collection of photos proved to be a labor oflove as my weekends, during this period, were consumed selecting, scanning andediting hundreds of original photos. During that time I was teaching severalbusiness courses at Salem State College in Salem Massachusetts, and thereforecontacted the history department to notify them of my interest in donating adigitized version of my father's photos for use by the history department.

My message was forwarded to Christopher Mauriello, themodern European historian for the department. Unbeknownst to me, Chris had alsocome upon a box of World War II letters that his father had written to hisfamily back in Boston between 1943 and 1945. He too felt a commitment to hisfather and the World War II generation to make these letters public so thatothers could share his wartime memories. With these shared commitments, we metfor coffee to introduce ourselves and review each other's collections.

Immediately we recognized the powerful parallels between theimages and the words. We soon discovered that the parallels ran even deeper.Both of our fathers were sons of European immigrants that settled and lived inthe Boston area. Roland J. Regan, Sr. was of Irish descent and was raised inLynn, Massachusetts. Frederick J. Mauriello was of Italian descent and wasraised in Dorchester and Revere, Massachusetts. Both volunteered for activeservice in the U.S. Army in 1943. Between the summer of 1944 and 1945 bothexperienced similar paths in combat against the German Army. Roland Regan inthe 348th Army Engineering Combat Battalion, Company A and Frederick Maurielloin the 309th Field Artillery Battalion 78th Division.

The parallels between these two wartime experiences form thebasis of this book. In May of 2000, the Boston College history departmentaccepted and became custodian of some one hundred and fifty of Roland'soriginal photographs from 1943-1945 for use by 20th century historians andresearchers. While we have added a brief narrative history and captions to the photographsand the letters to provide the necessary historical context, we hope that theoriginal documents speak for themselves. We hope they do justice to the memoryof the wartime experiences of our fathers and their greatest generation.

Furthermore, to commemorate our respective father'smemories, we intend to develop two scholarship funds for Boston College intheir names to assist deserving students from Lynn and Revere Massachusetts whoare accepted and attend BC from the revenues generated from the sales of FromBoston to Berlin. We feel our commitment to these two scholarship funds forfuture generations is in keeping with our father's mutual commitments to theirgeneration. More information concerning these scholarship funds will beforthcoming on this website. - Roland J. Regan, Jr. Christopher E. Mauriello