W. E. Debnam Reports from the WWII South Pacific

Matthew Peek
Nov 5 · 4 min read

By Matthew M. Peek, Military Collection Archivist, State Archives of North Carolina

Editor’s Note: Much of this biography of W. E. Debnam was taken from an NCPedia article here.

One of the less-explored aspects of World War II is the local state and city coverage of the war and those who fought it by radio reports who ventured into danger to bring people back home the real story of the war. In the late spring and summer of 1945, radio reporter and commentator Waldemar Eros Debnam — better known as W. E. Debnam — was sent for a 90-day tour to the South Pacific Theater by the Smith-Douglas Company of Norfolk, Virginia. He was to interview for Raleigh, N.C., radio station WPTF U.S. service individuals from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, stationed there.

W. E. Debnam was born in Snow Hill, N.C. His father and mother ran the Snow Hill-area weekly newspaper The Standard Laconic. After college at UNC-Chapel Hill, he returned to Snow Hill in 1918, and worked on The Standard Laconic until about 1922. Later, Debnam became a reporter for The Danville Register (Danville, Virginia); The Washington (D.C.) Herald; and The Virginian-Pilot-Ledger Dispatch in Norfolk, Virginia. While working at the Virginian-Pilot, he operated a radio program in Norfolk and Richmond with a series called “The Tales of Ole Virginia.”

Advertisement in a WPTF radio schedule from May 27, 1945, noting W. E. Debnam’s South Pacific interview tour [from County War Records — Wake County, WWII Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina].

After leaving Virginia, Debnam started his own paper called The Norfolk News Index, which operated for two years. Later, he was employed by radio station WRVA in Richmond, Virginia. In 1941, Debnam joined radio station WPTF in Raleigh, hosting a radio series called “Debnam Views the News.” With WWII and the end of the war coming in 1945, Debnam became sponsored to travel to the South Pacific, where he would interview twice weekly his “Report from the Pacific,” which was to be flown back to air on WPTF.

Article on a WPTF radio schedule from September 16, 1945, noting W. E. Debnam’s return from his South Pacific interview tour [from County War Records — Wake County, WWII Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina].

W. E. Debnam ended up spending time in the Philippines, Guam, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. He also covered the landing operations on Balikpapan. His radio interviews with Carolina and Virginia service individuals aired for 15-minute spots from around 12:45 P.M.-1 P.M. Debnam recorded about 75 radio pieces overseas, interviewing over 250 service individuals. Debnam returned to his regular radio duties in Raleigh on September 10, 1945. After his return, Debnam’s reports were summarized and published with photographs in a 16-page promotional booklet entitled This Is Debnam, with excerpts from some of his most memorable reports.

Personalized note with a copy of This Is Debnam booklet, explaining the purpose of it. This note is in a copy sent to the North Carolina Department of Archives and History (part of which is the State Archives of North Carolina) in 1945 [from County War Records — Wake County, WWII Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina].
Cover of This Is Debnam booklet. What follows are pages from the booklet [from County War Records — Wake County, WWII Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina].

It is thought (but there is no known documentation to confirm this) that in 1945, WPTF radio may have offered some or all of the recordings of these interviews to the North Carolina Department of Archives and History (part of which is the State Archives of North Carolina), as part of their on-going World War II home front records collection project from 1942 to 1947. WPTF had sent large radio discs of various programs and several years of their printed radio schedules to the State Archives’ WWII project. These recordings featured speeches, radio shows, and musical performances during WWII between 1942 and 1944, by and large.

However, with the war winding down in 1945 by the time Debnam had returned, the discs were never transferred to the State Archives. If you know of any of these original Debnam South Pacific interview recordings, we would encourage you to contact the State Archives’ Audiovisual Materials Unit, so we can unite his recordings with the other WPTF programs for the public.

W. E. Debnam’s papers are held at East Carolina University. Incidentally, W. E. Debnam’s daughter Betty Debnam Hunt, the creator of The Mini-Page, is a reader of this blog. Her husband’s military papers from his long, distinguished career as a U.S. Marine Corps aviation officer are in the Military Collection at the State Archives of North Carolina. In all, we would like to thank the Debnam and Hunt families for their dedication to the U.S. military over the years.

Resources

“Debnam, Waldemar Eros” article, NCPedia, viewed online at https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/debnam-waldemar-eros.

County War Records — Wake County, WWII Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina

NC Stories of Service

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources shares the stories of our state’s citizens involved in the U.S. military, whether as service individuals or civilians, in times of war and peace.

Matthew Peek

Written by

Military Collection Archivist at the State Archives of North Carolina

NC Stories of Service

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources shares the stories of our state’s citizens involved in the U.S. military, whether as service individuals or civilians, in times of war and peace.

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