FLVC logo

Delmar T. Spivey collection, 1939-1945, Date accessioned: 2004-03-03

 

Summary

Extent:
.25 Linear Feet
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Title of Item], [Date of Item], [Box and Folder number], Delmar T. Spivey collection, Special Collections & Archives, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida. https://purl.lib.fsu.edu/fa/02-04-2027

Background

Scope and content:

This collection relates to Major General Delmar T. Spivey who was an U.S. Army Air Corps prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III in Germany from August 1943 until May 1945. Then Colonel Spivey was in charge of gunnery training for B-17 flight crews of the U.S. 8th Air Force based in England. He was sent to England with several other gunnery instructors to teach air gunnery to bomber flight crews who were being decimated by German fighter aircraft. He was participating in his first combat mission as a nose gunner/ observer on a bombing mission over Gelsenkirchen in the Ruhr Valley when his plane was disabled by anti-aircraft fire. After the plane crash landed, he was taken prisoner and sent to Stalag Luft III. This collection contains POW letters, documents, telegrams, and a published biography of his experiences in the POW camp.

Biographical / historical:

Delmar T. Spivery was born in Gates County, NC on 8/09/1905. He attended the USMA at West Point and graduated in 1928. He joined the Army Air Corps and became a senior gunnery training officer just before the outbreak of WWII. He was posted to England with the USAAF 8th Air Force. He was on his first mission in 1943 when he was shot down over Germany and captured.

Custodial history:

Transferred from the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience to FSU Libraries Special Collections & Archives in July 2022.

Material specific details:
-POW Odyssey: Memoir by Delmar T. Spivey, published by colonial lithograph, inc., 1984 -Transcript (contemporary) of letters sent by DTS to wife Virginia while he was held as German POW; 1943-45 -photocopy of transcript of letters -Telegrams (3), original, relating to Col. Spivey as MIA, POW, release; 1943,-45 -photocopies of telegrams -Letter (carbon copy) to Asst. Chief of Staff of USAF by DTS re: former POWs and Brig. Gen. Vanaman; undated, probably 1946-47 -Article in Culver Military Academy Alumni Bulletin re: DTS; winter, 1998

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open to all researchers.

Terms of access:

All requests for permission to quote, publish, broadcast or otherwise reproduce from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Associate Dean for Special Collections & Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Florida State University Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Title of Item], [Date of Item], [Box and Folder number], Delmar T. Spivey collection, Special Collections & Archives, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida. https://purl.lib.fsu.edu/fa/02-04-2027

Location of this collection:
116 Honors Way
Tallahassee
FL
32306-2047
USA