Visitors at The National World War II Museum heard from Rona Simmons, author of No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944, which chronicles the single deadliest day for the US Armed Forces during World War II. More than 2,600 Americans perished around the world on October 24, 1944—a day overshadowed by more widely remembered dates in WWII history.
In No Average Day, Simmons details the events of this fateful day hour by hour, focusing on the experiences of ordinary servicemembers—clerks, radio operators, cooks, sailors, machinists, riflemen, pilots, and air crews. From Army Private First Class Paul Miller’s predawn death in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp to the sinking of the Japanese hell ship Arisan Maru and Navy Seaman Second Class Wanza E. Matthews’s death moments before midnight, the book captures the scale of the war and its human toll in vivid, relatable terms. Simmons avoids focusing on generals or large-scale strategies, instead shedding light on the lives and sacrifices of individuals in lesser-known corners of the global conflict.
About the Author
Rona Simmons is an accomplished author of historical fiction and nonfiction, with a focus on World War II. Her works include Images from World War II (2016), The Other Veterans of World War II: Stories from Behind the Front Lines (2020), and A Gathering of Men (2022), the latter two of which earned gold medals from the Military Writers Society of America. Simmons’s connection to World War II is deeply personal: her father served as a P-38 fighter pilot, her father-in-law as a bomber pilot in the Eighth Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group, and her husband as a Vietnam-era US Navy pilot. A graduate of Tulane University and Georgia State University, Simmons has contributed to literary journals, magazines, and newspapers and is active in her local writing community. She frequently speaks to service groups, veterans, and writers’ organizations.
