Reception: 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. | Event: 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
This event is free and open to the public. Register today to join us in person or to view the event online.

Join us in conversation with Rona Simmons, author of No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944, which chronicles the US Armed Forces’ single deadliest day of World War II. More than 2,600 Americans perished around the world on October 24, 1944—more than on any other single day of the conflict—yet the day remains overshadowed by more widely remembered dates in WWII history.

A reception from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. will precede the event, and Simmons will sign copies of her book following the presentation. Preorder a copy of No Average Day here.

Following the event, head to Kilroy's Bar & Lounge in The Higgins Hotel & Conference Center to continue the conversation with Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy WWII Military Historian Bradley Hart, PhD. Enjoy happy hour prices on food and drinks from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. while reviewing what was discussed in Simmons's presentation.

For additional information, please email Connie Gentry, Conference and Programs Specialist, at connie.gentry@nationalww2museum.org.

About No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944

October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, or on June 6, 1944, when the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy, or on any other single day of the war. No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944 chronicles this deadly date hour by hour, incident by incident—from Army Private First Class Paul Miller’s predawn demise in the Sendai #6B Japanese prisoner-of-war camp to the death of Navy Seaman Second Class Wanza E. Matthews, moments before midnight, after the Japanese submarine I-56 attacked his ship off New Guinea. The sinking of the Japanese hell ship Arisan Maru—a lesser-known tragedy of the war—bookends and weaves through the two-dozen selected other incidents.

No Average Day eschews the conventional discourse of the war’s origins, its great battles, and the maneuvering of generals, admirals, and politicians. Instead, it directs its attention to ordinary individuals—the clerks, radio operators, cooks, sailors, machinist mates, riflemen, pilots, and air crews who chose to serve their country and soon found themselves in terrifying and otherworldly places. There, described in relatable terms, the men hunch their shoulders against the cold, wipe grit from their foreheads, or pen a letter home minutes before drawing their last breath. No Average Day reveals the vastness of the war as it reaches past the beaches in France and jungles in the South Pacific, to the villages, placid bays, and forested mountainsides across the globe where the war also raged.

About the Author

Rona Simmons is an author of historical fiction and nonfiction. For the last several years she has focused her writing on World War II with the books 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). Both of the latter books were awarded gold medals from the Military Writers Society of America. Simmons’s motivation to write about World War II stems from her family’s connections with the military: she is the daughter of a World War II Army Air Forces P-38 fighter pilot, the daughter-in-law of a bomber pilot with the Eighth Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group, and the wife of a former Vietnam-era US Navy pilot. Simmons is a graduate of Tulane University and received her post-graduate degree from Georgia State University. Simmons has written for literary journals and online and print magazines and newspapers and is active in her local writing communities. She is a frequent speaker to service groups, military organizations, veterans communities, and writers associations.