They met in Boston around Christmas in 1943, sang and played guitar at her house and shared a kiss he said he would never forget.

By 1944, Leslie L. Upcraft, an Englishman, was aboard the H.M.S. Cubitt, serving the British Royal Navy while his girlfriend, Barbara Russo, a high schooler who dreamed of becoming a pilot, stayed behind in her native Boston.

For a year, he wrote her passionate letters that promised marriage and undying love.

“If only we could be together soon dear, I’d give anything to be back to you,” he wrote her in December 1944. “I’m so sure that I am coming back to you after the terrible war is over.”