Oral history interview with Daniel A. Bauer [sound recording], 2007.

ArchivalResource

Bauer, Daniel A., 1923-2009,. Oral history interview with Daniel A. Bauer [sound recording], 2007.

Oral history interview with Daniel A. Bauer [sound recording], 2007.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/757933362

Daniel A. Bauer, a St. Paul, Minnesota native, discusses his Army Air Corps service in India and at Tinian during World War II. Bauer touches on his activities after graduating from vocational school, trying to enlist in the Navy, being rejected due to a perforated eardrum, and enlisting in the Air Corps. He mentions basic training at Goodfellow Field (Texas), training to be a link instructor, and being shipped to India as a truck driver before he could finish training. Bauer describes his 104-day voyage aboard the SS Athos, including extended seasickness and a submarine attack. He describes the chaos and destruction he witnessed upon his arrival in Bombay caused by the sabotaging of an ammunitions ship. Sent across country on a troop train, Bauer comments on the poor sanitation and bad odors. Assigned to an air base at Kharagpur, he speaks about his uniforms, duty cooking and driving a gasoline truck, and refueling B-29s. He describes being treated in the hospital for jaundice and malaria, encountering a cobra while on KP duty, and disposing of sacred cows that wouldn't leave the base. Bauer talks about the food and the unavailability of liquor for enlisted men. He portrays a Japanese air raid on Christmas Eve: having an outdoor movie interrupted, driving a weapons carrier out of harm's way, and taking cover in a slit trench. He characterizes the Indian civilian he hired to clean his tent. Bauer talks about the closing of the base and setting up communications for a new base on Tinian. He describes the remaining Japanese presence on the island, having temporary duty building desks and Quonset huts, and duty as a teletype mechanic. Bauer tells of returning to Tinian for the 50-year anniversary of the end of World War II. He mentions using military communications to talk to a cousin stationed on Saipan, and he details visiting an uncle whose destroyer escort docked at Saipan. Bauer discusses seeing one of the atomic bombs being loaded onto the plane, the disbelief of the Japanese prisoners at the nearby prisoner of war camp after Japan surrendered, and flying back to the States on a B-29. He speaks of his homecoming and having recurring episodes of malaria.

Sound recording : 1 sound cassette (ca. 50 min.) : analog, 1 7/8 ips.Master sound recording : 1 sound cassette (ca. 50 min.) : analog, 1 7/8 ips.Transcript : 23 p.

Wisconsin Veterans Museum Research Center