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JOE BEDNARSKI

Enlisting in 1941, Bednarski was

assigned to the Air Corps and trained
as a mechanic, engineer, and gunner.
Sent to England, he was a gunnery
instructor for crews on B-24s.

Did you fight in any battles?

I was stationed in a little town called Shipton, England. We would fly from there, over Germany, and then
come back. After we unloaded our bombs, we would come back and reload. Then, the next day it would
be the same thing.

Were you an air pilot?

No, originally I enlisted right after July 4th 1941, here in Rothschild at the depot. We were picked up here
and there were eight of us. We went on the train to Milwaukee and thats where we were sworn in the Air
Corps. From Milwaukee, I went to Jefferson City and we had a basic training for six or seven weeks. We
did a lot of marching and handling guns. After that, they sent me to Airplane Mechanics School in
Lincoln, Nebraska. There they had an airplane display of a P-39. This is where we were taught the
fundamentds of flying: how you fly, what causes what, and what happens when you do that. We also
learned when you move your stick what happens to the airplane and how you went up and how you went
down and so forth. After we graduated from Lincoln, Nebraska, they sent me to Detroit. Then I went
through engine school at the Buick-Cadillac Corporation. They really treated us like civilians. We stayed
at a hotel and we had chefs fix our meals. It really was good, but at 8:00 youd have breakfast and at 9:00
you got on the bus and went to the factory where they taught us about engines. Then from there, after we
got through engine school we went to Little Run. You were assigned an airplane and you were like an
engineer. You went through the whole phase while that airplane was being built. After you went through
there, you were considered an engineer of that airplane. After I got through there, I went through gunnery
school at Florida and that was a seven-week course. When I got through with that seven weeks, they
picked some of us to be instructors. Ive got a badge that we wore on our uniforms and that was sewn on
our jackets or whatever you wore signifying that you were an instructor. We used to have cadets come
through and different types of foreign students. Sometimes we would have French, free French students
coming through and we would have an interpeter with that class so that they would translate orders.
During that time, in that six or seven weeks, you had six weeks of class work and that last week would
be your air-to-air training. We would take off at six in the morning and take about 12 students with us to
fly in a B-17 or a B-24 and fly over the Gulf of Mexico. At that time I was stationed in Panama City. We
would fly over the Gulf and they have an 86-airplane target and then these gunnery students would fire
at that in order to see how they hit it. In order to do what we did, we painted the shells of the caliber, the
.50 caliber bullets. Now this is an example of a .30 caliber machine gun that we used when we would go
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in 86 when you learned how to go through to become a gunner wed fly over the Gulf and shoot at a
floating target. And then after you got through with that, this is a .50 caliber that we used in B-17s and
B-24s when we would flew over Europe. Now can you imagine that size bullet going into you or going
through you? That thing leaves a big hole. They shoot about 500 rounds per minute. But what we did
was, take the back plate off the .50 caliber machine gun and take off these plastic disks that were in there,
which affected the recoil of the gun. We would take out the plastic ones and wed put in nickels. They
were a lot harder and wed put in a string of nickels in there and the would make the recoil lots faster.
That would increase the rate of fire by 100 bullets. So instead of shooting 500 bullets a minute we had
increased it to 600. Boy, you could throw out a lot of slugs. If you didnt watch yourself and you held
that trigger too long you could actually make that gun barrel red hot. And eventually it would just bend
from that heat because it was air-cooled.

Did that ever happen to you?

No it didnt. A lot of times when we were flying, well we were kind of foolish, we would want a smoke
so in order to light it up we would shoot a burst just so that we got the gun barrel hot and wed light out
a cigarette. What was dangerous, but at that time we were foolish and we didnt care. I mean, we were
Gung Ho. When we flew back to the States we had a B-24 airplane. We buzzed the air field in New York
when we got back to the States which is very dangerous too. But at that time we didnt care. We came
down to tree top level with a B-24. You do it now and boy theyd stick you in a cooler fast. But at that
time we were foolish and reckless. After Florida they had gunnery instructors there so they shipped us to
Laredo, Texas. We were air to air instructors there. We would take the students after they got through with
their class instructions. The last week they would come over to us and we would take a bunch of students
and take them up across the Gulf of Mexico and they would fire at this target that we had flying. During
that time I met one of the instructors that was with me. He was a fellow that flew 86s and he knew
General Doolittle before he went in service when they were civilians. We would fly all one day and next
day we would be off. It was kind of alternate, every other day wed take a class and fly them. Then right
after the Polesti Raid we got kind of tired of being just instructors we asked for over seas duties, so they
sent us over to Shipton, England. And there what we did we would take a bunch of gunners that were
there and kind of send them through a refresher course. We would have a hut and inside of that hut there
was like half of an orange hollowed out, round, then we had different gun positions in there and then we
had a camera with a film. It would show an airplane coming into attack and then these gunners would
zero in on that airplane and then you could track them by a light that would flash when you fire and we
could see how they were tracking, that gunner. You could see if that student was doing the right thing,
because you had to use distance to judge how far away the enemy plane was on your sight. To shoot
accurately, you have to know what to aim for, how much to lead it as it was coming in. You would lead
a little of it because of the amount of space it took up in your sight . Thats how far you tell if it was away.
You didnt want to shoot too soon because youd be wasting bullets. After that when the war was over
with there, a group of us flew back to the states in a B-24. Three of the airplanes that we flew back here
one airplane had 84 missions flown over seas. It was called My Aching Ass. It was a picture of a
donkey with a basket which held bombs and it had 84 missions, so it was a B-24. From there I was typing
out discharges for GIs that had enough points to be discharged. Thats where I typed my own discharge
out and came in through Chicago and got discharged there and came home and that was in 1945.

What did you do after the war?

After the war I stayed home for about 20 days or so and then I went back to the paper mill and I worked
there making paper. I worked at the paper mill for 42 years, then in 1982 I had a heart attack and it was
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pretty bad, about 85% of my heart was blocked. So my heart was only working about 15%. Thats one
of the things after you get into that golden age which you got to contend with.

Is there any certain experience during the war that you remember the most?
War in itself is hell. I mean what you see you dont want to go through it. I mean it makes you think twice.
Can you imagine that when you shoot a gun that can shoot 600 bullets what it does to you? It can cut
you in half and rip you up, which isnt a very good sight after it goes through. Once youre up in the air
after awhile lets say at 10,000 feet you have to have oxygen. Above that your capabilities of doing things
right diminishes. The higher you go up the less oxygen you have and first thing you know you think
youre doing things right, but you dont. Its like going slowly unconscious and you dont know it. You
think youre doing the right thing and actually youre not. Eventually you get too high without oxygen
you just pass away.

What was the average day like?

Average day, youd get up in the morning about 5:00, have breakfast and one thing when you were flying
because you didnt want to eat any gassy foods like beans, sauerkraut, or cabbage anything like that
because you go up there like that and it would be awful gas. Before I enlisted I went to a dentist. I had
my teeth checked and I had the cavities filled. Then the first time I went up in the air I had a toothache
and I had to go on sick call and what they had to do was take that filling out. They had to refill the tooth
because the dentist didnt compact it enough and I had an air pocket in there and by going up high the
gas would expand and Id have a tooth ache.

Did you have a certain meal that was your favorite meal?
Favorite meal. For breakfast youd have your eggs whatever way you wanted it, the cooks would add
sunny side up on both sides or one side with toast and butter. It was, even though it was a war, rations
and all that in the Air Force you had a good meal whenever you had one. That was one thing at the Air
Corps, you were fed good because I mean you had to, otherwise youd go up in the air with gas and you
didnt want that to happen.

Why did you choose the AirCorps?

I always wanted to fly, but I wanted to be a pilot. When I went in I had one eye that wasnt good and they
rejected me. I understand they dont reject you if you just have a small defect in the eye. They still take
you now and you can go out and use glasses to correct the default that you have.

Did you make any friends during the war?

Not too many because you never wanted to make friends because you never knew when something would
happen to them. They advised us not to commit our-selves too deep into a friendship because you never
knew day to day, how long you lasted. In fact in England, we had a policy there. We set aside so much
money of our pay for what we would call for an Irish wake. If you were gone or shot they would get
as much liquor as they could and we would have a parting party for our comrade to forget him and start
out another day. Thats why I say war is hell and its best to forget it.

What was the hardest part of the war?

Seeing someone you knew that had passed away or if a plane went up and caught on fire and theres
nothing you could do, but see it come down. I always thought, people at home dont know what war is.
Ive heard a lot of people say they wish the war would have lasted longer because people at home were
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working and putting in overtime because there was a production boom. They wanted to supply the Army
with different things, so the guys would be working overtime and making money and they didnt have
any respect for the guys that were fighting. And thats what kind of bugged me. I always said that some
people here back home just didnt care what the war did to them. People come in that were shot up, were
cripples for life and handicapped.

If you could leave one message to everyone about the war what would you say?
I would say if I have anything to say, think twice before you say lets fight the war because its no good.
Can you imagine one of these going through you and leave a hole the size of a quarter when it goes in
and when it goes out you got about that big of a hole? I mean the only time youd survive is if its going
through one of your limbs like an arm or leg then youve got a chance, but if it goes through any part of
the trunk of the body you just dont have a chance. Fighting using a machine gun is what you want to do,
especially on the ground force. You want to wound the solider, because it takes 2-3 GIs to take care of
a wounded one. If you kill him you dont have to do anything to bring him in, you list him as dead and
look to do it later on, pick him up later on. Id say, I saw a phrase where it said never underestimate an
American because a GI always has a tendency to overcome an obstacle. So I dont know if Ive done
what you boys have asked.

After the war, Bednarski worked at Weyerhauser

Mill. He was married and had three sons and 6
grandchildren.

BEDNARSKI, JOE

2004 D.C. Everest Area Schools Publications