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Wisconsin Veterans Museum Research Center Transcript of An Wisconsin Veterans Museum Research Center Transcript of an Oral History Interview with FREDERICK M. WALD Aerial Gunner, Air Force, World War II and Career. 1996 OH 252 1 OH 252 Wald, Frederick M., (1921-2008). Oral History Interview, 1996. User Copy: 1 sound cassette (ca. 65 min.), analog, 1 7/8 ips, mono. Master Copy: 2 sound cassette (ca. 65 min.), analog, 1 7/8 ips, mono. Transcript: 0.1 linear ft. (1 folder). Military Papers: 0.1 linear ft. (1 folder). Abstract: Frederick M. Wald, a Marinette, Wisconsin native, discusses his career in the Air Force, including being held as a German prisoner of War during World War II. Wald talks about enlisting in the Air Corps in 1941 and being based at Tyndall Field (Florida) when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. He mentions being rejected for pilot and glider training, graduating from gunnery school and aerial gunners’ armament school, and having repeated complications with outdated medical records. In Boise (Idaho), Wald discusses forming a flight crew, flying a B-24 to Europe, and assignment to the 392 nd Bomb Group, 578 th Bomb Squadron, 8 th Air Force based in Wendling (England). He details being shot down on his second mission: losing three of four engines, the failure of the bailout alarm, and having no memory of his jump. After regaining consciousness in a French farmhouse, he talks about being sheltered by the French resistance for two weeks before being captured by the Gestapo. Wald talks being moved from the jail in Rouen to Luftwaffe headquarters in Paris, staying in the Rennes prison, and being held in solitary confinement in Frankfurt (Germany). He portrays being interrogated, including hearing he was a traitor, being scared by witnessing dummy executions, having beard hairs yanked out, and getting beaten with rubber hoses. Wald reports on the clothes he was issued, having good food at the interrogation camps, and being shipped to Stalag Luft VI (Heydekrug, East Prussia) in an overcrowded boxcar. He portrays the compound and states the British and Canadian prisoners shared their Red Cross packages with the Americans, who didn’t have their own. Wald details the insufficient food rations and his resultant weight loss. After hearing the approach of the Russians, he tells of being evacuated by overcrowded ship to Swinemünde. Sent to Stalag Luft IV (Tychowo, Poland), Wald talks about being evacuated several months later to Stalag 13D (Nuremberg, Germany), where the prisoners were vulnerable to shrapnel from frequent Allied bombings. He talks about finding other prisoners in the camps who were from Marinette (Wisconsin). Evacuated again, to Moosberg, he comments on being liberated by the 14 th Armored Division, getting sick from eating rich food, and being flown to Le Havre (France). Wald touches on being interrogated, having to drink a canteen of eggnog every day, receiving money, and returning to the United States. After the war, he speaks of reenlisting in the Air Force, assignment to Andrews Field (Washington, D.C), and transfer to Salina (Kansas). Wald speaks of flying B-29s until an airplane malfunction gave him a fear of flying. He describes volunteering for duty in Japan, duty loading airplane ordnance, and being frustrated by the lack of promotion opportunities. Scheduled for discharge a week before the Korean War started, Wald states he reenlisted 2 for a bonus since he would have been involuntarily extended anyway. Assigned to Nellis Air Force Base (Las Vegas), he states that the activation of National Guardsmen flooded the promotion slots. He discusses his assignments to and housing in Kaufbeuren and Hahn Air Base (Germany). Wald talks about having troubles with superior officers who wanted to court martial him. He mentions graduating from aircraft mechanic school and flying C-1 Constellations in Massachusetts. He discusses joining veterans’ groups and the importance of the actions of the DAV and Ex-POW organization to secure veterans’ benefits. Wald reflects on the long-term health effects from his time as a prisoner of war, including knee problems, frostbite, and gastrointestinal issues. Biographical Sketch: Wald (1921-2008) served in the Air Force for twenty-one years between 1941 and 1965. He was a German prisoner of war during World War II, and he also served overseas in Germany and Japan. Wald worked for the Ohio Medical Product until retirement in 1983 and settled in Madison (Wisconsin). Interviewed by Mark Van Ells, 1996 Transcribed by WDVA staff & Leah Schultz, 2011 Checked and corrected by Channing Welch, 2011 Corrections typed in by Mary Claire Kussart, 2012 3 Abstract written by Susan Krueger, 2012 4 Transcribed Interview: Mark: It is April 25, 1996. This is Mark Van Ells, Archivist, Wisconsin Veterans Museum, doing an oral history interview this morning with Mr. Fredrick Wald, presently of Madison, Wisconsin, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force in World War II through the 1960s; a career military person. Good morning, thanks for coming in. I appreciate it. Wald: Thank you. Mark: Um, perhaps we should start at the top, as they say. Why don't you tell me a little bit about where you were born and raised, and what you were doing prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, 1941? Wald: I was born and raised and graduated from Marinette High School in 1941. [Coughs], excuse me, and very little employment opportunities up at that period of time. And, ah, I tried to reenlist, I mean enlist, in the U.S. Navy, but I was rejected. Mark: On what basis? Wald: That was June of ‘41. Mark: Yeah. Wald: And then I went over to the U.S. Army recruiter, and the recruiter said he had recruited three of my friends. So, um, I had a younger uncle about a year older than I was, and he got drafted into the infantry about 1940, which is something I didn’t want to do, so I enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps, 1 July ‘41. We were sent to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri for our recruit training, and then we had picked Tyndall Field, Panama City, Florida for our home base, but because of the base was being built we were sent to Eglin Field. Mark: In Florida also. Wald: Also for what in them days I think they called them provisional squadrons or groups. About all we did was do guard duty. We did a little flight line work. And then I guess it was, ah, about ten days to a week before Pearl Harbor they sent us to Tyndall Field, and we were living in tents in the city park when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. And a day or so after that they moved us, actually, back out to the base. Even though the base wasn’t completed, the 5 barracks was more or less livable. And then, I guess it was around the summer of 1942, they allowed people to apply for pilot training, of which I did. Mark: Now, before that, what was your MOS? I mean what was your military specialty supposed to be, as a young enlisted man in the Air Force? Wald: I don’t know what it was. Mark: I see. Wald: But after I went through Tech School and Gunnery School, then I got one. So then, um, I was rejected for pilot training because I guess I couldn’t pass a couple of the medical tests like the spin test and stuff like that. Prior to Pearl Harbor a person had to have two years of college in order to apply for pilot trainings. So then, a month went by, and I applied for glider training, and prior to that I had a nose condition. I had some growth on my nose that I had to have surgery to remove it. But it never got updated on my medical records so I was rejected again. So then I applied for aerial gunnery school, which I was accepted. I got my medical records updated a little bit and completed the course. I graduated in, I don’t know, November of 1942, and then I was shipped to Salt Lake City to go to aerial gunners armament school which is about three months long, and then graduated from there and was promoted to staff sergeant. And then I was supposed to be shipped to the Davis-Monthan [Air Force Base], Tucson, Arizona. And again, I was on a train, and I got yanked off the train because somebody found my medical records weren’t updated because of my surgery. They yanked me off that shipment, and I wound up going to Boise, Idaho. I met a guy on the train, and his name was John Rickey, and we became real good friends. And, um, we went down to fly in operations, and we met a pilot, and we formed our own air crew down at that Boise, Idaho, at Gowen Field. Our first phase of training we flew B-17s, and then we switched over to B- 24s, and then we completed two phases at Boise. And our last phase was at Wendover, Utah – or Nevada, as it straddles those two state lines, and we completed our bombing phase there. You know that [??] a real quick assignment came in to go to England. We took a short leave, we came home, went back to Wendover, and from there we took a train to Herington, Kansas, and we picked up a B-24D airplane. And we flew that from Kansas to Detroit, Detroit to Presque Isle, Maine, Presque Isle, Maine to Newfoundland, to Greenland, Iceland, and Ireland, and then we 6 took a ferry to England.
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