Across the Sea
For the second time in less than twenty-five years, the world was at war. Similar to World War I, the Second World War mobilized the entire country and transformed the lives of every citizen that touched it. The citizens of Champaign County would answer the call and serve in the armed forces, many traveling outside the country for the first time. From the remote tropical shores of the Pacific, to the desserts to Africa, and to the forests of Europe, American GI’s would find themselves in the path of historic moments during the war. Following are just a few of the extraordinary stories from Champaign County citizens in the theaters of war.
Charles “Chick” Bruns
Charles “Chick” Bruns, by most accounts, was an ordinary sales clerk at Jos. Kuhn & Co. when he decided to enlist in the Army in 1941. Traveling to Africa in 1942 as part of Operation Torch, the first Allied invasion of the war, Chick would traverse Africa and Europe and survive five invasions before ending the war standing in Hitler’s alpine retreat, the Eagles Nest. Along the way, he would see President Roosevelt, countless generals, prize-winning journalists, and the Pope. His collection of thousands of photographs, letters, postcards, and diary entries is likely the best-documented account of the war from an enlisted soldier.
What makes this collection so rare is the fact that enlisted men were not supposed to carry a camera, let alone a diary. Due to the fact that information falling into enemy hands could yield vital intelligence on troop movements. However, as Chick said, “no one told me to stop taking photos or writing,” and so he photographed three years of war, documenting his day-by-day trials and tribulations. A sample of the photographic collection is below.
Chick worked 39 years at the News-Gazette. He served as Secretary and Treasurer for the local 444 International Typographical Union, and is a member of the Knights of Columbus, VFW Post 5520, and Disabled American Veterans.
Art Leenerman, Don McCall, and Earl Riggins
On the night of July 30, 1945, four days after delivering parts and uranium for Little Boy, the first atomic bomb, Art Leenerman, Don McCall, and Earl Riggins were settling in for another hot, restless night on the deck of the USS Indianapolis. At 12:14 a.m., though, the ship was torn apart by two Japanese torpedoes, sinking in just 13 minutes and sending nearly 900 of the ships, 1,196 crewmen, into the shark-infested Pacific waters. With few lifeboats and many unable to reach life vests, the crew was set adrift for the next four days—and no one was aware of the tragedy.
Once in the water, the men drifted helplessly and encountered numerous challenges. Some men ingested the oil and the fuel from the ship while others were covered in it. Some faced agonizing pains due to injuries and severe burns. All suffered from a lack of food and water, exposure to the elements, and the threat of shark attacks. Tragically, some killed themselves or other sailors after drinking saltwater and suffering various states of delirium and hallucinations
At 10:25 a.m. on August 2, a plane spotted the men adrift while on a routine patrol flight. News of the sinking would first appear in newspapers on VJ Day, ensuring the tragedy would be overshadowed by the end of the war. These three men from East Central Illinois would all be pulled from the water that day, and share a lifeline bond with all those who survived the Indianapolis. Of the 880 who survived the sinking, only 321 men came out of the water alive.
Jim Harper
Jim Harper had a knack for filing cars. After he entered military service on April 18, 1941, the military recognized his skills and stationed him at Ft. Benning, Georgia, to work on military vehicles. After that easy beginning, though, Jim faced some much tougher challenges while serving in the distinguished Merrill’s Marauders.
The Marauders, an all-volunteer, long-range penetration special operations jungle warfare unit, infiltrated the Japanese lines across the China-Burma-India theatre. Jim participated in three major campaigns in slightly more than five months of combat. The Marauders advanced 750 miles through some of the harshest jungle terrains in the world, all the way fighting cerebral malaria, amoebic dysentery, and scrub typhus. After being discharged on June 25, 1945, he returned to Tolono by way of Iran, Cairo, Casablanca, and the Azores. He settled back into daily life with his new wife Marian and continued repairing cars. He worked at the Studebaker Garage, University Ford, and eventually retired from Hill Ford, all in Champaign.
Jill Pitts Knappenberger
Assigned to the Red Cross Clubmobile, a mobile morale booster, Jill Pitts Knappenberger landed on Utah Beach on July 31, 1944, and was attached to the 8th Corps of the 3rd Army. She Worked through Normandy, Brittany, the Brest Peninsula, and Bastogne.
In December 1944, she was attached to the 106th Infantry near Vielselm Belgium, when she found herself in serious trouble. Her unit was cut off and surrounded by Nazi troops. After seven days of shelling and gunfire with no radio communication and little food or ammunition, the Clubmobile made a dangerous nighttime escape, escorted by a prisoner of war interrogation team. In the same time period, Jill would see personal heartache as her twin brother was killed not far from her location. She would end the war in Altenburg, Germany, and return to the United States in August 1945.
Orvile Eugene “Gene” Conn
Evelyn Conn was glued to the radio all day on June 6, 1944. Her husband Gene, an army artilleryman, had been in England since 1943, and it seemed likely that he was involved in the invasion of occupied France, Operation Overlord (D-Day). Around 10 p.m., Evelyn had to take a break from the broadcast to deliver their twin daughters.
Fortunately, Gene wasn't on the beaches of Normandy that day as his 155-mm howitzer crew was awaiting transport to France in Weymouth, England. Evelyn telegrammed Gene the news, which took six days to reach him in England. He would receive word the day before his crew shipped out. He arrived on the beach of France on June 16, ten days after the Allied invasion. Although Gene had never seen his daughters, who were more than a year old when he returned home in October 1945, he knew what to look for, thanks to monthly photographs he received from Evelyn.
Robert Pope
Life at 25,000 feet was not for the faint of heart. Sergeant Robert Pope, of 404 East Green Street, Champaign, learned quickly of the dangers in the skies over Germany. Flying 35 missions in his squadron’s B-24 Liberator, he was just behind the pilots, in the mid-deck, when exploding flak struck the plane on January 28, 1945. The explosion wounded the navigator: hit in the leg, he was bleeding out. Robert and a fellow soldier helped the wounded airmen to the back of the plane, carefully crossing the narrow catwalk above the open bomb bay doors. Without their oxygen masks or heated suits, and with blood-freezing on the floor of the plane, Robert still managed to stop the bleeding and save the man's life. The plane limped back to England without hydraulics in the landing gear. The plane landed safely, only to repeat the trip many times again.
“Still I pity those who will suffer in vain and I naturally wonder if I will be in that group.” -Robert Pope