James Bauernfeind

Personal Information

Birthplace: New York

Service Information

Branch of Service: Army

Unit: 80th Division

Theater of Operation: European

Honored By: Patricia, James, and Mary Ellen

Biography

Between the beach at Normandy to a small town in Austria, our father and his closest friend Pete Schreiner, fought their way through Europe with the Army’s 80th Division. Carrying the BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle) and wounded several times, through the fields of France, Belgium, Germany and Austria they marched and fought. The Battle of the Bulge, the freezing winters in Belgium, the concentration camp at Dachau, and finally a drunken drive in a tank through an Austrian town after the war ended, he served his country with honor. His wife and daughter waiting for him at home, worried after receiving several Red Cross messages about his injuries, he along with thousands of others persevered. Never one to discuss his service time, he lived his life in a manner that to this very day we, his children, still remember him with love and devotion.