Willis George Hanke
Era: World War II
Military Branch: Navy
HANKE, Willis George
Willis George Hanke was born in Whitehall, Wisconsin on August 6th 1925 to Rev Arthur and Clara (Flunker) Hanke, he was the 5th of 7 children. Willis spent most of his childhood around his father’s country church near Winona, Minnesota.
Mr. Hanke volunteered for the Navy at age 17 during WWII and served on the USS Nassau (aircraft carrier) in the South Pacific theater from 1943 to 1945. He served as a cook and a gunner and his ship was engaged in several campaigns including Iwo Jima and the liberation of the Philippines.
After the war he attended Dunwoody Institute in Minneapolis to become a chef. His first job was at the Lafayette Club.
This is where he met the love of his life, Geraldine (Gerri) Engen. They married on April 18th 1949 and then his life became less exciting but significantly more dangerous than his war experience – he and Gerri had 10 children over the 15 years. He and Gerri retired, moving to a lake home in Backus, Minnesota in 1990.
Mr. Hanke passed away on May 18th 2021, at 95 years of age. His service was at Christ Lutheran Church in Baxter, MN. He is intered at the Minnesota State Veteran’s Cemetery at Camp Ripley, MN.
Obituary for Willis Hanke | Kline Funeral Home
Sources:
Page 306 WWII Navy Muster Rolls - Fold3
Willis George Hanke (1925-2021) - Find A Grave Memorial
Minnesota, U.S., Birth Index, 1935-2000 - Ancestry.com
U.S., Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-1999 - Ancestry.com
USS Nassau Aircraft Carrier - YouTube
Veterans Memorial Hall Oral History Program
Interview with Willis G. Hanke
July 20, 2020
Interviewer: John Hanke
JH: John Hanke
WH: Willis G. Hanke
Track 1
00:00
JH: So I got a bit of a script and then we are going to wing it a little bit.
WH: Ok.
JH: Ok, this is going to be for the Veterans Memorial Hall Oral History Program. The following interview was conducted with Willis George Hanke for the Veterans Memorial Oral History Program. It was recorded on Monday, July 20, 2020 at the Edgewood Healthcare Center in Brainerd, Minnesota. The interviewer, myself is John Hanke, Willis’ son.
WH: Ok.
JH: To begin with dad, just give a brief background of yourself, where you were born, your career. Talk a little bit about yourself.
WH: I was born in Whitehall, Wisconsin and we moved to Minnesota when I was five years old. I lived there until I got married in 1949. I went to grade school, it was a one room country school in Norton. He went to high school in Watertown for two years and then he went to Winona High and from there I went into the Navy. When I got out of the Navy, three years later, I got married.
JH: Ok, tell us about how you went into the service. What prompted you to volunteer and tell me that story.
WH: Well, I didn’t want to be drafted into the Army. I knew I would have to go in. So I volunteered to go into the Navy. I was helping out his uncle in Ortonville on the farm there, so I signed up while I was there. I went in in Milwaukee and I was sent to boot camp in Fargon, Idaho on Lake Pend Oreille. That was where that plane crashed the other day. That is a deep, deep, beautiful lake. Right down between the mountains. That is one of the deepest lakes in the United States.
JH: How old were you when you volunteered?
WH: I think I was…I had to be 18 I think.
JH: Was that Uncle Henry you were working with?
WH: Uncle Louie, Louie Lick. My mom’s sister’s husband. He needed help, his health wasn’t the greatest.
JH: So you made it through boot camp, did you have subsequent training after that?
WH: After boot camp, let’s see. I went to Schumacher, California where that was an OGU (outgoing unit) and I was put on a trip transport and they sent me into the south Pacific and that was where they assigned me to the USS Nassau. When I got aboard the Nassau I was assigned to the kitchen and I enjoyed that. I did well there and I worked myself up there pretty good. I got myself a real good job. I spent a lot of time cooking in chief’s quarters. I lived in chief’s quarters and I cooked for about 15 chiefs. That’s all I did. Of course I had my battle station.
JH: What was your battle station?
WH: Well my first battle station was on a five inch anti-aircraft gun on the fantail of the ship. I was the site setter on there. But I hated that job because I was sitting right on top of the barrel. That thing jabbed several times on me and everybody evacuated the place. But we had to stay on there.
JH: That’s got to be uncomfortable.
WH: It was uncomfortable, very uncomfortable. And, so anyways. I requested to get off there. In boot camp I had a very good record in gunnery. That was what got me a good job. So then I was gunner and captain of the 20 millimeter machine gun. I was on that for the rest of my time aboard ship.
JH: Tell me about your first night on ship. You’ve told me…
WH: Oh the first night on ship they didn’t have any quarters for us yet. And you know when we got off the trip transport we hadn’t showered because all we had was saltwater and we didn’t have any saltwater soap, so we couldn’t shower. They sprayed us like we were insects when we got aboard ship. That night, they didn’t have any quarters for us yet so they let us clean up and said we could sleep on the flight deck if we wanted to. It was a beautiful night at first and so we went up on the flight deck and I slept under one of the planes and then later on it started to rain. So I looked around and there is one plane where the bomb bay was open, so I put my sleeping bag under the bomb bay door out of the rain and spent the rest of the night there. Yeah, that’s right.
JH: Ok, so after the first night you were assigned your duties. What was your first combat mission? Do you remember your first combat mission?
WH: Oh yes. It was an aircraft…they were dropping torpedoes and there were several escort carriers in one group there. We had a near miss but when you…the thing is this. When you shoot, in the Navy like that with a 20 millimeter machine gun, there is probably 50 other guns shooting at the same plane. So you don’t know what you hit or if you hit.
JH: Was that during an actual battle, or just as you were shuttling planes back and forth, where that took place?
WH: Well, at first yes. That was when we were shuttling planes. Then…that was in the Philippine liberation. I was in three campaigns.
JH: Ok.
WH: Then the next one was Iwo Jima.
JH: Tell me about that.
WH: Iwo Jima was a bad one. That was very bad. We were really in close on that one. And as a matter of fact we were in so close that we fired on the shoreline because they didn’t have…they had very poor coverage. That was a bloody battle there. I think we lost…the first day we went in there, the Marines landed there they lost about 10,000 guys that day.
JH: Now you said in the past that was the first time that you came across kamikazes.
WH: Yes, oh yes. That’s right. They were bad I tell you. Those kamikazes. Yeah.
JH: Now at that point, you said you had a sister ship that was hit and sunk.
WH: Yes, the Princeton. That was the one that Cliff Nessent was on. Yes, they were hit and sunk.
JH: Now because you were in the battle and then you had to pull back…and pick up survivors?
WH: Right there, yeah, we picked up a lot of survivors because the water was burning all around us from the aircraft fuel from the Princeton from when it went down. And, that was terrible. I tell you, we picked up the survivors. I tell you I don’t think we ate for five days because the smell and the stench from the burned bodies. Yeah, you just couldn’t. It was just unbelievable.
JH: What was the next campaign then?
WH: The next one was Okinawa. That was the next one up from Iwo Jima. Yeah, that was the third one. That one, it wasn’t anything like Iwo Jima. Iwo Jim a was the worst one. That was just a blood bath. That was terrible. I tell you, I didn’t think we would get out of there but we did. Yeah, that’s right.
JH: What are funny stories. I remember as a kid you would tell us about the one time you made bread. You had to make a bunch of bread?
WH: Oh that was at Okinawa. That was near the end, there was an Army base there that they had just opened after they took over. Course they needed food, they weren’t set up and they didn’t have any supplies to speak of. So they asked all the ships if they would all pitch in and help and we had to make maybe a 100 rolls of bread and when…the bakers worked around the clock for over a day. All this bread was put into a cargo net and lowered over the side to a landing craft to take to the army base. Well this cable broke and all the bread went into the ocean. So these guys, the bakers had just gone to bed to sleep and they got them out of bed again and those guys had to start all over again. Oh that was terrible. Oh my, oh my, oh my.
JH: Any other single event that you…good or bad, that you remember.
WH: Yeah, is there one.
JH: Is there any other single event that took place either good or bad, that is sort of etched in your mind?
WH: Well, right off hand I can’t think of any, but I’m sure there is. It was so long ago and I put a lot of that behind me.
JH: Where were you when you found out that the war was over?
WH: We were not too far from Okinawa and as soon as the war was over, they kept us informed that two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan. And as soon as the war was over, another aircraft carrier came over to us. The whole squadron of Marine planes…gave them, they took off and landed on our ship and we took them into China. That was kind of fun. We had to go through the China Sea to get to China and it was just loaded with mines. Anyway, we had Marines aboard the ship and that was kind of funny too. All of the officers aboard the ship, none of them knew how to launch a perivenous.
JH: Is that the…
WH: It sweeps out from the ship and cuts the cables on the mines, but they didn’t know how to launch those things. There was one of our chiefs, a veteran in the Navy for about 40 years. He came forward and he said I know how to launch those things. So he did. Well anyway, he launched them. When they cut the cables, the mines came to the top, well then, they got us all on our gun mounts, the 20 millimeters and we shoot at that thing until they are blown up. When you blow them up the ship would just launch back. Oh man, those were big ones. We must have shot at least 20 of them. Then we went into China and that was a bad day. They told us before we went in that we should not go with just one or two guys. We should go in groups because the Chinese hated us.
JH: That is what your officers said?
WH: Oh yeah. So any way, we went ashore and these kids, when we hit the dock there. These kids jumped us and tried to steal our wallets, watches or anything we had. Well we fought them off. That is the only time in my life I really got into a fist fight. I knocked one kid off the dock there. I don’t think I broke any bones in my hand, but it wasn’t good. I knocked him off the dock into the water.
JH: Wow, and then technically you guys were allies.
WH: Yeah, that’s right. We were supposed to be allies. That’s right.
JH: So how long were you in China? Just enough to drop off the planes?
WH: We dropped off the planes, they took off from our ship and went ashore and landed there. We went over to the Marine base and there was one guard at the gate that I talked to. He said, look at you guys, you get out of here and we are stuck here. He says, this duty here is just hell. He said, we don’t dare go ashore. He said we just have to stay right on the base. Well we went out then in gangs and it was just filthy. They told us not to eat anything or drink anything, nothing. And they had fish hanging there in the market all full of flies, people shuttling human dung on the street corners. They picked it up for fertilizer you know. It was just filthy.
JH: So after China where did you go?
WH: After China? Well, I think I went to Hawaii and I was in Hawaii for a while again. That’s where I went to the salt ___[22:08]?_______ from. And anyway back to Hawaii and from there I was sent to Seattle for outgoing unit. I was shipped out to the Great Lakes, Illinois, near Chicago and from there I got out of the service.
JH: What was your rank?
WH: Ships Cook 3rd Class. I had a good job and I made a lot of friends there and those guys treated me well.
JH: Now when you were…I know you spent some time in Guam.
WH: Yeah, when we first went over there, Guam and Saipan. From there we went south and we were down at Manas Island then we go over to Marshall Island. From there on we went north on the Nassau. Manas Island was about the place where we were assigned to the Nassau.
JH: Dad I remember a story that you told us one time about the pilots, during Christmas Eve they gave a performance?
WH: Yes.
JH: Could you tell that story?
WH: On Christmas Eve, this one squadron had their own band. And they put on a concert for us and it was just so wonderful. Just a day or so later, that squadron took off and not a single plane came back.
JH: That must have just had an impact…
WH: When the planes left and when they come in, we had to man our battle stations. During the take off and landings and we just sat up there and waited and waited and waited. I tell you the longer we waited the more down in the dumps we were because we knew something wasn’t right.
JH: That’s just…
WH: That was sad, very, very sad. Like I say there was probably more events, but I just don’t remember them all.
JH: No and that’s fine. Once you get out of Chicago, then you just went home.
WH: Well, I left Chicago and I went to…Paul was working in Milwaukee at the seminary. So I went to Milwaukee and spent a couple days with him because he went to…those guys that stay out of the service had to go to school at the seminary. From there, Gill was in Columbus. He has just gotten out of the Army.
JH: Columbus?
WH: He was in Madison at Truax’s Field. He was a radio instructor there and so I spent a few days with him there. He was building a house and so I helped him for a few days and from there I went home to my folk’s place. They had everything arranged for me to go to Minneapolis to go to school. So after a few weeks or a couple of months, I went to Minneapolis and started school.
JH: Ok.
WH: That’s about it.
JH: When you were gone away, what did you miss the most when you were overseas?
WH: Family. I tried not to think of family, especially when times were rough because it just made you feel worse. I just tried to forget about friends and family. That’s the thing, it could have happened at any time.
JH: How many close calls did you have on the ship?
WH: Well one time, there was a shell that went across my gun and it was just a flash of red. It was probably about this far above my gun.
JH: Really, that is pretty close.
WH: That was close. It was just a flash of heat. I could feel the heat in an instant.
JH: Now, tell me about the beer story.
WH: Which story was that. Which one?
JH: Where you drank it…you were on?
WH: Oh, aboard ship.
JH: Yes.
WH: Oh, ok. Yeah, that one I forgot. I was working nights when I was in the kitchen. I had the key to the big cooler on the lower level of the ship, the lower deck and one night I went down there. I forget what I went down there for but I looked in there and on one end there were hundreds of cases of beer. I thought, holy maceral. What are they going to do with this beer? I thought after a bit, they won’t miss one bottle. So I drank one bottle of beer and by golly they did miss that bottle. Boy did they have an investigation and I was really sweating it for a while. Some of my good friends helped me out there. They lied, said a few lies and got me off the hook as a suspect.
JH: So they just sort of gave up after a while?
WH: Yeah, they gave up.
JH: When you went on shore leave what was that like?
WH: Well, I didn’t have too much shore leave because I was at sea most of the time. But when we did have shore leave, it wasn’t the greatest because most of the fellows would go out drinking and I didn’t. We went to, in San Diego, we went up to a resort town and to the USO. We would visit with people and do a little dancing, play cards and games.
JH: So once you went into boot camp you weren’t back home at all? Or did you get to go back home?
WH: No, I didn’t get home until after the war. Once I went overseas, I was out there for the entire time.
JH: So how long was that?
WH: Pretty close to two years.
JH: So what year did you go in then?
WH: 1944 and I got out in 1946. I went to school in 1946 and then met mom in the spring of 1948 and got married in the spring of 1949.
JH: Ok, we can wrap it up there.
WH: Very good.
End of recording
Track 1
34:21
Transcribed by Heidi Guenther
