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Suburban residents recount their experiences during World War II

May 1945: The war in Europe is over, finally, after nearly six years of bloody conflicts on land, on the sea and in the skies.

But the war in the Pacific is grinding on with no end in sight. Japanese soldiers and civilians are fighting to the death, and an invasion of the Japanese home islands seems inevitable.

Most of the world doesn't know the U.S. secretly is developing the atomic bomb and preparing to use it if Japan refuses to surrender. The first test detonation occurs in New Mexico in July 1945.

The following month, U.S. planes drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki, killing tens of thousands. Japan surrenders within a week of the second blast, and a formal surrender ceremony is held aboard the USS Missouri on Sept. 2.

It was, unquestionably, a historic time.

"World War II was a global transformative event for at least a dozen reasons," said Krewasky Salter, executive director of the First Division Museum at Cantigny Park in Wheaton. "Among them was the transformation of the United States from an isolationist country to a world superpower ... a position it has held for three quarters of a century."

Flash forward 75 years. Fewer and fewer of those who fought in World War II remain among us. The same is true of the civilians who worked in defense factories and shipyards, watched the skies and seas for invaders and waited for loved ones to return from far-off battlefields.

It is important to hear their stories and honor their sacrifices.

Lombard resident David Baruch, 93, served aboard the USS Franklin during World War II and survived two devastating Japanese attacks on the aircraft carrier. Courtesy of David Baruch

A young sailor at war

David Baruch joined the U.S. Navy in November 1943, mere weeks after turning 17. That was the youngest he could enlist, as long as he had parental consent.

"I wanted to enlist when I was 16 years old and I wanted my mother to lie about it, but no way was she going to do that," recalled Baruch, who's now 93 and lives in Lombard.

At the time, Baruch was living in Queens, New York, attending high school and working part-time as a copy boy at The New York Times.

"I was picking up a lot (about the war), both in the Pacific and in Europe," Baruch said. "It was a very exciting time."

Baruch was assigned to the USS Franklin, a newly commissioned aircraft carrier. A gunner's mate, he was responsible for the operation and maintenance of a 20 mm gun battery.

The Franklin served in several key Pacific campaigns, including the invasion of Peleliu, the Formosa air battle and the invasion of the Philippines.

On Oct. 30, 1944, a Japanese suicide bomber crashed through the carrier's flight deck, killing or injuring dozens of men. Baruch was in a different part of the ship and wasn't injured.

He developed a fatalistic outlook about the war.

"There's nothing you can do about it, other than to do your job when you're called upon," he said. "If a bullet's got your number on it, forget it."

The Franklin underwent repairs and headed back to battle. On March 19, 1945, following heavy fighting with Japanese aircraft, an enemy plane dropped two bombs on the carrier. One struck the flight deck and penetrated to the hangar deck, destroying planes and igniting fuel and ammunition. Nearly 1,000 men were killed or wounded.

Baruch had been standing in line on the hangar deck, waiting to get breakfast in the mess hall. But he inexplicably felt uncomfortable and left, walking up to the flight deck.

That's when the bombs hit.

"The smoke was so pitch black, I couldn't see," Baruch said. "And I thought to myself, I've got to get the hell off here."

Without a lifejacket, Baruch jumped into the ocean. He surfaced and, after a while, swam to a pilot who had been blown off the carrier.

The pilot was wearing a life preserver, and the two men floated together until they found more survivors on a raft. Eventually they were picked up by the USS Marshall, a destroyer that was part of the Franklin's task group.

Baruch spent the rest of the war assigned to a supply depot in the Philippines. He called the Japanese surrender "a huge, huge relief."

Baruch remained in the Navy until 1947. Like many veterans, he struggled with survivor's guilt - and he sought answers in college, studying psychology at Bradley University in Peoria and then at the University of Chicago. He became a psychologist and spent decades in the profession before retiring.

"My personal search for answers ... led me into an area that gave me a lot of satisfaction," he said.

Jean Grundt was a teenager when World War II ended in 1945. Courtesy of the Grundt family

An American civilian

A Chicago native, Jean Grundt was 10 when the U.S. entered World War II in December 1941. She was Jean Meyers then.

She remembers how people sat and stared at the radio on Dec. 7, 1941, listening to news reports about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

"Most people didn't have a clue as to where Pearl Harbor was," said Grundt, now an 89-year-old Arlington Heights resident. "Everybody got their maps and atlases."

Like many American civilians, Grundt's parents tended a victory garden during the war. Theirs was in a larger plot near a friend's home.

"(They grew) the usual - tomatoes, beans, lettuce," Grundt said.

Raised Lutheran, Grundt remembers how difficult it was for her family to find a white dress for her confirmation. Silk and other dressmaking material was scarce because of the war.

"All that was taken for parachutes," she said.

Grundt also remembers her mother giving her a dollar to buy defense stamps, which cost a quarter each. Fill up a book of 75 stamps and you could trade them in for a war bond that would be worth $25 after 10 years.

"It took forever," Grundt said.

For the most part, though, Grundt didn't feel affected by the war. She went to school like normal, and spent time with friends. There were some food shortages, she said, "but nothing terrible."

Grundt's family was German, but she didn't experience discrimination from other Americans - unlike what Japanese Americans endured.

When the war with Germany ended in early May 1945, people relaxed a bit, Grundt said. They didn't expect the Japanese to fight as hard as they did for the next three months.

The atomic bomb attacks heightened anxiety at home.

"You didn't know if they were going to retaliate," Grundt said. "It kind of had everybody scared."

But then the war was over. There were parades down Michigan Avenue to welcome troops back home, Grundt said, and life gradually returned to normal.

Laurence Feldman, 88, of Lincolnshire, was born and raised in England and survived the German Blitz during World War II. Courtesy of Laurence Feldman

A child in London

Laurence Feldman was a child during the war, too - but his experience was very, very different.

Born and raised in England, Feldman was among the children evacuated from London to the countryside to protect them from anticipated German aerial attacks. In 1939, he went to a little village about 65 miles west of London with his sister, their mother, two uncles and cousins. He was 7.

After six months passed peacefully, Feldman and his family returned to London - and then the nighttime bombing raids known as the Blitz began.

For 57 consecutive nights starting Sept. 7, 1940, German planes bombed London and other cities, inflicting heavy casualties and great damage.

"The nights of the Blitz were frightening, filled with the sounds of sirens, planes, bombs and anti-aircraft fire," recalled Feldman, now an 88-year-old Lincolnshire resident. "You could hear the clatter of shrapnel on the slate roofs that were common in Britain."

Feldman and his family lived on the first floor of a four-story apartment building. Their flat became a gathering point for his neighbors during raids because of its relative safety, with dozens of people crammed into its rooms.

One night, the bombing began just as Feldman was starting to take a bath. A bomb fell nearby, blowing in the bathroom windows.

"The blast knocked me back into the bath," he said. "I sprang out of the bath stark naked and ran into the crowded hallway."

The Blitz concluded in May 1941. Although the attacks were devastating, they failed to demoralize the British into surrendering, nor did they significantly impact British wartime production.

But times remained tough for Feldman and other Britons. Severe food rationing was common and continued until after the war ended.

"If I saw one egg a month, that was amazing," Feldman said. "Food was very scarce. It was just enough to subsist on."

Feldman immigrated to the U.S. a few years after the war. After bouncing around the country and serving in the U.S. Air Force, he went to college, settled in the Chicago area and taught marketing at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He's now retired.

Although decades have passed, Feldman's memories of his wartime childhood are vivid. He occasionally talks at libraries or to community groups about his experiences.

"I can never forget it," he said.

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