Veneklase, Erwin T. (Interview transcript and video), 2005

Mingerink, Jon (Interviewer)

Mingerink, Rick (Interviewer)

Erwin Veneklase served in the 2nd Battalion, 126th Infantry Regiment, 32nd (Red Arrow) Division between 1939 and 1945. He enlisted in the National Guard in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and trained with his unit in Louisiana before beign shipped first to the East Coast and then back across country to Australia and New Guinea, where they were the first American troops to reinforce the Australians. His battalion crossed the Owen Stanley mountains on foot without adequate supplies or ligistical support, and then fought at Buna from Novl 1942 to Jan. 1943. He became seriously ill at the end of that campaign and was eventually shipped back to the U.S. His account is one of the interviews featured in the documentary Nightmare in New Guinea produced by Grand Valley State University.

2005-11-04

Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives

Veterans History Project (U.S.)

VeneklaseE

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eng