Robert Dannehl was born in Iroquois County, Illinois in September 1926. He was the ninth child of 11 children. He knew all his siblings except one who died in infancy. All the boys in the family served in the military. His father was a German immigrant, and Dannehl’s grandfather died young, so his father had to start working when he was just nine years old. He made glass bottles for beer companies. Dannehl’s father died in 1938 at age 47 due to a severe lung disorder he had developed from working in the glass bottle factory. His mother and older children had to work to keep the family going. Dannehl began working at age 10 in 1936. He worked at a large nursery factory for five cents an hour in the mornings before school started. He lived in a house that had no plumbing or running water. He knew his neighbors well and often played cards and board games with them. His young life was tough and strenuous, but also character building. His brother took him to a movie at a theater once. Dannehl fell asleep, but was woken up by his brother who told him to get up and leave because the theater was on fire. In 1941 when Dannehl was 14 years old, he and his friend took a road trip out West. They stopped in Montana, Yellowstone [Annotator’s Note: Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming], and California. They stayed with family and friends when they could, and they also slept outside in sleeping bags.

Robert Dannehl was playing softball with friends on a Sunday morning, and then came home where his mother and siblings told him about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He had a brother-in-law who was drafted into the service in 1940 at Fort Riley [Annotator’s Note: Fort Riley, Kansas]. Dannehl had been aware of the rising hostilities in Japan and Germany because he read the news and he was very interested in the subject. After war broke out, Dannehl continued his high school career and played various athletics including football and basketball. He could not wait to enter the service because all his brothers and friends were being drafted. He had one friend that became a pilot and flew a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] over Europe. Dannehl’s grandfather was a Merchant Marine in his young life, and Dannehl wanted to join the Navy to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps. He graduated from high school in May 1944, and he was inducted into the Navy the following June at age 17. He was sent to an accelerated program for boot camp. He was one of six selected from his company to train further at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Dannehl developed stomach ulcers during his time training. The Navy wanted to send him home, but he somehow persuaded them to keep him. He then had further training in Portland, Maine where he became an operator of a high frequency direction finder, which was top secret, used primarily in anti-submarine warfare. He finished his training around Christmas 1944. He was then assigned to the USS Hubbard (DE-211), which was the smallest ship of the line, built solely during World War 2. These ships operated in units of four. Their biggest enemy was the weather conditions, which were very cold and rough. His unit and others had been pursuing a particular German U-Boat [Annotator’s Note: German submarine] for weeks, the largest and best equipped in the German Navy, and designed for providing the German High Command with weather information. The weather originated largely along the coast of Newfoundland, which is where the U-Boat operated. The Navy had broken the German code, and the U-Boat transmitted messages to Germany on frequencies and from locations provided by computation from the German shore station D.A.N. Dannehl and his unit could decode the German instructions and sit on those frequencies which allowed them to locate the sub. On 12 February 1945, his ship sank the U-boat. Dannehl believes that he helped the Allies’ advancement at the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] because his ship sunk the U-boat that was transferring the weather information.

Robert Dannehl was a radio operator [Annotator’s Note: for the US Navy serving about the USS Hubbard (DE-211)]. He recalled when President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] died. He had transmitted a message and did not pay attention to what he was typing until a friend read it, saying the President died. On 18 April 1945, when the end of the European war was imminent, the Associated Press erroneously reported that Germany had surrendered. At that time, Dannehl and his ship were in a task force of 54 escorts and four baby aircraft carriers. They were sweeping the coast of the United States. Early the next morning, the USS Davis [Annotator’s Note: USS Davis (DD-395)], a fellow destroyer, was torpedoed and sank as it caught a torpedo aimed at a baby aircraft carrier. Most of the crew made it safely off the ship, but several perished when his ship tried to sink the submarine. Later that night, the sub surfaced and was encircled by the American destroyers. The Germans came out on the deck and tried to fire off ammunition, but they were peppered by everything the destroyers had. Dannehl’s crew captured 29 of the Germans. The Germans continued to have high morale through the end of the war. When Germany surrendered in May 1945, Dannehl’s ship was sent to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for conversion to an attack transport for the Pacific War on Japan. His group was housed in the Brooklyn YMCA [Annotator’s Note: Young Men’s Christian Association] for further training in preparation for planned air drops behind Japanese lines in China to assist downed B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] pilots who were bombing the main Japanese islands from Saipan [Annotator’s Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands] and Okinawa [Annotator’s Note: Okinawa, Japan]. However, his training stopped when the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] and the war ended. Dannehl was admitted to a hospital because he had stomach ulcers. He was discharged in September 1945, and hitch-hiked and rode a bus home from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He attended school using the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] and studied law. He eventually became a lawyer and then a judge in his county. America today is not the same country that he fought for anymore.

Robert Dannehl had further trained in Portland, Maine where he became an operator of a high frequency direction finder, which was top secret, used primarily in anti-submarine warfare. During his service, there was an Italian submarine crew that was based out of Portland. They were used to help the Allies calibrate their instruments. He finished his training around Christmas 1944. Dannehl was then assigned to the USS Hubbard (DE-211), but the gentle motion of the ship made him feel ill. The ship was small, and it was cramped with personnel. The weather conditions were horrible most of the time during his service. The cooks had a difficult time preparing food because the ship rocked so much. His general quarter station was on a gun, while his watching station was in the radio shack. Dannehl explains how effective the high frequency direction finder was in locating enemy submarines. [Annotator’s Note: Video break at 0:58:44.000.] When his crew sunk a submarine, they knew because parts of the ship surfaced.

Robert Dannehl was a radio operator [Annotator’s Note: on the USS Hubbard (DE-211)]. He got liberty [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] while he was in Portland [Annotator’s Note: Portland, Maine] and Halifax [Annotator’s Note: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada]. While he was on the ship, he slept in a hammock in the aft steering compartment. For some time, he had to share a hammock with other shipmates. They traded off hammocks when the sailors went on and off duty. [Annotator’s Note: Interviewer adjusts microphone for interviewee at 1:09:22.000.] He befriended men from New England, and they talked about eating raw oysters which made him feel sick. When his ship docked in Boston [Annotator’s Note: Boston, Massachusetts], his friends convinced him to eat a raw oyster while at a restaurant and he thought they were great. He finished off 18 oysters. As a tip, the waitress asked for two sticks of double mint gum that he had in his pocket. Civilians did not get gum due to rationing. On one of his missions, his ship torpedoed a U-boat [Annotator’s Note: German submarine] and the whole crew went down with it. On another mission, his ship hit a U-boat and around 30 Germans sailors were captured. Dannehl did not hold any animosity towards the Germans because they were just doing what they had to do. He learned the war was over through a radio transmission on the ship. Shortly after the Germans surrendered, the USS Hubbard put in at the Brooklyn Navy Yard for conversion to a high-speed transport for duty in China. At that time, Dannehl was suffering from severe stomach ulcers, so he was detached and sent to the Portsmouth Naval Hospital where he spent the rest of the war. Dannehl was discharged from the Navy on 14 September 1945 with the rank of seaman first class.

Robert Dannehl took advantage of the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] and went to college after he was discharged from service. The benefits of the G.I. Bill had a huge impact on his career path. He served in World War 2 because the country was at war and there was no other reasonable alternative. The war changed his priorities, and it was a sobering experience for him. Our country today does not have the same move and commitment like his generation did during World War 2. Younger people do not have appreciation for the people who sacrificed during World War 2. Dannehl believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and that we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations because it is fundamental to learn from history.