Walter Bala was born Walter Baloski in September 1923 and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. His parents were Polish immigrants. He attended a Polish parochial school up to 11th grade then went to work to support his family. He began working as young as ten delivering produce to people's cars. He remembered when Poland was invaded by the Germans. He was going to work early in the morning when he heard the "extra" newspaper boy announcing it. He was soon called into service and he was sent to south Florida for basic training then to Keesler Field in Biloxi, Mississippi for aircraft mechanics school. Bala completed mechanics school and was sent to Laredo, Texas for gunnery training. He went up in a plane for the first time in his life and practiced shooting targets. After completing gunnery school, Bala was sent to Casper, Wyoming where he met and joined the crew he would fly in combat with. Bala and the other crewmembers were sent to Topeka, Kansas where they picked up a brand new plane [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] and flew it overseas, stopping several times. Immediately upon their arrival in Ireland their new plane was taken away and they were sent to Old Buckenham where they joined the 453rd Bomb Group [Annotator's Note: Bala was assigned to the 732nd Bombardment Squadron, 453rd Bombardment Group, 2nd Combat Wing, 8th Air Force]. His crew continued to train by shooting at clay targets. Bala's first combat mission [Annotator's Note: to the city of Saint-Lo, France] was to throw chaff from the gun port. He was supposed to release a little at a time but was so excited that he threw all of it out at the same time. He recalled that he had to empty his bladder often during his missions and he would relive himself using a bomb fuse can. As his plane flew over Germany, he would drop the can hoping it would hit someone. He recalled it was so cold that the oxygen mask valve would freeze making it difficult to breathe. He often had to break up the ice in the valve so he could breathe properly again. He and his fellow crew members wore electric suits to keep warm, but they had to make sure it did not smoke up. There were times during missions that the planes would fly so close in formation that Bala thought the wing of another plane was going to hit them. He would yell to his pilot to tell the other planes to back off a little bit.

Walter Bala and others would use bicycles as a mode of transportation on base [Annotator's note: RAF Old Buckenham, Attleborough, England]. They had a young English boy that would run errands and do small favors for them. They had grown to love him like a son. Bala recalled writing letters next to the stove in his Quonset hut. One time, he and some other airmen were invited to a naval officer's party at a nearby base. To Bala's surprise, the naval officers had the bar lined up with American beer. He drank quite a bit and when he decided to find a Quonset hut to go to bed, he could not believe how much nicer the accommodations were for the officers compared to his living quarters. Bala explained that his navigator, copilot, and bombardier did not get along. They eventually asked to be separated, even if they would be court marshaled. The CO [Annotator's Note: commanding officer] split up the officers and added a young inexperienced pilot to the crew. The bombardier told him not to touch anything and the pilot flew the mission with his arms crossed the entire time. They never saw that pilot again after that mission.

During the mission of 10 January [Annotator's Note: 10 January 1945], Walter Bala's plane was returning to base when it developed a severe mechanical problem. Bala believes that the engines air locked and were not getting fuel. Bala and the rest of the crew bailed out. His left foot hit the plane on the way out causing him to go upside down and spin in a corkscrew. He pulled his rip cord. He could hear the wind whistling as he sailed down. Luckily, Bala came down at a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] airbase where he saw two maintenance men walking by. When he landed, he hit his head on a Quonset hut. They found his pilot stuck in a tree and the tail gunner in a bar in a nearby town. The plane was completely wrecked. Bala recalls the personalities of some of the guys on base. On another mission several days after 10 January, Bala's plane was hit over the target. They headed back toward their base, but the plane suddenly went into a steep dive. They came upon a small auxiliary field where the pilot lined up for an emergency landing. When the wheels touched the ground the flight gear snapped off and the plane skidded down the runway on its belly. It went off the end of the runway, losing its wings in the process. Fortunately, none of the crew was hurt. His tail gunner was known to drink a lot of beer and was one day court marshaled and demoted to buck sergeant [Annotator's Note: nickname for the lowest sergeant rank] for taking off his shirt on a hot day. There was another guy in Bala's Quonset hut who would use his helmet to urinate in rather than going to the latrine at night. His friend, Jeffery Scott, was an English boy who hung around with Bala and his crew. Scott would sneak onto the base and wait for them to return from a mission then go and eat with Bala in the mess hall. Bala recalled that Scott began to lose his English accent he was with them so much.

Walter Bala enjoyed going to his bomb group [Annotator's Note: Bala was a member of the 732nd Bombardment Squadron, 453rd Bombardment Group, 2nd Combat Wing, 8th Air Force] reunions and meeting his old captain again. His captain became a test pilot after he left Europe. Bala went to Chanute Field in Illinois to train on the central fire control system for B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] with the idea that he would be sent to the Pacific. Fortunately, he did not have to go. Bala stayed in the Reserves after the war and was called to serve in the Korean War [Annotator's Note: 1950 to 1953] where he was stationed in Rapid City, South Dakota where he served to a supply squadron for two warehouses. He unloaded parts for the B-36 [Annotator’s Note: Convair B-36 Peacemaker strategic bomber] off railroad carts. He would go to a nearby church every Sunday for Mass and became good friends with the pastor of the parish. Bala would take the priest to his various missions. The priest introduced his to various people including a sculptor and his wife [Annotator’s Note: Interviewee goes off on a long tangent of the life of the sculptor he met 0:41:14.00 to 0:48.00.00]. He married soon after his service was completed. He also used the G.I. Bill and worked for the F.B. Wright company after the conclusion of World War 2.

During a mission, Walter Bala's plane was hit over the target. A shell came through the plane and knocked out his copilot as he was reaching for his flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] helmet, but he did not die. During another mission, a shell hit three of the engines of his plane as they were headed back toward their base. The plane suddenly went into a steep dive after their engines quit working. Bala found himself pinned to the ceiling of the plane. Moments later, he was thrown to the floor of the plane. He knew that he was going to die. He began praying, saying the "Hail Mary" in Polish. Seconds after he finished his prayer the plane leveled out. Bala's plane was hit by an experimental antiaircraft artillery shell. The shell, an incendiary of some sort, failed to detonate. If it had, the plane would have been blown out of the sky. When they finally got the plane down, the plane's crew chief climbed aboard and chewed Bala and the others out for damaging his plane. The damage to it was so severe that it never flew again. With that aircraft, Bala's crew was credited with downing three B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. His turret gunner and copilot received purple hearts. He remained friends with his turret gunner and his wife.

Walter Bala was called back to service for the Korean War [Annotator's Note: 1950 to 1953]. He had a new car and drove to South Dakota. His roommate never ate in the mess hall but ate at night by himself. Bala had a buddy who was a carpenter, so he was able to make new shelving in their barracks. He also befriended a captain during his service for the Korean War. During World War 2, a plane blew up right beside Bala's plane. Bala had a Jewish friend, and they would go on leave together. When they took a trip to London [Annotator's Note: London, England] they were walking around Piccadilly circle. A girl in a Polish uniform walked by them. Bala tipped his hat to her and she responded "Hi, Yank." He was surprised to find she was an American girl who joined the Polish WAFs in Canada. He met a bunch of her Polish friends and made it regular to meet them when he went on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] to London. When he returned home, he realized he learned to speak better Polish than his Polish parents. After leaving the service he went on to have a career with the F.B. Wright Company that lasted nearly 60 years. In 2001, he flew to England for a reunion. Bala shares a story of a pilot named Bill Carlson [Annotator's Note: unable to verify identity], who's plane was shot down over Poland and was forced to bail out. The Russians took Carlson captive. He was forced to bury his fellow crewmen who died during the crash. The townspeople honored the two bodies by making wreaths for them and having a funeral parade.

Walter Bala grew up in Detroit [Annotator's Note: Detroit, Michigan]. His parents were Polish immigrants, and Bala had several relatives, including his father's sister, who were still living in Poland when the German Army invaded the country in September 1939. Bala was going to work early in the morning when he heard the "Extra!" newspaper boy announcing it. Bala was forced to drop out of high school in the 11th grade so he could take a job with the Murray Body Company making engine nacelles for bomber planes to help support his family. In July 1943, Bala received his draft notice. He was sent to south Florida for basic training then to Keesler Field in Biloxi, Mississippi. The summer heat on the Gulf Coast was very difficult for Bala to get accustomed to. Adding to his discomfort, the mechanical classes were taught in three shifts and he was assigned to the third shift. His classes began at midnight every night and wrapped up at eight in the morning. He would try to sleep during the day but that was difficult with troops exercising outside of his Quonset hut and marching past counting cadence every few minutes. Bala corresponded with a friend of his who was also in the Air Force but stationed in Italy. One day, he received a missing in action letter. His friend was shot down and was buried in Italy. Bala flew overseas in July 1944, and when he arrived in England, he was assigned to the 732nd Bombardment Squadron, 453rd Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force. He served as an engineer gunner. He was responsible for a variety of maintenance on the ground and in the air. Everything had to be worked on by sight and he had no gauge panel to work from. He flew 20 missions in the same plane, named the "Black Widow." Having a few married men in the crew, they decided that the name "Black Widow" was not appropriate, so they later renamed the plane "Little Becky" in honor of the ground crew chief's young daughter. His crew bailed out of one plane named "Ford Folly," and crash landed another named "Miss Lace." Bala had a friend in the service that was sent home when the military found out he had five other brothers in service.

Walter Bala was stationed at Old Buckenham, England and lived in a Quonset hut with 16 other men. The hut had no insulation and had concrete floors and one stove. During the winter they could hear the buzz bombs [Annotator's Note: V-1 pulse jet flying bomb, German name: Vengeance Weapon 1; Allied names: buzz bomb, doodlebug] whiz by when they had gone off course. Bala explains that some of the fighters would attempt to knock them out of the sky, but the Germans soon caught onto that and modified the V1 so it would blow up on the fighter pilots. Bala's worst mission was when he was almost shot down. He thought he was going to die and began praying the "Hail Mary" in Polish. Bala always wore the same towel around his neck for all his 35 missions. He never washed it either. He also carried an English penny on his mission. Bala was given European boots that strapped around his parachute in case he landed behind enemy line. He would switch his boots out so no one would know he was an American. When men would get too jittery, they were sent to a rest camp in Scotland for some relaxation. There were movies for them to watch and games to play. Bala developed a medical condition in his back but refused to be pulled off flight status because he wanted to finish his service with his crew. After the war, Veterans Affairs gave him a ten percent disability, but he refused the funds. Bala wrote home almost everyday to his parents and sister. Bala recalls his last mission. He had a brand new copilot on the plane. Bala never interacted with German fighter pilots during his service, but did see them every once in a while. He also spotted V2 rockets [Annotator's Note: German Vergeltungswaffe 2, or Retribution Weapon 2, ballistic missile], and during a training mission he saw a jet for the first time. He was given orders to fly at night for testing that he did not know, and still does not know the reason.

Walter Bala completed 35 missions before he returned home. He had one mission where he thought for sure he was going to die. He prayed the "Hail Mary" in Polish and had no qualms about it. Bala retuned to the United States in May 1945 and was home to celebrate VE-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945]. His mother spotted him on the front porch and picked him up and hugged him like a little kid. In August 1945 he was discharged from the Air Force as a Staff Sergeant in Colorado. He married the following November. Bala and his brothers served in the military during the Korean War. Bala was discharged in 1951 in Rapid City, South Dakota as a Tech Sergeant [Annotator's Note: Technical Sergeant, E-7]. Bala fought for World War 2 because it was the order of the president and he wanted to save his country. Participating in World War 2 bettered his life because he was able to see the world and improve his status of living. Bala was glad he served and met many people he would not have met if it were not for the war. Bala believes its important to have institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] to educate the public about what his generation did.