Walter Trauner was born in 1925 in Boonton, New Jersey. His father had a bakery there. In 1929, his father sold the business and they went to Vienna [Annotator’s Note: Vienna, Austria] and Poland to visit family. He remembers the ship. They visited a salt mine and went siteseeing. They returned to the United States in November 1929. His father started another bakery in Orange, New Jersey. Trauner started public school in the fifth grade. They had a nice apartment in Orange. When the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s] came along, his father lost everything: the business, his savings, and the apartment. They had lived upstairs above the bakery. They moved and his father rented a big store in Bloomfield, New Jersey. He set up a bakery and built a wall to house the family. He did well in Bloomfield. In 1944, they bought a house. Trauner went to high school in Bloomfield. He graduated in 1943. He was drafted after graduation in August 1943. He was a senior in high school when he heard about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He did not think about going into the military at the time. His father was born in Vienna in 1894. His father joined the German merchant marine as a baker on the ship. He landed in Staten Island [Annotator’s Note: Staten Island, New York] in 1917. The ship was impounded because America joined the war, and his father found work at a local bakery. His father married his mother in 1922. Then his father started his own bakery.

Walter Trauner went through a line and was told he would be in the Army. He wanted to fly. Basic training was on tank destroyers. He was not excited about his assignment. He trained at Fort Hood in Texas. They went to Fort Meade [Annotator’s Note: Fort Meade, Maryland] for a while. They went to New York and were shipped overseas. As they got out of the harbor, one of the ship’s generator broke down so the departure was stalled. He is grateful for that because he probably would have been in the invasion of Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] had they left on time. They went to Italy. It took a month to travel with a convoy. When they reached the Mediterranean Sea, there were German airplanes shooting at them. After they got off the ship they got on a train to go to a replacement depot. They traded cigarettes for wine. They put the wine in their canteens. He was sent to Headquarters Company. They went to Anzio [Annotator’s Note: Anzio, Italy]. The troops were living in the wine cellars because the Germans were bombing Anzio. When Trauner got there, they were living in the houses. They went through Rome [Annotator’s Note: Rome, Italy]. They drove by the Colosseum [Annotator’s Note: a historic amphitheater in the center of the Rome]. They were close to the front, but they did not get involved in any frontline fighting. Then they went to Naples [Annotator’s Note: Naples, Italy] and were involved with the Southern France invasion. He did not see any fighting. Then they proceeded north to France and were transferred to another replacement depot. Then he was transferred to the 824th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Trauner was replacing a man who had tired. They moved north until they hit the Ardennes Forest where the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] was happening. The Germans started their last big offensive.

Walter Trauner did not get into any hand-to-hand combat with the Germans. They moved forward again after the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] push was over. They got M18 tank destroyer pieces. Trauner was a driver. There were two drivers, the sergeant, and the gunner. A tank destroyer is different than a regular tank. They are light and have ⅜-inch of armor. They could go about 60 miles per hour. They had to cross a river, and then they started in a column south. Tanks were leading and the tank destroyers followed. They drove all day and through the night. Trauner drove at night. They did not have lights on. The only way he could see the one in front of them was from the exhaust. The big tanks dug deep tracks in the soil. He had to avoid the tracks the other tanks made. One morning there was a German artillery piece down the road. The Germans fired at the first tank. Some men were wounded. They crossed over into Austria. He has pictures of German jet planes.

Walter Trauner remembers the people were nice. They were taken over by the Nazis. He had cousins who were in the German Army. He was worried he would meet them on the battlefield. Trauner wrote home that he was in Innsbruck [Annotator’s Note: Innsbruck, Austria]. One cousin was killed in the war. His other cousin said something about Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] and was thrown in jail. They stayed in the town of Stams [Annotator’s Note: Stams, Austria] for a while. The war ended 8 May 1945. It was a wild day and night of drinking. The war was over. Then they found out that they would be sent home on furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and then be sent to the Japanese theater. He had the choice to go home or stay as part of the occupation force. Trauner decided to go home. They were on a train headed to France. They went to Le Havre [Annotator’s Note: Le Havre, France] where they boarded a ship and went home. Trauner went to Fort Jackson, New York and then went home on furlough. He spent the rest of the year at Fort Dix [Annotator’s Note: Fort Dix, New Jersey] because he did not have enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] to be discharged. He was promoted to corporal. He wrote home and his mother wrote him every two or three days. He had some girls sending him pictures. His sisters were little and the babysitter would write to him.

Walter Trauner remembers there was an artillery piece in the road during the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. They had to retreat. He was in Naples [Annotator’s Note: Naples, Italy] and the children would sing American songs. His most memorable experience was driving at night. They were supposed to fire off three rounds and then run. The Germans had the 88 mm [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] guns which were very accurate. As they went down the hill, the shells were hitting right behind the last tank. He waited for the draft. His father was against the military, otherwise he would have enlisted in the Air Force. His service saved the United States from big trouble. The British were a lot of trouble. World War Two preserved liberty and freedom in the United States. He thinks people need to be reminded about what happened. Young people need to be taught how terrible war is. People thanked him and greeted him on the Honor Flight [Annotator's Note: a national network of independent Hubs working together to honor our nation's veterans with an all-expenses paid trip to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to visit the war memorials].

Walter Trauner’s father was a master baker. He made cakes with real cream, and pastries and donuts. Trauner worked in the bakery after school. He would put the donuts in the oil and he would fill them with jelly. His mother was a tall woman. Her brothers were over six feet. He made bread and sliced it if people wanted it sliced. They always had a garden. They lived in Orange [Annotator’s Note: Orange, New Jersey]. After the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s], his father told him not to go into the bakery business. Trauner used the GI 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]. He took up flying and became a flight instructor for commercial planes. He moved to Florida in 1957. A bakery is not an easy business. Trauner’s ears were damaged during basic training. He had his head out when they fired the canon.