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Fred Bahlau

WWII | 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division

The men got a couple of days off the front line in Holland and were relaxing in a house they appropriated. Fred Bahlau was preparing his reports when one of the privates came out of a bedroom fully dressed as a woman. Immediately, he had a great idea. (Caution: strong language. May be inappropriate for some viewers.) (This interview made possible with the support of FRANK LEYENDEKKER.) (1:54)
Fred Bahlau recalls the house to house fighting in Holland, as the men of the 101st tried to drive the Germans out of Eindhoven. In one home, a civilian woman helped him while he was firing his weapon at the time. Then there was the improbable reunion with a buddy right in the middle of combat. (This interview made possible with the support of FRANK LEYENDEKKER.) (3:47)
Beef, cement, flight jackets and dance partners. If you got it, you got it and Fred Bahlau certainly had it. When the Colonel needed something, he knew who could deliver. (Caution: strong language. May be inappropriate for some viewers.) (This interview made possible with the support of FRANK LEYENDEKKER.) (5:59)
At Arnhem, Sgt. Fred Bahlau was told to take a couple of men and go across the river in a small boat and reconnoiter a little. Right away they caught two Germans, so now the other two men had to watch them while Bahlau continued on alone. (Caution: strong language. May be inappropriate for some viewers.) (This interview made possible with the support of FRANK LEYENDEKKER.) (2:33)
In the middle of a frigid wooded battlefield, Fred Bahlau left his foxhole to go check on others. He only got a short distance when a shell came in and wounded the Captain. He got a medic and set out again when another shell hit the same place. Now he had two wounded men. (Caution: strong language. May be inappropriate for some viewers.) (This interview made possible with the support of FRANK LEYENDEKKER.) (3:46)
They were looking forward to a great time in Paris on leave. As they searched for the most disreputable part of town, Fred Bahlau remembers how the streets were suddenly full of blaring speakers ordering all Airborne troops to return to the train station. Bastogne? No one had heard of it. (Caution: strong language. May be inappropriate for some viewers.) (This interview made possible with the support of FRANK LEYENDEKKER.) (4:12)
After the guys in headquarters surprised him with a little schnapps, Fred Bahlau went on a detail into Foy, where he found a jeep with two wounded men in the middle of a German 88 barrage. The medics had fled and it was up to him to get them out. (Caution: strong language. May be inappropriate to some viewers.) (This interview made possible with the support of FRANK LEYENDEKKER.) (4:55)
At Bastogne, Fred Bahlau was startled when a shell landed right next to him and didn't explode. Maybe that was true, what they said about Nazi slave labor. After the battle, the Colonel called him in and demanded an immediate answer to a life changing choice he must make. (Caution: strong language. May be inappropriate for some viewers.) (This interview made possible with the support of FRANK LEYENDEKKER.) (4:45)
Paratrooper Fred Bahlau was quartered in a castle belonging to Hermann Goring and then he was ordered to guard the loot at Hitler's Berchtesgaden retreat. What he wishes he had a picture of, though, is a particular bathroom fixture used by Der Fuhrer. (Caution: strong language. May be inappropriate for some viewers.) (This interview made possible with the support of FRANK LEYENDEKKER.) (4:57)
Fred Bahlau wanted to stay in the Army after the war, but then he found out that the men from the 101st would go to the 82nd Airborne, to the back of the line for assignments. Nope, but there was one more task he had to perform before he went home. (Caution: strong language. May be inappropriate for some viewers.) (This interview made possible with the support of FRANK LEYENDEKKER.) (3:52)