Axel Bonander Remembers World War II

by Jill Funke

Sitting in Larchwood, Iowa while the farmers finish planting and school children count down the days until summer vacation begins, it is hard to imagine the scenes of war that have happened and are currently happening in other parts of the world. However, the lives of many local people as well as people in all parts of the country have been forever altered by their experiences on or near the battlefield.

Axel Bonander was a young man of 21 when he enlisted in the Navy in November of 1943. After completing a variety of aptitude testing that showed his mechanical background, this Midwesterner found himself in electrician school and then working as an electrician on a brand new ship called APA62. An attack transport vessel, Axel’s ship hauled 700 troops and their equipment, as well as the ship’s company of 400 men. Out of 1100 total men, he says that the only other person from the Midwest was a young man from South Dakota.

Although there are many memories that were created during his military service, he remembers vividly the time when his convoy was being chased by a submarine, and a spotter shouted that a torpedo was coming. The ship’s crew put one engine at top speed in full reverse, and the other at top speed straight ahead. Luckily, the ship turned to the side just in time to allow the torpedo to pass, with those aboard watching it sail by them. When recalling that incident, Axel says that they were very lucky.

While completing this 30 months of military service, Axel spent 6 weeks in Pearl Harbor, and then participated in the bloody and difficult invasion of Okanowa. It was there that an enemy on a suicide mission flew into the ship ahead of Axel’s, killing 900 men. That was a significant event for Axel, who spent some time contemplating why it was the first ship that was hit, leaving him and his shipmates still alive. While stationed in that part of the world, Axel saw Tokyo, Hiroshima and other places before going to China. That country, according to Axel, was interesting as the people were either extremely rich or extremely poor, and were cut off from the rest of the world. Iwo Jima was a tough place for the men, as the squad responsible for setting up radios and their communication system wasn’t able to go in on time. At the top of the mountain, railroad cars full of guns shot at ships in the harbor. Axel says that two battleships spent two weeks shooting at the mountain, enduring attacks by Japanese suicide pilots who would maneuver their aircrafts right into the sides of the ship. He often thought about the people flying those suicide missions, and wondering what they could be thinking while carrying out those operations that would certainly result in their death. Finally, a group of soldiers made it to the top of the mountain and raised the US flag. Considering the craziness of the Japanese suicide flyers, and the events of war that the men had already seen, watching that flag go up made a large difference to the morale of the men onboard the battleships, especially the Army and Marine troops. This event was forever captured in a famous photo by Joe Rosenthal, and then through a monument in Washington, D.C., which was dedicated in 1954.