WWII PRISONER OF WAR AND OTHER MEDALS

My friendship with WWII veteran Edwin E. Kamaraininen began in February 2005 when I was doing research on another airman, Herman Bauer, whose roots were in in my hometown, College Point, NY. He was Navigator on the Dorty Treek, a B-24 Bomber shot down on November 26, 1944 over Misburg Germany near Hannover.

Ed Kamaraininen's B-24 Bomber the Dorty Treek

Ed Kamaraininen - top row middle

Discovering Ed's story on the Internet, I was able to contact him and learned that Bauer did not survive. Ed, the plane's Radioman, did. He was captured and became a Prisoner of War at Stalag Luft IV that held mostly downed fliers. On February 6th, 1945, his captors, knowing the Russian Army was nearing the camp, ordered about 6,000 prisoners to leave, beginning an eighty day, six-hundred-mile march across Germany. It is referred to in history as the "Black March" or the "Great March".

While on the march, Ed shared his food and blankets with a man named Ben. Over time, they became good friends and swapped stories; Ed talking about his farm life in Wisconsin, and Ben telling him tales about New York City and swimming at Coney Island. It being a frigid winter, Ben began having trouble with blisters. Ed gave him a spare pair of socks that helped, but only for a short time. At risk of being shot, Ben fell out, usually resulting in getting shot by their captors.

Ed came safely home, but one thing bothered him - he and Ben had exchanged neither home addresses nor last names. Ed wanted Ben to know he was owed a pair of socks; more importantly, he wanted to reconnect with his war-time buddy. Becoming intrigued by Kamarainen's sixty-year, unsuccessful quest for Ben, I began another Internet search that led me to a government website enabling me to identify all WWII airmen from New York City with any form of "Ben" in his name who had also been imprisoned at Luft Stalag IV. There were very few; one stood out, Benedict Tieniber from Brooklyn, but was he the right Ben? With such an unusual surname, it was not difficult to find all persons named Tieniber, information I shared with Ed; but a photograph was necessary.

His search led to Vincent Tieniber, Ben's son, but sadly, he did not have the desired photograph. Three attempts on, an email from Michael Tieniber, another one of Ben's sons, brought the desired result, a photo of Ben in his airman's uniform. He was both Flight Engineer and Top Turret Gunner aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress Lucy that was shot down over Steyr, Austria on February 24, 1944. He and the entire crew survived and became POWs in Luft Stalags I, VI and IV, where Ed was imprisoned.

The picture was proof-positive. Ben Tieniber was indeed the same Ben who had spent so many weeks and months on the forced march with Ed Kamarainen. Sadly, Ed also learned that Ben had died on March 26, 1973 and was buried in the Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York.

While Ed never did get back his pair of socks, the mystery of Ben's identity was solved. For his wartime service, Edwin Kamarainen was awarded four medals, Prisoner of War, Purple Heart, Efficiency and Air Medal. He died in Washington State on February 10, 2011. Ben was awarded the Prisoner of War Medal, Air Medal and Legion of Merit Medal.

For anyone interested in reading the complete Ed Kamaraininen story, I recommend This is War and We are Prisoners of the Enemy available on Amazon.

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