Oral History Project World War II Years, 1941-1946 - Henry Buczynski

Henry Buczynski was born 27 October 1917 on a farm near Gilman, in Alberta Township, Benton County, Minnesota. The youngest of ten children of Polish immigrant parents, he attended a local school and helped his parents on the farm. Henry\u27s mother died and his father sold the farm just prior to Henry\u27s induction into the US Army in January 1942. In the Army, Henry attended a school for bakers and cooks (1942), then completed a course in mess management (1943). He then served at Camp Campbell, Kentucky, in a training unit (1943-44) before being shipped to Europe in February 1945 with the 413th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 20th Armored Division. This unit saw very limited action in Germany during the war\u27s final month. Henry\u27s unit was in the US, preparing for deployment to the Pacific, but V-J Day in August 1945 made this unnecessary. Henry remained stateside until his discharge in January 1946 with the rank of lance sergeant. A civilian once again, Henry worked in Chicago as a meat cutter (1946-47) before returning to Minnesota and settling in Cloquet. He got married (wife Marion) and raised a family, and worked at Northwest Paper (now Sappi) and later Diamond Match, both in Cloquet, before retiring in 1979