A Former German Soldier...Who Helped Build America's Arsenal of Democracy In WWII

On this episode of Our American Stories, Robert Frohlich tells the story of his grandfather, a German-born immigrant who handled warhorses as a World War I conscript - and helped the United States win World War II.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories.
And we tell stories about everything here on this show,
including your story. Send them our American Stories dot com.
There's some of our favorites. Up next, a story from
Robert Frolick. Robert is the author of Aimless Life, Awesome
God and a regular contributor to this show. Today Robert

(00:32):
shares with us the story of a man who impacted
him profoundly. Take it away, Robert.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
In World War One, will Helm Bistner was in the
German Army. His assignment was to care for the horses
that pulled the cannons to fight against the Russians during
a gas stack. In that war, will Helm suffered the
loss of his sense of smell. After the war, he
was awarded a small disability annuity for his injury. The

(01:03):
monthly payments continued until he died in Florida in nineteen
seventy seven. Wilhelm was born in eighteen ninety two, the
son of a tavern owner in Berlin, Germany. He learned
his trade as a tool and die maker and married

(01:25):
Elsbeth Schultz in nineteen twenty seven. They came by ship
to America with their daughter Ursula Wilhelm Bissner became William Burtner.
His German friends called him Willie, and everybody else called
him Bill. When he first came to the United States,
Bill worked as a mason's helper while he learned the

(01:47):
English language. Then he went to work in his trade.
Long Island, New York was a hotbed in the early
days of aviation, and he saw it all. He knew
many of the pioneers in that field. He worked for
Severski and for Sikorski, the early developers of the helicopter.

(02:08):
He also worked for Republic Aircraft and chance Vought Aircraft.
In nineteen thirty three, Bill went to work for Edo
Aircraft in College Point, New York. Bill was involved in
the design and fabrication of floats for various aircraft, including

(02:29):
some for Charles Lindbergh and Admiral Burgh. I remember he
had two model airplanes proudly displayed on the mantle in
his College Point home. One was a solid aluminum model
of Lindberg's plane, the Spirit of Saint Louis, and the
other was a Chance Vaught f for U, the iconic

(02:52):
gull winged Navy warplane. World War Two created a U
huge demand for military aircraft floats. As assistant Division Superintendent,
Bill headed up a fabrication shop. According to one College
point residence, he hired quote every German tool maker and

(03:15):
machinist he could find, including my father's, and as a
result put food on the table from my family unquote.
Bill put all his skills to work, revamping tool designs
and manufacturing processes to make the production faster and more safe.
In nineteen forty three, he won a National Safety Ace

(03:38):
Award for one of his designs. After the war, Bill
retired to his one hundred acre retreat in the Catskill
Mountains of upstate New York, living in a house he
had built himself. He and Elsbeth took me with them
in nineteen forty seven. He had a small machine shop

(04:01):
there and planned to do some contract work from time
to time. That only lasted a year. They moved back
to the city, gave me back to my mother, and
Bill started work at Sperry Gyroscope Corporation. The company manufactured
guidance systems for ships, aircraft, and missiles. Bill always took

(04:29):
great pride in his work, immersing himself in the tiny
details of his craft, and he loved the shaping of
hard steel or soft aluminum into useful objects. Once he
showed me a rectangular aluminum box about one and a
half inches wide and high and about two inches long.
It had a hinged lid. At Sperry, Bill had designed

(04:52):
the tool that made this box, which was an electrical
junction box for the instrument panel of the Ball seven
oh seven aircraft. He explained to me the intricacies of
bending allowances and the tiny tolerances that went into this
simple object. Bill retired again in nineteen sixty one, but

(05:14):
when I returned home for military service in nineteen sixty four,
I found him working every day in a small local
machine shop, still making tools to shape metal to his will.
Bill's German born love for precision in order carried over

(05:37):
to his off duty life. He owned just three cars
during my lifetime, all plymouths A nineteen forty one, A
nineteen fifty five, in a nineteen sixty eight. They were
all base models with manual transmissions, and apart from a radio,
no amenities. Every Saturday Bill would under the hood. Reflecting

(06:02):
on my grandfather's life, it amazes me the advances he
was part of. Young Wilhelm taking care of horses in
the muddied battlefields of World War One. Bill the tool
and die maker acquainted with the pioneers and aviation, Bill
the Superintendent, helping to win World War Two by making
water landings possible for military aircraft, and Bill the tool

(06:27):
maker seeing parts he helped create, flying high in the
sky and even into space. Bill Burtoner loved this country
and he made the most of the opportunities that gave him.
And he returned the favor by giving his best to America.
He never lost that German love for precision and ordnum,

(06:49):
nor did that distinctly German accent ever leave him. He
was my grandpa and I loved him.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
And what a gem we just heard. I mean, what
a time to have grown up. I mean from horses
to flight. And there he is, right in the middle
of flight, using his God given skills to help America
defeat the Nazi menace our arsenal democracy. Folks, we couldn't
have done it without it, and men like Bill on

(07:18):
the front lines. William Burtner's life story is told by
his grandson Robert Frolich. Here on our American Stories, folks.
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