WWII submariner who survived Battle of Midway dies aged 99

Hank Kudzik, 94, of Allen Township poses for an upcoming story at his home in Allen Township on Thursday, October 24, 2019. Kudzik will grace the red carpet Nov. 5 at the Hollywood gala premiere of “Midway,” about the 1942 Battle of the Pacific that turned the tide against the Japanese. The Bethlehem native is one of the last surviving veterans of the battle. He was a 17-year-old crew member of the submarine Nautilus, which attacked one of Japan’s four aircraft carriers and was blamed in part for its killing. Rick Kintzel / Morning Call

Hank Kudzik, who dropped out of Bethlehem High School to join the Navy and served on a submarine that attacked Japanese warships in the epic Battle of Midway, died Saturday at a hospital in La Mesa, California. He was 99 years old.

His daughter, Wanda Frecks, said his heart had failed. In 2022, he moved from Allen Township to the San Diego area to be with her.

“America has lost a national treasure, one of the few remaining,” said Frecks, herself a Navy veteran. “He loved his country and served it well. He will be missed.”

Kudzik, a gunner’s mate on the USS Nautilus, participated in eight patrols, including pursuing the enemy at the decisive Battle of Midway and leading Marines for a raid on the Japanese-held Makin Island, made famous in the 1943 film “Gung.” Ho!” became famous. and the rescue of American nuns trapped on the island of Bougainville. He then completed six more patrols as chief gunner on the submarine Gar.

Last year, he was one of three Midway veterans who received a standing ovation at a dinner celebrating the 81st anniversary of the Battle of the Pacific aboard the USS Midway Museum in San Diego.

“I was afraid,” he said of his state of mind in 1942. “I wanted to fight. I wanted to see what I could do.”

In 2019, Kudzik was treated to the red carpet at the gala Hollywood premiere of the film Midway, for which he received a thumbs up. Ten years earlier, he was the only Nautilus crew member present at the commissioning of the amphibious assault ship Makin Island in San Diego.

Kudzik proudly wore his old uniform and could talk for hours about his combat experiences. He was a familiar face at the Lehigh Valley Veterans History Project roundtable, the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum’s World War II weekend near Reading and the Allentown Band’s annual tribute to veterans at Miller Symphony Hall.

Kudzik, a son of Polish immigrants, left Liberty High School for Pearl Harbor. His first assignment on Oahu was to help recover the bodies of sailors from the capsized battleship Oklahoma. He volunteered for submarine service and was given a berth on the Nautilus. He was only 17 years old when the big boat pursued the Japanese at Midway.

Early on June 4, 1942, the first of four days of fighting, the Nautilus came under fire from enemy aircraft and fired torpedoes at a battleship and a destroyer.

Hours later, the Nautilus attacked an aircraft carrier. A destroyer pursued the submarine and dropped depth charges, causing underwater explosions louder than anything Kudzik had ever heard. He was in the control room, operating the trim manifold, which moves water from one tank to another to keep the boat level. An official asked how much water was being moved, but the boy was too unsettled to speak.

Seeing Kudzik’s distress, the captain put his arm around him and said, “You’re doing a good job.” As another attack exploded nearby, he patted Kudzik on the shoulder and said, “Hold on. We won’t go under.”

The Nautilus fired three torpedoes at the carrier, but the first two missed and the third was a dud. Still, the Navy credited the submarine with helping dive bombers from the aircraft carriers Enterprise and Yorktown sink three Japanese aircraft carriers.

Home in Bethlehem after the war, Kudzik graduated from high school and married Jacqueline Boemio, a seamstress who made military uniforms during the war. They had two daughters, Wanda, a travel agent and Navy cryptologic technician, and Renae Behrens, a nurse. Jacqueline died in 2016. Renae died the next year.

Kudzik was a Navy reservist for a dozen years and left the service as a chief petty officer. He worked as a draftsman and sales engineer for the cement industry supplier Fuller Co. and retired in 1985.

In 2012, he received the Audie Murphy Award from the American Veterans Center, named after one of the most decorated American soldiers of World War II. The next year he was honored at the Battle of Midway Commemoration in Washington.

Frecks said a celebration of life will be held in the Lehigh Valley. The time and location will be announced later. Her father will be buried with Jacqueline in Bethlehem Memorial Park.

David Venditta is a freelance writer.