Rudolf Charles Beranek was a New Year’s Day baby, born on 1 January 1914 in Chicago, Illinois to Rudolf and Marie (Jedlicka) Beranek. Although he shares his father’s first name, Rudolf was not a “junior” and went by the nickname “Rudy.”[1] Rudolf (the elder) and Marie were born in Bohemia and immigrated to the United States just at the turn of the Twentieth Century. Rudolf came to the United States following the death of his father with his mother and younger brother. He was sixteen when his mother established the new family home in Chicago in 1904. Rudolf was supporting the family working as a tailor in 1910. Marie’s family also immigrated to the United States but she immigrated with her parents and five siblings. Her father worked as a shoemaker in Maryland before the family moved westward to Illinois, settling in Chicago by 1910. Rudolf and Marie would marry on 2 December 1911. Rudolf the younger, would join the family in 1914 followed by a brother in 1919, a sister in 1923 and another sister in 1928. The census records suggest Rudolf and Marie were literate in English but that seems unlikely given they were adults when they arrived in the United States and had not attended school in the United States. Regardless, they established a home and raised a family.[2]

Bohemia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the late 1890s. It bordered with Austria to the south, Bavaria to the west, Lusatia to the north and Moravia to the east. Prague was its capital city. Bohemia is now the Czech Republic. The emigration of Bohemians in the 1880s was driven by several factors. Industrialization in Bohemia led to the decline of traditional crafts and trades, causing economic difficulties for many people. Farmers faced challenges from overpopulation and lack of arable land, making it hard for rural families to sustain themselves. The Bohemian region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where Bohemians faced political repression from ethno-Hungarians. Religious minorities, particularly Protestants in a predominantly Catholic region, experienced discrimination and sought freedom to practice their religion without persecution. Of course there was the American dream of owning land and achieving prosperity as previous waves of Bohemian immigrants to the United States seem to have achieved.[3] The reasons the Beranek family emigrated are lost to history.

By 1930, Rudy, at age sixteen, was attending school. The family home was located on 19th Street in Chicago, in a then diverse part of the city. Their neighbors came from various backgrounds, just like the Beranek family, making it a multicultural community. The family rented their home for $50 per month, and they owned a radio[4] Rudy graduated from Harrison Technical High School in 1931 where he was active in the radio club and a member of the orchestra.[5]

Rudolf Charles Beranek married Blanche Julia Raska on 15 June 1936 in Cook County, Illinois.[6]Blanche was about a year younger than Rudy, born in 1915 in Nebraska. As a child, she grew up in Antioch, Nebraska with her parents and four siblings. Her father, Frank, and mother, Julia, were both born in Bohemia and had immigrated to the United States in 1905. Frank was a meat butcher in Antioch.[7] Blanche’s younger brother, Frank, Jr., died of streptococcus infection when he was fifteen and Blanche was nineteen and her mother died in 1925 when Blanche was just ten years old.

By 1930, Frank Raska was a widowed lodger in San Diego, California. Blanche, her two younger brothers, and her younger sister are in Alliance, Nebraska at the St. Agnes Academy. Blanche was fifteen years old. St. Agnes was founded in 1908 initially as a school for girls, but it became coeducational in 1925.[8] Raska family lore said Frank moved to San Diego to find a wife and “warehoused” his children to the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Charity at St. Agnes.[9] By 1940, Frank and his new wife, Josephine, were living with two of Frank’s children and Josephine’s child in Dubuque, Iowa where Frank again owned a butcher shop. Blanche was married and living with Rudy in Cicero.

As was required by the Selective Service Act of 1940, Rudy registered for the military draft on 16 October 1940. He was twenty-six years old and had been married for four years. Blanche and he had no children and were living in Cicero, Illinois where Rudy was employed by the Manhattan Brewing Company. He was 5’11” tall and weighed 169 pounds, with a light complexion, brown hair, and brown eyes. His next of kin was Blanche.[10] The Census for 1940 noted that Blanche was a tailor at a retail clothing store and that the couple rented a house for $38 per month on 61st Street in Cicero. Rudy had completed four years of high school but Blanche had only completed one year. Blanche had a reported an annual income in 1939 of $1037 while Rudy had an annual income of $980.[11]

Rudy’s income increased substantially in 1942 after he and Blanche moved to Torrance, California. Rudy became employed as a shipfitter for the California Shipbuilding Corporation (referred to as CalShip), earning a weekly income of $62.40.[12] CalShip was established in 1940 at Terminal Island, Los Angeles, California as part of the emergency shipbuilding program initiated by the Franklin Roosevelt administration prior to World War II to rapidly produce Liberty and Victory ships for transporting troops and supplies.[13] But in order to launch the number of ships requested, CalShip needed workers…workers who were recruited from the mid-West and East coast. Rudy and Blanche must have answered that call for shipbuilders.

Although he had an important job at the ship yard, Rudy enlisted in the U.S. Navy on 4 December 1943. He began his recruit training was at the Naval Recruit Training Center San Diego, California six days later and was assigned Service Number 879 76 94. He was twenty-nine years old. By May 1944, he had completed recruit training and Electrician Mates school, graduating fifth in a class of fifty-three. He was promoted to Electrician Mate Third class (EM3c), then transferred to Submarine Squadron 45 in San Diego for submarine training which he completed on 17 July 1944 before transfer to Submarine Administration command at Mare Island, California for further assignment. He was assigned to the submarine USS Trigger (SS-237), reporting aboard on 8 August `1944. Two weeks later, Rudy received an American Red Cross telegram informing him that his father had died. The historical records do not indicate if Rudy was able to attend his father’s funeral.

Trigger had sustained such severe damage during her last war patrol that required major overhauls and repairs at the Mare Island Navy Yard at San Francisco, California. She entered the shipyard in June 1944 and would return to Pearl Harbor in September to begin her tenth war patrol. EM3c Beranek was on aboard.

Trigger’s tenth war patrol was conducted in two phases. The first phase ran between 24 September and 3 November departing from Pearl Harbor to a patrol area off Saipan. On 12 October, Triggerrescued Navy pilot, Lieutenant (junior grade) John J. McGuire, USNR of Squadron VF8 from USS Bunker Hill and escorted the damaged USS Salmon back to Saipan. Later, on 30 October, Triggertorpedoed and damaged the Japanese merchant tanker Takane Maru off Kyushu, Japan. During the second half of the patrol, from 10 November to 23 November off Bonin Island, Trigger engaged two enemy surface craft but did not record damage or sinking of an enemy vessel. Trigger returned to port at Guam and was awarded the Submarine Combat Patrol Insignia for this patrol.

She departed Guam on her eleventh war patrol on 28 December 1944 for the Bungo Strait, the channel that separates the Japanese islands of Kyushu and Shikoku on the southern end of Japan.[14]Few contacts were made and Trigger was forced to evade patrolling Japanese aircraft several times. She ended her patrol at Guam on 3 February 1945.

On 11 March 1945, Trigger, under the command of CDR David R. Connole, departed Guam for her twelfth war patrol.[15] Trigger’s orders were to hunt for enemy shipping in the Nansei Shoto Archipelago (Ryukyu Islands) area and to serve as a lifeguard[16] during a scheduled carrier air strike on Okinawa. On 18 March 1945, Trigger reported she had made a seven-hour end-around attack on a convoy and had sunk a cargo ship. The rest of the Japanese convoy fled westward towards Japan. Commander Submarine Forces Pacific (COMSUBPAC), Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, determined the fleeing ships would head for a safe passage through a Japanese minefield and therefore ordered Trigger to shadow the escapees to locate the enemy’s “safety lane.” On March 20th, Triggerreplied she had been held underwater by antisubmarine vessels for three hours after attacking the convoy. When she surfaced, she had been unable to regain contact on the escapees. Four days later, COMSUBPAC directed her to patrol west of the Nansei Shoto chain, to avoid restricted areas, and to stay outside of the 100-fathom curve so that she could dive deep enough to evade any surface warships.

On 26 March, Trigger was ordered to rendezvous with USS Sea Dog and USS Threadfin to form a wolf pack known as “Earls Eliminators” (after CDR Earl Hydeman, Commanding Officer of Sea Dog), with a rendezvous location southeast of Kyushu Island and east of the Nansei Shoto island chain. Trigger sent a weather report that day, but never confirmed receiving the March 26 message to rendezvous with Sea Dog and Threadfin. That weather report was the last transmission received from Trigger. The wolf pack was disbanded after Trigger failed to acknowledge the rendezvous message. Presumably, Trigger made a high speed run of about 250 miles through Osumi Strait to get into her previously assigned patrol area,[17] and then went another 85 miles north toward the entrance of Buigo Suido on the morning of 28 March. Unknowingly, Trigger was going close to shore and into special anti-submarine warfare (ASW) patrols.

The Imperial Japanese Navy, in late March 1945, ordered the super-battleship IJN Yamato to counterattack United States forces that were landing on the Japanese island of Okinawa. To provide anti-submarine cover for the Yamato and her escorts, Commander of the Kure Area Guard Units, Rear Admiral Kiyota Takahiko, dispatched the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Sweeping Units to conduct an offensive sweep in Hyūga Nada[18] and the Osumi Strait. The surface units were supported by eight Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD)[19] equipped Aichi E13A1 Jakes and Kyushu Q1W1 Lornas[20] aircraft from the Saeki Naval Air Group. IJN Mikura, CD-33, and CD-59 were detached to participate in the sweep, departing Saeki with the 3rd Sweeping Unit.[21]

At 1027 (10:27 AM) in the morning of March 28, southwest of Shikoku, one of the ASW planes detected a contact and directed the 3rd Sweeping Unit to the area. Sometime after 1300 (1 PM), INJ Mikura, CD-33 and CD-59 conducted several attacks on a submarine contact with depth charges. After two hours of depth charging, a large amount of oil and debris was sighted in the area.[22] Mikuradeparted the area, and headed south, right into the path of Threadfin, who sank the Mikura.

Another message was sent to Trigger giving her a new assignment and ordering her to acknowledge it. This was March 28. No response was received.[23] On 1 May 1945, Trigger was reported as presumed lost. She was struck from the Navy list on 11 July 1945.[24]

IJN Yamato had, in fact, departed Buigo Suido on 6 April 1945 and was sighted by Threadfin, who reported Yamoto’s movement south toward Okinawa. The next day, hundreds of United States Navy airplanes attacked and sank Yamato.[25]

From post-war records, Trigger likely received the message to form a wolf pack in order to find Yamoto, report its location and sink it if possible. While in shallow water looking for the Yamoto, Trigger evidently was detected by Japanese aircraft who called in surface units in a coordinated attack.[26] She sank with all hands… eighty-nine officers and crew. Trigger’s official loss date was 28 March 1945. The official date of death for the crew is 21 April 1946.

As an Electrician Mate, Rudy would have been responsible for the maintenance of the electrical motors and their associated equipment on board the submarine as well as maintaining the two main batteries that provided the submarine’s propulsion while submerged. His was a critical job aboard Trigger because nothing worked without electrical power.

EM3c Rudolf Beranek, like many who served in World War II, came from a hard working family recovering from a nationwide economic depression but prepared to contribute their share to the war effort. Rudy was twenty-nine years old and married when he enlisted in the Navy. He had no children. Unlike some of his generation, Rudy had a job when he enlisted. He had served in the Navy for one year and four months. He was survived by his wife, mother and three siblings. His name is listed on the Courts of the Missing Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii. Rudy was awarded the Purple Heart, and one Submarine Combat Patrol insignia. He was thirty-one years, two months and twenty-seven days old.

Blanche married Richard John Krekemeyer in May 1951 in Los Angeles, California. She was thirty-six years old and worked as a Comptometer Operator in a steel mill. Blanche would die from cancer in February 1962 at forty-seven years old. She is buried with Richard (who survived her until 2019) in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California. She had one child, a daughter.

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (www.storiesbehindthestars.org) which is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 421,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Related to this will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story. If you noticed anything missing in this profile, you may contact the author. Click on the author’s name located at the bottom of the story page on Fold3 webpage (https://www.fold3.com/memorial/529989942/rudolph-charles-beranek) next to the words “added by.”

SBTS Project/Cook County/Illinois

[1] Social gathering news clip, Berwyn Life newspaper, Friday, 13 September 1935. Newspapers.com.

[2] 1910, 1920, 1930 U.S. Federal Census Records. ancestry.com.

[3] Artificial Intelligence generated historical perspective of Bohemia.

[4] 1930 U.S. Federal Census Record, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. Ancestry.com.

[5] U.S. School Yearbooks, Harrison Technical High School. Ancestry.com.

[6] Cook County Illinois Marriage Index. Ancestry.com.

[7] 1920 U.S. Federal Census Record, Antioch, Sheridan County, Nebraska. Ancestry.com.

[8] 1930 U.S. Federal Census Records, St. Agnes Academy, Antioch, Nebraska; and San Diego, California. Ancestry.com.

[9] Story told by grandson, Steven Raska.

[10] U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards. Ancestry.com.

[11] 1940 U.S. Federal Census Record, Cicero, Illinois. Ancestry.com.

[12] Response on his enlistment application.

[13] Artificial Intelligence generated historical summary.

[14] The Bungo Strait would become famous in the book and movie “Run Silent, Run Deep” by Edward L. Beach, Jr. Commander Beach would become the first Commanding Officer of the second USS Trigger (SS-564).

[15] http://uboat.net/allies/commanders/3237.html

[16] Lifeguard duties meant the submarine was on call to locate and retrieve any airplane pilot who may have been shot down or otherwise was asea.

[17] http://www.subsowespac.org/world_war_ii_submarines/uss_trigger_ss_237.shtml

[18]Hyūga Nada and the Osumi Channel are part of the Pacific Ocean off the eastern shore of the island of Kyushu, Japan.

[19] Magnetic anomaly detectors are instruments that can detect small changes in the earth’s magnetic field. Those changes could indicate a submerged submarine.

[20] Jakes and Lornas were Japanese antisubmarine patrol bomber planes.

[21] http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08237d.htm. The Mikura was a torpedo boat; the CD-33 and CD-59 were coastal defense ships. They are all similar to the U.S. Navy destroyers.

[22] http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08237d.htm

[23] http://www.subsowespac.org/world_war_ii_submarines/uss_trigger_ss_237.shtml

[24] http://www.subsowespac.org/world_war_ii_submarines/uss_trigger_ss_237.shtml

[25] http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08237d.htm

[26] Comments by Rickart A. Connole (son) at the United States Naval Academy Museum on May 13, 2013

Rudolph Charles Beranek