Notes for John Laurel GAUNCE

Descendants of Samuel GAUNCE (GONCE) and allied famlies.
July 28, 2002 1600 hrs

Notes for John Laurel GAUNCE

From The Kansas City Times, June 9, 1945
"LONG WAIT FOR FATHER
Daughter is 6 months old before he knows of arrival.
Soldier's First Question When He Returns from Nazi Camp is Whether Baby is Boy
or Girl.
"Not knowing if it was a boy or girl--not even sure he was a father--Staff Sergt
John L. Gaunce returned home from a German prisoner of war camp to become
acquainted with his chubby 6-month-old daughter, Susie.
"Letters about the progress of Martha Susan Gaunce were sent her father by her
mother, Mrs. Ann Gaunce, 1301 North Eighteenth Street, Kansas City, Kansas.
They never were delivered. Whether he ever had become a father was one of the
uncertainties Sergeant Gaunce "sweated out" in temperatures of a German summer
and winter as he tried to hold body and soul together. The last word he had
received from his wife, last July 28, she wa not even guessing at the probably
date of the stork's arrival.
"Liberated after ten months as a prisoner, Gaunce still was in the dark on the
long convoy trip home. He didn't get a call through from Philadelphia. It was
not until he reached Ft. Leavenworth Thrusday that he was able to telephone his
wife.
"Pleased with name.
"The first thing he wanted to know was whether it was a boy or a girl," Mrs.
Gaunce laughed yesterday as she told of the call. The sergeant believed that a
girl was just fine and the name suited him. But at 32 years of age and
inexperienced with children, he was taken aback when he arrived home that a
baby could be so far out of the baby stage at 6 months.
"I guess I was expecting somthing pretty tiny that you'd have to hold awful
careful," the stock father grinned. His months of prison life left little
effect. He said that he had stood the confinement much better than many of the
other men but added that his 615-mile hike about Germany will be something long
to remember.
"He was in Stalag No. 4 near Stettin when the Russians were threatening the
area. February 6 the Luftwaffe guards prodded the men out of the camp and
started the long trek to find some place that might be safe from capture by the
Allies. Gaunce said that the prisoners, with the exception of one 5-day rest,
were kept on the march constantly until his release May 2. Liberation finally
was effected by the British in Northwest Germany.
"Down by parachute
"Sergeant Gaunce had parachuted from his Flying Fortress July 29 into a wheat
field not farm from that day's target of Meresburg.
"`That wheat field just opened up with German citizens as we dropped into it,'
Gaunce related. `Most of them were armed with guns or some other type of
weapon. I was unarmed. I sprained my knee getting down and was jut sitting
there. One woman gave me a good going over with a rake and a boy hit me with a
shovel and others were joining in.'
"After his clubbing, Sergeant Gaunce was taken to a village and sent to a prison
camp. His daily food ration never was more than one and one-half pounds of
potatoes which he sometimes was allowed to cook.
"He had been on his twentieth mission as a radioman and gunner when his plane
was shot down. Bombs just had been released when flak hit a motor. It
couldn't be feathered. The tail was damaged and the ship could not be guided.
It lost altitude and was going in the wrong direction when fighters attacked it
and set it afire.
"`We had to jump then,' Sergeant Gaunce said. `That was the most awful sight
to look up and see those other forts going back and our burning ship falling off
in another direction.'
"Gaunce was a clerk at Armour and Co., before going into service in December,
1942. He is a graduate of Wyandotte high school, and the Kansas City, Kansas,
junior college. He now is at the home of a brother, E.H. (sic) Gaunce. His
parents, Mr. and Mrs. James A. (sic) Gaunce, live at 1501 Georgia Avenue."
John's obituary read:
"Services for John L. Gaunce, 79, Kansas City, Kan., will be on Monday at 10
a.m. at Memorial Park Cemetery. There will be no visitation. The family
suggests memorial contributions to Hospice Care of Mid America. Mr. Gaunce died
Saturday, Jan. 30, 1993, at Providence Place. He was born in KCK and was a
lifelong resident. He was a salesman for 25 years for a tractor supply company
retiring in 1979. He was a member of the Bethel Reorganized Church of Latter
Day Saints of KCK. He was a World War II Army veteran and had been a prisoner
of war in Germany. Surviving are his wife of 55 years, Anna L. Gaunce of the
home; one son, David Gaunce, Chipita Park, Colo.; one daughter, Martha Susan
Novo-Gradac of Bonner Springs; one brother, H. Everett Gaunce, Sun City, Ariz.;
one sister, Gladys Marie Lash, Kansas City, Mo.; and four grandchildren."

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