FISHKILL, N.Y. — Bernie Kurdt, 76, longtime member of the North-South Skirmish Association (N-SSA) and a founder of the American Artillery Association (AAA), died Jan. 18 after a four-year illness with cancer.
Kurdt was born in Lindenhurst, Long Island, N.Y., in 1926. He learned to love the Great South Bay from his father who worked on a dredge and tug boat in the bay.
“He always enjoyed fishing, clamming, eeling, and everything associated with the bay. He was a fisherman at heart,” says his son, Ken.
Kurdt joined The Fighting 69th Division, First Battalion, 271st Regiment, Company C in 1944. He was a replacement, fresh out of high school, and fought in the battles of The Bulge, Remagen, capture of Weissenfels, two-day siege and capture of Leipzig, April 20, 1945, and the fall of Berlin. He remained in Germany during the occupation until 1946.
Ken Kurdt says his father’s awards include the Silver Star, Good Conduct Medal and several combat awards. He suffered frostbite during the Battle of the Bulge. His company took the Napoleon monument to the 1813 War of Nations, erected in Leipzig. It was an impregnable position was held by a stubborn group of German defenders who wouldn’t give up even after personal pleas by a captured Nazi general. Eventually Company C prevailed with heavy losses.
Kurdt was “sore to the day he died” about an incident involving the Russians. His outfit engaged in combat with Russians who fired on them across the Elbe River. This was so politically “incorrect” that the 271st was retired from the line and remained stationary for three days.
Then the fresh 273rd Regiment was brought up with much fanfare to “greet” Russians in a ceremony choreographed for the press and movie newsreel photographers. “The real history was deliberately changed,” Kurdt always maintained.
After the war Kurdt eventually became a tool and die maker for Republic Aviation and worked on the dies for jet aircraft and the country’s new space programs.
He was a member of the North-South Skirmish Association for more than 30 years. He started going to the shoots in 1965 with Ken. Ken joined in 1970 and his father in 1971. He became commander of the 120th New York Volunteer Infantry and was regional commander of the New England region for several years.
“We started shooting artillery in 1973 and he quickly found a common interest with his machining talents and cannons. He was always after a way to improve the accuracy of cannons,” says Ken.
He came up with a modification of the Bessemer projectile for smoothbore artillery. It was an elongated bullet-shaped bolt with gas grooves machined into it to cause it to rotate around its own axis just like a projectile fired from a rifled cannon.
Ken says Bernie went on to visit Watervliet Arsenal near Albany, N.Y., and researched early rifling machinery in the museum there. He then built his own rifling machine to produce cannon liners, many of which are shot today by N-SSA teams and others.
Bernie also built several complete smoothbore and rifled cannon. He shared his expertise with Artilleryman readers, illustrating how to reline an iron barrel in the Winter 1984 issue.
He and several friends were among the early founders of the American Artillery Association, of which he was president, and which hosted artillery events in New York state.
“As his son I worked with him in an asphalt plant for close to 30 years and spent my weekends with our hobby, now never to regret it. No one could have had a finer friend, brother, dad,” says Ken Kurdt.
Bernie’s wife, Trudy, Ken’s mother, also survives. A memorial service was held on Feb. 1. Memorial donations may be sent to Our Savior Lutheran Church, Route 52, Fishkill, NY 12524.