WORLD WAR II VET
He immigrated with mother Emma on 24 Nov 1920 to Hamburg to Spain to Azores to, New York, New York; on Manchuria, Hamburg-America Line.
Henry, a World War II tank mechanic who had been wounded in Europe and fought in the Battle of the Bulge, had traveled to Alaska in 1947, arriving by ship in Seward and then traveling overland to Kenai. He moved to Alaska after WWI and homesteaded as a salmon fisherman. One day in 1958 he was out hunting when he heard a noise behind him, he turned around and it was a big bear up on his hind legs. "As I swung my gun upward, I instinctively pulled back the bolt and started it forward when I noticed that the magazine wasn't feeding. The bolt had failed to pick up a shell!" Knackstedt's rifle, like all M1903 Springfields, had a cutoff switch on the left side. When this switch was in the down position, the bolt would not travel far enough back to work a shell into the chamber, even with the safety off. Knackstedt said he remembers jerking his rifle up in both hands for protection from "those murderous claws and that head full of snarling ivory." He said he had a "faint memory of smelling rotten fish," and then, "I was out as though a 10-ton truck had hit me." The bear got him in the face and took his cheek and one eye. He was later found by other fishermen and sent by ship to a hospital in Washington. He soon recovered and returned to Alaska where he later married Loretta Cathrine Rager in 1960
Loretta was born 22 Oct 1929 in Fort Wayne Indiana
Henry died 27 Aug 1969 at Kenai, AK, at age 56.
He immigrated with mother Emma on 24 Nov 1920 to Hamburg to Spain to Azores to, New York, New York; on Manchuria, Hamburg-America Line.
Henry, a World War II tank mechanic who had been wounded in Europe and fought in the Battle of the Bulge, had traveled to Alaska in 1947, arriving by ship in Seward and then traveling overland to Kenai. He moved to Alaska after WWI and homesteaded as a salmon fisherman. One day in 1958 he was out hunting when he heard a noise behind him, he turned around and it was a big bear up on his hind legs. "As I swung my gun upward, I instinctively pulled back the bolt and started it forward when I noticed that the magazine wasn't feeding. The bolt had failed to pick up a shell!" Knackstedt's rifle, like all M1903 Springfields, had a cutoff switch on the left side. When this switch was in the down position, the bolt would not travel far enough back to work a shell into the chamber, even with the safety off. Knackstedt said he remembers jerking his rifle up in both hands for protection from "those murderous claws and that head full of snarling ivory." He said he had a "faint memory of smelling rotten fish," and then, "I was out as though a 10-ton truck had hit me." The bear got him in the face and took his cheek and one eye. He was later found by other fishermen and sent by ship to a hospital in Washington. He soon recovered and returned to Alaska where he later married Loretta Cathrine Rager in 1960
Loretta was born 22 Oct 1929 in Fort Wayne Indiana
Henry died 27 Aug 1969 at Kenai, AK, at age 56.
WORLD WAR II VET
He immigrated with mother Emma on 24 Nov 1920 to Hamburg to Spain to Azores to, New York, New York; on Manchuria, Hamburg-America Line.
Henry, a World War II tank mechanic who had been wounded in Europe and fought in the Battle of the Bulge, had traveled to Alaska in 1947, arriving by ship in Seward and then traveling overland to Kenai. He moved to Alaska after WWI and homesteaded as a salmon fisherman. One day in 1958 he was out hunting when he heard a noise behind him, he turned around and it was a big bear up on his hind legs. "As I swung my gun upward, I instinctively pulled back the bolt and started it forward when I noticed that the magazine wasn't feeding. The bolt had failed to pick up a shell!" Knackstedt's rifle, like all M1903 Springfields, had a cutoff switch on the left side. When this switch was in the down position, the bolt would not travel far enough back to work a shell into the chamber, even with the safety off. Knackstedt said he remembers jerking his rifle up in both hands for protection from "those murderous claws and that head full of snarling ivory." He said he had a "faint memory of smelling rotten fish," and then, "I was out as though a 10-ton truck had hit me." The bear got him in the face and took his cheek and one eye. He was later found by other fishermen and sent by ship to a hospital in Washington. He soon recovered and returned to Alaska where he later married Loretta Cathrine Rager in 1960
Loretta was born 22 Oct 1929 in Fort Wayne Indiana
Henry died 27 Aug 1969 at Kenai, AK, at age 56.
He immigrated with mother Emma on 24 Nov 1920 to Hamburg to Spain to Azores to, New York, New York; on Manchuria, Hamburg-America Line.
Henry, a World War II tank mechanic who had been wounded in Europe and fought in the Battle of the Bulge, had traveled to Alaska in 1947, arriving by ship in Seward and then traveling overland to Kenai. He moved to Alaska after WWI and homesteaded as a salmon fisherman. One day in 1958 he was out hunting when he heard a noise behind him, he turned around and it was a big bear up on his hind legs. "As I swung my gun upward, I instinctively pulled back the bolt and started it forward when I noticed that the magazine wasn't feeding. The bolt had failed to pick up a shell!" Knackstedt's rifle, like all M1903 Springfields, had a cutoff switch on the left side. When this switch was in the down position, the bolt would not travel far enough back to work a shell into the chamber, even with the safety off. Knackstedt said he remembers jerking his rifle up in both hands for protection from "those murderous claws and that head full of snarling ivory." He said he had a "faint memory of smelling rotten fish," and then, "I was out as though a 10-ton truck had hit me." The bear got him in the face and took his cheek and one eye. He was later found by other fishermen and sent by ship to a hospital in Washington. He soon recovered and returned to Alaska where he later married Loretta Cathrine Rager in 1960
Loretta was born 22 Oct 1929 in Fort Wayne Indiana
Henry died 27 Aug 1969 at Kenai, AK, at age 56.
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