John P. Bernhardt

Record status: unconfirmed. Class-roster match confidence is medium. Correct the infobox if you have a source, and note it on talk.

John P. Bernhardt
Personal details
Born	1899 Reichenbach, Germany
Died	1996
Nativity	Germany
Religion	Protestant
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
Arm / service	Field Artillery
ASN	01180419
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel
Rank at Ritchie	Second Lieutenant
Camp Ritchie	Class 12 (27 September – 25 November 1943)
Team	IPW 36

Teammates

Team — IPW 36

These are other soldiers listed on the same team roster. People moved between teams; overlapping service dates are not always documented.

Research notes on this page are compiled from the source file and later edits. They may be unverified, incomplete, or incorrect, and should not be treated as established fact. Please correct the article or add sources on the talk page. For class-roster terms, see About the data.

Sources & confidence: Treat Research notes as leads, not settled fact. Prefer NARA, the class roster, newspapers, Find a Grave, or published histories for contested claims. Mark unsourced claims with {{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.

John P. Bernhardt (1899–1996) was a Ritchie Boy (from Germany; Protestant) who trained at Camp Ritchie in class 12 and served with IPW Team 36.

Biography

Johannes “John” P. Bernhardt was born in 1899 in Reichenbach, Germany, and grew up in Chemnitz. Drafted into the Imperial German Army at seventeen, he served as a corporal in horse-drawn artillery on the Western Front, later studied at the University of Hamburg, and became a United States citizen in 1929.

Drafted into the U.S. Army at forty-two, Bernhardt trained at Camp Roberts and Fort Sill before completing military-intelligence training at Camp Ritchie (Class 12). He landed at Omaha Beach on 24 June 1944 and served with Combat Command B, 3rd Armored Division, interrogating prisoners, supporting courts-martial, and conducting searches. At war's end he worked for OMGUS on disarmament data, Nazi records, and captured maps.

Bernhardt later served at the Pentagon, Fort Holabird, Heidelberg, and as an intelligence adviser in Korea. He retired from the Army Reserve as a lieutenant colonel in 1958, then worked in accounting and banking, and died near Riverside, Illinois, in 1996.

Research notes

• Packet biography says 1997 while the live profile says 1996; retain the existing year pending an authoritative vital record. Curate the folder's 78 media files later.

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	97
Class_ASN	180419
Class_Name	HERNHARDT, John P.
match_method	pass2_ocr_last_asn
row_source	both

Timeline

• 1899 — Born in Reichenbach, Germany; grew up in Chemnitz.
• World War I — Served as a corporal in the Imperial German Army on the Western Front.
• 1929 — Became a United States citizen.
• 1943 — Completed officer training at Fort Sill and Camp Ritchie intelligence training (Class 12).
• 24 June 1944 — Landed at Omaha Beach; served with Combat Command B, 3rd Armored Division.
• 1945–1950 — OMGUS, Pentagon, Fort Holabird, and Heidelberg intelligence assignments.
• Korean War — Served for seventeen months as an intelligence adviser in Taegu, Korea.
• 1958 — Retired from the Army Reserve as a lieutenant colonel.
• 1996 — Died near Riverside, Illinois.

Sources

• RB Archive captioned photograph: Intelligence Team 44 at Lorch, Germany, 4 July 1945
• RB Archive: “Biography John Bernhardt Ritchie Boy” family biography
• Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
• Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
• NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
• 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2022-12-12 (1 post)