Rear Adm. George William Bauernschmidt Sr., who kept supplies flowing to Allied forces in the Atlantic and Pacific during World War II, died Saturday in his sleep at Ginger Cove Health Care Center in Annapolis. He was 99.
The 1922 Naval Academy graduate commanded a submarine, served on board ships and taught at the academy during a military career that ended in 1955.
Admiral Bauernschmidt transferred to the Supply Corps in 1935 and, at the outbreak of World War II, was named assistant to the supply officer at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. In 1943, he was ordered to the port of Oran in North Africa.
He arrived at Oran in May with a staff of 250 men and nothing more than paper plans for the supply depot. A year later, the base, which supplied fuel oil, ammunition and other materiel to the Allies during the invasion of Sicily, grew to 400,000 square feet of covered space, 1 million square feet of open space and a staff of more than 1,000 men and 90 officers.
Admiral Bauernschmidt then was assigned to London to help plan the Normandy Invasion.
Landing on Omaha Beach several days after the June 6, 1944, invasion, his immediate task was to develop and maintain a supply line to the Allies. After establishing headquarters at Cherbourg, France, he returned to the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts in Washington.
In August 1945, he was sent to the Pacific and given command of the supply depot at Guam in the Central Pacific. The base was called the largest "filling station" or the "Pacific Supermarket."
After the war, Admiral Bauernschmidt was promoted to deputy chief of the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts and, in 1951, was named commander of the Naval Supply Center at Pearl Harbor. He was commanding the supply depot in Clearfield, Utah, when he retired in 1955.
He was born in Baltimore, the son of William Bauernschmidt, the scion of a prominent brewing family and owner of New York Paper Co., and Marie Oehl von Hattersheim Bauernschmidt. She was affectionately known to Baltimoreans as "Mrs. B." for her spirited public devotion to various causes.
Admiral Bauernschmidt was a 1916 graduate of Gilman School and attended Princeton University for two years before he was appointed to the Naval Academy in 1918.
In a memoir published by the U.S. Naval Institute in 1970, he explained his reasons for pursuing a naval career.
"My family knew a fair number of naval officers who came to our home and, in talking with them and hearing their stories of the Navy life, I thought it was for me. My family disagreed," he wrote.
"He really was quite intelligent and loved the water, ships and shipboard life," said his son, George William Bauernschmidt Jr. of Severna Park.
For many years until moving to Ginger Cove in Annapolis in 1988, Admiral Bauernschmidt lived at Bent Elbow, his large brick home that was built in 1907 on the Severn River.
He was a member of the Army-Navy Club of Washington, the Military Order of World Wars, the Order of Lafayette and the New York Paper Co. board of directors.
In 1922, he married Maude Pearce, who died in 1991.
"He was an active man until the end of his life who simply loved the Navy," said his son.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. today at St. Andrew's Chapel at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.
He also is survived by a daughter, Sarah B. Murray of Gales Ferry, Conn.; 11 grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren.
Pub Date: 4/21/98
