On this day in 1944, minor league ballplayer, Syl Sturges, lost his life serving with the Army Air Force at Normandy.
Sylvester H. "Syl" Sturges, born in Richmond Hill, New York in 1919, was an athletic and personable young man, with a mild temperament and a gift for making friends. Sturges enjoyed music and the great outdoors, including fishing and swimming, but his greatest passion was playing baseball. He attended John Adams High School in Ozone Park, New York, where he excelled in sports and, as a hard-hitting outfielder, co-captained the baseball team with future minor league first baseman, Charley "Moose" Metelski.
In high school he played against future Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto, who was at Richmond Hill High School, and he played in the highly competetive Queens Alliance League with Glen Morris and Melvina. He went eight-for-eight in a doubleheader at Dexter Park in Queens, New York, and was being scouted by Larry McPhail of the Cincinnati Reds at the time.
Graduating from high school in 1938, Sturges later signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers' organization, and was assigned to the Americus Pioneers of the Georgia-Florida League in 1939, where he batted .250 in 20 games. He joined the Shelby Colonels of the Class D Tar Heel League in 1940, and after batting.243 in 65 games was assigned to the Goldsboro Goldbugs of the Class D Coastal Plain League, where he hit .321 in 14 games before breaking his leg. Having made a full recovery, Sturges began the 1941 season as the Goldbugs' regular left fielder until switching to second base in August. He batted .284 with 30 doubles and 39 RBIs.
Sturges entered military service on October 15, 1941, and trained as a pilot with the Army Air Force at Yuma, Arizona. At the beginning of 1944, he was sent to a secluded airfield in Connecticut, where he learned to tow a glider while piloting a Douglas C-47. Shortly afterwards, Second Lieutenant Sturges left for England with the 32nd Troop Carrier Squadron of the 314th Troop Carrier Group, Ninth Air Force. On a visit to London, Sturges decided to exercise his musical talent. An accomplished violinist, he purchased an inexpensive fiddle to keep himself entertained.
At 3:25 A.M., on June 7, 1944 - the day after the Normandy invasion - Sturges was the co-pilot of a C-47 transport plane that took off from Saltby Airfield in Leicestershire, in light rain and ground haze. The plane was heading to Picauville, France, as part of Operation Freeport - a mission to drop supplies to troops on the ground. Shortly after take off, it was lost out of formation in the low cloud and not seen again. At 5:00 P.M. that evening, the burnt out wreck was discovered about a mile northeast of Sebeville in France. The badly burned bodies of Sturges and pilot First Lieutenant George Risley, Jr., were still at the controls. Crew Chief S/Sgt. Howard Flisrand and radio operator Andrew Barraca were the other crew members who perished.
News, however, was slow getting back to the Sturges family about the loss. He had been reported missing in action and as late as September 1944, the Long Island Daily Press hoped that "the family of Lieutenant Syl Sturges of Richmond Hill soon gets some good word about the whereabouts of the former Adams, Queens Alliance and minor league baseballer, who has been reported missing in action."
Sturges was buried at the American cemetery in Ste-Mere-Eglise in Normandy, France. His remains were later returned home and now rest at the Long Island National Cemetery in New York.
Showing posts with label normandy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label normandy. Show all posts
Saturday, 7 June 2014
Friday, 6 June 2014
Baseball at Normandy - June 6, 1944
People of western Europe! A landing was made this morning on the coast of France by troops of the allied expeditionary force. This landing is part of the concerted United Nations’ plan for the liberation of Europe, made in conjunction with your great Russian allies. Although the initial assault may not have been made in your own country, the hour of liberation is approaching.
General Eisenhower June 6, 1944
Today's blog article commemorates the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Normandy landings, and looks at baseball’s largely overlooked contribution to this historic event.
By the start of the 1944 season, around 340 major league players were in military service, plus more than 3,000 from the minors, and with the vast manpower shortage, just 10 minor leagues were in operation. Every branch of the service had an abundance of former
ballplayers helping to fill their ranks and many were in Britain as part of the pre-invasion
preparations. Among them were major leaguers Larry French, Roy Bruner, Paul Campbell, Whitey Hilcher, Earl Johnson, Art Kenney, Ted Klainhans, Si Rosenthal, Tom Saffell, Lou Thuman, Monte Weaver and Elmer Gedeon; future Hall of Famer Yogi Berra; future major leaguers Russ Bauers, Ross Grimsley, Morrie Martin, Eddie Kazak and Bert Shepard; and minor leaguers Lefty Brewer, Syl Sturges, Elmer Wright, Hal Cisgen, John Fessler, Lloyd Rice, John McNicholas, Joe Marco and Frank Labuda. Six of them would be dead before the end of June. The following is an historical account of D-Day interwoven with biographical details of ballplayers who were there.
On June 6, 1944, at the beaches of Normandy, France, Allied forces made one of the largest amphibious assaults ever conducted. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel to launch an invasion that would begin the liberation of the people of mainland Europe who had lived under Nazi rule for over four years.
The Commanders
General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Eisenhower was the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force and was charged with planning and carrying out of the invasion. Eisenhower loved baseball. Historian Bill Swank says that in his senior year at Abilene (Kansas) High School, Eisenhower was the baseball team captain and leading hitter, and he went on to play football for Army during his sophomore year, but a horse riding injury precluded further participation in intercollegiate athletics. However, rumors that he played baseball professionally - under an assumed name - are probably untrue.
During the build-up to D-Day, Eisenhower was based at Strategic Air Force Headquarters in London - also home to the 988th Military Police and their baseball team, the Fliers. Eisenhower frequently inquired about the progress of the Fliers. "I spoke to him on numerous occasions when I was on duty at the main gate," recalled Fliers' first baseman Norbert Kuklinski. "He always asked after the team and even got to see a couple of our games."
General Omar Bradley
Bradley was in charge of the 1st U.S. Army at Normandy, and during the months before the invasion, he supervised the refinement of assault plans and troop training.
Bradley had been a star on the baseball team at Moberly High School in Missouri. He enrolled at the United States Military Academy at West Point in the fall of 1911 and became an alternate on the freshman baseball team the following spring. He went on to letter three years in baseball and one in football. “It is almost trite to observe,” he said, “that in organized team sports one learns the important art of group cooperation in goal achievement. No extracurricular endeavor I know of could better prepare a soldier for the battlefield.”
Colonel Russell “Red” Reeder
Colonel Reeder, commander of the 12th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division at Utah Beach, was an exceptional baseball and football player at West Point in the 1920s and had a tryout with the New York Giants. He was offered a contract but chose to stay with the army. On June 11, 1944, Reeder was severely wounded when an artillery shell exploded close by, shredding his left leg below the knee. His leg was later amputated at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington but he went on to become athletic director at West Point in 1947.
Fooling the Germans
On Sunday, May 28, 1944, the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) Red Devils baseball team played the 505th PIR Panthers before an enthusiastic crowd of 7,000, at the local soccer stadium in Nottingham, England. The Red Devils had been Camp Mackall, North Carolina, champs in 1943, and this was their first chance to play baseball in over nine months. “We had no uniforms,” recalled Adolph “Bud” Warnecke of Fayeteville, North Carolina. “We had to wear remnants of military clothing and jump boots, so we didn’t look much like a ball team. But I’ll always remember the great reception we got from the British people.”
The Panthers proved no match for the Red Devils. “We beat the heck out of the 505th,” said Warnecke. “The score at the end was 18 to 0, to our guys.”
Okey Mills, a colliery league pitcher from Crab Orchard, West Virginia, started the game on the mound for the Red Devils and was relieved by Forrest "Lefty" Brewer in the fourth inning. Brewer was a minor league pitcher who won 25 games with St. Augustine in 1938. With his deceptive pick-off move, he picked off the first two men that got on base, and the Nottingham Guardian the next day described how the teams “played with extraordinary vigor,” and noted there was “spectacular hitting, some magnificent catches and many exciting incidents.”
“I think most of the spectators enjoyed the game,” remembered Lee Reisenleiter, “but it must have been hard for them to make sense of it all.”
“I certainly enjoyed myself,” added Warnecke, “but little did I know that eight days later we would jump into Normandy!”
Speculation still hangs over the true reason this baseball game was staged. The “official” story at the time was that the Nottingham Anglo-American Committee requested the Americans to stage a sporting event because the people of Nottingham had for years been void of entertainment. However, because the game was arranged by Brigadier General James M. “Jumpin’ Jim” Gavin, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, many believe the game was designed to fool the Germans. If American paratroopers were playing baseball in England, how could an invasion be imminent? To further publicize the event, photographs were taken of each player and sent back to their hometown newspapers. Probably the most convincing fact that this game was staged to fool the Germans was the noticeable absence of paratroopers in the stands at the game. Having been such a familiar sight in Nottingham for the last few months, only officers and players were on hand. As the crowd cheered each crack of the bat, the rest of the regiment made a 40-mile journey to a local airfield where runways were packed with C-47 transport planes adorned with black and white stripes. Preparations for the invasion had begun.
The Airborne Invasion
The airborne assault into Normandy was the largest use of airborne troops up to that time.
Paratroopers of the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions, the British 6th Airborne Division, and the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion took part in the assault. Numbering
more than 13,000 men, the paratroopers were flown from bases in southern England to the Cotentin Peninsula in more than 900 planes. An additional 4,000 men, consisting of glider infantry with supporting weapons and medical and signal units, arrived in 500 gliders later on D-Day to reinforce the paratroopers. The parachute troops were assigned what was probably the most difficult task of the initial operation - a night jump behind enemy lines five hours before the coastal landings.
Airfields all over England were a hive of activity during the days prior to June 6. The
runways were packed with Douglas C-47 transport planes adorned with black and white invasion stripes, with groups of paratroopers meticulously studying maps of the drop zones in Normandy. They packed equipment, cleaned rifles, played cards and shot dice in the hangar buildings. They attended movies, wrote letters to loved ones, and learned of their objective: to keep the Germans from reinforcing troops that were defending the beaches.
On June 4, they were ready to take off but the weather forced a delay. The following
night - with their faces blackened and hearts racing – men of the 101st and 82nd
Airborne Divisions boarded C-47s for the flight across the English Channel. D-Day had
begun and the paratroopers would spearhead the invasion.
Escorting the C-47s in a P-51B Mustang was First Lieutenant Bob Stephens, a pitcher with the Fulton Tigers. Stephens had finished the 1941 season with a 5-6 won-loss record and a 3.97 ERA before entering military service. C-47s were stark inside. A row of hard metal bucket seats lined both sides of the plane and the roar of the engines drowned out any attempt at conversation as they trudged through the dark skies towards the Normandy coast. Once over the mainland of France the sky became illuminated with searchlights, and deadly tracer bullets pierced the wings and fuselage of the unarmed and unarmored planes. At an altitude of just 400 feet, anti-aircraft fire exploded all around as they neared their drop zones. When the red light over the door of the planes flashed on, everybody stood up and clamped themselves onto the cable that ran down ceiling. Amidst yells of “Go! Go! Go!” American paratroopers ascended through the darkness into chaos, panic and confusion.
The first paratroopers to land in Normandy were the pathfinders who began to drop at
00.15 on June 6, and were assigned to set up landing zones for the main force of
airborne troops. Due to low clouds and anti-aircraft fire, their planes were scattered and
many never found their assigned landing zones. However, the pathfinders’ radar beacons worked effectively and many of the sticks of follow-up paratroopers landed clustered near these beacons. Among the pathfinders was Private Bill Robbins of the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), an outstanding high school athlete from Coldwater, Kansas, who went on to play at Kansas State Teachers College and in the Kansas Ban Johnson League. Robbins was captured by German troops soon after landing in Normandy and remained a prisoner of war until being liberated in April 1945.
Parachuting into Normandy with the 506th PIR of the 101st Airborne Division was Lieutenant Lyn “Buck” Compton, who was portrayed in the Band of Brothers television series.Compton played baseball and football at Los Angeles High School and entered UCLA on a football scholarship in the fall of 1939. A teammate of Jackie Robinson at one point, he played in the Rose Bowl in 1943, and became all-league catcher at UCLA. Six hours after landing in Normandy, Compton led an assault against a four-gun battery of 105mm cannon that was defended by a platoon of German infantry and was firing on Utah Beach where American troops were coming ashore. Compton was awarded the Silver Star for his part.
Compton was back in England by July, but was badly wounded during Operation Market Garden in Holland in September. He was hospitalized for more than two months but returned to combat in December 1944 - in time for the defense of Bastogne. The 506th suffered heavy losses during the Battle of the Bulge. Weather conditions were treacherous and, in the heavy snow, Compton suffered a severe case of trenchfoot. He was evacuated and his combat days were over.
Compton was back at UCLA after the war and played varsity baseball in the spring of 1946.
In June, he tried out with the Los Angeles Angels at Wrigley Field. On June 24, the team
bus of the Western International League’s Spokane Indians veered off the road and down an embankment before crashing and bursting into flames. Nine men died. Spokane was an Angels' farm team and Compton was signed to join the club as a replacement player but at 24 he and his wife decided he was too old to start a career in pro ball. He went on to spend five years as a detective in the Los Angeles Police Department. In 1952 he began 20 years as a prosecutor for the district attorney's office, and in 1968, he was responsible for the investigation of Robert F. Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan. He was later appointed an associate judge in the California Court of Appeals.
With the 501st PIR of the 101st Airborne Division was Tom Niland, and outstanding
baseball and basketball player from Tonawanda, New York, who had just enrolled at Canisius College when he was drafted. Niland went on to earn a Silver Star at the Battle of the Bulge but suffered a severe arm wound. After the war he served as a coach and then athletic director for 43 years at LeMoyne College in Syracuse.
Landing in Normandy with the 82nd Airborne Division were 26 members of the 508th PIR Red Devils baseball team - Camp Mackall, NC, champs in 1943. Among them was Private Forrest “Lefty” Brewer; Private Elmer Mertz was a star infielder on Sheboygan's Gmach softball team; Corporal William Maloney was a high school ballplayer from Hartford, Connecticut; Private Okey Mills was a semi-pro pitcher who played in the Coalfield League in West Virginia; Sergeant John Judefind had been a star infielder with St. James High School in Chester, Pennsylvania; Private Merle Blethen was the son of Clarence Blethen who played for the Red Sox and Dodgers in the 1920s; Private Joe Laky was a sandlot player from Ottawa, Illinois; Private First Class Rene “Punchy” Croteau was a semi-pro player from Holyoke, Massachusetts; Corporal Frank Labuda was a star shortstop with the Chicago Heights Owls in the late 1930s and briefly played minor league baseball with the Ogden Reds; Corporal Walt Lupton was a New York sandlotter; and Private First Class John McNicholas was a minor league outfielder with the Oneonta Indians in 1942.
Lefty Brewer was involved in the successful assault on German troops entrenched at La Fière manor but was killed later the same day during a German counterattack. William Maloney was killed on June 7, John Judefind died on June 8, Elmer Mertz was killed on June 13, and Rene Croteau was killed July 4. Merle Blethen was seriously wounded on July 7, and Joe Laky and Walt Lupton both lost their lives later in the year in Holland. Also with the 82nd Airborne Division, but attached to the 505th PIR was Private First Class Joe Makuch, who, using the name Joe Marco, hit .334 as a minor league outfielder with the Paragould Browns in 1940. Private First Class Arthur “Dutch” Schultz, who, after the war played varsity baseball at San Francisco State and had a tryout with the
Philadelphia Phillies, was also with the 505th PIR, as was Private Joe Dunn, an amateur first baseman from Troy, New York, who played his last ball game on May 28, 1944, in an exhibition game against the 508th PIR in England. Two days after landing in Normandy, Makuch was wounded and lost a finger. He never played baseball again. Dutch Schultz would earn a Bronze Star for his heroics at Normandy. Joe Dunn survived D-Day and went on to successful combat jumps in Holland, but died from wounds he received during the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945.
Staff Sergeant John Fessler parachuted into Normandy with the 507th PIR. Fessler was an
infielder from Pine Grove, Pennsylvania, who had played three years of minor league
baseball before the war. In 1941, he played 116 games as a shortstop with the Goldsboro Goldbugs and batted .279. He had been an outstanding member of the 507th PIR basketball team since entering military service. Fessler was killed in action on June 10, 1944.
With the 505th PIR was Cloid Wigle, a high school ballplayer from Silverton, Oregon. Wigle was wounded the day after D-day and was a prisoner of war for a brief time in Normandy. In his retirement years, Wigle used his wood lathe to produce baseball bats and fungoes which ended up in the hands of many players and coaches across the country including Alex Rodriquez and Sparky Anderson.
Among the C-47 pilots that delivered the paratroopers to their drop zones on D-Day
was Second Lieutenant Syl Sturges, an outfielder who had played three seasons in the minors prior to military service. By 1944, Sturges was in England with the 314th Troop Carrier Group and at 03:25, on June 7, 1944 – the day after the invasion - Sturges was the co-pilot of a C-47 that took off from Saltby Airfield in England, in light rain and ground haze. The plane was heading to Picauville, France, as part of Operation Freeport - a mission to drop supplies to troops on the ground. Shortly after take off, the plane was lost out of formation in the low cloud and not seen again. At 17:00 that evening, the burnt out wreck was discovered about a mile northeast of Sébeville in France. The badly burned bodies of Sturges and pilot, Second Lieutenant George Risley, Jr., were still at the controls.
Omaha Beach
Elements of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division and U.S 29th Infantry Division faced the veteran
German 352nd Infantry Division at Omaha, the most heavily fortified beach, with high
bluffs defended by mortars, machine guns, and artillery. As infantry disembarked from the landing craft, they had to wade through water sometimes neck deep. Those that made it to the shingle did so at a walk, because they were so heavily laden, and had to brave the full weight of enemy gun fire. Within minutes of the ramps being lowered, troops were leaderless and almost incapable of action. It had become a struggle for survival and rescue.
Allied commanders considered abandoning the beachhead, but small units of infantry,
often forming ad hoc groups, supported by naval artillery, eventually infiltrated the
coastal defenses by scaling the bluffs between strongpoints. Further infantry landings were able to exploit the initial penetrations and by the end of the day two isolated footholds had been established. American casualties at Omaha on D-Day numbered around 5,000 out of 50,000 men, most in the first few hours, Approaching Omaha Beach during the early hours of June 6th were the landing crafts of the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division. Aboard these were Frank Draper, a superb, naturally-gifted athlete, who had been the lead-off hitter with the semi-pro Hampton Looms mill team in Bedford, Virginia; Elmer Wright, a minor league pitcher in the St. Louis Browns’ organization; Lou Alberigo, a semi-pro third baseman from Rhode Island; Hal Baumgarten, a catcher at New York University; Private Robert Marsico, a catcher with the Piedmont Label team of Bedford, Virginia; and Carl “Chubby” Proffitt, a semipro first baseman from West Virginia.
As they approached the beach the enemy opened fire with artillery, mortar, machine-gun and small arms fire. Draper was on a craft that violently shook with the horrifying impact
of an antipersonnel shell that ripped through the metal side and tore off his upper arm. Rapidly losing blood, the young soldier slumped to the floor where died in a pool of blood,
seawater and vomit. The landing craft’s of the other men made it to the beach but as the
ramps dropped they were met with a hail of enemy fire. Many were killed outright. Others lay critically wounded, screaming for help. Those that could jumped in to the sixfoot of water and desperately tried to make their way to the beach. Elmer Wright and Lou Alberigo were killed in the hail of gunfire almost as soon as they hit the beach. Baumgarten had his jaw shattered by a shell that exploded nearby. In shock he gradually moved forward using the bodies of dead GIs as cover eventually making it to the sea wall. “When our ramp went down it was a signal to every machine gun on that beach,” Baumgarten said, “and there were a lot of them to open up on our little boat.”
Marsico suffered severe wounds to his right arm and leg. He was hospitalized in England
for three months and spent the next year at a rehabilitation center in Norfolk, Virginia. Carl Proffitt miraculously survived D-Day and was later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star and two Bronze Stars.
Coming ashore at Omaha Beach with the 1st Infantry Division was Technician Fifth Grade Joe Pinder, a stockily built right-hander from McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. Pinder had played in the minor leagues since 1935 and was a 17-game winner with Sanford of the Florida State League in 1939. For Pinder, June 6 was a special day - his birthday. He was 32. As the landing crafts approached the beach an artillery shell exploded close to Pinder's landing craft, tearing holes in the boat and causing carnage among the men inside. For those that survived - Pinder included - panic set-in as the vessel filled with water and began to sink. Still 100 yards from the beach the ramp was dropped and they were instantly met with a hail of deadly machine-gun fire, killing many outright as they struggled to reach the shore. As in baseball, Pinder took his work very seriously, and despite the chaos, he was determined to do what he was there for – to ensure vital radio equipment made it to the beach so a line of communication could be established. He grabbed a radio and placed it on his shoulder and amid the deafening sound of gunfire, made his way down the ramp and into the waves. With the air filled with small arms fire and exploding artillery it was only a matter of time before Pinder was hit. As he desperately waded through the water, a bullet clipped him, causing him to stumble, but he did not stop. Another bullet ripped through the left side of his face and he held the gaping flesh in place as he carried on. Pinder made it to the beach, dropped the radio and returned to the water to retrieve more equipment. Then, instead of looking for somewhere to protect himself from the relentless enemy barrage, he returned a third time to collect essential spare parts and code books. Again he was hit - a burst of machine gun fire tore through his upper body and he fell, then somehow struggled to his feet, and with his last ounce of energy made it to the beach and his radio equipment. Moments later he passed out from loss of blood and died later that morning. Joe Pinder had made the ultimate sacrifice in helping to establish vital radio communication on Omaha Beach.
On January 4, 1945, Pinder was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty. “The indomitable courage and personal bravery of T/5 Pinder,” claimed his citation, “was a magnificent inspiration to the men with whom he served.”
Landing at Omaha Beach with the 5th Ranger Battalion was Sergeant Bill Fennhahn, who had excelled in baseball at Hillsdale High School in Columbia County, New York. Surviving that day unscathed, he was wounded three separate times as the Allied forces advanced through Europe. The second occasion was a bizarre incident that occurred while the Rangers were involved in capturing the town of L'Hopital in France. Fennhahn, who spoke
German, was interrogating a German civilian when an American soldier in another unit heard the German and simply started shooting at close range! On the third occasion he was in Germany when machinegun fire broke both his legs and severed vital nerve fibers. Fennhahn was in hospitals in Europe and the United States for sixteen months. Despite these severe injuries, Fennhahn's pre-war ambition to play professional baseball remained with him. "He tried out for the Giants in Phoenix, Arizona, and accepted an offer to play with Peekskill," recalled his widow, Terry Fennhahn. Fennhahn made 13 appearances with the Peekskill Highlanders in the North Atlantic League in 1946, and posted a 4-3 record with a 5.18 ERA. The following year - 1947 - he made three appearances with the Quebec Alouettes in the Canadian-American League and was 2-0, but recurring leg problems kept him off the mound for most of the season. He was back with Quebec in 1948 and made 20 appearances with a 4-5 record and 4.60 ERA. "A lot of guts," said his manager Tony Ravish, "I always pitched him in seven-inning ball games because he had shrapnel in the back of his legs ... then his legs would get tired naturally. But for seven innings, boy, he could fire that ball for me!" "As much as he wanted, he couldn't continue playing professionally," recalled his widow.
Utah Beach
Utah Beach was added to the invasion plan toward the end of the planning stages, when more landing craft became available. It was about 3 miles long, and the westernmost of the five landing beaches, located between Pouppeville and the village of La Madeleine.
Despite being substantially off course, the U.S. 4th Infantry Division landed with relatively little resistance in contrast to Omaha Beach. There were approximately 200 casualties. “Because we were combat engineers,” Morrie Martin told Bill Swank in When Baseball Went to War, “we were the first to land on Utah Beach at HHour just as dawn was breaking on June 6. Artillery was flying overhead, but we didn’t fire a shot because the Germans didn’t know we’d come ashore.”
Martin was born in Dixon, Missouri, and was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1941 after scout Wally Schang watched him pitch two shutouts and strike out 43 batters in one afternoon. He was assigned to the Grand Forks Chiefs of the Northern League and was 16-7 with a league-leading 2.05 ERA. He was with the St. Paul Saints of the American Association for 1942 but was in military service by the end of the year. Martin served with the 49th Engineer Combat Battalion and was involved in amphibious landings at North Africa and Sicily prior to Normandy. Martin earned his first Purple Heart at Normandy. “I got hit by shrapnel guarding a crossroads going into Saint-Lô,” he recalled. “They patched me up, put in a few stitches.”
“I got my second purple heart on March 23, 1945 at a crossroads near Bonn. I was shot in the leg. I don’t remember much after that. I woke up once and heard a doctor say, ‘That’s one sick man.’ They wanted to saw off my leg. A nurse from Georgia looked at my records and saw I was a ballplayer. She told me not to let them cut my leg off. They had a new drug - penicillin. She told me I had over 150 shots, one every four hours, and that finally stopped the infection. I wish I knew who she was to thank her. Martin received his medical discharge in October 1945. He made it to the major leagues as a 26 year-old rookie in 1949. He pitched 10 games for the Dodgers and had a 1-3 record. He was back in the majors in 1951, this time with the Athletics. It was to be his best season with an 11-4 record and 3.78 ERA, beating every American League team at least once. In total, Martin pitched 10 seasons in the majors with the Dodgers, Athletics, White Sox, Orioles, Cardinals, Indians and Cubs. Primarily a relief pitcher, he hurled a career-high 58 games in 1953 with the Athletics, posting a 10-12 record and 4.43 ERA.
Coming ashore at Utah Beach with the 4th Infantry Division was left-handed pitcher, Staff Sergeant Pete Petropoulos, who was a batting practice pitcher with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1938. He signed a professional contract in 1939 and was assigned to the Daytona Beach Islanders of the Class D Florida State League, where he posted a 10-9 won-loss record. In 1940, Petropoulos was with the Fort Lauderdale Tarpons of the Florida East Coast, and had a 7-4 record. On June 7, Petropoulos was badly wounded by an exploding enemy artillery shell. He suffered severe leg wounds and was picked up by German troops the following day and was held prisoner without food or medical aid in Montebourg, France. Eleven days later, on June 19, Petropoulos was repatriated when Allied troops overran Montebourg.
Petropoulos was shipped back to the United States with a Silver Star and Purple Heart. He
was sent to Rhoads General Hospital in Utica, New York, where it was feared he might have to have both legs amputated. Seven major operations followed and the former ball player’s legs were saved. After Petropoulos left hospital he went to work for the New York Giants as a scout, and in 1948 he became a goodwill ambassador to servicemen and veterans, conducting The Sporting News Sports Caravan, which, in conjunction with Liggett & Myers the makers of Chesterfield cigarettes, visited veterans’ hospitals in the New York metropolitan area. “I know from my long years of association with Pete Petropoulos,” David Woodside told The Sporting News, “that he can talk the language of any vet either in or out of a hospital.”
This tour was later expanded to take in veterans’ hospitals in southern states, and
Petropoulos also managed the Chesterfield-Sporting News (later Chesterfield Satisfiers)
baseball team that played at veterans’ hospitals for the next 12 years.
Also with the 4th Infantry Division was First Lieutenant Ordway “Hal” Cisgen, who had
signed with the Yankees’ organization in 1939 and was last with Utica in 1942, where
he posted a 5-3 record and 2.32 ERA. Cisgen was born in Lorain, Ohio, about 30 miles
west of Cleveland, and had attended Lorain High School, where he starred in basketball
and baseball. He was killed in action on July 11, 1944.
Other D-Day Casualties
Among the 2,500 killed on D-Day was Private First Class Gordon S. Cochrane, Jr., the son
of Hall of Fame catcher Gordon “Mickey” Cochrane. Former major league pitcher, Elden Auker, wrote in his autobiography, Sleeper Cards and Flannel Uniforms: “The bullet that killed him [Gordon, Jr.] had some kind of range. It traveled all the way across the Atlantic, lodged itself into the spirit of Gordon's father, the great Mickey Cochrane, and slowly killed him. Mickey's gravestone shows he died June 28, 1962, but he started dying June 6, 1944. Consider his another life claimed by World War II.”
Coming ashore at Omaha Beach a few hours after Morrie Martin was his cousin Private First Class Ralph Hickey of the 1st Infantry Division. He never made it to the beach and his body was never recovered. “We were born and raised together,” Martin recalled. “He was like a brother.”
First Lieutenant Lloyd Rice was wounded in the shoulder while coming ashore on D-day.
Rice, a minor league outfielder, had batted .363 in 97 games with Federalsburg
Athletics in 1940. He returned to the minors in 1946 and played two seasons with the
Wilmington Blue Rocks. Also among the D-Day wounded was Sam Colacurcio, Jr., mascot for the Jersey City Giants from 1931 to 1934 when his father operated the team.
The Navy
The Invasion Fleet was drawn from eight different navies, comprising 6,939 vessels:
1,213 warships, 4,126 transport vessels (landing ships and landing craft), 736 ancillary craft and 864 merchant vessels. Warships provided supporting fire for the land forces.
Aboard one of four LCS(S) rocket boats that were attached to the attack transport APA-33 USS Bayfield, and positioned 300 yards off shore of Utah Beach on D-Day was Seaman Second Class Yogi Berra. The vessels had rendezvoused with nine others and were firing rockets at targets to try to take out machine-gun nests and land mines in support of the troops going ashore. "It was just like a Fourth of July celebration," he later recalled. Just 19 years old, Berra had played one season in the minors with the Norfolk Tars before being called to service. "Yogi was very personable,” recalled fellow sailor Lou Putnocky. “Of course it always would come up in conversation when you had new people, 'What are you gonna do after the war? What did you do before the war?'
"And [Yogi] said, 'Oh, I played ball, at Norfolk, in the minors.' "And we looked at him, with his bandy legs. What the hell kind of ballplayer is this; are you pulling our leg? Were you a batboy or something? And we never paid much attention. He didn't elaborate on it too much. It would come up every now and then, and we would kid him about it.”
He would be back in baseball in 1946 for the first of 18 years as a catcher in Yankee
pinstripes, World Series winning manager and Hall of Famer.
Also off shore during D-Day was former major league outfielder Si Rosenthal, who had played over 100 games for the Red Sox in 1926. He was aboard the minelayer USS Miantonomah, which was off Omaha Beach, performing services for the battleship USS Texas.
Playing a critical role for the Navy during the build-up to D-Day was Lieutenant Larry
French, with the U.S. Navy Supply Corps. Based in England, French – who had won 197
games over 14 seasons in the major leagues prior to entering military service in 1942 – was responsible for the provision of spare parts for landing craft. French would later serve in the Pacific Theater aboard the USS New York during the Okinawa invasion. He was recalled to active service during the Korean War and made the Navy a career, retiring in 1969 having attained the rank of captain.
I am sure you will agree that, as with other major battles during WWII, baseball made
no small contribution on D-Day. For that reason, I hope you will remember these heroes
of our game on this 70th anniversary of the Normandy Invasion.
General Eisenhower June 6, 1944
Today's blog article commemorates the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Normandy landings, and looks at baseball’s largely overlooked contribution to this historic event.
By the start of the 1944 season, around 340 major league players were in military service, plus more than 3,000 from the minors, and with the vast manpower shortage, just 10 minor leagues were in operation. Every branch of the service had an abundance of former
ballplayers helping to fill their ranks and many were in Britain as part of the pre-invasion
preparations. Among them were major leaguers Larry French, Roy Bruner, Paul Campbell, Whitey Hilcher, Earl Johnson, Art Kenney, Ted Klainhans, Si Rosenthal, Tom Saffell, Lou Thuman, Monte Weaver and Elmer Gedeon; future Hall of Famer Yogi Berra; future major leaguers Russ Bauers, Ross Grimsley, Morrie Martin, Eddie Kazak and Bert Shepard; and minor leaguers Lefty Brewer, Syl Sturges, Elmer Wright, Hal Cisgen, John Fessler, Lloyd Rice, John McNicholas, Joe Marco and Frank Labuda. Six of them would be dead before the end of June. The following is an historical account of D-Day interwoven with biographical details of ballplayers who were there.
On June 6, 1944, at the beaches of Normandy, France, Allied forces made one of the largest amphibious assaults ever conducted. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel to launch an invasion that would begin the liberation of the people of mainland Europe who had lived under Nazi rule for over four years.
The Commanders
Eisenhower was the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force and was charged with planning and carrying out of the invasion. Eisenhower loved baseball. Historian Bill Swank says that in his senior year at Abilene (Kansas) High School, Eisenhower was the baseball team captain and leading hitter, and he went on to play football for Army during his sophomore year, but a horse riding injury precluded further participation in intercollegiate athletics. However, rumors that he played baseball professionally - under an assumed name - are probably untrue.
During the build-up to D-Day, Eisenhower was based at Strategic Air Force Headquarters in London - also home to the 988th Military Police and their baseball team, the Fliers. Eisenhower frequently inquired about the progress of the Fliers. "I spoke to him on numerous occasions when I was on duty at the main gate," recalled Fliers' first baseman Norbert Kuklinski. "He always asked after the team and even got to see a couple of our games."
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| Boston Braves manager Bob Coleman, General Eisenhower, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and New York Giants manager Mel Ott (Polo Grounds, June 19, 1945) |
General Omar Bradley
Bradley was in charge of the 1st U.S. Army at Normandy, and during the months before the invasion, he supervised the refinement of assault plans and troop training.
Bradley had been a star on the baseball team at Moberly High School in Missouri. He enrolled at the United States Military Academy at West Point in the fall of 1911 and became an alternate on the freshman baseball team the following spring. He went on to letter three years in baseball and one in football. “It is almost trite to observe,” he said, “that in organized team sports one learns the important art of group cooperation in goal achievement. No extracurricular endeavor I know of could better prepare a soldier for the battlefield.”
Colonel Reeder, commander of the 12th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division at Utah Beach, was an exceptional baseball and football player at West Point in the 1920s and had a tryout with the New York Giants. He was offered a contract but chose to stay with the army. On June 11, 1944, Reeder was severely wounded when an artillery shell exploded close by, shredding his left leg below the knee. His leg was later amputated at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington but he went on to become athletic director at West Point in 1947.
Fooling the Germans
On Sunday, May 28, 1944, the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) Red Devils baseball team played the 505th PIR Panthers before an enthusiastic crowd of 7,000, at the local soccer stadium in Nottingham, England. The Red Devils had been Camp Mackall, North Carolina, champs in 1943, and this was their first chance to play baseball in over nine months. “We had no uniforms,” recalled Adolph “Bud” Warnecke of Fayeteville, North Carolina. “We had to wear remnants of military clothing and jump boots, so we didn’t look much like a ball team. But I’ll always remember the great reception we got from the British people.”
The Panthers proved no match for the Red Devils. “We beat the heck out of the 505th,” said Warnecke. “The score at the end was 18 to 0, to our guys.”
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| 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment Nottingham, England May 1944 |
“I think most of the spectators enjoyed the game,” remembered Lee Reisenleiter, “but it must have been hard for them to make sense of it all.”
“I certainly enjoyed myself,” added Warnecke, “but little did I know that eight days later we would jump into Normandy!”
Speculation still hangs over the true reason this baseball game was staged. The “official” story at the time was that the Nottingham Anglo-American Committee requested the Americans to stage a sporting event because the people of Nottingham had for years been void of entertainment. However, because the game was arranged by Brigadier General James M. “Jumpin’ Jim” Gavin, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, many believe the game was designed to fool the Germans. If American paratroopers were playing baseball in England, how could an invasion be imminent? To further publicize the event, photographs were taken of each player and sent back to their hometown newspapers. Probably the most convincing fact that this game was staged to fool the Germans was the noticeable absence of paratroopers in the stands at the game. Having been such a familiar sight in Nottingham for the last few months, only officers and players were on hand. As the crowd cheered each crack of the bat, the rest of the regiment made a 40-mile journey to a local airfield where runways were packed with C-47 transport planes adorned with black and white stripes. Preparations for the invasion had begun.
The airborne assault into Normandy was the largest use of airborne troops up to that time.
Paratroopers of the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions, the British 6th Airborne Division, and the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion took part in the assault. Numbering
more than 13,000 men, the paratroopers were flown from bases in southern England to the Cotentin Peninsula in more than 900 planes. An additional 4,000 men, consisting of glider infantry with supporting weapons and medical and signal units, arrived in 500 gliders later on D-Day to reinforce the paratroopers. The parachute troops were assigned what was probably the most difficult task of the initial operation - a night jump behind enemy lines five hours before the coastal landings.
Airfields all over England were a hive of activity during the days prior to June 6. The
runways were packed with Douglas C-47 transport planes adorned with black and white invasion stripes, with groups of paratroopers meticulously studying maps of the drop zones in Normandy. They packed equipment, cleaned rifles, played cards and shot dice in the hangar buildings. They attended movies, wrote letters to loved ones, and learned of their objective: to keep the Germans from reinforcing troops that were defending the beaches.
On June 4, they were ready to take off but the weather forced a delay. The following
night - with their faces blackened and hearts racing – men of the 101st and 82nd
Airborne Divisions boarded C-47s for the flight across the English Channel. D-Day had
begun and the paratroopers would spearhead the invasion.
Escorting the C-47s in a P-51B Mustang was First Lieutenant Bob Stephens, a pitcher with the Fulton Tigers. Stephens had finished the 1941 season with a 5-6 won-loss record and a 3.97 ERA before entering military service. C-47s were stark inside. A row of hard metal bucket seats lined both sides of the plane and the roar of the engines drowned out any attempt at conversation as they trudged through the dark skies towards the Normandy coast. Once over the mainland of France the sky became illuminated with searchlights, and deadly tracer bullets pierced the wings and fuselage of the unarmed and unarmored planes. At an altitude of just 400 feet, anti-aircraft fire exploded all around as they neared their drop zones. When the red light over the door of the planes flashed on, everybody stood up and clamped themselves onto the cable that ran down ceiling. Amidst yells of “Go! Go! Go!” American paratroopers ascended through the darkness into chaos, panic and confusion.
The first paratroopers to land in Normandy were the pathfinders who began to drop at
00.15 on June 6, and were assigned to set up landing zones for the main force of
airborne troops. Due to low clouds and anti-aircraft fire, their planes were scattered and
many never found their assigned landing zones. However, the pathfinders’ radar beacons worked effectively and many of the sticks of follow-up paratroopers landed clustered near these beacons. Among the pathfinders was Private Bill Robbins of the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), an outstanding high school athlete from Coldwater, Kansas, who went on to play at Kansas State Teachers College and in the Kansas Ban Johnson League. Robbins was captured by German troops soon after landing in Normandy and remained a prisoner of war until being liberated in April 1945.
Compton was back in England by July, but was badly wounded during Operation Market Garden in Holland in September. He was hospitalized for more than two months but returned to combat in December 1944 - in time for the defense of Bastogne. The 506th suffered heavy losses during the Battle of the Bulge. Weather conditions were treacherous and, in the heavy snow, Compton suffered a severe case of trenchfoot. He was evacuated and his combat days were over.
Compton was back at UCLA after the war and played varsity baseball in the spring of 1946.
In June, he tried out with the Los Angeles Angels at Wrigley Field. On June 24, the team
bus of the Western International League’s Spokane Indians veered off the road and down an embankment before crashing and bursting into flames. Nine men died. Spokane was an Angels' farm team and Compton was signed to join the club as a replacement player but at 24 he and his wife decided he was too old to start a career in pro ball. He went on to spend five years as a detective in the Los Angeles Police Department. In 1952 he began 20 years as a prosecutor for the district attorney's office, and in 1968, he was responsible for the investigation of Robert F. Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan. He was later appointed an associate judge in the California Court of Appeals.
With the 501st PIR of the 101st Airborne Division was Tom Niland, and outstanding
baseball and basketball player from Tonawanda, New York, who had just enrolled at Canisius College when he was drafted. Niland went on to earn a Silver Star at the Battle of the Bulge but suffered a severe arm wound. After the war he served as a coach and then athletic director for 43 years at LeMoyne College in Syracuse.
Landing in Normandy with the 82nd Airborne Division were 26 members of the 508th PIR Red Devils baseball team - Camp Mackall, NC, champs in 1943. Among them was Private Forrest “Lefty” Brewer; Private Elmer Mertz was a star infielder on Sheboygan's Gmach softball team; Corporal William Maloney was a high school ballplayer from Hartford, Connecticut; Private Okey Mills was a semi-pro pitcher who played in the Coalfield League in West Virginia; Sergeant John Judefind had been a star infielder with St. James High School in Chester, Pennsylvania; Private Merle Blethen was the son of Clarence Blethen who played for the Red Sox and Dodgers in the 1920s; Private Joe Laky was a sandlot player from Ottawa, Illinois; Private First Class Rene “Punchy” Croteau was a semi-pro player from Holyoke, Massachusetts; Corporal Frank Labuda was a star shortstop with the Chicago Heights Owls in the late 1930s and briefly played minor league baseball with the Ogden Reds; Corporal Walt Lupton was a New York sandlotter; and Private First Class John McNicholas was a minor league outfielder with the Oneonta Indians in 1942.
Philadelphia Phillies, was also with the 505th PIR, as was Private Joe Dunn, an amateur first baseman from Troy, New York, who played his last ball game on May 28, 1944, in an exhibition game against the 508th PIR in England. Two days after landing in Normandy, Makuch was wounded and lost a finger. He never played baseball again. Dutch Schultz would earn a Bronze Star for his heroics at Normandy. Joe Dunn survived D-Day and went on to successful combat jumps in Holland, but died from wounds he received during the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945.
Staff Sergeant John Fessler parachuted into Normandy with the 507th PIR. Fessler was an
infielder from Pine Grove, Pennsylvania, who had played three years of minor league
baseball before the war. In 1941, he played 116 games as a shortstop with the Goldsboro Goldbugs and batted .279. He had been an outstanding member of the 507th PIR basketball team since entering military service. Fessler was killed in action on June 10, 1944.
With the 505th PIR was Cloid Wigle, a high school ballplayer from Silverton, Oregon. Wigle was wounded the day after D-day and was a prisoner of war for a brief time in Normandy. In his retirement years, Wigle used his wood lathe to produce baseball bats and fungoes which ended up in the hands of many players and coaches across the country including Alex Rodriquez and Sparky Anderson.
Among the C-47 pilots that delivered the paratroopers to their drop zones on D-Day
was Second Lieutenant Syl Sturges, an outfielder who had played three seasons in the minors prior to military service. By 1944, Sturges was in England with the 314th Troop Carrier Group and at 03:25, on June 7, 1944 – the day after the invasion - Sturges was the co-pilot of a C-47 that took off from Saltby Airfield in England, in light rain and ground haze. The plane was heading to Picauville, France, as part of Operation Freeport - a mission to drop supplies to troops on the ground. Shortly after take off, the plane was lost out of formation in the low cloud and not seen again. At 17:00 that evening, the burnt out wreck was discovered about a mile northeast of Sébeville in France. The badly burned bodies of Sturges and pilot, Second Lieutenant George Risley, Jr., were still at the controls.
Elements of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division and U.S 29th Infantry Division faced the veteran
German 352nd Infantry Division at Omaha, the most heavily fortified beach, with high
bluffs defended by mortars, machine guns, and artillery. As infantry disembarked from the landing craft, they had to wade through water sometimes neck deep. Those that made it to the shingle did so at a walk, because they were so heavily laden, and had to brave the full weight of enemy gun fire. Within minutes of the ramps being lowered, troops were leaderless and almost incapable of action. It had become a struggle for survival and rescue.
Allied commanders considered abandoning the beachhead, but small units of infantry,
often forming ad hoc groups, supported by naval artillery, eventually infiltrated the
coastal defenses by scaling the bluffs between strongpoints. Further infantry landings were able to exploit the initial penetrations and by the end of the day two isolated footholds had been established. American casualties at Omaha on D-Day numbered around 5,000 out of 50,000 men, most in the first few hours, Approaching Omaha Beach during the early hours of June 6th were the landing crafts of the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division. Aboard these were Frank Draper, a superb, naturally-gifted athlete, who had been the lead-off hitter with the semi-pro Hampton Looms mill team in Bedford, Virginia; Elmer Wright, a minor league pitcher in the St. Louis Browns’ organization; Lou Alberigo, a semi-pro third baseman from Rhode Island; Hal Baumgarten, a catcher at New York University; Private Robert Marsico, a catcher with the Piedmont Label team of Bedford, Virginia; and Carl “Chubby” Proffitt, a semipro first baseman from West Virginia.
As they approached the beach the enemy opened fire with artillery, mortar, machine-gun and small arms fire. Draper was on a craft that violently shook with the horrifying impact
of an antipersonnel shell that ripped through the metal side and tore off his upper arm. Rapidly losing blood, the young soldier slumped to the floor where died in a pool of blood,
seawater and vomit. The landing craft’s of the other men made it to the beach but as the
ramps dropped they were met with a hail of enemy fire. Many were killed outright. Others lay critically wounded, screaming for help. Those that could jumped in to the sixfoot of water and desperately tried to make their way to the beach. Elmer Wright and Lou Alberigo were killed in the hail of gunfire almost as soon as they hit the beach. Baumgarten had his jaw shattered by a shell that exploded nearby. In shock he gradually moved forward using the bodies of dead GIs as cover eventually making it to the sea wall. “When our ramp went down it was a signal to every machine gun on that beach,” Baumgarten said, “and there were a lot of them to open up on our little boat.”
Marsico suffered severe wounds to his right arm and leg. He was hospitalized in England
for three months and spent the next year at a rehabilitation center in Norfolk, Virginia. Carl Proffitt miraculously survived D-Day and was later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star and two Bronze Stars.
Coming ashore at Omaha Beach with the 1st Infantry Division was Technician Fifth Grade Joe Pinder, a stockily built right-hander from McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. Pinder had played in the minor leagues since 1935 and was a 17-game winner with Sanford of the Florida State League in 1939. For Pinder, June 6 was a special day - his birthday. He was 32. As the landing crafts approached the beach an artillery shell exploded close to Pinder's landing craft, tearing holes in the boat and causing carnage among the men inside. For those that survived - Pinder included - panic set-in as the vessel filled with water and began to sink. Still 100 yards from the beach the ramp was dropped and they were instantly met with a hail of deadly machine-gun fire, killing many outright as they struggled to reach the shore. As in baseball, Pinder took his work very seriously, and despite the chaos, he was determined to do what he was there for – to ensure vital radio equipment made it to the beach so a line of communication could be established. He grabbed a radio and placed it on his shoulder and amid the deafening sound of gunfire, made his way down the ramp and into the waves. With the air filled with small arms fire and exploding artillery it was only a matter of time before Pinder was hit. As he desperately waded through the water, a bullet clipped him, causing him to stumble, but he did not stop. Another bullet ripped through the left side of his face and he held the gaping flesh in place as he carried on. Pinder made it to the beach, dropped the radio and returned to the water to retrieve more equipment. Then, instead of looking for somewhere to protect himself from the relentless enemy barrage, he returned a third time to collect essential spare parts and code books. Again he was hit - a burst of machine gun fire tore through his upper body and he fell, then somehow struggled to his feet, and with his last ounce of energy made it to the beach and his radio equipment. Moments later he passed out from loss of blood and died later that morning. Joe Pinder had made the ultimate sacrifice in helping to establish vital radio communication on Omaha Beach.On January 4, 1945, Pinder was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty. “The indomitable courage and personal bravery of T/5 Pinder,” claimed his citation, “was a magnificent inspiration to the men with whom he served.”
German, was interrogating a German civilian when an American soldier in another unit heard the German and simply started shooting at close range! On the third occasion he was in Germany when machinegun fire broke both his legs and severed vital nerve fibers. Fennhahn was in hospitals in Europe and the United States for sixteen months. Despite these severe injuries, Fennhahn's pre-war ambition to play professional baseball remained with him. "He tried out for the Giants in Phoenix, Arizona, and accepted an offer to play with Peekskill," recalled his widow, Terry Fennhahn. Fennhahn made 13 appearances with the Peekskill Highlanders in the North Atlantic League in 1946, and posted a 4-3 record with a 5.18 ERA. The following year - 1947 - he made three appearances with the Quebec Alouettes in the Canadian-American League and was 2-0, but recurring leg problems kept him off the mound for most of the season. He was back with Quebec in 1948 and made 20 appearances with a 4-5 record and 4.60 ERA. "A lot of guts," said his manager Tony Ravish, "I always pitched him in seven-inning ball games because he had shrapnel in the back of his legs ... then his legs would get tired naturally. But for seven innings, boy, he could fire that ball for me!" "As much as he wanted, he couldn't continue playing professionally," recalled his widow.
Utah Beach was added to the invasion plan toward the end of the planning stages, when more landing craft became available. It was about 3 miles long, and the westernmost of the five landing beaches, located between Pouppeville and the village of La Madeleine.
Despite being substantially off course, the U.S. 4th Infantry Division landed with relatively little resistance in contrast to Omaha Beach. There were approximately 200 casualties. “Because we were combat engineers,” Morrie Martin told Bill Swank in When Baseball Went to War, “we were the first to land on Utah Beach at HHour just as dawn was breaking on June 6. Artillery was flying overhead, but we didn’t fire a shot because the Germans didn’t know we’d come ashore.”
“I got my second purple heart on March 23, 1945 at a crossroads near Bonn. I was shot in the leg. I don’t remember much after that. I woke up once and heard a doctor say, ‘That’s one sick man.’ They wanted to saw off my leg. A nurse from Georgia looked at my records and saw I was a ballplayer. She told me not to let them cut my leg off. They had a new drug - penicillin. She told me I had over 150 shots, one every four hours, and that finally stopped the infection. I wish I knew who she was to thank her. Martin received his medical discharge in October 1945. He made it to the major leagues as a 26 year-old rookie in 1949. He pitched 10 games for the Dodgers and had a 1-3 record. He was back in the majors in 1951, this time with the Athletics. It was to be his best season with an 11-4 record and 3.78 ERA, beating every American League team at least once. In total, Martin pitched 10 seasons in the majors with the Dodgers, Athletics, White Sox, Orioles, Cardinals, Indians and Cubs. Primarily a relief pitcher, he hurled a career-high 58 games in 1953 with the Athletics, posting a 10-12 record and 4.43 ERA.
Petropoulos was shipped back to the United States with a Silver Star and Purple Heart. He
was sent to Rhoads General Hospital in Utica, New York, where it was feared he might have to have both legs amputated. Seven major operations followed and the former ball player’s legs were saved. After Petropoulos left hospital he went to work for the New York Giants as a scout, and in 1948 he became a goodwill ambassador to servicemen and veterans, conducting The Sporting News Sports Caravan, which, in conjunction with Liggett & Myers the makers of Chesterfield cigarettes, visited veterans’ hospitals in the New York metropolitan area. “I know from my long years of association with Pete Petropoulos,” David Woodside told The Sporting News, “that he can talk the language of any vet either in or out of a hospital.”
This tour was later expanded to take in veterans’ hospitals in southern states, and
Petropoulos also managed the Chesterfield-Sporting News (later Chesterfield Satisfiers)
baseball team that played at veterans’ hospitals for the next 12 years.
Also with the 4th Infantry Division was First Lieutenant Ordway “Hal” Cisgen, who had
signed with the Yankees’ organization in 1939 and was last with Utica in 1942, where
he posted a 5-3 record and 2.32 ERA. Cisgen was born in Lorain, Ohio, about 30 miles
west of Cleveland, and had attended Lorain High School, where he starred in basketball
and baseball. He was killed in action on July 11, 1944.
Other D-Day Casualties
Among the 2,500 killed on D-Day was Private First Class Gordon S. Cochrane, Jr., the son
of Hall of Fame catcher Gordon “Mickey” Cochrane. Former major league pitcher, Elden Auker, wrote in his autobiography, Sleeper Cards and Flannel Uniforms: “The bullet that killed him [Gordon, Jr.] had some kind of range. It traveled all the way across the Atlantic, lodged itself into the spirit of Gordon's father, the great Mickey Cochrane, and slowly killed him. Mickey's gravestone shows he died June 28, 1962, but he started dying June 6, 1944. Consider his another life claimed by World War II.”
Coming ashore at Omaha Beach a few hours after Morrie Martin was his cousin Private First Class Ralph Hickey of the 1st Infantry Division. He never made it to the beach and his body was never recovered. “We were born and raised together,” Martin recalled. “He was like a brother.”
First Lieutenant Lloyd Rice was wounded in the shoulder while coming ashore on D-day.
Rice, a minor league outfielder, had batted .363 in 97 games with Federalsburg
Athletics in 1940. He returned to the minors in 1946 and played two seasons with the
Wilmington Blue Rocks. Also among the D-Day wounded was Sam Colacurcio, Jr., mascot for the Jersey City Giants from 1931 to 1934 when his father operated the team.
The Navy
The Invasion Fleet was drawn from eight different navies, comprising 6,939 vessels:
1,213 warships, 4,126 transport vessels (landing ships and landing craft), 736 ancillary craft and 864 merchant vessels. Warships provided supporting fire for the land forces.
"And [Yogi] said, 'Oh, I played ball, at Norfolk, in the minors.' "And we looked at him, with his bandy legs. What the hell kind of ballplayer is this; are you pulling our leg? Were you a batboy or something? And we never paid much attention. He didn't elaborate on it too much. It would come up every now and then, and we would kid him about it.”
He would be back in baseball in 1946 for the first of 18 years as a catcher in Yankee
pinstripes, World Series winning manager and Hall of Famer.
Also off shore during D-Day was former major league outfielder Si Rosenthal, who had played over 100 games for the Red Sox in 1926. He was aboard the minelayer USS Miantonomah, which was off Omaha Beach, performing services for the battleship USS Texas.
Playing a critical role for the Navy during the build-up to D-Day was Lieutenant Larry
French, with the U.S. Navy Supply Corps. Based in England, French – who had won 197
games over 14 seasons in the major leagues prior to entering military service in 1942 – was responsible for the provision of spare parts for landing craft. French would later serve in the Pacific Theater aboard the USS New York during the Okinawa invasion. He was recalled to active service during the Korean War and made the Navy a career, retiring in 1969 having attained the rank of captain.
I am sure you will agree that, as with other major battles during WWII, baseball made
no small contribution on D-Day. For that reason, I hope you will remember these heroes
of our game on this 70th anniversary of the Normandy Invasion.
Thursday, 29 May 2014
Baseball and Battlefields – 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment
With more than 100 military installations operating fiercely competitive sports programs for troops during World War II, North Carolina was a veritable gold mine of baseball talent. But when the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment Red Devils clinched the particularly coveted Camp Mackall championship during the summer of 1943, they had little idea that the next game they were to play would be 3,000 miles away amid the chaos and devastation of bomb-torn England.
The 508th, one of four regiments assigned to the 82nd “All American” Airborne Division, moved to Camp Mackall from Georgia at the end of 1942. Located west of Fayetteville in Scotland County, the 62,000-acre camp was a remarkable example of wartime construction. Completed in just four months, it featured heated barracks, five movie theatres, a hospital, and a three-runway airfield. It was named for Private John T. Mackall, the first American paratrooper to be killed during the war.
Baseball at Camp Mackall began with lazy afternoon games of catch during off-duty hours. Because of the encouragement those games provided, a camp league was soon established. The all-volunteer airborne forces consisted of men from different regions of the country, drawen, perhaps, as much by the $50 monthly hazardous duty bonus as by the thrill and honor of serving as a paratrooper. The 508th found it was rich in baseball talent.
In additional to several players with semi-pro experience – among them colliery league pitcher Okey Mills of Crab Orchard, West Virginia, and second baseman Lee Reisenleiter of Brentwood, Missouri – the Red Devils were fortunate to have the services of some minor leaguers. John McNicholas was an outfielder in the Boston Red Sox farm system, Frank Shank – also an outfielder – had played in the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization before military service, while shortstop Frank Labuda had played for the Ogden Reds. However, the most prominent minor leaguer was Forrest “Lefty” Brewer, a tall, lean Floridian, who had played three seasons in the Washington Senators’ organization before the war. He pitched a no-hitter in the Florida State League in 1938 on his way to compiling a 25-11 won-loss record that season, and was pitching for the Charlotte Hornets before entering military service in March 1941. Nevertheless, he is remembered for more than just his athletic talents.
“Lefty was my platoon sergeant all through the three tough months of basic training, and I cannot say enough about what a great guy he was,” recalled Bill Dean of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. “He even brought some culture into our lives during off-duty hours in the barracks. His favourite poem was Rudyard Kipling’s Gunga Din, and he would recite it with such gusto while cleaning his rifle or shining his boots that most of us rookies would stop everything and take it all in with rapt attention.”
The Camp Mackall baseball season opened in April 1943, under the directorship of Lieutenant Alfred Dodd, post athletic officer, and the Red Devils were serious contenders for the championship.
After suffering three early losses to unexpectedly stiff competition, the team settled down to register a series of resounding victories in addition the wreaking vengeance against the much-heralded semi-professional Red Spring Robbins of neighboring Robeson County. Losing to the Robbins, 6 to 5, in their first meeting, the Red Devils came back with two convincing wins, 9 to 1, and 13 to 0.
To conclude the season, the Red Devils won their last seven games in succession for a record of 26 wins and 4 losses – and clinched the Camp Mackall championship in fitting style with Okey Mills throwing a no-hitter against the 135th Quartermaster Company in the playoffs.
508th Parachute Infantry Regiment Red Devils – Camp Mackall, NC - 1943
T/5 Frank Labuda (SS) Chicago Heights, IL - Minor leaguer
Pvt. Joseph L. Laky - Ottawa, IL
S/Sgt. Howard R. Smith
Pvt. John T. M. Barry - Bronx, NY
T/Sgt. John J. Gieb
Sgt. Adolph F. "Bud" Warnecke - Fayetteville, NC
Pvt. William F. Wall
Pfc. James E. Beckham
T/Sgt. John D. Kersh
Russ Barton
Pfc. William G. Sauer
Pvt. William M. Dagon - Hillsboro, IL
Sgt. Ralph J. Busson - Doylestown, OH
George Kincaid
John McNicholas (OF)
T/5 Abraham L. Axelrod
Pvt. Okey A. Mills (P) - Crab Orchard, WV – Colliery League
Pvt. George A. Shenkle - Woodbury, NJ
S/Sgt. Forrest V. "Lefty" Brewer (P) Jacksonville, FL – Washington Senators organization
Pfc. Orbie M. King
2/Lt. Francis J. Bolger - 508th Athletic Officer
Pvt. Raymond J. Brown - Vivian, LA
Pfc. Joseph J. "Jack" Bonvillian - Shreveport, LA
Francis “Frank” Shank OF - Ohio State League (1941)
Pvt. Walter R. Lupton - Springfield Gardens, NY
Just days after the game, a regimental order effectively disbanded the team. It was felt that further play would result in the loss of valuable military training time. This seemed particularly harsh for the players. Had the season continued, it is likely that the Red Devils would have attained national prominence as games had been scheduled against the North Carolina Pre-Flight Cloudbusters and the mighty Norfolk Naval Training Station, where the likes of Phil Rizzuto and Dom DiMaggio were playing their service baseball. Little did the troopers know that preparations for the Normandy Invasion were under way and that the 508th would be among the first airborne regiments activated.
At the end of 1943, the 508th left Camp Mackall. At the time no one knew if they were headed for the European, Mediterranean or Pacific Theater, but they were soon aboard a troop ship bound for England and encamped at Wollaton Park near the historic town of Nottingham – their home-away-from-home for the next nine months.
The gregarious young paratroopers, immaculate in their resplendent uniforms and polished jump boots, made a favourable impression with the local community, and during a particularly hot spell in May, they were invited to stage a baseball game at the local soccer stadium. On Sunday, May 28, 1944, before an enthusiastic crowd of 7,000, the Red Devils ball team began to limber up for the first time since leaving North Carolina. “We had no uniforms,” recalled Adolph “Bud” Warnecke of Fayeteville, North Carolina. “We had to wear remnants of military clothing and jump boots, so we didn’t look much like a ball team. But I’ll always remember the great reception we got from the British people.”
Their opponents were the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment Panthers, a sister regiment in the 82nd Airborne Division, who had completed their training at Fort Bragg and were also stationed near Nottingham in England.
The Panthers proved no match for the former Camp Mackall champions. “We beat the heck out of the 505th,” said Warnecke. “The score at the end was 18 to 0, to our guys.”
Okey Mills started the game on the mound for the Red Devils and was relieved by Brewer in the fourth inning. With his deceptive pick-off move, Brewer picked off the first two men that got on base, and the Nottingham Guardian the next day described how the teams “played with extraordinary vigor,” and noted there was “spectacular hitting, some magnificent catches and many exciting incidents.”
“I think most of the spectators enjoyed the game,” remembered Lee Reisenleiter, “but it must have been hard for them to make sense of it all.”
“I certainly enjoyed myself,” added Warnecke, “but little did I know that eight days later we would jump into Normandy!”
508th Parachute Infantry Red Devils – Nottingham, England - 1944
Pvt. Elmer A. Mertz - Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Pvt. Daniel L. Peskin - Brooklyn, New York
Pvt. Leo Hoynowski
Cpl. William F. Maloney - Hartford, Connecticut
Pvt. Paul Pavlick
Pvt. Harry L. Reisenleiter - Brentwood, Missouri
Pvt. Henry McLean
Pfc. William G. Sauer
Cpl. William M. Dagon - Hillsboro, Illinois
Cpl. Okey A. Mills (P) - Crab Orchard, WV
Sgt. John J. Judefind (IF) - Chester, PA
Pfc. George A. Shenkle - Woodbury, NJ
Pvt. Merle W. "Mike" Blethen - Portland, OR – Son of major leaguer Clarence Blethen
Cpl. Kenneth H. Hook - Dayton, OH
Pfc. John T. M. Barry - Bronx, NY
Pvt. Joseph L. Laky - Ottawa, IL
Pvt Lemuel B. Parrish - Lakeland, FL
T/5 Raymond J. Brown - Vivian, LA
Sgt. Ralph J. Busson - Doylestown, OH
Pvt. Forrest V. "Lefty" Brewer (P) - Jacksonville, FL
Sgt. Adolph F. "Bud" Warnecke - Fayetteville, NC
Cpl. Frank Labuda (SS) – Chicago Heights, IL
Pfc. Joseph J. "Jack" Bonvillian - Shreveport, LA
Pvt. Walter R. Lupton - Springfield Gardens, NY
Sgt. Thomas D. MacBlane - Elmira, NY
Pvt. Gene Matuszewski - Buffalo, NY
Pfc. Rene A. Croteau - Holyoke, MA
Speculation still hangs over the true reason this baseball game was staged. The “official” story at the time was that the Nottingham Anglo-American Committee requested the Americans to stage a sporting event because the people of Nottingham had for years been void of entertainment. However, because the game was arranged by Brigadier General James M. “Jumpin’ Jim” Gavin, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, many believe the game was designed to fool the Germans. If American paratroopers were playing baseball in England, how could an invasion be imminent? To further publicize the event, photographs were taken of each player and sent back to their hometown newspapers. Probably the most convincing fact that this game was staged to fool the Germans was the noticeable absence of paratroopers in the stands at the game. Having been such a familiar sight in Nottingham for the last few months, only officers and players were on hand. As the crowd cheered each crack of the bat, the rest of the regiment made a 40-mile journey to a local airfield where runways were packed with C-47 transport planes adorned with black and white stripes. Preparations for the invasion had begun.
Men of the 508th were among the 24,000 Allied paratroopers who ascended during the early hours of June 6, 1944, into occupied France. Their objective was to keep German reinforcements from reaching the American landing beaches, codenamed Omaha and Utah, but the airborne operations did not go according to plan. Whole regiments landed miles from their intended drop zones and often found themselves in the midst of the awaiting enemy forces.
Even so, small groups of men valiantly engaged the enemy, and when the 82nd Airborne Division raised the Stars and Stripes in the small Normandy town of Ste-Mere-Eglise, it signified the first French community to be liberated by American forces.
Despite heavy losses, objectives had been achieved, but to the Red Devils, the losses were particularly tragic. Their pitching ace, Lefty Brewer, was dead.
Bill Dean was with Brewer when they were ambushed by German tanks and infantry near the Merderet River. Their only hope was to make a dash for the water.
“As I ran I was aware someone was running hard just behind me,” recalled Dean. “In my panic I took a quick look and saw Lefty, at port arms, running like he was going to stretch a triple into a home run! A split second later I heard a burst of machine-gun fire, and all around me bullets were clipping the upstanding reeds along the river bank.”
Dean plunged into the precarious safety of the river. Brewer was not so fortunate. He bore the full brunt of the gunfire and was killed instantly.
“I will never forget Lefty,” Dean reflected, “nor how fickle fate is . . . he taught me how to soldier and I made it back . . . he didn’t.”
The 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment continued in combat throughout the war, participating in the airborne assault into Holland, followed by the Battle of the Bulge, and the Ruhr valley campaigns. When the war in Europe ended in May 1945, the 508th performed occupational duties in Germany and during the summer of 1945, the baseball team was reorganized for a series of games. Sadly, many familiar faces were missing. William Maloney died the day after Lefty Brewer at Normandy, infielder John Judefind was killed on June 9, Elmer Mertz died June 13, and Rene Croteau lost his life on July 4. Walt Lupton was killed in Holland on September 18, 1944, and Joe Laky died in Holland on October 1.
Baseball at Camp Mackall began with lazy afternoon games of catch during off-duty hours. Because of the encouragement those games provided, a camp league was soon established. The all-volunteer airborne forces consisted of men from different regions of the country, drawen, perhaps, as much by the $50 monthly hazardous duty bonus as by the thrill and honor of serving as a paratrooper. The 508th found it was rich in baseball talent.
 |
| Forrest V. "Lefty" Brewer |
“Lefty was my platoon sergeant all through the three tough months of basic training, and I cannot say enough about what a great guy he was,” recalled Bill Dean of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. “He even brought some culture into our lives during off-duty hours in the barracks. His favourite poem was Rudyard Kipling’s Gunga Din, and he would recite it with such gusto while cleaning his rifle or shining his boots that most of us rookies would stop everything and take it all in with rapt attention.”
The Camp Mackall baseball season opened in April 1943, under the directorship of Lieutenant Alfred Dodd, post athletic officer, and the Red Devils were serious contenders for the championship.
After suffering three early losses to unexpectedly stiff competition, the team settled down to register a series of resounding victories in addition the wreaking vengeance against the much-heralded semi-professional Red Spring Robbins of neighboring Robeson County. Losing to the Robbins, 6 to 5, in their first meeting, the Red Devils came back with two convincing wins, 9 to 1, and 13 to 0.
To conclude the season, the Red Devils won their last seven games in succession for a record of 26 wins and 4 losses – and clinched the Camp Mackall championship in fitting style with Okey Mills throwing a no-hitter against the 135th Quartermaster Company in the playoffs.
508th Parachute Infantry Regiment Red Devils – Camp Mackall, NC - 1943
T/5 Frank Labuda (SS) Chicago Heights, IL - Minor leaguer
Pvt. Joseph L. Laky - Ottawa, IL
S/Sgt. Howard R. Smith
Pvt. John T. M. Barry - Bronx, NY
T/Sgt. John J. Gieb
Sgt. Adolph F. "Bud" Warnecke - Fayetteville, NC
Pvt. William F. Wall
Pfc. James E. Beckham
T/Sgt. John D. Kersh
Russ Barton
Pfc. William G. Sauer
Pvt. William M. Dagon - Hillsboro, IL
Sgt. Ralph J. Busson - Doylestown, OH
George Kincaid
John McNicholas (OF)
T/5 Abraham L. Axelrod
Pvt. Okey A. Mills (P) - Crab Orchard, WV – Colliery League
Pvt. George A. Shenkle - Woodbury, NJ
S/Sgt. Forrest V. "Lefty" Brewer (P) Jacksonville, FL – Washington Senators organization
Pfc. Orbie M. King
2/Lt. Francis J. Bolger - 508th Athletic Officer
Pvt. Raymond J. Brown - Vivian, LA
Pfc. Joseph J. "Jack" Bonvillian - Shreveport, LA
Francis “Frank” Shank OF - Ohio State League (1941)
Pvt. Walter R. Lupton - Springfield Gardens, NY
Just days after the game, a regimental order effectively disbanded the team. It was felt that further play would result in the loss of valuable military training time. This seemed particularly harsh for the players. Had the season continued, it is likely that the Red Devils would have attained national prominence as games had been scheduled against the North Carolina Pre-Flight Cloudbusters and the mighty Norfolk Naval Training Station, where the likes of Phil Rizzuto and Dom DiMaggio were playing their service baseball. Little did the troopers know that preparations for the Normandy Invasion were under way and that the 508th would be among the first airborne regiments activated.
At the end of 1943, the 508th left Camp Mackall. At the time no one knew if they were headed for the European, Mediterranean or Pacific Theater, but they were soon aboard a troop ship bound for England and encamped at Wollaton Park near the historic town of Nottingham – their home-away-from-home for the next nine months.
The gregarious young paratroopers, immaculate in their resplendent uniforms and polished jump boots, made a favourable impression with the local community, and during a particularly hot spell in May, they were invited to stage a baseball game at the local soccer stadium. On Sunday, May 28, 1944, before an enthusiastic crowd of 7,000, the Red Devils ball team began to limber up for the first time since leaving North Carolina. “We had no uniforms,” recalled Adolph “Bud” Warnecke of Fayeteville, North Carolina. “We had to wear remnants of military clothing and jump boots, so we didn’t look much like a ball team. But I’ll always remember the great reception we got from the British people.”
Their opponents were the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment Panthers, a sister regiment in the 82nd Airborne Division, who had completed their training at Fort Bragg and were also stationed near Nottingham in England.
The Panthers proved no match for the former Camp Mackall champions. “We beat the heck out of the 505th,” said Warnecke. “The score at the end was 18 to 0, to our guys.”
Okey Mills started the game on the mound for the Red Devils and was relieved by Brewer in the fourth inning. With his deceptive pick-off move, Brewer picked off the first two men that got on base, and the Nottingham Guardian the next day described how the teams “played with extraordinary vigor,” and noted there was “spectacular hitting, some magnificent catches and many exciting incidents.”
“I think most of the spectators enjoyed the game,” remembered Lee Reisenleiter, “but it must have been hard for them to make sense of it all.”
“I certainly enjoyed myself,” added Warnecke, “but little did I know that eight days later we would jump into Normandy!”
508th Parachute Infantry Red Devils – Nottingham, England - 1944
Pvt. Elmer A. Mertz - Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Pvt. Daniel L. Peskin - Brooklyn, New York
Pvt. Leo Hoynowski
Cpl. William F. Maloney - Hartford, Connecticut
Pvt. Paul Pavlick
Pvt. Harry L. Reisenleiter - Brentwood, Missouri
Pvt. Henry McLean
Pfc. William G. Sauer
Cpl. William M. Dagon - Hillsboro, Illinois
Cpl. Okey A. Mills (P) - Crab Orchard, WV
Sgt. John J. Judefind (IF) - Chester, PA
Pfc. George A. Shenkle - Woodbury, NJ
Pvt. Merle W. "Mike" Blethen - Portland, OR – Son of major leaguer Clarence Blethen
Cpl. Kenneth H. Hook - Dayton, OH
Pfc. John T. M. Barry - Bronx, NY
Pvt. Joseph L. Laky - Ottawa, IL
Pvt Lemuel B. Parrish - Lakeland, FL
T/5 Raymond J. Brown - Vivian, LA
Sgt. Ralph J. Busson - Doylestown, OH
Pvt. Forrest V. "Lefty" Brewer (P) - Jacksonville, FL
Sgt. Adolph F. "Bud" Warnecke - Fayetteville, NC
Cpl. Frank Labuda (SS) – Chicago Heights, IL
Pfc. Joseph J. "Jack" Bonvillian - Shreveport, LA
Pvt. Walter R. Lupton - Springfield Gardens, NY
Sgt. Thomas D. MacBlane - Elmira, NY
Pvt. Gene Matuszewski - Buffalo, NY
Pfc. Rene A. Croteau - Holyoke, MA
Speculation still hangs over the true reason this baseball game was staged. The “official” story at the time was that the Nottingham Anglo-American Committee requested the Americans to stage a sporting event because the people of Nottingham had for years been void of entertainment. However, because the game was arranged by Brigadier General James M. “Jumpin’ Jim” Gavin, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, many believe the game was designed to fool the Germans. If American paratroopers were playing baseball in England, how could an invasion be imminent? To further publicize the event, photographs were taken of each player and sent back to their hometown newspapers. Probably the most convincing fact that this game was staged to fool the Germans was the noticeable absence of paratroopers in the stands at the game. Having been such a familiar sight in Nottingham for the last few months, only officers and players were on hand. As the crowd cheered each crack of the bat, the rest of the regiment made a 40-mile journey to a local airfield where runways were packed with C-47 transport planes adorned with black and white stripes. Preparations for the invasion had begun.
Men of the 508th were among the 24,000 Allied paratroopers who ascended during the early hours of June 6, 1944, into occupied France. Their objective was to keep German reinforcements from reaching the American landing beaches, codenamed Omaha and Utah, but the airborne operations did not go according to plan. Whole regiments landed miles from their intended drop zones and often found themselves in the midst of the awaiting enemy forces.
Even so, small groups of men valiantly engaged the enemy, and when the 82nd Airborne Division raised the Stars and Stripes in the small Normandy town of Ste-Mere-Eglise, it signified the first French community to be liberated by American forces.
Despite heavy losses, objectives had been achieved, but to the Red Devils, the losses were particularly tragic. Their pitching ace, Lefty Brewer, was dead.
Bill Dean was with Brewer when they were ambushed by German tanks and infantry near the Merderet River. Their only hope was to make a dash for the water.
“As I ran I was aware someone was running hard just behind me,” recalled Dean. “In my panic I took a quick look and saw Lefty, at port arms, running like he was going to stretch a triple into a home run! A split second later I heard a burst of machine-gun fire, and all around me bullets were clipping the upstanding reeds along the river bank.”
Dean plunged into the precarious safety of the river. Brewer was not so fortunate. He bore the full brunt of the gunfire and was killed instantly.
“I will never forget Lefty,” Dean reflected, “nor how fickle fate is . . . he taught me how to soldier and I made it back . . . he didn’t.”
The 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment continued in combat throughout the war, participating in the airborne assault into Holland, followed by the Battle of the Bulge, and the Ruhr valley campaigns. When the war in Europe ended in May 1945, the 508th performed occupational duties in Germany and during the summer of 1945, the baseball team was reorganized for a series of games. Sadly, many familiar faces were missing. William Maloney died the day after Lefty Brewer at Normandy, infielder John Judefind was killed on June 9, Elmer Mertz died June 13, and Rene Croteau lost his life on July 4. Walt Lupton was killed in Holland on September 18, 1944, and Joe Laky died in Holland on October 1.
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