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World War II Hero of the Minor Leagues
Bill Fennhahn
Born:
January 31, 1924 Mannheim, Germany
Died: February 16, 1997 Amsterdam, New York
Baseball Experience: Minor League
Position: Pitcher
Rank: Sergeant
Military Unit: Company E, 5th Ranger Battalion US Army
Area Served: European Theater of Operations
Fennhahn attended Hillsdale High School in
Columbia County, New York where he excelled as a baseball player He enlisted in the
Army right after high school graduation in February 1943.
Fennhahn was initially in the combat engineers of
the 35th Infantry Division and then
trained with the 5th Ranger Battalion which led the Normandy invasion at Omaha
Beach. 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 another GI in another unit heard the German and simply started shooting at close range! On the third
occasion he was in Germany when machine-gun fire broke both his legs and severed
vital nerve fibers. Fennhahn was in hospitals in Europe and the United States
for sixteen months. He was also awarded the Bronze and Silver Star medals.
In June 1994, Fennhahn, 70, returned to the beaches of
Normandy.
"Before I got here, I had the same kinds of feelings I'd had before we made the landings-on D-Day,"
he told The Stars and Stripes on June 6, 1994. "In your
mind you visualize everything you did before you hit the beach." He tried to locate the spot at Omaha Beach where he
came ashore. "I went down to Omaha, but do you think I can find the
place that I landed?" Fennhahn asked. "Everything was flat.
Everywhere looked the same."
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," recalls 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," recalls his widow Terry Fennhahn.
Fennhahn continued to play semi-pro baseball, however, well into the 1950s. He
enrolled at the State University of New York at Oswego, played for the baseball
team and attained a degree as a bachelor of science. He was employed as a
teacher in the Amsterdam School District for 14 years at the Theodore Roosevelt
Junior High School and for 15 years with the St Johnsville School District.
BillFennhahn was a member of the John J Wyszomirski American Legion Post 701, secretary of the Amsterdam Bowling Association, and a member of the Amsterdam Bowling Hall of Fame. He passed away at home on February 16, 1997, following a long illness. He was 73 years old and is buried at Pine Groves Cemetery in Tribes Hill, New York.
Thanks to Terry Fennhahn for help with her late husband's biography.
Created April 3, 2006. Updated June 20, 2008.
Copyright © 2015 Gary Bedingfield (Baseball in Wartime). All Rights Reserved.