Baseball in Wartime

Gary Bedingfield’s Baseball Volume 3, Issue 21 in Wartime Baseball June 2009 www.baseballinwartime.com [email protected] in Wartime www.baseballinwartime.com 65th Anniversary of D-Day elcome to the 21st issue of the Baseball in Wartime e- NORMANDY LANDINGS newsletter - a special edition commemorating the 65th Wanniversary of the D-Day Normandy People of western Europe! A landing was made this Landings. morning on the coast of France by troops of the allied Baseball’s contribution to D-Day has never before been explored in any detail and I felt it expeditionary force, This landing is part of the concerted was time this oversight was corrected. By the start of the 1944 season, around 340 major United Nations’ plan for the liberation of Europe, made in league players were in military service, plus more than 3,000 from the minors, and with conjunction with your great Russian allies. Although the the vast manpower shortage, just 10 minor initial assault may not have been made in your own country, leagues were in operation. Every branch of the service had an abundance of former the hour of liberation is approaching. ballplayers helping to fill their ranks and many were in Britain as part of the pre- invasion preparations. General Eisenhower June 6, 1944 Among them was major leaguer Larry French, and minor leaguers Yogi Berra, Lefty Brewer, Syl Sturges, Elmer Wright, Morrie Martin, Hal Cisgen, John Fessler, Lloyd Rice, John McNicholas, Joe Marco and Frank Labuda. Five of them would be dead before the end of the month. The following page provide an historical account of D-Day interwoven with biographical details of ballplayers who were there. I hope you enjoy this account of baseball’s contribution to D-Day. I would love to hear from you and to hear your thoughts on this project, and would especially like to hear of any players that may have been omitted. On a different subject I’d also like to say a word of thanks to everyone who contacted me following my announcement in the last issue of my redundancy at work. Your words of encouragement have helped me take a positive view of the situation and I have a very exciting interview lined up in the next couple of weeks. Here’s hoping! Gary Bedingfield [email protected] Ebbets Field Flannels is the finest manufacturer of vintage historically- inspired athletic clothing. www.ebbets.com Volume 3, Issue 21 Baseball in Wartime Newsletter Page 2 Baseball’s Contribution to D-Day n June 6, 1944, at the beaches of did, however, make the football team. Colonel Reeder, commander of the 12th Normandy, France, Allied forces Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division made one of the largest at Utah Beach, was an exceptional baseball O amphibious assaults ever General Omar Bradley and football player at West Point in the conducted. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed 1920s and had a tryout with the New York the English Channel to launch an invasion of Giants. He was offered a contract but chose mainland Europe that would begin the to stay with the army. On June 11, 1944, liberation of the people of mainland Europe Reeder was severely wounded when an who had lived under Nazi rule for over four artillery shell exploded close by, shredding years. his left leg below the knee. His leg was later amputated at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington but he went on to become On the 65th anniversary of D-Day, Baseball in athletic director at West Point in 1947. Wartime takes an in-depth look at the game’s contribution to June 6. Whilst this is something that may not at first be evident, The Airborne Invasion closer inspection shows that in addition to claiming the lives of three former The airborne assault into Normandy was the professional players, the game weaved an largest use of airborne troops up to that time. integral thread through every stage of the Paratroopers of the U.S. 82nd and 101st preparation, invasion and subsequent fight Airborne divisions, the British 6th Airborne Division, and the 1st Canadian Parachute against German forces. Battalion took part in the assault. Numbering more than 13,000 men, the paratroopers were flown from bases in southern England The Commanders to the Cotentin Peninsula in more than 900 planes. An additional 4,000 men, consisting of glider infantry with supporting weapons General Dwight D. Eisenhower and medical and signal units, arrived in 500 Bradley was in charge of the 1st U.S. Army at gliders later on D-Day to reinforce the Normandy, and during the months before the paratroopers. The parachute troops were invasion, he supervised the refinement of assigned what was probably the most assault plans and troop training. difficult task of the initial operation - a night jump behind enemy lines five hours before the coastal landings. Bradley had been a star on the baseball team at Moberly High School in Missouri. He enrolled at the United States Military Airfields all over England were a hive of Academy at West Point in the fall of 1911 activity during the days prior to June 6. The and became an alternate on the freshman runways were packed with Douglas C-47 baseball team the following spring. He went transport planes adorned with black and on to letter three years in baseball and one in white invasion stripes, and groups of football. “It is almost trite to observe,” he paratroopers meticulously studied maps of said, “that in organized team sports one the drop zones in Normandy. They packed learns the important art of group cooperation equipment, cleaned rifles, played cards and in goal achievement. No extracurricular shot dice in the hangar buildings They endeavor I know of could better prepare a attended movies, wrote letters to loved ones, soldier for the battlefield.” and learned of their objective: to keep the Germans from reinforcing troops that were defending the beaches. Colonel Russell “Red” Reeder Eisenhower was the Supreme Allied On June 4, they were ready to take off but Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force the weather forced a delay. The following and was charged with planning and carrying night - with their faces blackened and hearts out of the invasion. It is believed that racing – men of the 101st and 82nd Eisenhower played minor league baseball for Airborne Divisions boarded C-47s for the Junction City of the Kansas State League in flight across the English Channel. D-Day had the years prior to WWI. “I was a begun and the paratroopers would centerfielder,” he told reporters in 1945. “I spearhead the invasion. went into baseball deliberately to make money, and with no idea of making it a career. I wanted to go to college that fall, and C-47s were stark inside. A row of hard metal we didn’t have money. But I wasn’t a very bucket seats lined both sides of the plane good centerfielder, and didn’t do too well at and the roar of the engines drowned out any it.” attempt at conversation as they trudged through the dark skies towards the Normandy coast. Once over the mainland of While at West Point, Eisenhower tried out for France the sky became illuminated with the baseball team but did not make it. He searchlights, and deadly tracer bullets Volume 3, Issue 21 Baseball in Wartime Newsletter Page 3 Baseball’s Contribution to D-Day pierced the wings and fuselage of the Six hours after landing in Normandy, Division was Tom Niland, and outstanding unarmed and unarmored planes. Anti-aircraft Compton led an assault against a four-gun baseball and basketball player from fire exploded all around as they neared their battery of 105mm cannon that was defended Tonawanda, New York, who had just enrolled drop zones at an altitude of 400 feet. When by a platoon of German infantry and was at Canisius College when he was drafted. the red light over the door of the plane firing on Utah Beach where American troops Niland went on to earn a Silver Star at the flashed on, everybody stood up and clamped were coming ashore. Compton was awarded Battle of the Bulge but suffered a severe arm themselves onto the cable that ran down the Silver Star for his part. wound. After the war he served as a coach ceiling of the plane. Amidst yell’s of “Go! Go! and then athletic director for 43 years at Go!” American paratroopers ascended LeMoyne College in Syracuse. through the darkness into chaos and Compton was back in England by July, but confusion. was badly wounded during Operation Market Garden in Holland in September. He was Landing in Normandy with the 82nd Airborne hospitalized for more than two months but Division were 26 members of the 508th PIR The first paratroopers to land in Normandy returned to combat in December 1944 - in baseball team. Among them was Private were the pathfinders who began to drop at time for the defense of Bastogne. The 506th Forrest “Lefty” Brewer, a minor league 00.15 on June 6, and were assigned to set suffered heavy losses during the Battle of the pitcher who won 20 games with St. Augustine up landing zones for the main force of Bulge. Weather conditions were treacherous in 1938; Private Elmer Mertz was a star airborne troops. Due to low clouds and anti- and, in the heavy snow, Compton suffered a infielder on Sheboygan's Gmach softball aircraft fire, their planes were scattered and severe case of trenchfoot. He was evacuated team; Corporal William Maloney was a high many never found their assigned landing and his combat days were over.

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