Staff Sgt. Warren Spahn, combat engineer

[Walt's Daughter]

Steve posted this on our Facebook page. Thanks for sharing this great story, Steve. I re-printed it here, for they use a tiny, tiny font. Very hard to read for most people.

 

Taken from the page: The Ultimate Sacrifice in History - April's salute

 

 

 

Staff Sgt. Warren Spahn, combat engineer

 

This month we offer both a salute and a tip of the baseball cap to an ordinary Army combat engineer of World War II who became a legend in the sporting world.

 

In March 1945, Staff Sgt. Warren Spahn, 23, of the 276th Combat Engineer Battalion, and hundreds of other soldiers were working feverishly to shore up the Bridge at Remagen on the Rhine River in Germany.

 

The span, whose formal name was the Ludendorff Bridge, had been captured by armored units on March 7 after the Germans tried to blow it up, but somehow it had withstood the blast. The next days were spent getting a few groups of soldiers across the Rhine while trying to repair the weakened span, while other engineer units worked to construct pontoon bridges nearby amid floodwaters, German attempts to float bombs on the water, artillery fire and attacks from Messerschmitt jets, a new arrival in the war.

 

On March 17, Spahn was ready to lead a security detail onto the span to protect engineer repair crews. Suddenly, without warning, the heavily damaged 1,000-foot bridge collapsed, killing 28 engineers and injuring 93.

 

“In only a matter of minutes, I would have been on that thing,” Spahn said in a 1985 interview with Tom Mueller of the Milwaukee Sentinel newspaper.

 

Eleven of those killed were in Spahn’s battalion. According to www.abmc.gov, eight are buried in Europe and three are on MIA walls there. They include Maj. James Foley of Rhode Island, who is buried in the U.S. cemetery at Margraten, the Netherlands. Any soldier whose body was returned to America is not in the database of foreign burials and MIAs, so perhaps even more in Spahn’s battalion died that day.

 

“The rivets popped out … and it sounded like machine-gun fire. We thought we were under attack,” Spahn told Mueller as part of a story about ordinary soldiers and sailors who became prominent in Wisconsin in the following decades, including a governor.

 

Spahn already had received minor shrapnel wounds in a foot and the back of the neck at Remagen. Soon after the bridge collapsed, he accepted a battlefield commission to second lieutenant, a promotion that he said was offered because of so many deaths and injuries in his unit at Remagen.

 

The account is included in Mueller’s book “Building the Bridges to Victory.” The book is about his father’s combat engineer battalion, the 286th Engineers. Their work was very similar to that of Spahn’s unit and other engineer groups – blowing up German barricades, clearing minefields, working to restore roads, building bridges, etc.

Spahn said he entered the military after appearing in four games in the 1942 season, his debut year. He returned to baseball and the Boston Braves in 1946 and had an 8-5 record, appearing in 24 games. The Braves moved to Milwaukee in 1953, and Spahn helped lead them to a World Series title in 1957.

 

By the time he retired in 1964 at the age of 44. Spahn had won 363 games, which is still, by far, the most for any left-hander. It is hard to conceive that anyone will ever surpass him – No. 2 is Steve Carlton, who had 329 victories in a 24-year career that ended in 1988.

 

Spahn died in 2003 at the age of 82.

 

A bit more of this story about Spahn, a lot more about the Bridge at Remagen and much more about the work of Army combat engineers is reported in “Building the Bridges to Victory,” which is on the home page of this website. It is not available on the Internet; it is for sale only from the author.

 

 

The Army Corps of Engineers has posted a piece about Spahn here.

 

Spahn’s Baseball Hall of Fame page is here.

 

The list of career pitching victories is here.

 

Photos of the Remagen bridge before and after, plus of Maj. Foley and his grave, are here.

 

[militaria7]

Warren Spahn lived in Oklahoma after his career as an active player ended. He also managed the Tulsa Oilers Baseball Club for three years and I got to know him at the ballpark when I was a kid. i hung around the clubhouse running errands for Spahnie and the players because one of my friends was a batboy so I got a lot of "perks" as a result. Spahn loved to tell stories and regaled me with many of them - I wish I had had a recorder back then! He told me about the Remagen Bridge (I was not only a baseball nut as a kid, but a big WWII nut as well - still am obviously). I remember him telling me that some of the men killed were his friends and how lucky he was to not have been on it when it collapsed as he was preparing to go but got detained with something - i don't remember what now. He also told me about being wounded and how it burned him as the shrapnal was hot but wasn't that bad of a wound. I remember telling him I wanted to see his Purple Heart Medal and he laughed and said something like, "Here, you can see this" then showed me his shoulders/neck (he had downed a couple of beers by this point). Every once in awhile i would bug him about seeing his Purple Heart and he'd just ignore me. Heck, I should have kept my mouth shut about it but I was only 12 yrs old and didn't know any better. When I was in the Marines I was doing armed guard duty on a commerical aircraft as we had sensitive equipment in the cargo hold (yeah I know - "why weren't you on a military AC". - I don't know....it was a job I had to do and didn't question it). I got to ride in first class and was the last man on the plane and the first man off. Yes, I was armed with a .45 on my hip (this was about 1977 I guess). I sat down next to a guy reading the newspaper. He looked over the paper at me but i didn't look at him. After a few minutes he looked at me again and said, "Show me your Purple Heart!" I looked at him and it was Warren Spahn. He couldn't remember my name but knew who I was even though it had been about 8 years. We had a great plane ride and he talked all the way about his days with the Braves and about his best friend Lew Burdette, Johnny Sain ("Spahn and Sain, pray for rain") etc, etc. It made our 2 hour flight pass in about 15 minutes. When he died I attended his funeral and got to meet Lew Burdette, Johnny Logan, Cal McLish and a few other old ballplayers. Hank Aaron showed up and I got to shake his hand but that was all as he left right after the service. Anyway...just thought I'd share.

 

Rick Lawrence, MSgt., USMC/USAFR (RET)

[Walt's Daughter]

Spahn loved to tell stories and regaled me with many of them - I wish I had had a recorder back then!

Indeed! Don't we all. Wish I could have recorded everything single encounter with every WWII vet I knew and know.

 

I sat down next to a guy reading the newspaper. He looked over the paper at me but i didn't look at him. After a few minutes he looked at me again and said, "Show me your Purple Heart!" I looked at him and it was Warren Spahn.

:pdt12: Oh wow, small world. I am laughing out loud!

[Walt's Daughter]

Rick, you won't believe this...

 

I was telling my husband about your post yesterday afternoon while we were sitting having a few cold ones at the bar, while waiting for our car to be repaired. We had a few good laughs about a twelve year old begging to see the purple heart and Lee was surprised that Warren recognized you on that flight. Wow!

 

Anyway, last night I was preparing dinner and Lee had some show on in the background on the tv. We were talking back and forth and then we hear this and I kid you not, "Hey, show me your Purple Heart!" Lee looks at me and starts to grin. "Hey did you hear that?" he inquired. I look at him and we both start laughing. "Can you believe that?"

 

Now what were the odds????

[militaria7]

You've got to be kidding me! What show was that? Was it something new or old? You've got to give me the details I've NEVER told that story before except to a few local friends!!! After i worte this story for the forum, I sat and thought back about that day. People were not happy that I had delayed the flight (only a few minutes) due to a problem with a baggage handler giving me grief over checking the argo hold of the plane to ensure the equipment they were carrying for us (Marines) was secure and the cargo hold door locked and the loader away from the plane before I got on. And once I was on, the galley door had to be closed and no one else alllowed on board. It was quite an inconvenience for the airlines. Then the pilot gave me grief about being armed even though I had paperwork allowing it. when I finally sat down, I was a little on the testy side but continued to hold my professional bearing. It was such a mood changer when Spahn said what he did. I also remembered that he had on his 1957 World Series ring and how worn it was from all the years he had worn it. He said he'd let me see it better but couldn't get it off his finger.

 

The reason Spahn rememebred me, I think, was becasue I was a tall, skinny kid all my life (not now though - well, still tall but a little portly now). My profile was distinctive as I have a weak chin and a large broken-up nose and, sad to say, not a very pretty shaped head with a Marine high & tight haircut. When I was growing up, my dad made me keep my hair short like that (which in the late 60's and early 70's was somewhat embarrassing for me). So, my profile was pretty distinctive and because of that profile, Spahn recognized me.

 

Now, if somebody comes up on TV talking about urinating with baseball great Roger Maris, I'm going to get pretty PO'ed! Yep, I have that story too but I've shared it online with a few folks so it's out there somewhere probably. My hanging around the ballpark as a kid brought me in contact with a great many greats of the game.

 

I think Spahnie's son still lives in the Tulsa area. I wonder if he would let me see his dad's Purple Heart?

[CaptO]

That's a great story - what are the odds!

 

As for being armed on a plane, I've done it a few times, but they have always been charter flights. I was the plane commander for a flight from Spain back to the Sates one time and had rounds as well. [being a plane commander isn't as cool as it may sound. It just means that I had to make sure that everyone got mustered in the hanger and got on the plane after having their ID cards scanned and put in the system. There were 320 seats in the plane and 319 souls from about a dozen units. That will teach you to be one of the first 1stLts there at the hanger!] I thought it odd as I thought to myself, "Now where am I going to stow my ammo?"

 

And welcome aboard - we need some more jarheads around here!

[Walt's Daughter]

Ya, I don't remember what it was. We had the tv on in the background. I have no idea what channel it was and what the program was. It was simply serendipity!