PAUL J. FENYO
Age: 89
Born: June 12, 1921
Hometown: Born in Budapest, Hungary; moved to New York City in 1938, at the age of 16.
Residence: Palm Springs
Military branch: U.S. Army; 3rd Army; 9th Army; 195th Gas Supply Company; U.S. Army Air Corps; 742 Air Material, 500 Air Service Group.
Years served: Nov. 9, 1942-Nov. 16, 1945
Rank: Private first class
Family: Lady friend Jean Cohen; wife Kathleen (deceased); sister Eva Liebross of Springfield, Va; cousin Judith Fenyo of Sherman Oaks; nieces Audrey Liebross of Annandale, Va., and Nancy Liebross of Springfield, Va.
About this series
Staff writer Denise Goolsby will profile desert veterans from World War II through the end of 2010 — the 65th anniversary of the end of the war. Contact her at (760) 778-4587 or via e-mail at denise.goolsby@thedesertsun.com
Coming Wednesday
U.S. Army Air Corps veteran Hyman Furra of Palm Desert.
LEARN MORE: Read about other Coachella Valley residents who served in World War II at mydesert.com/wwii.
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Paul Fenyo was born in Budapest, Hungary, and fled the country at 16, “when Hitler started kicking up his heels.”
“It was a miserable dictatorship,” governing his homeland, Fenyo recalled. “Hitler and Hungary were kissing cousins.”
His father was already living in New York City when the teen left Hungary in 1938 and he and his mother crossed the Atlantic.
“I loved this country as soon as I stepped in here. People don't realize what freedom is when they don't have it.
“After Pearl Harbor I wanted to join immediately,” he said. “They told me I cannot join because I'm not a citizen, but I can volunteer for the draft.”
He applied for the Army Air Corps but was told, “We'll put you where we want to.”
After completing basic training at Fort McClellan, Ala., Fenyo was shipped to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., where he was greeted by military police wearing surgical masks.
They told Fenyo the boy who had been in the bunk next to him at Fort McClellan had contracted polio and died.
Fenyo was immediately placed in quarantine.
He was sent to the hospital, where he remained for about 10 days until it was determined he had did not have the disease.
“I cheated death a few times,” Fenyo said.
On winter maneuvers, Fenyo was in an Army truck that collided with another truck in the snow.
“I'm banged up,” he said. “I broke my collarbone. I'm back in the hospital. This young orthopedic surgeon hinted that I could get a medical discharge. I wanted to stay in. While I was in bed, I caught the measles,” and was sent to the measles ward.
He was worried he'd be sent home after he recovered.
“I really thought I owed something to this beautiful country,” he said. “I was really concerned they were going to discharge me. Some of my friends said I had rocks in my head,” Fenyo said, laughing.
He got his wish and was able to remain in the Army.
Fenyo said his medical challenges may have saved his life.
“Maybe for that reason I was transferred out of the 8th Infantry,” he said. The 8th Infantry Division was hit hard by the Germans after the D-Day invasion at Normandy.
Instead, Fenyo was serving with a fuel supply company and was shipped overseas aboard the converted luxury liner, the Queen Mary.
“On the ship I met some nice people, including Joe Louis, the prize fighter,” Fenyo said. “He was a heck of a nice fellow. We became quite friendly.”
After crossing the Atlantic, the ship landed in north Scotland. The troops continued on by train to England.
Fenyo's unit arrived on Omaha Beach days after the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944.
“We crossed the English Channel,” he said. “I looked at the channel; as far as I could see, there was debris from the landing crafts.”
The unit operated independently, but was attached to the 3rd and the 9th armies.
“Our job was to keep (Gen. George) Patton happy,” Fenyo said. “It wasn't easy. We had to supply him with gasoline.”
When the tankers arrived, Fenyo and the rest of his outfit had the laborious task of pumping fuel into 5-gallon cans that were then loaded onto trucks that delivered the fuel to the front lines.
All the while, Fenyo listened to the German 88 anti-tank missiles falling nearby. “We were scared of them ... We had a saying: ‘They can shoot the pimple off a mosquito's ass.' They were very accurate.”
From France, Fanyo's outfit advanced to Belgium, Luxembourg and Holland.
Approaching the German border, the troops, who hadn't bathed in quite a while, had the opportunity to clean up in the town of Maastricht, Holland.
“I remember I was filthy,” he said. “I was able to stand under the shower. It had a big shower head. I think I stood there forever. It was beautiful. Hot water; it was so hot.”
Soon after, they got the order to start moving into Germany.
“We were in Jülich, Germany, when the Battle of the Bulge was happening,” he said.
Though the men were stationed north of the heavy fighting, they were on the alert. If the enemy advanced any further, they were instructed to destroy the precious supply of fuel so it wouldn't get into the hands of the Germans.
“We were getting ready to blow up everything. Luckily, we didn't have to do it,” he said.
In Mecklenburg, Germany, Fenyo's division went from supplying fuel to guarding German prisoners. He caught a painful, contagious skin disease called scabies, and he still recalled the affliction with horror.
“My face was peeling like I had some kind of miserable disease,” he said.
As the war in Europe ended, Fenyo was transferred to the Army Air Corps, servicing Allied aircraft to get them ready to go to Japan.
But the war ended before the the planes, and the men, were shipped off to the Pacific.
Fenyo's supply company was awarded a distinguished unit badge for keeping the jeeps, trucks and tanks running.
“If you kept Patton happy, you kept everyone happy,” he said.
