Robert D. Fischle’s autobiography, Small Town Kid to Big Time War, documents his journey from living the life of an youngster growing up in Anaheim, then a sleepy agricultural community, to becoming an Army gunner who experienced such WWII horrors as driving over frozen corpses in an Army M-15 Half-Track during the Battle of the Bulge.
A Class of ’41 grad, Robert’s journey began in Jan. 23, 1924, when he was born in Anaheim and raised in his family home located at 326 S. Melrose St. He attended Broadway Elementary School, Fremont Junior High, then Anaheim Union High School, entering as a freshman in 1936 just as the new school buildings opened after being reconstructed after the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. He played football, basketball and track all four years. His autobiography recalls his years at AUHS with a special mention of how much he enjoyed the new gym and swimming pool.
Fischle’s extracurricular activities leaned toward fast cars. In school he was call Bob or his nickname “Fish” and his best buddy was Bob Spielman. The duo rode in a Willy’s roadster and any time they could scrounge up some money, the two Bobs headed for to the nearest station to fill up on 10.9-cents- a-gallon-gas, then head to Huntington Beach.
After graduating from Anaheim, Fischle studied at Fullerton College until receiving his draft notice two years later Jan. 23, 1943, his 19th birthday. He reported to Fort MacArthur in San Pedro, trained at Camp Haan near March Air Force Base, then on to Mohave Desert’s Camp Irwin, where he learned to operate machine guns mounted on an armored anti-aircraft half-track. The large truck-type vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks with equipped with two 50-caliber machine guns firing 500 rounds per minute, as well as a 37-milimeter canon that fired 120 rounds per minute.
In his Small Town Kid to Big Time War memoir, Fischle recounts how his elite battalion crossed the European continent for 281 days of combat, including an important appearance in the Battle of the Bulge, the last major engagement of the United States in the European theater. This 40-day battle, fought in Belgium from Dec. 16, 1944 through Jan. 25, 1945 in the freezing cold, was the largest and bloodiest battle Americans fought in World War II, leaving 90,000 Americans wounded and 19,000 dead.
Fischle was assigned to the Elite 390th Special Battalion Unit of 675 soldiers known as the Anti-Aircraft Artillery-Automatic Weapons Battalion. After a little more than one year of training, the battalion was assigned to fight in the Third Army commanded by General George Patton and shipped out April 6, 1944 from Camp Shanks, New York, to Glasgow Harbor, Gureck, Scotland.
From June 29, 1944, to his date of discharge, Fischle traveled with his Battalion from Scotland, through England, France, Luxembourg, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Austria. On July 7, 1944, the 390th Battalion landed on Utah Beach with the mission to protect the Third Army’s supply dumps. As they began their advance across Europe, the main objective was to shut down enemy aircraft to prevent destruction of bridges. Keeping these structures intact was of vital importance to the success of U.S. Army operations. “We advanced day and night, over mountains, through dense forests, across broad rivers, pressing ever onward in pursuit of victory,” Robert wrote in his memoir.
The 390th made history during the Battle of the Bulge, shooting down 13 German planes in 17 minutes, receiving commendations U.S. Army Generals Patton, Eisenhower, Marshall, Bradley and more.
The end of March 1945 was the beginning of what has been called the “Rat Race” to Germany. On April 30, 1945, Hitler committed suicide along with his wife of one day, Eva Braun, his mistress of many years; thus, ending the Third Reich and which surrender unconditionally on May 8, 1945.
After the war ended, “Fish” returned to Anaheim and married Barbara Cordill from Class of 1944. He still lives in his Anaheim home not far from his alma mater and he still loves fast cars. Fischle is driving and owns a 1966 Mustang that he bought off the showroom floor at McCoy Ford in downtown Anaheim.
Robert Fischle ’44 receiving jersey at Anaheim High Varsity Football Honor Game
Anaheim High’s Football program honored Fischle in 2013 at an Honor Game where he was presented with a special jersey.
