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Veterans History Project Service Summary:

  • Service History Note: The veteran attained the rank of captain in the Army Reserve.
  • War or Conflict: World War, 1939-1945
  • Branch of Service: Army
  • Unit of Service: 8th Tank Battalion, 4th Armored Division, 3rd Army; Army Reserve
  • Location of Service: Fort Knox, Kentucky; Camp Bowie, Texas; Chippenham, England; France; Belgium; Germany; European Theater
  • Highest Rank: Private First Class

View full service history

"...Lie on your back and put your steel helmet over your face..."

Beginning at age eighteen, Bruce Fenchel fought all five of the major battles of Europe under the command of General Patton. Blasted in a tank explosion at Chaumont, he hung onto a gas truck with frozen hands long enough to be dropped at a Belgian family home and pub, where he was hidden in the attic. After fierce battles at Bastogne and the Rhine River, he witnessed terrifying sites of torture apparatus and death when his division liberated the Ohrdurf Concentration Camp.

Transcript: XML

More Resources

View 20 images in sequence.
[ Photo Album ]
View Enlarged Image
[ Map Highlights: Fourth Armored Division ]
View Enlarged Image
[ Certificate presented to Bruce Fenchel by the citizens of Utah-Beach and Sainte-Marie-du-Mont [June 20, 2000] ]

About this Item

Title

  • Bruce Donald Fenchel Collection

Names

  • Moore, Diane
  • Elizabeth Tiedemann
  • Evans, Mary
  • Herbert Hoover Presidential Library
  • National Court Reporters Association (NCRA)
  • Fenchel, Bruce Donald

State of Birth

  • IA

Home State

  • IA

Headings

  • -  Fenchel, Bruce Donald
  • -  World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal Narratives
  • -  United States. Army.

Repository

  • Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Gender

  • Male

Status

  • Veteran

Service History

  • World War, 1939-1945

    • Service History Note: The veteran attained the rank of captain in the Army Reserve.
    • Branch of Service: Army
    • Unit of Service: 8th Tank Battalion, 4th Armored Division, 3rd Army; Army Reserve
    • Location of Service: Fort Knox, Kentucky; Camp Bowie, Texas; Chippenham, England; France; Belgium; Germany; European Theater
    • Highest Rank: Private First Class
    • Dates of Service: 1943-1945
    • Entrance into Service: Drafted
    • Military Status: Veteran

Materials

  • Video: VHS [1 item] -- Oral history interview (collected 11/22/2002)
  • Computer File: Floppy Disk [1 item] -- Electronic file of manuscript (collected 11/11/2002)
  • Photograph: Mixed (Multiple types of photographs) [22 items] -- Photograph (collected 1943 - 1958)
  • Manuscript: Civilian papers (certificates, forms, wills, etc) [1 item] -- Typewritten document (collected 06/20/2000)
  • Manuscript: Memoirs [1 item] -- Typewritten document (collected 11/11/2002)
  • Video: Digital Betacam [1 item] -- Digitized Copy (collected 11/22/2002)
  • Manuscript: Transcript [1 item] -- Transcription of video recording (collected 01/11/2011)

Collection Number

  • AFC/2001/001/2978

Cite as

  • Bruce Donald Fenchel Collection (AFC/2001/001/2978), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Online Format

  • image
  • online text
  • video

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

Using VHP Material in Publication or Exhibition

The Veterans History Project (VHP) at the Library of Congress collects, preserves and makes accessible the firsthand recollections of U.S. military veterans who served from World War I through more recent conflicts and peacekeeping missions, so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand what they saw, did and felt during their service. The Veterans History Project Collection includes oral histories along with documentary materials such as original letters, diaries, photographs, and memoirs.

Veterans and interviewers contribute these materials to the Library for scholarly and educational purposes, retaining any copyright they may hold. Therefore, permission must be obtained before using the interview or other materials in exhibition or publication. Researchers or others who would like to make further use of these materials should contact the Veterans History Project for assistance.

As a publicly supported institution, the Library generally does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot give or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute material in its collections. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item from the Library’s collections and for securing any necessary permissions rests with persons desiring to use the item.

Please contact us with questions.

Obtaining Copies of VHP Materials

In order for VHP materials to be duplicated, we must receive written permission from the interviewee for you to obtain a copy of the recording unless the proposed use is limited to personal use, research, or other uses permissible by copyright law. If the interviewee is deceased, their next-of-kin may grant written permission.

Please contact VHP for assistance if you need to contact a veteran for permission to use their materials in exhibition or publication, or if you have received permission from the veteran and need access to high-resolution copies of VHP collection materials.

Citing VHP Materials

Please use the following formats when citing Veterans History Project materials (substituting the appropriate name and collection ID number).

Materials as a whole:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Manuscript material:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Memoirs (MS02), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Transcript (MS04), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Correspondence (MS01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Recording:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Audio recording (SR01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Video recording (MV01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Photograph:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Photographs (PH01), photographer unknown, Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Photographs (PH03-PH14), Ralph Williams photographer, Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Computer file:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Computer file (CF01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Artifact:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Artifact (AR01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Moore, Diane, Elizabeth Tiedemann, Mary Evans, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, National Court Reporters Association, and Bruce Donald Fenchel. Bruce Donald Fenchel Collection. 1943. Personal Narrative. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.02978/.

APA citation style:

Moore, D., Elizabeth Tiedemann, Evans, M., Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, National Court Reporters Association & Fenchel, B. D. (1943) Bruce Donald Fenchel Collection. [Personal Narrative] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.02978/.

MLA citation style:

Moore, Diane, et al. Bruce Donald Fenchel Collection. 1943. Personal Narrative. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.02978/>.