Return From the Dead

 An Unknown Medal of Honor Incident

 

Only in a devastating, failed attack during the chaos and carnage of a brutal war could such a dramatic event as the daring rescue of Sergeant Smith go unnoticed and unreported. Only in the aftermath could it be forgotten for decades.

 

During an attack out of Holland through the German Siegfried Line in World War II, S/Sgt Smith leading his two remaining men up and over a steep embankment was shot in the face by an enemy machine gun. The bullet entered just below his left eye, and exited behind his right ear. He was given up for dead when he couldn’t answer shouts, and abandoned when attempts to reach him failed. Daringly rescued later by a returning scout, he was airlifted to England, repaired, and four months later returned to the front for more action.

 

An Unknown Medal of Honor issued to the Unknown Soldier buried at Arlington National Cemetery covers such situations. The unknown soldier represents the dead known only to God, and the Medal of Honor represents unknown heroic deeds. In this way, it has been justly awarded indirectly to a legion of lowly infantry riflemen for just doing their job, advancing in the face of withering enemy fire. Typically, the surviving infantrymen mentioned above will tell you that the real heroes died in the heat of the battle.

 

Thus, family and friends of an infantry rifleman killed in action while advancing during an attack or fire fight can feel even more proud of their hero. Advancing when all human instincts say to cut and run, his gallantry presumably earned him the Unknown Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest military honor.

 

Instead of concern about the few who fake earning the Medal of Honor, more attention ought to be focused on the legion of warriors who earned, but did not officially receive it.

 

The miraculous Smith incident happened during the bloody Battle of the Hubertus Cross, as the Germans now call it, within sight of a big, wounded, old stone crucifix dedicated to St. Hubert, a popular medieval saint. His vision, a crucifix between the antlers of a deer, graces the label of Jagermeister Liquor. This roadside shrine, including peace trees and a big boulder displaying insignia of all 18 divisions, friend and foe, that fought nearby, is now a war memorial dedicated to all who died in the war. Annual reunions promote peace, reconciliation, and friendship.

 

 

Excerpt from Smith Letter - Oct. 23, 1988

Lally & Smith—VE Day 1945

 Note scar under left eye

Luxury Accommodations After War.

(Smith on right, Lally kneeling)

Hubertus Cross War Memorial

Visitors Fred Oettel & Bob Lally