Ozark Infantry Valor and Medal of Honor Awards

$Text Box: The fighting resembled trench warfare of World War One. Yet, in spite of brutal fighting storming the vaunted German Siegfried Line out of Holland during World War II, no one in the 102 nd Ozark Infantry Division was awarded the Medal of Honor. Not that it wasn’t earned by many infantry rifleman as well as others. Sadly, though, as often stated, the real heroes died fighting, with their exploits going unrecognized. This fact often surfaces at reunions and in our newsletter, the Ozark Notes. It raises the questions, what does it take to earn the Medal of Honor, and were any such medals earned but not awarded? Apparently standards differ for different outfits and ranks. Just mustering enough courage to advance and continue to fight and die in the face of withering enemy fire would earn a rifleman a Medal of Honor in many other outfits. Going first as a scout is even more hazardous and probably fatal. Openly expressing trepidation and admiration, supporting troops and fellow countrymen often wonder how riflemen manage to do it. When asked personally if I was awarded any medals, I usually half-jokingly reply, if medals were awarded for being scared, there would not be one high enough for me. Once as a lowly buck private, I was awarded a Bronze Star for heroic achievement during a failed attack, mostly for just doing my job as a scout and surviving. If I were in charge of distributing medals, though, I would justly award a dozen or more of Medals of Honor to comrades, living and dead, in action that I witnessed. They would qualify according to official Army rules. All involved exceptional courage, action, and concern for comrades, above and beyond the call of duty. For example, consider the exploits of Long, Kubler, Stamirowski, and Miswald. While trying to encircle the Rhineland village of Welch from the South, when their entire L-407 Company was pinned down by enemy machine gun fire and being decimated by artillery fire, they were sent on a flanking maneuver up the wooded hill on the exposed right flank. In spite of being fired upon from below by our own troops, who mistook them for enemy soldiers, they kept advancing along the high ridge, protecting our flank, and threatening the enemy’s flank, until an enemy machine gun opened fire from close range, killing three of the four. Only Miswald survived. None was awarded a medal, except the Purple Heart. Or take the case of Brown, a scout, in the same battle. He continued to advance until almost on top of the entrenched enemy before they opened up with a burp gun. One slug hit Brown in the face, knocked out the teeth one side of his mouth, and went down his throat. As he laid there coughing up the slug, the Germans thought that he had died. Playing dead, which didn’t take much acting and listening to the Germans talk a few yards away, he waited until dark to crawl back to our lines. Nearby, a squad leader, S/Sgt Gannon was shot five times in one leg, and survived. Brown was repaired and returned to action. Two machine gunners were ordered blindly forward to somehow set up their light, air-cooled weapon to engage the superior, rapidly firing, enemy MG42 machine guns, and cover the withdrawal of the riflemen. They continued to advance into the fray, until killed by the entrenched enemy. Several tanks ordered forward from the nearby village of Ederen to help were soon bogged down in mud, and destroyed by the feared enemy 88 artillery and tank fire. Then there was the miraculous incident involving SSgt Smith. Leading his few remaining men up and over a steep secondary embankment along bloody Mertz Creek. Smith was shot in the face by an enemy machine gun, given up for dead when he couldn’t answer shouts, and abandoned when attempts to reach him failed. Two of his men at different times tried to reach him, but were driven back by machine gun fire. The bullet entered just below Smith’s left eye and exited behind his right ear. Later, still in shock and probably mortally wounded, Smith with the help of another one of his men, a returning scout, who had risked his life to scale the embankment to check on him, managed to crawl from a deep plow furrow over to the edge, and tumble down into the relative safety of the wooded draw, which was being bombarded with enemy shells exploding in the tree branches overhead. Then Smith and his four men, also seriously wounded or exhausted, followed the creek back toward our lines, where luckily, they stumbled onto a forward aid station of the Second Battalion. It had daringly moved out of the distant village to the front-line embankment for just one-half day. I was the returning scout in the Smith incident. Our second scout, Orzekowski, had been killed, shot in the back from a bypassed enemy position. His ambition was to be a priest, after first serving his country. It was only after actually abandoning Smith and starting back toward our lines, that, after much deliberation, I managed to muster enough courage to go back, scale the embankment, and check on him. Smith would never abandon one of his men without first making sure that he was dead, regardless of the danger. When I crawled up the deep plow furrow along side an un-harvested sugar beet field, and saw Smith lying motionless, face down in blood, my worst fears were confirmed. But the war raged on, and this isolated incident, never recorded, was soon forgotten. That is, until four months later, when Smith, after being repaired in England, was returned to the front for more action. His doctors said a small fraction of an inch any way on the path of the bullet, and he would be dead. For Smith, just being alive was glory enough. He was awarded a small pension later in life, but no medal for heroism other than the Purple Heart. I feel the same way about glory, but, no doubt, I had earned the Medal of Honor, although the thought never occurred to me until after the war when I read some of the citations. But, so did comrades and probably a legion of other riflemen, many who died during the battle. When a rifleman is killed in action during an attack, it may be comforting for the family to know that he probably earned the Medal of Honor. He bravely sacrificed his life for the sake of others. Most recipients of medals will tell you that the real heroes died fighting. Apparently the original idea and awards during the Civil War were more along these lines. Not long ago, in a token gesture the army awarded a Bronze Star medal to all combat infantrymen of World War II. What is needed is a special Medal of Honor awarded and dedicated to the many warriors who earned one but did not receive it? Awards to individual unknown soldiers honor bravery of all, but do not address this need. Regardless of fairness, medals still serve to inspire our troops and boost morale. The awarding process apparently has not changed much since World War II. But another more important question arises today, how to best support and honor our troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, besides awarding medals? Combat infantrymen know a way. The following thoughts and words are mainly those of patriots, President Abraham Lincoln and doctor John Macrae, a Canadian killed in World War I. He wrote the poem, In Flanders Fields. To honor our troops in their own way, keep faith with our brave, dead warriors and patriots so that they did not die in vain and can sleep in peace. As it did for them, let care, trust, faith, love, and hope continue to spiritually inspire you and all Americans to do honest work and unselfish deeds. Back Home Back Top Article was published in Military Magazine (milmag.com), Oct. 2007 News Item - Ozark Infantry Division Reactivated According to a recent army directive, the 102nd OZARK Infantry Division is being reactivated as a training division, and will be headquartered in the Ozark Mountains at Fort Leonard Woods, Missouri. Dormant for the past decade, it was formerly a reserve division in the Missouri-Illinois region. Division colors were ceremoniously unfurled at a recent reunion of the Ozark veteran’s association in St. Louis. Infantry training will include Navy and Air Force personnel destined for service in Iraq.$

Surviving Ozark Infantrymen enjoy luxury accommodations in Germany after the war. Doctors in England told Smith (far right) that a fraction of an inch any way on the path of the bullet through his head and he would be dead. Brooks (pumping) with a crease across the back of his neck from a snipers bullet claimed his mother-in-law kept telling Hitler where he was at. Bob Lally is squatting. Red Reynolds took the picture.

Author Bob Lally back in Holland in early December1944 to prepare for a special Roer River mission. Befriended by Dutch children, Jo & Franz Leersen, who arranged for this professional photo, a haircut, and warm beds with white sheets and down comforters in their home.

Top - Old Family photograph (1943) of bloody, Mertz Creek, wooded battlefield area showing bridge and raised road vividly remembered by attacking troops, but questioned by locals.

Below—Bridge destroyed by floods as it looks today. Area is now a wild nature preserve.

Nearby Hubertus Cross battlefield memorial and roadside shrine proudly displays the Ozark Infantry Division emblem, as does the Peace Window Memorial in the Rhineland town of Linnich.

With great effort, Fred Oettel, standing to left in photo, found the old photograph and remnants of the bridge. Gratefully, he also donated financially to the memorials, to restoring bells in his home village of Werdau, to its liberators: the Sixth Cavalry and 89th Infantry Division Associations, and to the to the DAV (Disabled American Veterans Organization). Eight year old Fred, after witnessing the capture of his home village by impressive American troops, escaped to the West, emigrated to the United States after finishing school, lived the American dream, and became a proud U.S. citizen.

And the Medal of Honor

Comrades Bob Lally and S/Sgt Richard G. Smith celebrating VE Day, 1945, in a village on Elbe River, near Berlin. Note bullet-hole scar just under left eye of Smith, and Bob’s crippled left hand. The magnum of fine cognac was from a barge load of captured liquor. There is a God!

Ozark Infantry Valor by: Bob Lally