I was wondering with all this talk about many prominent soldiers from many nations that is discussed at varying lengths on this site-got me thinking. I was wondering who is your favorite highly decorated soldier(s) in WWII are that you like studying about as much as possible? and why?

For example, mine are: Lt. Audie Leon Murphy MoH US Army 3rd Inf Div, Captain Richard Wallace Annand V.C. and Remy Schrijnen Waffen SS RKT from Sturmbrigade Langemarck.

Reasons Audie Murphy is my favorite MoH of WWII are because he was one indivdual who overcame many obstacles during his short lifetime. For instance, he was to become the male head of the Murphy household because his father abandoned his wife and family. As a boy, Audie did as much as he could in order to bring home money for the Murphy family to survive on.

Sometime after the US entered WWII, Audie tried enlisting in the Navy and MArines and was basically laughed at-for his short stature. Boy if those services had known that Audie had guts of steel. As you all know that he made several beach landings with the 3rd infantry division, as well as that you know his MoH citation. Audie might have been a bit short in stature but certainly was not short on guts.

Apparently Audie was a great man to know and was known for being very generous throughout his life. The guy won and lost fortune a couple of times but he always had the discipline he needed to bounce back. Sadly, in 1971, he lost his life ina n aircraft accident whilst on another business venture.

Another reason I like him as my favorite is also that because he was a Texan, and his hometown is not too terribly far away from mine ;-))

Next, I chose Captain Richard Wallace Annand as my favorite recipient of the Victoria Cross in WWII. And in a way, reading his citation is much that alike to Audie Murphy's award citation. Captain Annand won his V.C. during the earlier days of WWII for his actions at the River Dial in Belgium.

Captain Annand alone, attacked an enemy force of Germans and was throwing many grenades. The Captain halted what was apparently the preparations of another German attack.

This man was one of the bravest of individuals I have both had the pleasure of reading about as well as sharing several letters and postcards with. Captain Annand was never short on bravery and again proved it this time many years after WWII had ended. The Captain and his Wife had been attending a function on board a ship when his wife slipped and fell into the cold waters. The Captain immediately dived in and saved his wife.

During my communications with the Captain, I found that he was not only a generous person but very gracious as well.

Lastly, my favorite RKT of the war is Remy Schrijnen. This man was also short in stature but certainly not short on bravery. Any of you here who have ever had the pleasure of writing to Remy will know that this man was a very generous man and also a man of his word.

I had the great priviledge of getting to spend some 12 odd hours visiting with him and his wife back in Sept 2000. Remy's generosity never stopped-whether it was through the mail or in person.

Also, if one can read Remy's Citation for his actions in which he was awarded the Knights Cross, you will see some similiarities in his actions as with Audie Murphy's and Captain Annands actions. All three of these men were greatly out-numbered by massive enemy forces, and all three were wounded whilst performing their deeds. All three were also by themselves when their actions took place.

Sadly, all three of these men have now been claimed by history. :-(

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Ritterkreuzträger has to be the Deutsche Nachtjäger ........of which I have interviewed many Flugzeugführer und Bordfünkers

E ~ the temp is now 20 minus up here in the dark confirous woods of the NW, thw ind is howling...........aka Ardenne back in late 1944

Hi ~E~ and thanks for posting. One thing I was trying to do was to show the many similarities of the actions of these three Gents from three Armies who won their nations top awards. I was also kind of hoping that someone could pick out others from different countries who not only were their favorites but also their actions were really in common with others actions.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

I have to pick Sgt Rogers VC who won it posthumously at Anzio with 2nd Wiltshires.
Maurice Albert Windham Rogers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia




Lots of info on him here and photo of grave.http://www.eviltaxman.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/rogers.htm

Citation.
THE KING
has been graciously pleased to approve
the posthumous award of
THE VICTORIA CROSS
to:-
No. 5568932 Sergeant Maurice Albert Wyndham Rogers
The Wiltshire Regiment (Duke of Edinburgh's) (Plaistow)


In Italy a Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment was ordered to attack high
ground held by the enemy.

The leading Company had taken their first objective but were unable to reach
their final objective, owing to heavy enemy fire and casualties. The Carrier
Platoon, dismounted, were ordered to capture the final objective, supported
by fire from the Company and a troop of tanks.

The objective was wired and mined and strongly defended by the enemy. The
Carrier Platoon advanced through machine-gun and mortar fire until they reached
the enemy's wire, which was 70 yards from their objective. At this point
the Platoon was under the intense fire of seven machine-guns firing at ranges
of from 50 to 100 yards, and sustained a number of casualties. The Platoon,
checked by the enemy's wire and the intensity of his machine-gun fire, took
cover and returned the fire preparatory to gapping the wire. Sergeant Rogers,
the Platoon Sergeant, without hesitation continued to advance alone, firing
his Thompson Sub-Machine Gun. He got through the enemy's wire, ran across
the minefield and destroyed two of the enemy machine-gun posts with his Thompson
Sub-Machine Gun and hand grenades. By now, Sergeant Rogers was 100 yards
ahead of his Platoon and had penetrated 30 yards inside the enemy's defences.

He had drawn on to himself the fire of nearly all the enemy's machine-guns
and had thrown their defence into confusion.

Inspked by the example of Sergeant Rogers, the Platoon breached the enemy's
wire and began the assault. Still alone and penetrating deeper into the enemy
position, Sergeant Rogers, whilst attempting to silence a third machine-gun
post, was blown off his feet by a grenade which burst beside him and wounded
him in the leg.

Nothing daunted he stood up and still firing his Thompson Sub-Machine Gun,
ran on towards the enemy post. He was shot and killed at point blank range.

This N.CO's undaunted determination, fearless devotion to duty and superb
courage carried his Platoon on to their objective in face of a determined
enemy in a strongly defended position. The great gallantry and heroic self-sacrifice
of Sergeant Rogers were in the highest tradition of the British Army.

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My favorite Medal of Honor recipient is probably Joshua Chamberlain of the 20th Maine, Union Army. He was famous for his defenses at Little Round Top, Gettysburg.

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"Full Throttle And No Breaks!"

Off subject a bit, but he received that award for defending Little Round Top against brave men from my home state, the 15th Alabama.

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Best Regards,
JW

These are some great starts guys. Are there anymore takers?

Maybe I should rephrase it a bit? Who is a favored personality that you can't "get enough of" who as a recipient of their nations highest award?

Honorable mentions for me are: Adam Wakenshaw of the Durham Light Infantry (WWII) Victoria Cross Recipient. Thanks to PAul, I have a photo of the actual Gun he was a crewmember of and it shows some battle scars on its glacias plate. Unfortunately, this man never lived to see final victory.

USMC MoH.R. "Manila John" Basilone. This man did his deed on Guadalcanal. Manila John was in charge of a section of MG's. During a night-long series of Japanese assaults on his position, he managed to kill numerous Japanese Soldiers (mostly) by himsefl as eventually, all of his men were either killed or wounded. Manila John also managed to retrieve ammo for his defense of his position. During the early morning, he launched a 1-man assault on the Japanese armed with his service .45. He managed to bag several more Japanese soldiers before making it back to friendly lines.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

It won't surprise you when I say Guy Gibson, VC, DSO*,DFC*.

My all-time favourite biography is Richard Morris' 'Guy Gibson'. It dispels the Gibson myth which was so well-portrayed by Richard Todd in the movie.

An unhappy man in many ways, academically undistinguished, to many a 'complete b*st*rd', a turbulent private life, seemingly arrogant and sometimes narrow-minded.....all of which somehow makes his achievements with 617 Squadron even more heroic than the myth.

Even his sternest critics have to ( reluctantly ) admit that he thoroughly deserved his VC that night. Truly the right man, in the right place, at the right time.

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

There are so many , but here are a few of the first ones that come to my mind:

U.S. : AUDIE Murphy, Bud Anderson,
GB: Bader, Gibson,
Germany: Egon Mayer, H. Lent, A. Galland
France: Pierre Closterman

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Skipper,
Does Bader count on this thread?
Not a VC winner.

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Thanks for mentioning Guy Gibson, I had not thought of him but glad his name is seeing more light of day. ;-))

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Hey Skipper, thanks for mentioning Pierre. I'd like to know more WWII Frenchmen's names if you have the time? That is one area I have always wanted to learn more about but over here; you can't find much of anything-unfortunately.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

I'll name an almost unknown Ritterkreuzträger of the Nachtjagd soon as I gather up the info on a little bio on the man, he was shot down in action after engaging RAF Lancasters in 1945 by a Mossie Intruder. In fact so little known many LW research-historians have no clue who the man is or was. he had some 59 victory claims in300 missions, 6 US bobmers by day, 10 kills as an early destroyer pilot in 5./ZG 76, his brother Adolf served in the famous JG 52 as Gruppenkommandeur of III. gruppe and made it through the war even though he served for a time in Soviet captivity, he had 132 kills in some 800 missions

E ~ and C. Pierre has had several books written up on him in a personal bio form, one thing which he never confessed to is that he nearly was shot down and vaporized by 262's of Kommando Welter; really funny as when he was still alive and were in the gathering mode for the night fighter jet unit we told Pierre's personal biographer whom told Pierre who could not believe it and denied it even though we told him quite a bit about the mission from the two jet pilots following Pierre and his wingman who was shot down and killed on the op

Hi E, great stuff above and looking forward to reading more from ya.

And speaking of the ""unkn"'s bro--would that virtually unknowns bro happen to be: General of Fighters: Adolf Ferdinand Galland? I can't remember Adolf's Bros names off-hand. :-D

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

nope the last name is : ~ Borchers ~

looking for my stuff on the guy at the moment............too much in the office in the cave

I have always admired Teddy Roosevelt, Jr. Many MoH recipients were a brave man at a moment in history. TR, Jr fought to be at the front many times. That he often was mangled by the wrath of Patton for his lack of spit and polish (along with his buddy, Allen), is icing on the cake for me. I admire Patton's aggressive tactical mind, but his was an arrogant asterisk that I would have hated to serve under. I always thought that TR, Jr was partly the inspiration for General Wavery in White Christmas.

The problem that I have with any medal system is that many of those who deserved recognition, were denied for political, personal, or circumstantial reasons.

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Lord, let me be the person my dog thinks I am.

Glad you are interested in Clostermann. He passed away last year. He was one of my heroes. just check the links and you'll know why! Higly decorated by the USA, Great Britain and France.

Pierre Clostermann, Grand-Croix of the French Légion d'Honneur, Croix de Guerre France, DSO, DFC and bar, Distinguished Service Cross (USA), Silver Star (USA), Air Medal (USA)
Pierre Clostermann - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Obituary: Pierre Clostermann
clostermann

C.Evans. If you like this kind of info I'll be glad to post more for you. Actually I should put a link to the Roll of Honor too. A few names come to my mind Mouchotte, Valin, Demozay all higly decorated men.

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