Posted on 05/14/2019 11:54:54 PM PDT by lowbridge
Robert Maxwell, awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for selflessly throwing himself on an exploding German hand grenade -- saving the lives of a battalion commander and several other soldiers in World War II -- has died in Bend, Oregon. He was 98.
-snip
Maxwell and six to eight other members of his platoon were jammed in a small courtyard defending a battalion observation post in a house near Besancon, France, when the Germans launched a heavy attack.
A low wall protected them against machine-gun fire but the Germans worked their way to within 10 yards of the group and began hurling grenades, according to the Associated Press.
“I could hear it fall right near my feet,” Maxwell said long afterward in an interview with a local cable TV station, The New York Times reported Monday. “I didn’t know for sure where it was. This was between 1 and 2 in the morning. I groped to find it and throw it back, but I knew it was too late to do that. I was already crouched down, but I did have my blanket, shoved it down on my chest and dropped where I was.”
The grenade explosion knocked Maxwell unconscious, tore away part of one foot and peppered his head and left arm with shrapnel, the paper reported.
One of those in the courtyard was Cyril McColl who told Collier's magazine in 1945 that, while the other soldiers were knocked off their feet, they got up without a scratch, according to the Times.
“We started to pick him up and beat it, but he made us leave him and keep on fighting," McColl said. "Only when the battalion commander and his staff had moved out of the house would he let us hustle him back to an aid station.”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Amen.
RIP.
I’ll never forget the opening of Band of Brothers, when they interviewed one of the real members of Easy Company, about how in his small town, four men committed suicide, because they were classified as 4F, and couldn’t enlist.
A different time, indeed.
I'm absolutely certain that it will happen again, when needed. I reject outright the very concept of a "greatest generation".
I’m not saying that that these last few generations were any less brave, heroic and patriotic. I volunteered. My nephews did, as well. As did hundreds of thousands, knowing full well that they were going to war, just like the WW2 guys.
They estimate now, that 1% of the population volunteers. Which is ok. It’s not for everyone and I wouldn’t want anyone next to me that didn’t want to be there. But those earlier generations didn’t seem to have the hatred and self-loathing that some do now.
They may have had some commie infiltrators but they didn’t have the radical Left/ANTIFA/BLM/AOC DemSocialist/Progressive/BernieSanders element, seemingly, growing. I think their numbers are way over estimated, but so many of these 20 & 30-somethings don’t seem to care or live in reality. They didn’t have a media monster so completely against everything that is America.
Look at the girl on US Women’s Soccer Team. She’s representing the US on the world stage. She is where she is because of America and that is how she responds.
Unfortunately, she’s indicative of a lot of folks nowadays.
Hopefully, I’m completely wrong.
People like that tend to get forgotten by history, but poltroons have always existed.
IIRC, in one of the interview segments of Band of Brothers, Dick Winters was talking about the men he’d served with in Easy Co, and mentioned one of his grandchildren asked him if he was a hero in the war...
Winters replied that no, he wasn’t a hero, but he’d served with some...
Just finished binge watching The War by Ken Burns, on Netflix...Worth the time...
Yes. The older I get, the more I appreciate them. And those who went to Korea, and those of my generation, who went to Vietnam. And those who went to Desert Storm, and all the campaigns since. I appreciate them so much.
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