peoplepill id: walter-j-will
WJW
United States of America
2 views today
2 views this week
Walter J. Will
United States Army Medal of Honor recipient

Walter J. Will

The basics

Quick Facts

Intro
United States Army Medal of Honor recipient
Work field
Gender
Male
Place of birth
Pittsburgh
Place of death
Germany
Age
23 years
Walter J. Will
The details (from wikipedia)

Biography

Walter J. Will (1922 – March 30, 1945) was a United States Army officer and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in World War II.
Will joined the Army from West Winfield, New York in December 1940 and by March 30, 1945 was serving as a first lieutenant in Company K, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. During a firefight on that day, near Eisern, Germany, he rescued three wounded men, single-handedly disabled two German machine gun nests and led his squad in the capture of two others, all despite his own injuries. Mortally wounded while leading a charge on the enemy, Will was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor seven months later, on October 17, 1945. He is buried at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg, the Netherlands.

Medal of Honor citation

First Lieutenant Will's official Medal of Honor citation reads:

He displayed conspicuous gallantry during an attack on powerful enemy positions. He courageously exposed himself to withering hostile fire to rescue 2 wounded men and then, although painfully wounded himself, made a third trip to carry another soldier to safety from an open area. Ignoring the profuse bleeding of his wound, he gallantly led men of his platoon forward until they were pinned down by murderous flanking fire from 2 enemy machineguns. He fearlessly crawled alone to within 30 feet of the first enemy position, killed the crew of 4 and silenced the gun with accurate grenade fire. He continued to crawl through intense enemy fire to within 20 feet of the second position where he leaped to his feet, made a lone, ferocious charge and captured the gun and its 9-man crew. Observing another platoon pinned down by 2 more German machineguns, he led a squad on a flanking approach and, rising to his knees in the face of direct fire, coolly and deliberately lobbed 3 grenades at the Germans, silencing 1 gun and killing its crew. With tenacious aggressiveness, he ran toward the other gun and knocked it out with grenade fire. He then returned to his platoon and led it in a fierce, inspired charge, forcing the enemy to fall back in confusion. 1st Lt. Will was mortally wounded in this last action, but his heroic leadership, indomitable courage, and unflinching devotion to duty live on as a perpetual inspiration to all those who witnessed his deeds.

The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
Lists
Walter J. Will is in following lists
comments so far.
Comments
From our partners
Sponsored
Walter J. Will
arrow-left arrow-right instagram whatsapp myspace quora soundcloud spotify tumblr vk website youtube pandora tunein iheart itunes