The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: Hazcat on April 09, 2009, 09:46:11 AM
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Russell Dunham took out three machine gun nests, then went back to the front
By Joe Holley, Washington Post
In Print: Thursday, April 9, 2009
Russell Dunham, a World War II Army veteran who received the Medal of Honor, the military's highest decoration for valor, after he assaulted three German machine gun emplacements, killed nine German soldiers and took two prisoners on a snowy morning in 1945, died Monday at his home in Godfrey, Ill., of congestive heart failure. He was 89.
On Jan. 8, 1945, Tech. Sgt. Dunham's company, part of the 3rd Infantry Division, was facing a formidable German force at the small town of Kayserberg, France. The men were issued white mattress covers as camouflage in the deep snow.
Heavily armed, Mr. Dunham scrambled 75 yards up a snow-covered hill toward the German machine guns. He took out the first bunker with a grenade.
Advancing toward the second, he glanced around to call up his squad and a bullet hit him in the back, tearing open a 10-inch gash. As he struggled to his feet, a grenade landed nearby; he kicked it away before it exploded.
He crawled through the snow to the machine gun and lobbed his own grenade into the bunker, killing two Germans. His carbine empty, he leaped into the foxhole and hauled out a third enemy soldier by the collar.
His mattress-cover overcoat now stained a conspicuous red, Mr. Dunham ran 50 yards to the third machine-gun emplacement and took it out with a grenade. As German infantrymen began scrambling out of their foxholes, Mr. Dunham chased them. He and his elder brother, Ralph, who was in the same unit, encountered a fourth machine gun; the older Dunham took it out.
The German rifleman who shot at Russell Dunham at point-blank range but missed became the ninth German he killed that winter morning.
His back wound had yet to fully heal when Mr. Dunham returned to the front. On Jan. 22, his battalion was surrounded by German tanks at Holtzwihr, France, and most of the men were forced to surrender.
Mr. Dunham hid in a sauerkraut barrel outside a barn but was discovered the next morning. As the two German soldiers who found him were patting him down, they came across a pack of cigarettes in his pocket and began fighting over it. They never finished their search, so they missed a pistol in a shoulder holster under his arm.
His captors took him toward German lines. The driver stopped at a bar, the second soldier's attention wandered and Mr. Dunham shot him in the head. He set off for American lines in sub-zero temperatures.
By the time he encountered U.S. engineers working on a bridge over the Ill River, his feet and ears were frostbitten. A medic told him that the commanding officer had intended to recommend him for the Distinguished Service Cross but had changed his mind. The officer had decided he deserved the Medal of Honor.
In a 1999 interview, Mr. Dunham told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he wasn't aware of being in great danger at the time, or in other battles. "Once you get into battle, you forget your fears," Mr. Dunham said.
After the war, Mr. Dunham worked for 32 years as a benefits counselor with the Veterans Administration in St. Louis. His first marriage ended in divorce. His second wife, Wilda Long-Bazzell Dunham, died in 2002.
Mr. Dunham fought in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and France, earning a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and almost every other combat medal available.
There are 98 living Medal of Honor recipients, about two dozen of them World War II vets.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/obituaries/article990786.ece
Comments at link
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97 left to go!
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A Great man indeed!!!!
R.I.P.
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I will give a short prayer for him today. I know he will be on the shoulder of a Ground Pounder and help them through a tough time.
Just being considered for a Medal of Honor is amazing. Sometimes I dont think people really understand the true sacrifice or courage or love for the man next to him. that one must posses to do the types of things that MOH recipients do. I know that people respect them and I know that some people do understand, but there are some people out there who will read a book or watch a movie and see or hear about a MOH recipient. But I dont think they get what the person is. A real Hero.
Hell even to receive a Bronze, or Silver Star shows someone who will selflessly go to a place and exceed in am environment of that which paralyzes others.
They do it I believe cause they come to love those around them. The man next to you is your only family and when the cards are down all you can depend on is family.
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Quote from Ksail.. "Hell even to receive a Bronze, or Silver Star shows someone who will selflessly go to a place and exceed in am environment of that which paralyzes others."
Agreed...I worked with a Army Major (reservist at the time) with two Bronze and a Silver as well as 9 purple hearts from service in Vietnam above the line! I respected him a lot when I met him, then one day, after he made his noon time run, I saw him from behind and the seven or eight bullet wounds that were visible on has back. Hero? you bet your ass!
Last I heard he'd went active and headed for Bosnia to hunt for Milosovich....By then a Lt.Col.....I often wonder what became of him...
Ksail....Thanks again Trooper!
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My Dad received a Silver Star and Purple Heart in Korea. He was a Machine gun Section Leader, He said He felt sorry for the individual Riflemen they had only themselves to think of where as he had a whole squad to worry about and no time to think of himself. He also said that He just saw that something needed to be done and there was no one else there to do it.
That seems to mirror the thoughts of other Hero's who say things like, "I'm getting a medal ? So and So deserves it more than I do", "I was just doing my job", or, "I received it on behalf of the guys who REALLY earned it".
http://www.history.army.mil/moh.html
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We owe a lot to men like these. Men who would gladly tell you they were 'just doing their job'.
http://www.downrange.tv/forum/index.php/topic,3482.0.html
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The Citation
DUNHAM, RUSSELL E.
Rank and organization: Technical Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company I, 30th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Kayserberg, France, 8 January 1945. Entered service at: Brighton Ill. Born: 23 February 1920, East Carondelet, Ill. G.O. No.: 37, 11 May 1945. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. At about 1430 hours on 8 January 1945, during an attack on Hill 616, near Kayserberg, France, T/Sgt. Dunham single-handedly assaulted 3 enemy machineguns. Wearing a white robe made of a mattress cover, carrying 12 carbine magazines and with a dozen hand grenades snagged in his belt, suspenders, and buttonholes, T/Sgt. Dunham advanced in the attack up a snow-covered hill under fire from 2 machineguns and supporting riflemen. His platoon 35 yards behind him, T/Sgt. Dunham crawled 75 yards under heavy direct fire toward the timbered emplacement shielding the left machinegun. As he jumped to his feet 10 yards from the gun and charged forward, machinegun fire tore through his camouflage robe and a rifle bullet seared a 10-inch gash across his back sending him spinning 15 yards down hill into the snow. When the indomitable sergeant sprang to his feet to renew his 1-man assault, a German egg grenade landed beside him. He kicked it aside, and as it exploded 5 yards away, shot and killed the German machinegunner and assistant gunner. His carbine empty, he jumped into the emplacement and hauled out the third member of the gun crew by the collar. Although his back wound was causing him excruciating pain and blood was seeping through his white coat, T/Sgt. Dunham proceeded 50 yards through a storm of automatic and rifle fire to attack the second machinegun. Twenty-five yards from the emplacement he hurled 2 grenades, destroying the gun and its crew; then fired down into the supporting foxholes with his carbine dispatching and dispersing the enemy riflemen. Although his coat was so thoroughly blood-soaked that he was a conspicuous target against the white landscape, T/Sgt. Dunham again advanced ahead of his platoon in an assault on enemy positions farther up the hill. Coming under machinegun fire from 65 yards to his front, while rifle grenades exploded 10 yards from his position, he hit the ground and crawled forward. At 15 yards range, he jumped to his feet, staggered a few paces toward the timbered machinegun emplacement and killed the crew with hand grenades. An enemy rifleman fired at pointblank range, but missed him. After killing the rifleman, T/Sgt. Dunham drove others from their foxholes with grenades and carbine fire. Killing 9 Germans--wounding 7 and capturing 2--firing about 175 rounds of carbine ammunition, and expending 11 grenades, T/Sgt. Dunham, despite a painful wound, spearheaded a spectacular and successful diversionary attack.
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SALUTE
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(http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm182/twyacht/US-Flag-capitol-half-staff-737281.jpg)
Main Entry:
val·or Listen to the pronunciation of valor
Pronunciation:
\ˈva-lər\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English valour worth, worthiness, bravery, from Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin valor, from Latin valēre to be of worth, be strong — more at wield
Date:
14th century
: strength of mind or spirit that enables a person to encounter danger with firmness : personal bravery
RIP Tech. Sgt Dunham.