WITH THE 4TH ARMORED DIVISION, in Germany--The first Medal of Honor
to be awarded to a man in the 3d Army has been pinned on the breast of
1st Lt. James H. Fields of Fort Worth, Tex., by General George S.
Patton, Jr.
The “dauntless and gallant heroism” of Lieutenant Fields at
Rechicourt, France, after being seriously wounded were largely
responsible for the repulse of Nazi forces on September 27 and
contributed in a large measure to capture of his battalion’s
objective.
The 1st platoon of A Company, 10th Armored Infantry Battalion, which
Lieutenant Fields commanded, was sent up Hill 265 to fill a gap left
by two platoons, including one heavy weapons platoon, that had been
knocked out by savage enemy resistance. Fifty-five men went up the
hill and 13 returned almost 24 hours later after using two light
machine guns to wipe out a platoon of Jerries supported by artillery
and three Panther tanks.
Lieutenant Fields moved his men up under cover of darkness and assumed
a defensive position. They held out all that night and about 6
o’clock the following morning they received their first concentrated
attack. They repelled that, and a few minutes later, Fields heard one
of his men call for medical aid from a nearby foxhole.
Knowing that no medical aid man was present, and that none was
available, Fields went to the aid of the man himself. He arrived just
in time to see one of his squad leaders shot through the head. He
turned to take a shot at the Nazi marksman, but before he could fire,
he was hit.
The Jerry bullet ripped through Lieutenant Field’s cheek from left
to right, knocked most of his teeth out, cut his tongue and filled his
mouth with blood and jaw fragments. Rendered speechless, he refused to
leave his platoon and continued to direct fire with hand and arm
signals and pencilled notes which he dispatched from one foxhole to
the next.
“Only when his objective had been taken and the enemy scattered did
he consent to be evacuated to the battalion CP,” the War Department
citation reads: “At this point he refused to move farther back until
he had explained to his battalion commander by drawing on paper the
position of his men and the disposition of enemy forces.”
This was not the first time that Lieutenant Fields had been
conspicuously gallant. During an attack on the city of Troyes, France,
in August he deliberately exposed himself to enemy fire again and
again in order that the positions of the enemy might be found. He
received the Silver Star for that action. Lieutenant (now Captain)
Fields also wears the Purple Heart and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
JERSEY HERO WOULDN’T LEAVE
BUDDY, CAUGHT IN FLAMING TANK
Cut Down by Nazi Machine Guns as He Tried
Rescue--French Honor Him
By Robert W. Richards
United Press War Correspondent
WITH THIRD ARMY in Alsace Lorraine, October 11, 1944 (U. P.)--In this
tiny village which must go unnamed for fear of German reprisals, men
and women come from their homes smiling proudly whenever American
tanks null past.
Sometimes these people wave and sometimes they just stand looking.
They tell their children:
“There go your brothers.”
For these Frenchmen in this town, near the quiet Marne Canal and only
a stone’s throw from the hated Boche, are blood brothers of all
American armored men--especially the crack Fourth Armored Division.
It was the Fourth Armored which shattered remnants of German forces in
their village. And it was a sergeant of the Fourth Armored who showed
them that these tank-riding Yankees not only know how to fight but how
to die.
From hidden places, from haylofts, barns and attics, they had watched
the dramatic action. When it ended the entire town was so moved by
what it had seen that the people gathered in a body, walked to the
square and picked up the sergeant’s crumpled body.
They buried him not far from the spot where he fell and every day
since then some of these villagers cover his grave with fresh flowers.
When the people watched the fighting this is what they saw:
Two German 88’s were concealed near the town square.
Down the road, rumbling over rough pavement, came a long line of
American Sherman tanks. The people held their breaths. They had no
chance to shout warnings.
The first Sherman roared past the square and turned left into the town
moving north. The German gunners were surprised or unprepared for they
did not fire.
A second tank rolled into the square. By this time the Nazi gunners
were ready and the 88’s roared.
The crippled tank wheeled and faced its enemy but it was unable to
return the fire. Other tanks pulled back behind the protection of a
house.
While the people watched this tank became a roaring furnace. They were
happy to see a man leap from the top of the burning turret. They
screamed to him:
“Come to us. Come this way.”
But the soldier wearing sergeant’s stripes returned to the blazing
tank.
This hard-muscled young tank commander who used to work in a New
Jersey copper plant had realized that his bow gunner remained trapped.
He scrambled to the tank’s top and attempted to pry open the red hot
hatch. While he struggled German machine gunners got busy. They
riddled him through and through and he fell in the mud of the road.
He lay there while fellow tankmen from another direction destroyed the
enemy 88s. They were so occupied with the task of killing Germans that
they roared past his body without stopping.
Later they returned hut the sergeant wasn’t there.
Admiring townsfolk already had buried him.
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