There are many stories like this one, Mary. They are the guts and sinew that prompted my love of our History, beginning with the war of my very young childhood. I never tire of reading about them and continue to hold them in very heartfelt reverence. Thanks very much for honoring this one. Salute, Sgt. Peregory! RIP and thank you!
On June 6, 1944, Technical Sergeant Frank Peregory landed at Omaha Beach with the 116th Infantry.
His battalion was pinned. The bluffs above them were loaded with German positions. Men were dying in the open. No one could move forward. Officers were calling for covering fire that wasn't coming.
Peregory looked up at the hill.
Then he started climbing. Alone. With no orders. No one told him to go. He just went.
He reached the crest, found a German trench, and jumped in.
What happened next is almost impossible to believe.
He fixed his bayonet. He threw grenades. He moved through that trench and killed 8 German soldiers in close quarters combat. Then he reached a group of 35 more and forced every single one of them to surrender.
One American sergeant. 43 enemy soldiers. Alone in a trench.
He opened the path for his entire battalion to push off that beach.
He was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Eight days later, Frank Peregory was killed in action.
He had lied about his age to join the National Guard at 15 years old. He spent his entire adult life as a soldier, preparing for a moment that lasted maybe 20 minutes on a hill above a French beach.
He never knew he had won the Medal of Honor. It was presented to his family. Posthumously.