Valor Friday

Today’s Valor Friday is dedicated to Harold O. Messerschmidt, Sergeant USA, and the extraordinary valor he displayed in 1944 France. He was last seen alive ignoring his wounds and charging the enemy. I’ll direct your attention to the article below, submitted by one who wishes to remain anonymous.

Messerschmitt and Messerschmidt are nearly identical in spelling. The former we know as an aircraft designer and manufacturer who produced winged war machines for Germany and the Third Reich. The latter was the family name of an American who fought with the US Army’s 3rd Infantry Division in World War II.

Harold O. Messerschmidt was an ordinary fellow who was living an ordinary life in an ordinary little place called Grier City, Pennsylvania. In pictures, he is seen wearing round spectacles and projecting an image that no one would describe as warrior-like. Neither tall nor otherwise physically imposing, Harold had a reputation as a quiet fellow.

Harold was five weeks into his 19th year when the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor. At the time, he was working at Sun Shipbuilding in Chester, Pennsylvania and, as a defense worker, presumably was exempt from military service. Nevertheless, the young man entered the Army in May 1943 and, by November of that year, was in North Africa with the 3rd Infantry Division. Not a year later, the ordinary fellow, now a battle-hardened sergeant, would display a ferocity in combat of a most extraordinary kind.

It was the early afternoon of 17 September 1944 and Company L had just reached the top of a ridge overlooking the French town of Raddon-et-Chapendu when the foot soldiers began taking heavy tank and 20mm fire. When it stopped, Panzer SS troops attacked as if “they had been given liquor or drugs before the assault.” (History of the 3rd Infantry Division in World War II, Volume 2, quoting Captain Robert B. Pridgen, commanding officer, Company L.) A wounded Sgt. Messerschmidt poured nearly 200 rounds from his tommy gun into the frenzied Germans and then, holding his empty gun by the barrel, saved one of his men by clubbing a German with it. A relief force officer reported that when he and his men arrived, he saw Sgt. Messerschmidt fighting alone, with the others in Harold’s squad dead or wounded. Harold O. Messerschmidt was last seen alive running down the ridge toward the Germans who were forced to break off their attack.

Harold O. Messerschmidt, returned home in 1948 and was buried in Christ Evangelical Cemetery in Barnesville, Pennsylvania. Below is the official account of this 20-year old warrior’s valor.

Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company L, 30th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Radden, France, 17 September 1944. Entered service at: Chester, Pa.
G.O. No.: 71, 17 July 1946

Citation: He displayed conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty. Braving machine gun, machine pistol, and rifle fire, he moved fearlessly and calmly from man to man along his 40-yard squad front, encouraging each to hold against the overwhelming assault of a fanatical foe surging up the hillside. Knocked to the ground by a burst from an enemy automatic weapon, he immediately jumped to his feet, and ignoring his grave wounds, fired his submachine gun at the enemy that was now upon them, killing 5 and wounding many others before his ammunition was spent. Virtually surrounded by a frenzied foe and all of his squad now casualties, he elected to fight alone, using his empty submachine gun as a bludgeon against his assailants. Spotting 1 of the enemy about to kill a wounded comrade, he felled the German with a blow of his weapon. Seeing friendly reinforcements running up the hill, he continued furiously to wield his empty gun against the foe in a new attack, and it was thus that he made the supreme sacrifice. Sgt. Messerschmidt’s sustained heroism in hand-to-hand combat with superior enemy forces was in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service.

Hand salute. Ready, two!

Category: Army, The Warrior Code, Valor