Requesting stories, poems and quotes (1 Viewer)

Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules

Joseph F. Merrell - This guy was from my home town and attended my high school. In 1975 I found a desk with his name engraved in it. The school removed it and I think it's in a museum. There are several Staten Island streets and a Ferry named after PFC Merrel. Here's his story.....

Born: August 21, 1926 at Staten Island, NY

Entered Service in the US Army from Staten Island, NY

Earned The Medal of Honor During World War II For heroism April 18, 1945 at Lohe, Germany

Died: April 18, 1945 at the age of 18
Private Merrell made a gallant, one man attack against superior enemy forces near Lohe, Germany when his unit was pinned down by brutal enemy fire. On his own initiative, he began a single-handed assault. He ran 100 yards through concentrated fire, and at pointblank range engaged four Germans with his rifle, killing all of them. As he started forward again his rifle was smashed by a sniper's bullet, leaving him armed only with three grenades. He zigzagged 200 yards through a hail of bullets to within ten yards of the first machinegun, hurled two grenades and then rushed the position ready to fight with his bare hands if necessary. In the emplacement he seized a Luger pistol and killed what Germans had survived the grenade. Rearmed, he crawled toward the second machinegun 30 yards away, killing four Germans on the way though receiving a critical wound in the abdomen. Pressing on, staggering, bleeding, disregarding bullets which tore through the folds of his clothing and glanced off his helmet, he threw his last grenade into the machinegun nest and stumbled on to wipe out the crew before he was killed. In his spectacular one-man attack Private Merrell killed two dozen enemy in order to facilitate his comrades' advance.
 

Attachments

  • merrell_joseph_ny_420.jpg
    merrell_joseph_ny_420.jpg
    68.6 KB · Views: 388
Did he get a Medal of Honour for that because he certainly deserved it! Now that's a soldier!
 
Thanks guys - Ya know Lanc, I posted that story about my Uncle in here about his friend who was playing inside the cockpit on a P-40 and was pretending to talk on the mike when in reality he had the piss tube up to his mouth!
 
Here another one from when I used to live close to Edwards AFB.......

In order to prepare bomber crews for combat in the Pacific Theater during World War II, Army Air Force engineers constructed a full-sized replica of an enemy warship in a cove at the south end of the Muroc Dry Lake bed. The giant training aid was built of 4-by-4 timbers covered with chicken wire, flocked with chopped chicken feathers. Often erroneously called a battleship, it was in reality a surprisingly realistic silhouette of an Atago-class heavy cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Bulldozers raised long earth berms along the sides of the ship to simulate wake and wave action. Immediately nicknamed the Muroc Maru,it was used for bombing and strafing practice, and for recognition training. Crews of medium bombers developed and practiced the skip-bombing technique which was later used to good effect in combat.

Surprised visitors were often told, tongue-in-cheek, that the target vessel was only a desert mirage. Alas, stories and memories are all that remain of the imposing training aid. After the war, the Muroc Maru was deemed a safety hazard, and it was dismantled in the early 1950s. Not a trace remains today.
 

Attachments

  • murocmaruthen-1_300_180.jpg
    murocmaruthen-1_300_180.jpg
    8.4 KB · Views: 402
  • murocmarunow-1_300_328.jpg
    murocmarunow-1_300_328.jpg
    10.1 KB · Views: 382

Users who are viewing this thread

Back