Medal of Honor: Biddle and Wiedorfer

66 years years ago,Privates Melvin Biddle and Paul Wiedorfer earned the Medal of Honor for actions during the Battle of the Bulge.

On Dec. 23, 1944, Private Melvin Biddle and his unit set out on a mission to rescue a stranded company in Belgium. Biddle was selected to lead the force when two scouts were injured by a land mine. He shot three German snipers, then killed eight more soldiers and destroyed three machine gun nests. The next day, Biddle came across 13 German soldiers and killed them all with his M-1 rifle. Amazingly, Biddle was not injured during his actions, but his uniform sleeves were riddled with bullet holes. Biddle passed away in his home almost two weeks ago. His citation can be read here.

On Dec. 25, 1944, near Chaumont, Belgium, Private Paul Wiedorfer and his unit were clearing an area of German snipers when two machine gun emplacements opened fire. Although the emplacements were dug-in and flanked by riflemen, Wiedorfer charged the positions. Miraculously, none of the enemy fire hit him, and he reached the first machine gun, destroying it with a grenade and killing the soldiers with his rifle. When he threw another grenade at the next position, the remaining Germans surrendered to him. As he recovered from a serious mortar blast at Walter Reed hospital in February, Wiedorfer learned that he was awarded the Medal of Honor from a sergeant in the hospital bed next to his who read the news in Stars and Stripes. His citation can be read here.