Why First Lieutenant Garlin Murl Conner called artillery fire on his own position during WW2 — and stopped 600 Germans and 6 Tiger tanks in 3 hours. This World War 2 story reveals how one 5’6″ intelligence officer saved his entire battalion by doing what every manual said would kill him.
January 24, 1945. First Lieutenant Garlin Murl Conner, intelligence officer, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, stood in a frozen command post near Houssen, France. Six Tiger tanks and 600 German infantry were advancing to break through American lines. Conner grabbed a telephone and 400 yards of wire, then ran directly toward the enemy through German artillery fire. Every training manual said intelligence officers stayed behind the lines. His own battalion commander would later order him to withdraw. Forward observers who called fire this close to friendly positions died.
They were all wrong.
What Conner discovered that frozen morning wasn’t about staying safe behind friendly lines. It was about positioning himself thirty yards ahead of American foxholes in an 18-inch ditch — what soldiers watching would call “Death Ditch” — and calling artillery shells closer than anyone thought survivable. Shells landing five yards from his position. German infantry closing to within arm’s reach. Tiger tanks advancing through the smoke. For three hours, he stayed in that ditch with a telephone, directing fire while shrapnel embedded in the frozen earth inches from his hands.
This action earned Conner the Distinguished Service Cross in 1945, but he never spoke about it. For 53 years, his wife didn’t know the details. His medals stayed in a cardboard box in a closet. Only in 2018, 20 years after his death, did President Trump award him the Medal of Honor. The second most decorated soldier of WW2, and almost no one knew his name.
Credit to : WW2 Records