Medal of Honor: Wiedorfer, Paul j.

WIEDORFER, PAUL J.

Rank and organization: Staff Sergeant (then Private), U.S. Army, Company G, 318th Infantry, 80th Infantry Division.

Place and date: Near, Chaumont, Belgium, 25 December 1944. Entered service at: Baltimore, Md. Birth: Baltimore, Md. G.O. No.: 45, 12 June 1945.

Citation: He alone made it possible for his company to advance until its objective was seized. Company G had cleared a wooded area of snipers, and 1 platoon was advancing across an open clearing toward another wood when it was met by heavy machinegun fire from 2 German positions dug in at the edge of the second wood. These positions were flanked by enemy riflemen. The platoon took cover behind a small ridge approximately 40 yards from the enemy position. There was no other available protection and the entire platoon was pinned down by the German fire. It was about noon and the day was clear, but the terrain extremely difficult due to a 3-inch snowfall the night before over ice-covered ground. Pvt. Wiedorfer, realizing that the platoon advance could not continue until the 2 enemy machinegun nests were destroyed, voluntarily charged alone across the slippery open ground with no protecting cover of any kind. Running in a crouched position, under a hail of enemy fire, he slipped and fell in the snow, but quickly rose and continued forward with the enemy concentrating automatic and small-arms fire on him as he advanced. Miraculously escaping injury, Pvt. Wiedorfer reached a point some 10 yards from the first machinegun emplacement and hurled a handgrenade into it. With his rifle he killed the remaining Germans, and, without hesitation, wheeled to the right and attacked the second emplacement. One of the enemy was wounded by his fire and the other 6 immediately surrendered. This heroic action by 1 man enabled the platoon to advance from behind its protecting ridge and continue successfully to reach its objective. A few minutes later, when both the platoon leader and the platoon sergeant were wounded, Pvt. Wiedorfer assumed command of the platoon, leading it forward with inspired energy until the mission was accomplished.


I would like to thank you for being brave also for saving a lot of people, risking your life to save them and taking command of the soldiers until the mission was over. You are a true hero. Many people would not have risk their lives to save other but you did and for that I would like to thank you again.

2 more goals down!!!!!

I have accomplished 2 goals. Some of the goals I accomplish took me more than five weeks because they were difficult to finish. But others took me about 3 to 4days.

*The first goal I accomplished was to go the corner store and buy a giant jawbreaker then eat it. This goal took me 3 days to accomplish because I had to save money and pick a good day to go to the store. When I first got it I was so glad because I’ve been waiting for a long time to eat my first giant jawbreaker and it was supposed to be sour. Then when I stared eating it, it was not sour at all I was kind of mad but I got over it because it started to change color. At the end it was full of gum that made me like it even more.

*My second and last goal I accomplished this month was to play Dark Alliance 2 by my self. While I played this game by myself I was very happy because I didn’t need to share my money with nobody. This made me very happy because my cousin would always take more than half of the money for his self. Also while playing I found out a lot of new for example how to make a fire, snow, and keen powered sword. This helped me passed the whole game without using invincibility and I have never done that before. Which made me very happy and proud because I found out can really do a lot of things if I tried.