This Day in History: Bernard Ray's Sacrifice

On this day in 1921, a hero is born. Bernard “Bernie” Ray would go on to become a soldier and a World War II hero. His actions during the Battle of Hurtgen Forest would earn him a Medal of Honor.

Would you believe the Army almost didn’t take him? The Long Island native had eyesight problems, so he was rejected at first. Ray was resolute, though. “[H]e was determined to get in and he got in somehow,” his cousin later said.

She admired him. “He was a wonderful person,” she concluded. “We all loved him. He was a lot of fun to be around.”

Ray’s heroism came during  the Battle of Hurtgen Forest. That long and bloody battle was fought from mid-September to mid-December 1944 in bitterly cold weather over German ground. “[Hurtgen Forest] was the worst battle the U.S. Army fought in WWII in the European theater of operations,” one combat medic remembered. “It was hell on Earth.”

Trouble came on November 17 while Ray was serving as a platoon leader. His company was then pushing through the forest near Schevenhutte, Germany. They were under fire and taking heavy casualties. Suddenly, they ran into a concertina (coiled) wire barrier.

Our boys were stuck, unable to move forward.  

Someone would have to clear a path, and Ray was just the man to do it. He threw explosive caps in his pocket and grabbed some Bangalore torpedoes, then he wrapped an explosive primer cord around his body. He ran towards the wire barrier, placing a torpedo under it and preparing to connect a charge.

Unfortunately, the enemy chose that moment to turn their fire on Ray. He was soon hit, and he must have known that he had mere seconds to complete his mission.

“So Lieutenant Ray,” one local journalist would later describe, “who had had only 23 brief years to enjoy this life, and for whom there was so much left to savor, completed a hasty wiring system, and without hesitation thrust down the charger, exploding the cord about him, the caps in his pockets, and destroying himself with the wire barricade.”

His sacrifice enabled his company to keep moving forward.

Ray was apparently given a battlefield burial, although his remains were later moved to a Long Island cemetery. Yet that initial battlefield burial led to an unexpected event more than 60 years later.

In early 2008, a German collector found Ray’s dog tag, still buried in the Hurtgen Forest. He managed to get the help of two American volunteers who spent several months tracking down Ray’s family. The family was thrilled when they finally received his dog tag. “It’s like a piece of Bernard is coming home,” his niece concluded.

Rest in peace, sir.

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Primary Sources:

• Christopher C. Verga, World War II Long Island: The Homefront in Nassau and Suffolk (2021)

• Dad Gets Honor Medal for Son’s Heroic Death (Brooklyn Eagle; Dec. 12, 1945) (p. 2)

• Gerald Astor, The Bloody Forest: Battle for the Hurtgen: September 1944-January 1945 (2020)

• Heroes of Peace (Portland Evening Express; Dec. 18, 1945) (p. 10)                                                                                                                                       

• Hero’s Tale Uncovered (Newsday; May 25, 2008) (p. A4- A6)

• Medal of Honor citation (Bernard Ray; WWII)

• Sgt. Clara Harty, WWII Veteran Remembers a Deadly Battle: The Battle of Hurtgen Forest (U.S. Army; March 28, 2023)