This Day in History: Jack Knight's Medal of Honor

On this day in 1945, a cavalryman is awarded a Medal of Honor. Jack L. Knight’s bravery came in the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II, the so-called “Forgotten Theater” of the war.

He is the only ground combat soldier to receive a Medal of Honor in that theater.

Knight’s little brother, Bill, remembers the day that his three oldest brothers, including Jack, left to join the Texas National Guard. It was November 1940, and the boys did not think they would be gone for more than a year.

“I worshipped those boys,” Bill said many years later, as Jack was inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame. “They were my heroes.”

All three brothers were assigned to the 124th Cavalry Regiment. Needless to say, the attack on Pearl Harbor more or less ensured that they were not home within a year. To the contrary, by February 1945, Jack was in Burma, near Loi-Kang. He was then in command of F Troop, which had been assigned to the Army’s MARS Task Force.

That task force has also earned a “forgotten” label, with one veteran calling it the “Most Forgotten Unit in the Most Forgotten Theatre of That War.” Its job was an important one: The Task Force had gone deep into enemy territory, battling Japanese forces and opening the vital Burma Road.

Control of the road was needed so supplies could get through to the Chinese.

One of the last battles to clear the road came on February 2. First Lt. Jack Knight was right in the thick of it, along with his brother First Sgt. Curtis Knight.

Things were going well. Our boys had knocked out multiple enemy pillboxes and taken their initial objective in about half an hour. But just as they were preparing to dig in, more Japanese pillboxes and foxholes were spotted ahead and to the right.

The enemy emplacements had been skillfully concealed and posed an immediate threat to Jack’s men. Naturally, he leapt into action.

“Preceding his men by at least 10 feet,” his Medal citation describes, “he immediately led an attack. Singlehandedly he knocked out two enemy pillboxes and killed the occupants of several foxholes. While attempting to knock out a third pillbox, he was struck . . . .”

The blast left Jack blinded, but a little thing like not being able to see wasn’t going to stop him. He rallied his men and continued forward, crawling on his hands and knees. Unfortunately, he was hit by another grenade.

Curtis tried to get to his brother, but he was also hit by enemy fire. Jack’s last act was to order his brother taken away for first aid. Curtis survived. Jack did not.

Because of Jack, most of the Japanese positions were eliminated that day. The last portions of the Burma Road were finally seized a few days later.

Jack posthumously received a Medal of Honor four months later, and Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander in Southeast Asia, would later dedicate the area of his action as “Knight’s Hill.”

“What Jack Knight did that day is something for every American to be proud of,” regimental commander Colonel William Fox Osborne concluded. “It is officers of Jack Knight’s caliber and the troops that follow his kind of leadership that are winning the war—not colonels and generals.”

Rest in peace, Sir.

Constitution4Kids.com

Primary Sources & Further Reading:

• Art Leatherwood, Jack L. Knight: Medal of Honor Recipient and Heroic Legacy (Texas State Historical Association; Feb. 1, 1995)

• Bill Knight, Knight’s Hill, The Story of a Family in War (2004)

• China Burma India Theater of Operations (National WWII Museum)

• China-Burma-India: WWII’s Forgotten Theater (Library of Congress)

• Jack L. Knight Collection (UTA Special Collections)

• Jeanne Douglas, Fallen Heroes Whisper Call to Peace (Austin American-Statesman (Aug. 11, 1945) (p. 2)

• Jon McConal, Remembrance of Things Past (Fort Worth Star-Telegram; March 14, 1991) (p. B1)

• Matthew James Camina, “The Most Forgotten Unit in the Most Forgotten Theatre of That War”: A History of the Mars Task Force in the Burma Theatre of World War II, August 1944-October 1945 (Texas A&M Theses and Dissertations; 2019).

• Medal of Honor citation (Jack Llewellyn Knight; WWII)

• Mick Walsh, Letters Detail Family’s Service (Ledger-Enquirer; July 13, 2005) (p. 4)

• Millsap Honor Medal Winner Will Get Military Reburial (Fort Worth Star-Telegram; Jan. 14, 1949) (p. 7)

• Texas Military Forces Hall of Honor: Jack Knight (Texas Military Forces Museum)