This Day in History: William McGee's Bravery in Germany

On this day in 1923, a hero is born. William “Bill” McGee was an Indianapolis native and the third of five children. But was he an unexpected hero? After all, he didn’t rush to join the Army in the wake of Pearl Harbor. Instead, he was working as a butcher when he was drafted about a year later.

As did so many in those days, he married his sweetheart mere weeks before being deployed to Europe.

He was soon serving as a medical aidman with the 304th Infantry, 76th Infantry Division, as those troops made their way through Germany. It was a job he took seriously, and he would prove it on March 18, 1945.

His action that day was simple, yet it enabled multiple men to survive and return home to their families.

Our boys were then working to take the German town of Mülheim, near the Moselle River. As they crossed that river in the dark of night, the enemy had already retreated before them. Unfortunately, the Germans had also left an unpleasant surprise near the banks of the river.

The first wave of Americans came ashore, only to discover a field of land mines. Two soldiers were hit, too wounded to help themselves. The commanding officer ordered everyone to halt and stay out of the field.

McGee ignored that order, of course, reportedly declaring that “it is my duty to go after them.”

He managed to reach one soldier, avoiding mines and carrying that soldier back to relative safety.  Yet a second soldier could still be heard, screaming for help in the dark night.

McGee turned back toward the minefield. This second rescue attempt would not go so well. This time, McGee stepped on a mine, badly injuring himself. The resulting explosion unfortunately also killed the soldier he’d been trying to help.

The young medical aidman did not want anyone losing his life trying to save him.

“Although suffering intensely and bleeding profusely,” his Medal citation describes, “[Pvt. McGee] shouted orders that none of his comrades was to risk his life by entering the death-sown field to render first aid that might have saved his life.”

The other soldiers worked to clear the mines so they could get to him, but it was too late.

Nevertheless, McGee surely would have been happy with what followed: The first soldier he pulled from that deadly field ultimately returned to the States, where he got in touch with McGee’s mom and lived in New York with his wife and children.

McGee was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, but he’s received other honors as well.  An Army barracks has been named for him, as were a road and building at an Army Medical Training Center in Texas.

“In making the supreme sacrifice,” his Medal citation concludes, “Pvt. McGee demonstrated a concern for the well-being of his fellow soldiers that transcended all considerations for his own safety and a gallantry in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service.”

Just another member of the Greatest Generation doing what needed to be done.

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Primary Sources:

• Building to be Named for Winner of Medal of Honor (Call-Leader; March 27, 1973) (p. 3)

• David McCarty, Hoosier Hero Part of Book (Indianapolis News; March 21, 1980) (p. 20)

• Gold Star Mother Talks of War (Indianapolis Star; May 4, 1972) (p. 61)

• James Clark, 75 years ago, this Medal of Honor recipient braved a ‘death-sown’ minefield to reach 2 injured soldiers (Task & Purpose; Mar. 18, 2020)

• Medal of Honor citation (William D. McGee; WWII)

  Pvt. McGee, City Hero, Given Medal of Honor Posthumously (Indianapolis Star; Feb. 24, 1946) (p. 6)

• Widow of Hero Will Receive Highest Medal Here Saturday (Indianapolis Star; Feb. 22, 1946) (p. 13)