There were many heroic deeds during World War II carried out by real life heroes. Many of these stories have been well documented and immortalised in film. The heroes, usually from the Allied side, gained their status by blowing up something or eliminating a whole bunch of enemy forces to save their colleagues and win the day.
In the movies, these guys were usually played by actors like John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone and Steve McQueen, the cool clean hero types.
I was lying in bed the other morning and I was listening to Today on BBC Radio 4 when I heard a story of a guy called Desmond Doss who went on to become a WWII hero in unusual circumstances. He was a Seventh Day Adventist and he was the only conscientious objector to ever win the Medal of Honour.
Because of his religious beliefs, he wasn’t allowed to carry a gun but he still wanted to do something to help his country. He felt guilty that his friends were all taking part in the war while he stayed at home, so he decided to do something about it.
Doss was working in a shipyard in the States when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour and his work there would have excused him from being drafted because he was contributing to the war effort. But he didn’t want to be known as a draft dodger for the rest of his days. So, even though he didn’t need to, he registered for the draft as a conscientious objector. He told the draft board that, while he was not willing to kill anyone, he was more than willing to serve his country.
Doss was a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church so he was forbidden from taking any active part in the war because its followers were not allowed to take up arms. But he persisted and went on to become an army medic and he saved many lives.
As a conscientious objector, he was often ridiculed and cursed during his training, by fellow soldiers. He refused to carry any type of weapon and instead he carried a Bible. He suffered for his religious beliefs and boot camp was difficult period for him. Fellow soldiers threw shoes and other items at him when he knelt beside his bunk praying.
One particular officer threatened to have him court martialled and at one stage he even tried to have Doss discharged for being “mentally unfit.” The fact that he wouldn’t carry a gun angered some of his colleagues and one soldier vowed, “When we go into combat, Doss, I’m gonna shoot you myself.”
When he wasn’t looking after the wounded, he would read Scripture. But although his religious beliefs prevented him from taking a life, Doss did what he could to save them. The LA Times reported that Doss was a very humble man, and while he was not proud of himself for going to war, he was proud that God used him to save so many lives.
He received the nation’s highest military award, The Medal of Honour, without ever firing a shot. O n Okinawa, he faced heavy enemy fire and single-handedly rescued 75 wounded infantrymen and lowered them one by one, down a cliff to safety.
He was part of the assault on the heavily fortified Maeda Escarpment with a 30 to 50-foot-high rock cliff at the end of it. At the summit, the soldiers were met with heavy artillery, mortar and machine-gun fire. Those not killed or wounded were quickly driven back. Doss, however, refused to leave the dozens of wounded behind.
His Medal of Honour citation says that Doss “remained in the fire-swept area with the many stricken, carrying them one by one to the edge of the escarpment and there lowering them on a rope-supported litter down the face of a cliff to friendly hands.”
As he made his way to each wounded man, Doss prayed, “Dear God, let me get just one more.” In the 1998 interview, he remembered that “I just caught them by the collar and dragged them. You made yourself as small a target as you could and just hoped and prayed [the Japanese] didn’t hit you.”
The Army credited Doss with saving 75 lives. While soldiers were initially hostile to Doss, as a medic, however, he quickly earned the respect of his comrades. He earned a Bronze Star for valour for putting himself at risk to care for wounded men.
But that wasn’t the only action on Okinawa between April 29 and May 21 that led to Doss’ Medal of Honour. He repeatedly braved enemy fire to aid the wounded and move them to safety and over that three- week period he was responsible for saving the lives of many.
During a night attack, Doss was tending to the wounded when a grenade exploded, shattering his legs. Rather than calling for help, Doss treated his own injuries and waited five hours before two litter bearers reached him. On their way to a first aid station, the trio was caught in enemy fire.
Doss, seeing a more critically wounded man nearby, crawled off the litter and told the bearers to pick up the other man. While waiting for the litter bearers to return, Doss was hit in an arm. Using a rifle stock as a splint for his shattered arm, he crawled 300 yards over rough terrain to the aid station.
Doss was wounded three times during the war, and shortly before leaving the Army he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which cost him a lung. Discharged from the Army in 1946, he spent five years undergoing medical treatment for his injuries and illness.
Desmond Doss died in 2006 in Piedmont, Alabama, after being hospitalized for breathing troubles. Some man.