War isn’t just about devastation; the world war era also forged a gallery of extraordinary soldiers whose daring deeds turned the tide of battle.
World War Heroics That Redefined Courage
10 Dirk J. Vlug
Dirk J. Vlug, born in 1916, was a Private First Class in the U.S. 126th Infantry Division stationed in the Philippines. On December 15, 1944, his unit’s roadblock was ambushed by a Japanese force. Leaving his covered spot, Vlug charged forward armed with a rocket launcher and only five rounds. Under a hail of machine‑gun fire he single‑handedly loaded the launcher and knocked out an enemy tank.
Not satisfied, he switched to his pistol, took out the gunner of a second tank, and then finished that tank with another rocket. Spotting three more tanks rolling up the road, Vlug flanked the first, eliminated it, and then destroyed a fourth tank. With his last round he sent the final tank tumbling down a steep embankment. In total, he single‑handedly destroyed five tanks.
9 Charles Carpenter
Lieutenant Colonel Charles “Bazooka Charlie” Carpenter was an observation pilot for the U.S. during the war. While most of his missions were reconnaissance, during the 1944 Allied siege of Lorient he thought the action was missing a bit of punch. He bolted six bazooka rocket launchers—originally meant for foot soldiers—onto his observation plane, christening it “Rosie the Rocketeer.” Flying solo, Carpenter used the makeshift armament to blast away up to six enemy tanks and a handful of armored cars by war’s end. All from an observation aircraft, with bazookas strapped to its wings.
8 James Hill
British Army officer James Hill commanded the 1st Parachute Brigade in North Africa. On November 22, 1942, his brigade attempted to seize Gue Hill from entrenched Italians. The enemy’s position boasted 300 soldiers and three light tanks. A planned minefield was sabotaged when a faulty grenade exploded, killing 25 of the 27 Royal Engineers meant to lay it. With the engineers gone, Hill was left facing three tanks and fortified infantry.
Armed only with a revolver, Hill charged the tanks. He managed to poke his revolver into the observation holes of two tanks, subduing their crews. While moving toward the third, he was hit three times but survived. By drawing the third tank’s crew out, he gave his men a fighting chance; they overran the position, and Hill was rushed to a hospital for recovery.
7 Fritz Christen
Fritz Christen served in the Totenkopf division of the Waffen‑SS, the spearhead of the German invasion of the USSR. On the morning of September 24, 1941, he was manning an anti‑tank 50 mm battery. When Soviet troops killed the rest of his crew, Christen kept the cannon firing alone for three grueling days, without food, supplies, or sleep. During that time he knocked out 13 Soviet tanks and accounted for nearly 100 enemy soldiers.
6 Ivan Pavlovich
Ivan Pavlovich was a cook for the 91st Tank Regiment of the Red Army. In August 1941 he was preparing dinner when a German tank stalled near his field kitchen. Grabbing a rifle and an axe, he waited for the crew to emerge, hoping they’d try to get the tank moving. Instead, the crew scrambled back in, opened fire with a machine gun, and Pavlovich climbed onto the tank, bending the gun barrel with his axe.
He then draped a tarpaulin over the observation hatch and, shouting orders to imaginary comrades, banged on the armor until the four‑man crew surrendered, convinced they were facing a much larger force.
5 Aubrey Cosens
Aubrey Cosens, born May 21 1921 in Latchford, Ontario, served with the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada. During the fighting at Mooshof, Germany on February 25‑26 1945, his platoon was pinned down while trying to capture three farmhouses. Cosens seized command, sprinted across open ground under heavy fire, and ordered the last Allied tank to fire on one farmhouse. He then directed the tank to ram the building, stormed inside, killed several occupants, and took the rest prisoner.
Without hesitation, he repeated the assault on the second and third farmhouses, single‑handedly eliminating or capturing every enemy inside. Tragically, after the heroic takeover, a German sniper shot him in the head, ending his life.
4 Havildar Lachhiman Gurung
Havildar Lachhiman Gurung, born December 30 1917 in Nepal, fought as a rifleman with the 8th Gurkha Rifles of the Indian Army. In Burma, on May 12‑13 1945, he held a forward post at Taungdaw against a massive Japanese assault of at least 200 soldiers.
When a grenade landed near him, he tossed back two harmlessly but a third detonated, blowing off his right hand. Undeterred, Gurung reloaded his rifle with one arm for four relentless hours, killing 31 Japanese soldiers and holding the line until reinforcements arrived.
3 Leo Major
Canadian Leo Major of the Régiment de la Chaudière volunteered on the night of April 13 1945 to free the Dutch city of Zwolle from German occupation. His partner was killed by machine‑gun fire, so Major went on alone. He captured the driver of the enemy vehicle that had killed his friend, hitched a ride to a local bar, and told a German officer that artillery would level the city at 6 a.m. unless they surrendered.
After exiting the bar, Major roamed the streets firing his machine gun and lobbing grenades, creating such a racket that the Germans believed a full‑scale Canadian assault was underway. He captured multiple positions, escorted prisoners to safety, and finally set the Gestapo headquarters ablaze, fighting eight officers and killing four before the rest fled. By 4:30 a.m. the German forces withdrew, sparing Zwolle from bombardment.
2 Warren G.H. Crecy
Warren G.H. Crecy, a tank commander with the famed 761st Tank Battalion, earned the nickname “Baddest Man in the 761st” on November 10 1944. After his tank was knocked out, he commandeered a machine‑gun‑armed vehicle and eliminated the German soldiers who had disabled his tank, as well as a group of forward observers.
When his replacement tank became mired in mud, Crecy braved machine‑gun and artillery fire to free the tracks. Later, ground troops attacked; he returned to the machine gun and held them off single‑handedly, forcing the enemy to retreat. His quiet demeanor belied his ferocity, and he was later awarded the Medal of Honor.
1 Fazal Din
Acting Naik Fazal Din of the 7th Battalion, British Indian Army, was born July 1 1921. On March 2 1945 near Meiktila, Burma, his section was caught in Japanese machine‑gun fire. After launching a grenade assault, Din led his men against a bunker from which six Japanese soldiers, including two officers wielding swords, emerged.
One officer was killed by Din’s men, while the other slashed a soldier. Din then charged the remaining officer, receiving a chest wound from the sword, but he managed to wrench the officer’s blade from the corpse and used it to kill the wounded officer and another Japanese soldier. He returned to his camp, filed his report, and succumbed to his injuries shortly thereafter.
These ten World War warriors proved that ordinary soldiers can achieve extraordinary feats when courage meets opportunity.