CUMBERLAND COUNTY
MEDAL OF HONOR MEMORIAL
John W. Minick
Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army
Company I
121st Infantry, 8th Infantry Division
World War II
Date of Action: 21 November 1944
Place of Action: Near Hurtgen, Germany
Date of Issue:
Entered Service At: Carlisle, PA
Born: 14 June 1908, Wall, PA
Died: 21 November 1944, Near Hurtgen, Germany
Buried: Westminster Cemetery, Carlisle, PA
Medal of Honor Citation: He displayed conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his own life, above and beyond the call of duty, in action involving actual conflict with the enemy on 21 November 1944, near Hurtgen, Germany. S/Sgt.Minick's battalion was halted in its advance by extensive minefields, exposing troops to heavy concentrations of enemy artillery and mortar fire. Further delay in the advance would result in numerous casualties and a movement through the minefield was essential. Voluntarily, S/Sgt. Minick led 4 men through hazardous barbed wire and debris, finally making his way through the minefield for a distance of 300 yards. When an enemy machinegun opened fire, he signaled his men to take covered positions, edged his way alone toward the flank of the weapon and opened fire, killing 2 members of the guncrew and capturing 3 others. Moving forward again, he encountered and engaged single-handedly an entire company killing 20 Germans and capturing 20, and enabling his platoon to capture the remainder of the hostile group. Again moving ahead and spearheading his battalion's advance, he again encountered machinegun fire. Crawling forward toward the weapon, he reached a point from which he knocked the weapon out of action. Still another minefield had to be crossed. Undeterred, S/Sgt. Minick advanced forward alone through constant enemy fire and while thus moving, detonated a mine and was instantly killed.
For more information on John W. Minick try these links:
Excerpt from A Dark and Bloody Ground: The Hurtgen Forest and the Roer River Dams, 1944-1945
by Edward G. Miller
Camp Comamajo Press article
From Pathfinder Magazine, Volume 3 Number 12, December 1987
Hero of Huertgen
By James W. Whorton
John Minick didn't make a very good first impression when he arrived at the 8th Infantry Division bivouac area near the front in Normandy in the summer of 1944. At 36, Minick was old for an infantry private. At 5'8" and 150 pounds, balding and with a scraggly mustache, he didn't impress anyone with his size or physical appearance. His military appearance, which he didn't care very much about, also left a lot to be desired.
And he was so scared of going into combat that his first night in France he cried.
Minick was so unimpressive that his company commander, Capt. Jack Melton, told his platoon leader, Lt. Stanley Schwartz, to keep a close eye on Minick so they could get him out of the front lines quickly if he couldn't hack it. That was important because Company I, 121st Infantry, 8th Infantry Division, was about to go into combat. Melton didn't need anyone who might endanger the other soldiers in the company.
To everyone's surprise, however, Minick didn't fold. He got over his initial fears and showed that he was in better physical shape than many of the younger men in the company. It seemed he was going to be a good soldier. Just how good, Melton and Schwartz were only just beginning to find out.
Minick's first days in combat were anything but unimpressive. The 121st was supporting the 83rd Infantry Division in the assault on the port of St. Malo in Brittany. In just a few days Minick performed two heroic feats that led to the award of the Bronze Star with oak leaf cluster and recommendation for a Distinguished Service Cross.
In the first encounter, Minick led a group of volunteers in an attack on a concealed German position from which panzerfausts - a single-shot light antitank weapon - had just knocked out two U.S. Sherman tanks. Minick, as was to become his habit, separated himself from the patrol and single-handedly knocked out a mortar emplacement and killed or captured the members of the panzerfaust team.
A few days later Minick again left his platoon just before a German counterattack. Apparently anticipating the attack, he worked his way around the flank of the oncoming Germans, and stopped the advance cold with a few bursts of machine gun fire.
Melton recommended Minick for the DSC, and promoted him to staff sergeant. But Melton had ever increasing problems keeping Minick in line when the unit wasn't in combat.
Minick, the son of a miner from Carlisle, Pa., drank heavily when the unit wasn't in combat - cognac was his favorite - and on several occasions he was brought back to his company commander by the military police. Twice Melton busted Minick to private, but on each occasion he gave him back his stripes when the company returned to combat.
Likewise, Minick didn't expect much from his men in the way of spit and polish. Bet he was deadly serious about combat, and he expected good combat soldiering from his men. His men liked him, and he never had any problems getting volunteers for patrols, largely because Minick was always the first volunteer.
Minick used a German machine gun rather than an American weapon, saying, "It shoots real good, and it doesn't jam." And he had a no-nonsense approach to keeping his weapon from jamming on frigid mornings when congealed grease often rendered weapons temporarily useless - a favorite time for German attacks. Most of his fellow soldiers warmed their weapons at camp fires. Minick warmed his by urinating on it each morning, according to soldiers in his company.
As the war and the Pathfinder Division's advance across Europe continued, Minick's fame spread within the division. Melton wrote in his later report to the War Department, "long before we reached the Huertgen, Sergeant Minick's name had become synonymous with the gallantry of the infantry soldier of the 8th Division."
The Huertgen was a dismal forest south of Aachen, Germany, that had been the scene of bitter fighting since September, 1944. The 8th Division entered the battle on Nov. 21, and the 121st was given the mission of seizing a vital ridgeline. In a dense fog on the morning of th 21st, the regiment moved through positions occupied by the 4th Infantry Division and into the attack.
Company I had gone about 200 meters when it was stopped by a row of concertina wire. The wire was covered by two German matching guns. Beyond the concertina was a mine field. The machine guns opened up, and that brought a mortar barrage down on the company. Shellbursts in the trees sent deadly shrapnel and wood slivers raining down on the company. Company I was in a bad spot, unable to retreat from their exposed position and unable to go forward through the wire and mines.
That was when Minick moved over to Melton, and addressing him by the nickname Minick had given his Texas-born commander, said, "Cowboy, how about you following old Minick? I think there's a way through this stuff."
Minick ran through a breach in the wire, followed by a few soldiers from his platoon, and alone attacked one of the machine gun positions, killing two of the Germans and taking three more prisoner. He motioned the three toward their own lines, and he followed them along what he hoped would be a safe trail through the mine field.
Suddenly a Germany soldier came out of the fog, and Minick shot him as he reached for his pistol. Minick didn't know it but he was standing right in the middle of a German command post. Germans started coming out of a bunker right in front of him. Minick hit the ground and started firing.
When the confusing firing in the fog was over, Minick had killed 20 German soldiers, and 20 more bewildered Germans had surrendered.
Some of Minick's squad finally caught up with him at this point, and Minick ordered the prisoners taken back tot he rear.
Reloading, Minick continued on alone. He knocked out another machine gun position, and continued on into the foggy morning.
Schwartz and Sgt. Fred Hays were desperately trying to locate Minick. They could hear him yelling close by in the woods, and they heard the sound of his and Germans machine guns up ahead.
"Come on out, you bastards! Come on out and fight!" Minick was yelling as he fired.
Then there was an explosion in the fog. Minick stepped on a mine and was killed. Trying to reach Minick, Schwarz also stepped on a mine, losing a leg. Company I swept past where Minick and Schwarz lay and moved into the former German positions on the ridge. In the course of their attack and subsequent defense of their positions, Co. I suffered 141 casualties. When the company was relieved, Melton, wounded himself, walked off the ridge with only 11 men.
In his report on Minick to the War Department, Melton wrote, "The actions of Staff Sergeant John W. Minick in that attack saved the entire company from complete annihilation."
Minick was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, in October, 1948. He is buried at Westminster Cemetery at Carlisle, Pa.
He was one of three Pathfinder soldiers awarded the Medal of Honor during World War II.