thedrifter
07-29-08, 11:06 AM
Medal of Honor Recipient Michael Daly passes...
Posted By The Wolf
At times, one thinks there is hope for NYT; today they wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/us/29daly.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1217347493-fZfek/rgQzx+WirauE2dIQ
Michael J. Daly, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his single-handed offensive against German troops during the battle for Nuremberg in World War II, died Friday at his home in Fairfield, Conn. He was 83.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, said his brother-in-law William N. Wallace.
On the morning of April 18, 1945, Lieutenant Daly, serving in the Army’s Third Infantry Division, was leading his company through the shell-battered ruins of Nuremberg when the men came under machine-gun fire.
Lieutenant Daly moved ahead alone and engaged in four separate firefights. He destroyed three machine-gun emplacements — the final one by firing his rifle from a range of 10 yards — and killed 15 Germans. The next day, he was shot in the face and evacuated.
On Aug. 23, 1945, having been promoted to captain, he received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor, from President Harry S. Truman at the White House. The citation credited him with “voluntarily taking all major risks himself and protecting his men at every opportunity.” He was also a two-time recipient of the Silver Star.
Michael Joseph Daly was born in New York City. His father, Paul, a West Point graduate, had been highly decorated for valor in World War I. Michael Daly entered the United States Military Academy in 1942. “I went to West Point and was a failure at the academy, a mediocre student with severe disciplinary problems, on special confinement, continuously walking off punishment tours,” The Connecticut Post quoted Mr. Daly as telling students at Fairfield High School in 2004. “At the end of my plebe year I left and was glad to leave. But there is something about the place that sticks to your ribs.”
Having joined the Army as a private, he took part in the D-Day invasion with the First Infantry Division and later received a battlefield commission. The day after the Medal of Honor ceremony, he was honored at a parade in Fairfield with his father, a colonel, who had re-entered the Army and had been wounded in France.
After the war, Mr. Daly was a salesman for an oil company and invested in real estate.
He is survived by his wife, Margaret Wallace Daly; his son, Michael, and his daughter, Deirdre Daly, both of Fairfield; his sisters Bevan Daly Patterson of Garrison, N.Y., and Alison Daly Gerard of New York City; a stepson, W. Sanford Miller of Chadds Ford, Pa.; a stepdaughter, Blair Miller of Asheville, N.C.; and three grandsons. His brother, T. F. Gilroy Daly, who died in 1996, was a federal judge in Connecticut who had gained prominence as a lawyer for helping win the exoneration of Peter Reilly, who had been convicted of killing his mother in a highly publicized case of the 1970s.
When he spoke at Fairfield High School, Michael Daly reflected on his Medal of Honor citation. “We all lose our courage at times,” he said. “It is something we pray for in the morning, that God will give us the strength and courage to do what is right.”
After the jump, his citation.
Rest in peace, brother...
-Wolf
From Wikipedia:
Early in the morning of 18 April 1945, he led his company through the shell-battered, sniper-infested wreckage of Nuremberg, Germany. When blistering machinegun fire caught his unit in an exposed position, he ordered his men to take cover, dashed forward alone, and, as bullets whined about him, shot the 3-man guncrew with his carbine. Continuing the advance at the head of his company, he located an enemy patrol armed with rocket launchers which threatened friendly armor. He again went forward alone, secured a vantage point and opened fire on the Germans. Immediately he became the target for concentrated machine pistol and rocket fire, which blasted the rubble about him. Calmly, he continued to shoot at the patrol until he had killed all 6 enemy infantrymen. Continuing boldly far in front of his company, he entered a park, where as his men advanced, a German machinegun opened up on them without warning. With his carbine, he killed the gunner; and then, from a completely exposed position, he directed machinegun fire on the remainder of the crew until all were dead. In a final duel, he wiped out a third machinegun emplacement with rifle fire at a range of 10 yards. By fearlessly engaging in 4 single-handed fire fights with a desperate, powerfully armed enemy, Lt. Daly, voluntarily taking all major risks himself and protecting his men at every opportunity, killed 15 Germans, silenced 3 enemy machineguns and wiped out an entire enemy patrol. His heroism during the lone bitter struggle with fanatical enemy forces was an inspiration to the valiant Americans who took Nuremberg.
Ellie
Posted By The Wolf
At times, one thinks there is hope for NYT; today they wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/us/29daly.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1217347493-fZfek/rgQzx+WirauE2dIQ
Michael J. Daly, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his single-handed offensive against German troops during the battle for Nuremberg in World War II, died Friday at his home in Fairfield, Conn. He was 83.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, said his brother-in-law William N. Wallace.
On the morning of April 18, 1945, Lieutenant Daly, serving in the Army’s Third Infantry Division, was leading his company through the shell-battered ruins of Nuremberg when the men came under machine-gun fire.
Lieutenant Daly moved ahead alone and engaged in four separate firefights. He destroyed three machine-gun emplacements — the final one by firing his rifle from a range of 10 yards — and killed 15 Germans. The next day, he was shot in the face and evacuated.
On Aug. 23, 1945, having been promoted to captain, he received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor, from President Harry S. Truman at the White House. The citation credited him with “voluntarily taking all major risks himself and protecting his men at every opportunity.” He was also a two-time recipient of the Silver Star.
Michael Joseph Daly was born in New York City. His father, Paul, a West Point graduate, had been highly decorated for valor in World War I. Michael Daly entered the United States Military Academy in 1942. “I went to West Point and was a failure at the academy, a mediocre student with severe disciplinary problems, on special confinement, continuously walking off punishment tours,” The Connecticut Post quoted Mr. Daly as telling students at Fairfield High School in 2004. “At the end of my plebe year I left and was glad to leave. But there is something about the place that sticks to your ribs.”
Having joined the Army as a private, he took part in the D-Day invasion with the First Infantry Division and later received a battlefield commission. The day after the Medal of Honor ceremony, he was honored at a parade in Fairfield with his father, a colonel, who had re-entered the Army and had been wounded in France.
After the war, Mr. Daly was a salesman for an oil company and invested in real estate.
He is survived by his wife, Margaret Wallace Daly; his son, Michael, and his daughter, Deirdre Daly, both of Fairfield; his sisters Bevan Daly Patterson of Garrison, N.Y., and Alison Daly Gerard of New York City; a stepson, W. Sanford Miller of Chadds Ford, Pa.; a stepdaughter, Blair Miller of Asheville, N.C.; and three grandsons. His brother, T. F. Gilroy Daly, who died in 1996, was a federal judge in Connecticut who had gained prominence as a lawyer for helping win the exoneration of Peter Reilly, who had been convicted of killing his mother in a highly publicized case of the 1970s.
When he spoke at Fairfield High School, Michael Daly reflected on his Medal of Honor citation. “We all lose our courage at times,” he said. “It is something we pray for in the morning, that God will give us the strength and courage to do what is right.”
After the jump, his citation.
Rest in peace, brother...
-Wolf
From Wikipedia:
Early in the morning of 18 April 1945, he led his company through the shell-battered, sniper-infested wreckage of Nuremberg, Germany. When blistering machinegun fire caught his unit in an exposed position, he ordered his men to take cover, dashed forward alone, and, as bullets whined about him, shot the 3-man guncrew with his carbine. Continuing the advance at the head of his company, he located an enemy patrol armed with rocket launchers which threatened friendly armor. He again went forward alone, secured a vantage point and opened fire on the Germans. Immediately he became the target for concentrated machine pistol and rocket fire, which blasted the rubble about him. Calmly, he continued to shoot at the patrol until he had killed all 6 enemy infantrymen. Continuing boldly far in front of his company, he entered a park, where as his men advanced, a German machinegun opened up on them without warning. With his carbine, he killed the gunner; and then, from a completely exposed position, he directed machinegun fire on the remainder of the crew until all were dead. In a final duel, he wiped out a third machinegun emplacement with rifle fire at a range of 10 yards. By fearlessly engaging in 4 single-handed fire fights with a desperate, powerfully armed enemy, Lt. Daly, voluntarily taking all major risks himself and protecting his men at every opportunity, killed 15 Germans, silenced 3 enemy machineguns and wiped out an entire enemy patrol. His heroism during the lone bitter struggle with fanatical enemy forces was an inspiration to the valiant Americans who took Nuremberg.
Ellie