Alan Louis Eggers

He saved wounded men and held off the enemy through the day.

Alan Louis Eggers was born on 2 November 1895 in Saranac Lake, New York. He grew up in Summit, New Jersey, attended Cornell University, and entered military service in 1917. He became a sergeant in the Machine Gun Company, 107th Infantry Regiment, 27th Division. During World War I, his regiment fought with the American forces on the Western Front.

Near Le Catelet, France, on 29 September 1918, a smoke barrage separated Eggers, Sergeant John C. Latham and Corporal Thomas E. O'Shea from their platoon. A call from a disabled American tank drew them out of shelter and into enemy fire. O'Shea was mortally wounded. Eggers and Latham reached the tank, helped the wounded crew to cover, and returned to retrieve its Hotchkiss machine gun. They used it to defend the wounded throughout the day before bringing them back after dark. All three rescuers received the Medal of Honor.

General John J. Pershing presented Eggers with the Medal of Honor at Chaumont, France, on 4 February 1919. After the war he returned to Cornell, then worked on Wall Street until retiring in 1959. He married in 1935 and had two sons. He died on 3 October 1968. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Official Medal of Honor citation

Becoming separated from their platoon by a smoke barrage, Sgt. Eggers, Sgt. John C. Latham and Cpl. Thomas E. O'Shea took cover in a shell hole well within the enemy's lines. Upon hearing a call for help from an American tank, which had become disabled 30 yards from them, the 3 soldiers left their shelter and started toward the tank, under heavy fire from German machineguns and trench mortars. In crossing the fire-swept area Cpl. O'Shea was mortally wounded, but his companions, undeterred, proceeded to the tank, rescued a wounded officer, and assisted 2 wounded soldiers to cover in a sap of a nearby trench. Sgt. Eggers and Sgt. Latham then returned to the tank in the face of the violent fire, dismounted a Hotchkiss gun, and took it back to where the wounded men were, keeping off the enemy all day by effective use of the gun and later bringing it, with the wounded men, back to our lines under cover of darkness.