Bernard James Ray

Gave his life to blast a path through the wire

Bernard James Ray received a posthumous Medal of Honor for clearing a wire obstacle that had halted his company in Germany's Hürtgen Forest. On 17 November 1944, the first lieutenant led a platoon in Company F, 8th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on 9 June 1921, Ray was accredited to Baldwin, New York. His company advanced through cold, wet woodland under intense fire before a wire barrier stopped it. Ray reorganized his men and went forward to clear a path. Severely wounded while exposed at the obstacle, he completed the demolition at the cost of his own life, enabling the attack to continue.

Official Medal of Honor citation

“He was platoon leader with Company F, 8th Infantry, on 17 November 1944, during the drive through the Hurtgen Forest near Schevenhutte, Germany. The American forces attacked in wet, bitterly cold weather over rough, wooded terrain, meeting brutal resistance from positions spaced throughout the forest behind minefields and wire obstacles. Small arms, machine-gun, mortar, and artillery fire caused heavy casualties in the ranks when Company F was halted by a concertina-type wire barrier.

Under heavy fire, 1st Lt. Ray reorganized his men and prepared to blow a path through the entanglement, a task which appeared impossible of accomplishment and from which others tried to dissuade him. With impacable determination to clear the way, he placed explosive caps in his pockets, obtained several bangalore torpedoes, and then wrapped a length of highly explosive primer cord about his body.

He dashed forward under direct fire, reached the barbed wire and prepared his demolition charge as mortar shells, which were being aimed at him alone, came steadily nearer his completely exposed position. He had placed a torpedo under the wire and was connecting it to a charge he carried when he was severely wounded by a bursting mortar shell. Apparently realizing that he would fail in his self-imposed mission unless he completed it in a few moments, he made a supremely gallant decision.

With the primer cord still wound around his body and the explosive caps in his pocket, he completed a hasty wiring system and unhesitatingly thrust down on the handle of the charger, destroying himself with the wire barricade in the resulting blast. By the deliberate sacrifice of his life, 1st Lt. Ray enabled his company to continue its attack, the resumption of which was of positive significance in gaining the approaches to the Cologne Plain.”

Ray died during the action on 17 November 1944 and was buried in Long Island National Cemetery, Farmingdale, New York. His Medal of Honor records the sacrifice that opened the way for Company F.