Henry Gurke

Shielded a Marine gunner from grenade blast on Bougainville.

Henry Gurke received a posthumous Medal of Honor near Empress Augusta Bay, Bougainville, on 9 November 1943. A private first class with the 3rd Marine Raider Battalion, he shared a foxhole with a Marine operating an automatic weapon while defending a roadblock. When a Japanese grenade landed between them, Gurke pushed his companion aside and covered the grenade. His sacrifice saved the gunner and allowed him to continue defending the position. The award honors both Gurke’s concern for a comrade and his determination to sustain the defense.

Medal of Honor citation

For extraordinary heroism and courage above and beyond the call of duty while attached to the 3d Marine Raider Battalion during action against enemy Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands area on 9 November 1943. While his platoon was engaged in the defense of a vital road block near Empress Augusta Bay on Bougainville Island, Pfc. Gurke, in company with another marine, was delivering a fierce stream of fire against the main vanguard of the Japanese. Concluding from the increasing ferocity of grenade barrages that the enemy was determined to annihilate their small, two-man foxhole, he resorted to a bold and desperate measure for holding out despite the torrential hail of shells. When a Japanese grenade dropped squarely into the foxhole, Pfc. Gurke, mindful that his companion manned an automatic weapon of superior firepower and therefore could provide more effective resistance, thrust him roughly aside and flung his own body over the missile to smother the explosion. With unswerving devotion to duty and superb valor, Pfc. Gurke sacrificed himself in order that his comrade might live to carry on the fight. He gallantly gave his life in the service of his country.