Henry Schauer

Attacked snipers and machine guns to protect a pinned patrol

Henry Schauer earned the Medal of Honor while fighting in Italy during World War II. Born in Clinton, Oklahoma, on October 9, 1918, he entered the Army in February 1941 and served with the battle patrol of Company F, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division.

On May 23, 1944, near Cisterna di Littoria, Private First Class Schauer repeatedly left cover to engage German snipers and machine-gun positions with his Browning automatic rifle. When artillery and machine-gun fire halted his patrol, he attacked the gun crews despite shells bursting nearby. The following morning, he again advanced against a machine gun while a tank fired at him.

Lieutenant General Alexander Patch presented Schauer’s Medal of Honor at Remiremont, France, on October 18, 1944. Schauer attained technical sergeant. After the war he farmed in Montana, moved to Oregon in 1958, and worked for the Oregon Highway Division until retiring in 1971. He and his wife Ellen made their home in Oregon. He died in Salem, Oregon, on June 16, 1997, and was buried in City View Cemetery. His award commemorates repeated courage in protecting his patrol.

Official Medal of Honor citation

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. On 23 May 1944, at 12 noon, Pfc. (now T/Sgt.) Schauer left the cover of a ditch to engage four German snipers who opened fire on the patrol from its rear. Standing erect he walked deliberately 30 yards toward the enemy, stopped amid the fire of four rifles centered on him, and with four bursts from his BAR, each at a different range, killed all of the snipers.

Catching sight of a fifth sniper waiting for the patrol behind a house chimney, Pfc. Schauer brought him down with another burst. Shortly after, when a heavy enemy artillery concentration and two machine guns temporarily halted the patrol, Pfc. Schauer again left cover to engage the enemy weapons singlehandedly. While shells exploded within 15 yards, showering dirt over him, and strings of grazing German tracer bullets whipped past him at chest level, Pfc. Schauer knelt, killed the two gunners of the machine gun only 60 yards from him with a single burst from his BAR, and crumpled two other enemy soldiers who ran to man the gun. Inserting a fresh magazine in his BAR, Pfc. Schauer shifted his body to fire at the other weapon 500 yards distant and emptied his weapon into the enemy crew, killing all four Germans. Next morning, when shells from a German Mark VI tank and a machine gun only 100 yards distant again forced the patrol to seek cover, Pfc. Schauer crawled toward the enemy machine gun, stood upright only 80 yards from the weapon as its bullets cut the surrounding ground, and four tank shells fired directly at him burst within 20 yards. Raising his BAR to his shoulder, Pfc. Schauer killed the four members of the German machine-gun crew with one burst of fire.