Herman C. Wallace

He stood upon a mine to shield the engineers working nearby.

Herman C. Wallace received the Medal of Honor for sacrificing his life during a mine-clearing operation in Germany. Born in Marlow, Oklahoma, in 1924, he served as a private first class in Company B, 301st Combat Engineer Battalion, 76th Infantry Division.

On February 27, 1945, near Prumzurley, Wallace stepped on a concealed antipersonnel mine while helping clear a road. Hearing that it had activated, he placed his other foot on it instead of moving away. His citation states that his action confined the explosion and saved nearby soldiers from death or injury. Wallace was killed in the blast.

His Medal of Honor was awarded posthumously. He was buried in the City of Lubbock Cemetery in Texas. His award commemorates an engineer’s deliberate sacrifice to protect his squad.

Official Medal of Honor citation

He displayed conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity. While helping clear enemy mines from a road, he stepped on a well-concealed S-type antipersonnel mine. Hearing the characteristic noise indicating that the mine had been activated and, if he stepped aside, would be thrown upward to explode above the ground and spray the area with fragments, surely killing two comrades directly behind him and endangering other members of his squad, he deliberately placed his other foot on the mine even though his best chance for survival was to fall prone. Pvt. Wallace was killed when the charge detonated, but his supreme heroism at the cost of his life confined the blast to the ground and his own body and saved his fellow soldiers from death or injury.