Junior James Spurrier

The “One Man Army” Medal of Honor Hero of World War II

Few American soldiers of World War II earned a battlefield reputation so extraordinary that a commander could sum up an attack with an order like this: “Attack Achain! Company G from the east and Spurrier from the west.” Staff Sergeant Junior James Spurrier, born James Ira Spurrier Jr., became one of the most remarkable infantrymen of the Second World War, earning the Medal of Honor and Distinguished Service Cross, the two highest U.S. military decorations for valor, through two extraordinary actions in France in 1944. His story is not simply one of decorations. It is the story of an unconventional soldier who repeatedly chose to move toward the enemy when survival suggested doing otherwise.

Spurrier was born on December 14, 1922, in Virginia's Appalachian region. Growing up during the Great Depression, he left school while still young and helped support his family before working at a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in Bluefield, West Virginia. He enlisted in the United States Army on September 25, 1940. According to the Nebraska Army National Guard, an error while completing his enlistment paperwork caused the Army to know James Ira Spurrier Jr. throughout his military career simply as Junior J. Spurrier.

His first combat service came in the Pacific. Spurrier served as an infantryman in the South Pacific and was wounded in New Guinea in 1943, suffering wounds that later formed part of his two Purple Heart awards. Sent back to the United States for treatment, he could have remained away from the front. Instead, once medically fit, he volunteered to return to combat. He eventually joined Company G, 134th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division, in France on July 19, 1944. The decision placed him on the road toward two of the most extraordinary individual infantry actions of the European war.

The first came on September 16, 1944, near Lay-Saint-Christophe, France. Company G was ordered to seize a strongly defended hill covered by German trenches and dugouts. Enemy machine guns and automatic weapons struck the advancing Americans from the flank. Spurrier responded by climbing onto a tank destroyer and taking over its .50 caliber machine gun. He fired into the enemy positions until German troops withdrew toward their dugouts, then dismounted and attacked them on foot with hand grenades. He cleared one position, returned to the vehicle, drove forward under machine gun, mortar and artillery fire, and repeated the attack against another. By the time he reached the summit, he had taken 22 German prisoners and helped open the position for the rest of his company.

For that action, Spurrier received the Distinguished Service Cross. His official citation was issued in Headquarters, Third U.S. Army, General Orders No. 103, dated December 4, 1944, and praised his extraordinary heroism, courage and devotion to duty during the September 16 assault. The decoration alone would have secured his place among the outstanding combat soldiers of the 35th Infantry Division. But less than two months later, Spurrier did something even more astonishing.

On November 13, 1944, Company G attacked the German-held village of Achain, France, from the east. Spurrier moved around the village alone and entered from the west. Armed initially with a Browning Automatic Rifle, he began fighting his way through the town by himself. As the battle continued, he shifted between an M1 rifle, the BAR, hand grenades, American and captured German rocket launchers, and a German automatic pistol. He attacked enemy positions from building to building while exposed to small-arms and automatic-weapons fire. The final official Medal of Honor citation credited him with killing one German officer and 24 enlisted men, while capturing two officers and two enlisted men during his solitary attack.

The action became the defining moment of the legend of the “One Man Army.” For his conduct at Achain, Spurrier received the Medal of Honor, formally announced in War Department General Orders No. 18, dated March 15, 1945. The official citation described his conduct as conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, concluding that his valor had brought fresh honor to the United States Armed Forces. Lieutenant General William H. Simpson presented Spurrier with the medal in Europe in March 1945.

Yet Achain was only part of Spurrier's wartime record. Government records credit him with two Purple Hearts, reflecting wounds suffered during his combat service, including his earlier wounding in New Guinea and another wound received later in the European campaign. The National WWII Museum records that his second Purple Heart came during the Battle of the Bulge. He was also credited with the Legion of Merit and two awards of the Bronze Star Medal, represented by an oak leaf cluster, with a “V” device for valor associated with the Bronze Star. France and Belgium each awarded him a Croix de Guerre for his courage in the Allied fight against Germany. These honours placed Spurrier among the most heavily decorated American infantrymen of World War II.

His campaign record stretched across two theaters of war. His service encompassed the Pacific and the campaign across Western Europe, reflected in his American Defense, American Campaign, Asiatic-Pacific, European-African-Middle Eastern and World War II Victory service recognition. His European service took him through some of the hardest fighting faced by the 35th Infantry Division, and his later combat included the bitter winter battles of late 1944. What made Spurrier unusual was not simply that he survived those campaigns, but the highly individual way in which he fought them. His willingness to operate alone, use whatever weapons were available and press directly into defended positions became central to his reputation among fellow soldiers.

Spurrier returned to civilian life after World War II, but peace proved far more difficult for him than combat. He reenlisted in the Army after the war, yet disciplinary problems followed him, and his military career ended with a general discharge in 1951. His postwar years included serious struggles with alcohol and the law. Eventually, however, he stopped drinking, operated a radio and television repair business, and spent his later years in eastern Tennessee. His life after combat was complicated and often troubled, a reminder that battlefield heroism did not guarantee an easy return to civilian life.

Junior James Spurrier died on February 25, 1984, at the age of 61. He was laid to rest at Mountain Home National Cemetery in Johnson City, Tennessee, where the Department of Veterans Affairs continues to identify him among the cemetery's notable Medal of Honor recipients. His grave is located in Section HH, Row 15, Site 8.

Today, Staff Sergeant Junior James Spurrier remains remembered as the only soldier of the 134th Infantry Regiment to receive the Medal of Honor during World War II and as one of the most formidable individual infantry fighters produced by the conflict. His Distinguished Service Cross action at Lay-Saint-Christophe demonstrated extraordinary courage. His Medal of Honor action at Achain turned that courage into legend. The nickname that followed him, “One Man Army,” was more than wartime folklore. It captured the remarkable reality of a soldier who, on more than one occasion, advanced against fortified enemy positions almost entirely on his own and changed the course of the fight.