Ralph G. Neppel

He returned to his gun despite losing a leg in a tank attack

Ralph George Neppel was born on 31 October 1923 in Willey, Iowa. After his father died, Neppel helped his mother run the family farm. He enlisted in March 1943 and served as a sergeant with Company M, 329th Infantry Regiment, 83rd Infantry Division. His regiment reached Normandy in June 1944 and fought through France and Luxembourg into Germany.

On 14 December 1944 at Birgel, Germany, Neppel's machine-gun squad faced a tank supported by infantry. A shell struck the emplacement and wounded the entire squad. Despite severe injuries, Neppel dragged himself back to the gun, remounted it and fired on the remaining riflemen. Deprived of infantry support, the tank withdrew.

President Harry Truman presented Neppel with the Medal of Honor at the White House on 23 August 1945. During rehabilitation he was fitted with prosthetic legs and promoted to technical sergeant. He married Jean Moore, returned to farming after his February 1946 discharge, and later worked for the Veterans Administration. He retired from the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 1971. Neppel died on 27 January 1987 in Iowa City and is buried in Holy Family Cemetery in Lidderdale, Iowa.

Medal of Honor citation

He was a leader of a machine-gun squad defending an approach to the village of Birgel, Germany, on 14 December 1944, when an enemy tank, supported by 20 infantrymen, counterattacked. He held his fire until the Germans were within 100 yards and then raked the foot soldiers beside the tank, killing several of them. The enemy armor continued to press forward, and, at the point-blank range of 30 yards, fired a high-velocity shell into the American emplacement, wounding the entire squad. Sgt. Neppel, blown 10 yards from his gun, had one leg severed below the knee and suffered other wounds. Despite his injuries and the danger from the onrushing tank and infantry, he dragged himself back to his position on his elbows, remounted his gun, and killed the remaining enemy riflemen. Stripped of its infantry protection, the tank was forced to withdraw. By his superb courage and indomitable fighting spirit, Sgt. Neppel inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy and broke a determined counterattack.