Richard Cowan (soldier)

He held his gun as German tanks drove his comrades backward.

Richard Eller Cowan was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on 5 December 1922 and grew up in Wichita, Kansas. He studied at Friends University and transferred to Oberlin College in 1942, following a family connection with that institution. He entered the Army in 1943 and became a heavy machine gunner with Company M, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division.

On 17 December 1944, near Krinkelter Wald in Belgium, Cowan's section was attached to Company I as German infantry and tanks attacked. After repeated assaults left his section almost destroyed, he continued firing while surviving riflemen formed a new line. He carried the gun and ammunition to a second position and again resisted infantry accompanying a tank. Shells and small-arms fire failed to drive him away. When withdrawal became unavoidable, he stayed to cover the remaining men.

Cowan was killed during the fighting in the Ardennes and had no postwar career. His Medal of Honor was presented to his father on 6 July 1945. He is buried in Wichita Park Cemetery.

Official Medal of Honor citation

He was a heavy machine gunner in a section attached to Company I in the vicinity of Krinkelter Wald, Belgium, 17 December 1944, when that company was attacked by a numerically superior force of German infantry and tanks. The first six waves of hostile infantrymen were repulsed with heavy casualties, but a seventh drive with tanks killed or wounded all but three of his section, leaving Pvt. Cowan to man his gun, supported by only 15 to 20 riflemen of Company I.

He maintained his position, holding off the Germans until the rest of the shattered force had set up a new line along a firebreak. Then, unaided, he moved his machine gun and ammunition to the second position. At the approach of a Royal Tiger tank, he held his fire until about 80 enemy infantrymen supporting the tank appeared at a distance of about 150 yards. His first burst killed or wounded about half of these infantrymen.

His position was rocked by an 88-mm shell when the tank opened fire, but he continued to man his gun, pouring deadly fire into the Germans when they again advanced. He was barely missed by another shell. Fire from three machine guns and innumerable small arms struck all about him; an enemy rocket shook him badly, but did not drive him from his gun. Infiltration by the enemy had by this time made the position untenable, and the order was given to withdraw. Pvt.

Cowan was the last man to leave, voluntarily covering the withdrawal of his remaining comrades. His heroic actions were entirely responsible for allowing the remaining men to retire successfully from the scene of their last-ditch stand.

Congressional Medal of Honor Society transcription: https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/richard-e-cowan