Thomas E. O'Shea

When a disabled American tank called for help from deep inside German lines, Corporal Thomas E. O'Shea chose to move toward it. On 29 September 1918, near Le Catelet, France, O'Shea and two fellow soldiers had been separated from their platoon by a smoke barrage and were sheltering in a shell hole. They advanced toward the tank, only thirty yards away, through intense German machine-gun and trench-mortar fire. O'Shea was mortally wounded while crossing the exposed ground and died shortly afterwards. His companions continued the rescue, bringing a wounded officer and two wounded soldiers to cover before using a salvaged Hotchkiss machine gun to help protect them and eventually return to American lines under cover of darkness. Their actions became part of the remarkable story of the 107th Infantry's fighting during the final Allied offensives of the First World War.

Born in New York City on 18 April 1895, Thomas E. O'Shea entered military service from Summit, New Jersey. He served as a corporal in the Machine Gun Company, 107th Infantry Regiment, 27th Division, a New York National Guard formation known for its determined service on the Western Front. The regiment participated in the Ypres-Lys Offensive and the Somme Offensive, including the bitter fighting against the Hindenburg Line in September and October 1918.

For his extraordinary courage near Le Catelet on 29 September 1918, O'Shea was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor under War Department General Orders No. 20, dated 30 January 1919. His official citation records how he left the safety of his shelter to assist the disabled American tank despite overwhelming enemy fire, sacrificing his life during the rescue attempt. His grave marker also records the French Croix de Guerre, the Italian Croce al Merito di Guerra and the Portuguese Medalha da Cruz de Guerra. His World War I Victory Medal is represented with three bronze service stars in the reconstructed honours record. The individual foreign award citations and the original documentation confirming the precise Victory Medal campaign credits remain outstanding. A retrospective Purple Heart entitlement is also under investigation, as an individual posthumous award record has not yet been located.

Corporal Thomas E. O'Shea died on 29 September 1918, aged just 23. He rests at Somme American Cemetery in Bony, France, close to the battlefield where his courage and sacrifice became an enduring part of the history of the American Expeditionary Forces.