Truman O. Olson

Mortally wounded he kept his machine gun firing at the enemy

Truman O. Olson was born on 13 October 1917 in Christiana, Dane County, Wisconsin. He entered the United States Army from nearby Cambridge during the Second World War and served with Company B, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division. His home community would later preserve his memory through photographs, local museum collections and the return of his remains.

Olson became a sergeant and a light machine-gunner. In January 1944 his regiment took part in the Anzio campaign in Italy, where the Allied landing was followed by hard fighting as troops attempted to move inland. Near Cisterna di Littoria, his company encountered entrenched German positions and suffered heavy casualties during a prolonged assault.

His Medal of Honor citation records that, after sixteen hours of fighting on 30 January, the surviving men dug in behind a horseshoe-shaped rise. Olson and his crew were placed forward with the company’s only available machine gun. They remained exposed through the night as German fire struck the position and the other members of his crew became casualties.

By morning Olson had already been fighting for more than a day and had been wounded in an arm. An attack by approximately two hundred German soldiers, supported by mortars and machine guns, then threatened the position. He continued to operate the gun alone. After another wound proved fatal, he refused evacuation and kept firing for approximately ninety minutes. The citation credits his resistance with forcing the attackers to withdraw and saving his company from destruction.

Olson died on 31 January 1944, aged twenty-six. The Medal of Honor was presented posthumously to his family. Contemporary photographs held by the Wisconsin Historical Society show his father Axel and brothers Earl and Richard examining the decoration, providing a record of the award’s meaning for the family left behind.

His body was returned to Wisconsin and buried in West Koshkonong Lutheran Cemetery near Stoughton. Cambridge’s historical museum also preserves his memory within its account of local military service.

Medal of Honor citation

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty. Sgt. Olson, a light machinegunner, elected to sacrifice his life to save his company from annihilation. On the night of 30 January 1944, after a 16-hour assault on entrenched enemy positions in the course of which over one-third of Company B became casualties, the survivors dug in behind a horseshoe elevation, placing Sgt. Olson and his crew, with the one available machine gun, forward of their lines and in an exposed position to bear the brunt of the expected German counterattack. Although he had been fighting without respite, Sgt. Olson stuck grimly to his post all night while his guncrew was cut down, one by one, by accurate and overwhelming enemy fire. Weary from over 24 hours of continuous battle and suffering from an arm wound, received during the night engagement, Sgt. Olson manned his gun alone, meeting the full force of an all-out enemy assault by approximately 200 men supported by mortar and machine-gun fire which the Germans launched at daybreak on the morning of 31 January. After 30 minutes of fighting, Sgt. Olson was mortally wounded, yet, knowing that only his weapons stood between his company and complete destruction, he refused evacuation. For an hour and a half after receiving his second and fatal wound he continued to fire his machine gun, killing at least 20 of the enemy, wounding many more, and forcing the assaulting German elements to withdraw.