Victor Leonard Kandle

At just 23 years old, First Lieutenant Victor Leonard Kandle had risen from an enlisted infantryman from Washington State to one of the most highly decorated American soldiers of World War II. His extraordinary leadership near La Forge, France, on 9 October 1944 broke through German positions that had stopped an American battalion for two days and ultimately earned him the Medal of Honor. He would never live to receive it.

Victor Leonard Kandle was born on 13 June 1921 on his grandmother's homestead near Roy, Washington, in Pierce County. Known as Leonard to his family, he spent part of his childhood in McKenna and attended Yelm High School before the family moved to Puyallup. He graduated from Puyallup High School in 1939 and later attended Beutel Business College in Tacoma. Contemporary accounts remembered him as a careful and serious student, sometimes walking the eight miles between Puyallup and Tacoma to attend classes.

Kandle enlisted in the United States Army on 4 September 1940. He completed basic and advanced infantry training at Fort Lewis, Washington, and was initially assigned to the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment. His business training soon proved useful, and he performed administrative duties before being selected to serve as a field secretary for Major General Kenyon Joyce. After transferring with other Fort Lewis troops to Camp Rucker, Alabama, Kandle applied for Officer Candidate School and completed the course at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant on 18 August 1943.

Shipped overseas in late 1943, Kandle returned to the 15th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division and took part in the Allied invasion of southern France. During this period he was promoted to First Lieutenant. By the autumn of 1944 he was serving with Company I, 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment as the division fought through eastern France toward the German frontier.

On 9 October 1944 near La Forge, France, Kandle carried out the action that would place his name among the Medal of Honor recipients of World War II. His official citation described his conduct as “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.” Leading a reconnaissance patrol into enemy-held territory, Kandle encountered a German field officer at point-blank range and killed him. His patrol had already captured five German soldiers that morning.

Kandle then led a reduced platoon of only sixteen men, reinforced by a light machine-gun squad, through heavy fog and steep mountain terrain toward a German quarry stronghold. The position had stopped the advance of an American infantry battalion for two days. Moving ahead of his assault elements, Kandle penetrated the strongpoint and, through the speed and audacity of his attack, forced its defenders to surrender.

The fighting was not over. A German machine gun from a bypassed position opened fire on the Americans. Kandle moved to within approximately fifteen yards, killed the gunner with rifle fire, and led his men against another machine-gun crew and its supporting riflemen. He then turned his small force against a fortified house occupied by two German officers and thirty enlisted men. After arranging supporting fire, Kandle crossed an exposed clearing alone, smashed through the barricaded entrance, and compelled all thirty-two defenders to surrender.

The results recorded in his Medal of Honor citation were extraordinary. Kandle's leadership had resulted in the capture or killing of three enemy officers and fifty-four enlisted men, the destruction of three enemy strongpoints, and the seizure of positions that had halted an American battalion attack. His actions near La Forge became one of the most remarkable small-unit assaults credited to an American infantry officer during the campaign in France.

Kandle continued fighting with the 3rd Infantry Division through the bitter winter battles of late 1944. During the fighting at Bennwihr, France, in late December, he distinguished himself again and was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action while serving with Company I, 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment. Surviving award records associate the Silver Star with the Bennwihr fighting immediately before his death. The American Battle Monuments Commission burial record also records Kandle as a recipient of the Purple Heart.

Only days after earning the Silver Star, Kandle's combat service came to an end. On 31 December 1944, while riding on the rear of a tank moving into enemy territory, he was struck and killed by a German grenade. He was 23 years old. He died without knowing that the heroism he had displayed near La Forge would receive the United States' highest military decoration.

The Medal of Honor was awarded to First Lieutenant Victor Leonard Kandle posthumously under War Department General Orders No. 37, dated 11 May 1945, for his actions of 9 October 1944. On 4 June 1945, Major General Henry C. Pratt, commanding general of the Western Defense Command, formally presented Kandle's Medal of Honor at the Presidio of San Francisco. His widow, Marigene Kandle, accepted the decoration, with their young son Terry present. California Governor Earl Warren was among the distinguished guests at the ceremony.

Victor Leonard Kandle rests at Epinal American Cemetery in France, Plot B, Row 14, Grave 55. His grave records his Medal of Honor, Silver Star and Purple Heart, preserving the documented record of a soldier whose wartime career lasted only a few years but whose courage became part of the history of the 15th Infantry Regiment and 3rd Infantry Division.

His name has continued to be remembered in Washington State. On 17 October 1958, the Army Reserve Center in Tacoma was dedicated as Lt. Victor L. Kandle Hall in his honor. More than sixty years later, his hometown renewed that tribute. In 2024, the City of Puyallup named the City Council Chambers lobby Kandle Hall, recognizing the Puyallup High School graduate who went from a Washington childhood to the battlefields of France and ultimately to the Medal of Honor.