He then fired his carbine into nearby foxholes to get rid of any additional enemy riflemen. He launched two grenades into it, which took out the gun's crew. Dodging more bullets, he continued another 50 yards up the hill to attack a second machine-gun nest.

Since his carbine was out of ammo, he then jumped into the timber-covered foxhole and hauled a third member of the enemy gun crew out by the collar.ĭunham was in intense pain and bleeding through his white mattress cover, making him a big target, but he kept up the fight. At the same time, he managed to shoot and kill the German machine gunner and his assistant. Dunham kicked it before it exploded about five yards from him. Right then, a German grenade landed beside him. He said he jumped right back up, though, and kept going because he didn't want to get hit by incoming artillery. 'They said if had been deeper, it would have split my spine in two,' Dunham recalled in the Library of Congress interview. He was hit by machine-gun fire that ripped a 10-inch gash across his back and sent him spinning 15 yards back down the hill. With about 10 yards to go and his platoon about 35 yards behind him, Dunham jumped to his feet and charged the enemy emplacement. Carrying 12 carbine magazines and a dozen hand grenades, he crawled about 75 yards under heavy direct fire toward one enemy machine-gun nest.

So, he camouflaged himself in a white mattress cover to blend in with the knee-deep snow and started the climb. The only choice they had, Dunham said, was to go up the hill. The platoon was attacking the enemy at the base of a snow-covered hill near Kaysersberg when they got pinned down between enemy artillery and machine-gun fire. 8, 1945, Dunham was with 2nd Platoon, Company I in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France. Soon after, the 3rd ID was sent to France, where Dunham, then a technical sergeant, would face one of the toughest fights of his life. From there they went to Italy, where Dunham was wounded in the Battle of Anzio. 8, 1942, Dunham landed in North Africa, where he fought in combat until his unit was sent to Sicily in July 1943. Both Dunhams were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division when the U.S. Instead, the three men signed up to join the Army. The two young men sold soup and tamales on the street and in bars to make ends meet during the Great Depression.ĭuring a Library of Congress 2003 Veterans History Project interview, Dunham said that in 1940, he, Ralph and a friend went to Peoria, Illinois, to try to get a job at Caterpillar, but the company wasn't hiring. According to a Washington Post article, Dunham moved to St. He attended grade school but dropped out before high school to help tend to the family farm. Dunham was part of a large family he had eight brothers and five sisters.

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