The President of the United States
in the name of The Congress
takes pleasure in presenting the
Medal of Honor
to
*WALLACE, HERMAN C.
Rank and Organization: Private First Class, U.S.
Army, Company B, 301st Engineer Combat Battalion, 76th Infantry Division. Place and
Date Near Prumzurley, Germany, 27 February 1945. Entered Service at: Lubbock,
Tex. Birth: Marlow, Okla. G.O. No.: 92, 25 October 1945.
Citation:
He displayed conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity. While helping clear enemy mines from a
road, he stepped on a well-concealed S-type antipersonnel mine. Hearing the characteristic
noise indicating that the mine had been activated and, if he stepped aside, would be
thrown upward to explode above ground and spray the area with fragments, surely killing 2
comrades directly behind him and endangering other members of his squad, he deliberately
placed his other foot on the mine even though his best chance for survival was to fall
prone. Pvt. Wallace was killed when the charge detonated, but his supreme heroism at the
cost of his life confined the blast to the ground and his own body and saved his fellow
soldiers from death or injury.
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