Minefield Rescue
by Harold Kuehn | 09 Nov 2001
It was at the end of February that I was assigned to two engineers. We were to blow a path through a minefield. The engineers found out they could not make a path through the area so they decided to go around the site. The platoon following us walked into the minefield and many men were lost. The sergeant informed us that we had to move on and that we had to leave five wounded men in the minefield. The second scout and I received permission to try to get the wounded men out. We worked all night to remove the men. We both had to carry them out on our backs and all during this time, the Germans fired at us.
The recommendation for a medal read as follows:
Harold M Kuehn, First Scout, for gallantry in action against an armed enemy of the United States near Roth, Germany, on 26 February 1945. That evening, the Staff Sergeant notified First Scout Kuehn that five of our men were so severely wounded that they were incapable of moving on their own and that they were behind enemy lines in the middle of a minefield that was being fired upon by enemy rifles, mortar shells, and artillery fire. First Scout Kuehn and his second scout continued on to the wounded. After talking to the wounded, inquiring about the extent of their injuries and calming them, First Scout Kuehn assured three wounded they had to be left in the minefield but that they would positively return for them.
The first trip out, they carried two of the wounded back to the medics through the minefield while continually under enemy gunfire. Without regard for his personal safety, First Scout Kuehn worked all night and returned through the minefield and enemy gunfire as he had promised a second time and again a third time, thus affecting the long, tedious, and successful rescue of all five wounded by daylight the next morning
Harold Kuehn
E Company, 345th Infantry Regiment