My goodness... 12 years old? So sad what they did to him. He was a true hero.
Several of my relatives served in WWII. One was sent to the front lines right out of high school. Another joined underage because he had nowhere to live, so he lied about his age. He fought in WWII and went on to enjoy a lifelong successful career in the service.
I seem to recall an old B&W movie about him, or that had a scene based/influenced by him.
I was recently on YouTube and stumbled across episodes of an old B&W TV series titled Combat! Not bad except all the fighting took place in the French and German desert.
In one of the episodes, a replacement in the platoon who recently distinguished himself in combat is found out to be 15 and sent home.