A less well known but equally amazing story is of Lt. Dan Edwards, who received the MoH. He was knocked down and pinned when a shell exploded and a tree fell on his arm as eight Germans approached. He freed his pistol, killed three, and the other five surrendered. He ordered them to lift the tree off his arm, then began marching them back to allied lines. Another shell came in, killed one of the Germans and injured Edwards’ leg so he couldn’t walk. He instructed the Germans to make a stretcher (don’t know how they did that) and had the remaining three Germans carry him back to the American lines. This is pretty much the story on his MoH presentation, although some of the details apparently were later embelleshed further by Edwards himself. Still, no doubt this was one bad dude.
Great history.
His story as told by Lowell Thomas is that he
was blown up by a shell that landed in his trench,
His arm was partially severed and caught in the
revetting of the trench wall. When the germans came
along he shot one and took the others prisoner,
He then made them cut his arm off, and put it in
his backpack and then they went back to the American
lines, some were killed on the way I believe.
The story was that he brought his arm back to
prove it wasn’t a self inflicted wound.
When he was a boy, he knew a one armed veteran of
the civil war and was so impressed by the fact that
he didn’t let one arm keep him from doing anything,
that he practiced using either arm to do just about
anything.
His story is called, This Side of Hell.
He received 55 wounds and lost an arm and a leg.
He received 83 medals.