Untold War Stories
@UntoldWarFacts
·
5h
The artillery crew warned him that the coordinates he had just given them were his own position. German soldiers were surrounding them and the American troops were retreating.
He and his observer team stayed behind.
His final message over the radio was: "Fire it! There's more of them than there are of us. Give them hell!"
This is the story of John R. Fox..1/5
Untold War Stories
@UntoldWarFacts
·
5h
The artillery crew warned him that the coordinates he had just given them were his own position. German soldiers were surrounding them and the American troops were retreating.
He and his observer team stayed behind.
His final message over the radio was: "Fire it! There's more of them than there are of us. Give them hell!" This is the story of John R. Fox..
1/5
Untold War Stories
@UntoldWarFacts
🧵 2/5
John Robert Fox was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1915. He attended Ohio State University before transferring to Wilberforce University, where he joined ROTC, studied science and engineering, and received a commission in the US Army.
But the Army Fox entered was segregated. He served with the 366th Infantry Regiment and eventually deployed to Italy, where the regiment was attached to the 92nd Infantry Division, the famous Buffalo Soldiers.
Fox became a forward observer. His job placed him ahead of the artillery batteries with the infantry. He watched where American shells landed, calculated corrections and radioed new coordinates back to the guns.
It meant getting dangerously close to the fighting so the artillery miles behind him knew exactly where to fire.
Untold War Stories
@UntoldWarFacts
·
5h
🧵 3/5
Christmas night, 1944. Sommocolonia, Italy. German soldiers began infiltrating the mountain village. By early the next morning much of Sommocolonia was already in enemy hands.
At around 4 AM German artillery opened fire and an organized attack began. The Americans were badly outnumbered and most of the infantry was forced to withdraw.
Fox could have gone with them. Instead he and members of his observer party voluntarily remained behind on the second floor of a house and continued directing American artillery onto the advancing Germans.
By 8 AM Fox was reporting German troops in the streets around them. He began calling the shells closer to their own position.
Untold War Stories
@UntoldWarFacts
·
5h
🧵 4/5
Each correction brought the American artillery nearer. The Germans kept advancing through the village. Fox radioed another adjustment.
"That was just where I wanted it. Bring it in 60 yards!"
The men controlling the artillery warned him that the next rounds would land dangerously close to their position. Fox knew exactly what that meant, but he continued directing the guns.
Eventually German soldiers surrounded the building. There was nowhere left to move the artillery except onto their own position.
Fox made his final transmission.
"Fire it! There's more of them than there are of us. Give them hell!"
The American guns fired. Fox and his observer party disappeared beneath their own artillery barrage.
Untold War Stories
@UntoldWarFacts
·
5h
🧵 5/5
Fox was killed, but the German attack had been slowed long enough for retreating American forces to reorganize. When Allied troops later retook Sommocolonia, Fox's body and those of his party were found near their position. Around 100 German soldiers were estimated to have been killed during the artillery fire he directed.
John Fox was 29 years old.
But his story did not end there. More than one million Black Americans served during World War II, yet none received the Medal of Honor for their wartime service at the time. Decades later the US Army ordered a review into whether racial discrimination had denied Black soldiers the recognition they deserved.
Seven men were identified for the Medal of Honor. John R. Fox was one of them.
On January 13 1997, more than 52 years after he died in that Italian village, President Bill Clinton presented Fox's Medal of Honor to his widow Arlene at the White House.
Fox and his men had stayed behind while others escaped. He called American artillery onto their own position to give the withdrawing troops time to reorganize.
I post a story like this every single day. Most people never see them. Follow so you don't miss the next one.