Medal of Honor Monday: Oscar G. Johnson, Jr.

He held the enemy at bay for two days and two nights.

On this day in 1944, a hero begins a multi-day action that would earn him the Medal of Honor. Oscar Godfrey Johnson, Jr. singlehandedly held off the enemy for two days and two nights—and he lived to tell the story.

His heroism came during the Allied effort to break through the Gothic Line, a chain of defense fortifications in Italy.

“With the defensive positions etched directly into the mountains,” a National WWII Museum publication explains, “the Allies had no choice but to maneuver their way through a virtual labyrinth of German strongpoints. . . . The fighting was slow, grinding, and bloody throughout.”

Johnson was with the 91st Infantry Division during one of these assaults at Monticelli Ridge and Il Giogo Pass on September 16.

“The Germans were firmly entrenched at the crest of Monticelli Ridge,” Johnson later remembered. “They laid a heavy mortar barrage against our positions at the base of the hill and then threw many grenades. Our casualties were heavy.”

Johnson had been tasked with leading a squad of seven men forward: He was to establish a position with his men, and the squad would cover their company’s left flank.

It would not be an easy task.

The German attacks were unrelenting, and all the soldiers in Johnson’s squad were soon killed or wounded. Johnson was the only one left to hold the line and protect his company’s exposed left flank.

He stayed awake all night, doing exactly that.

“Collecting weapons and ammunition from his fallen comrades,” Johnson’s Medal citation describes, “in the face of hostile fire, he held his exposed position and inflicted heavy casualties upon the enemy, who several times came close enough to throw hand grenades. . . . In spite of mortar fire which crashed about him and machine-gun bullets which whipped the crest of his shallow trench, Sgt. Johnson stood erect and repulsed the attack . . . .”

The next day, two men were sent to reinforce Johnson, but they hadn’t made it very far before they, too, were wounded.

“They had taken nearly a direct hit from an anti-tank shell,” Johnson later explained, “which all but buried them under the debris.” He crawled over to help, fending off the enemy until a medic could reach them.

In the end, Johnson held his position, covering the left flank of his company for two days and two nights. He is officially credited with killing 20 Germans and obtaining the surrender of 25 others, but his fellow soldiers think that number is too low. 

Two hundred German bodies were ultimately found on the field, and they think he is largely responsible for that.

“By his heroic stand and utter disregard for personal safety,” his Medal citation concludes, “Sgt. Johnson was in a large measure responsible for defeating the enemy's attempts to turn the exposed left flank.”

Johnson received a Medal of Honor for his bravery, but all he really wanted was to return home to his life as a farmer.

Where would we be but for men such as these? Regular Americans, stepping up and performing heroically, just because their country needs them.

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