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.
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