"Most decorated squad?" Topic

In the excellent book I have just finished ('Kokoda' by Paul Ham), the author describes a squad of the Australian 2/14 Battalion as the most decorated squad in military history- and I don't think he means just Australian, or just in WW2. Between them, the 10 men received a VC (Kingsbury), two MCs, three MMs and several MiDs.

I know you can't necessarily compare across different countries etc., but can anyone contest this claim?

Not sure how you define 'squad' or how large a unit you are talking about but for a single unit operating in a battle I would have thought the troops at Rourke's Drift would have been up near the top of the list. Fifteen gallantry awards including 7 VCs.

Tricks

Abe Simpson's "Flying Hellfish" squad may not have been highly decorated, but they were certainly elite, apart from that troublemaker Monty Burns. And Simpson claimed to have received the Iron Cross; not a lot of Allied soldiers can make that claim.

link

Seriously, the Nisei (Japanese-American) 442nd RCT became the most decorated unit in U.S. military history for its size and length of service, earning it the nickname "The Purple Heart Battalion." The 442nd RCT received 7 Presidential Unit Citations (5 earned in one month), and its members received around 18,000 awards, including:

21 Medals of Honor (the first awarded posthumously to PFC Sadao Munemori, Company A, 100th Battalion, for action near Seravezza, Italy, on April 5, 1945; the others upgraded from other awards in June 2000)

52 Distinguished Service Crosses (including 19 Distinguished Service Crosses which were upgraded to Medals of Honor in June 2000)

1 Distinguished Service Medal

560 Silver Stars (plus 28 Oak Leaf Clusters for a second award)

22 Legion of Merit Medals

15 Soldier's Medals

4,000 Bronze Stars (plus 1,200 Oak Leaf Clusters for a second award; one Bronze Star was upgraded to a Medal of Honor in June 2000)

9,486 Purple Hearts

That ain't shabby.

Allen

I thought the WWII Australians would have had sections, not squads.

[Ducks for cover]

Griefbringer

Not to take away from the good men of the 2/14, but I don't even know how you would go about trying to find such information (about other squads), let alone account for all of the variables such as squad size, casualties, troops rotating in or out of the squad, etc. Any squad that Audy Murphy was in would be a contender for most decorated squad.

audiemurphy.com/awards.htm

Sorry, make that "Audie"

The second most decorated soldier in WWII was in the same company as Audie Murphy. I can't remember his name but he was a professor at Sam Houston State University when I was an undergrad there in the 70's. The cadre at my ROTC unit used to joke that Audie's unit had the most effecient company clerk of WWII

I read that the 442nd RCT suffered a greater than 100% casualty rate based on the number of purple hearts awarded within the unit.

Dave

What I think he meant5 was that 8 awards went to 10 men in one action.

Also remember the Australians had no equivalent of the Purple Heart.

""Also remember the Australians had no equivalent of the Purple Heart""

yeah they did…. it commonly referred to as the 'Blooming Onion!" ……. just kidding.

As far as squads go… I too would believe that the one with Audie's membership, would be near the top.

Don't Americans get medals for the best clean boots, the best cooks, quality bed making skills and the bestest mum in the whole wide world? Or is that just the modern American armed forces?

Only if you are in the Air Force.

Well as for the American forces, in WWII, its commonly known that the most decorated unit was the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, as the previous poster said.

It cant be said that they did not earn every single medal they won. They fought hard…very hard…in some of the bloodiest battles to be had on the western front. They suffered an overall casualty rate of 314% if calculated by the purple hearts, or 93% according to the army's official records. Either way…it wasnt bed folding or cleaning boots for this lot. Tough soldiers.

And many, if not most of them, did it for a country that had put the rest of their family in internment camps.

"The second most decorated soldier in WWII was in the same company as Audie Murphy."

link

Read the whole article, as it is a news story of something now, and not a profile of his WWII service, so the information won't be at the top.

I never took one of Mr. Etheredge classes but I did have the honor of meeting him and talking with him on a couple of occasions.

My sophmore year, there was a ceremony to present him with his 1st lieutenants bars. He had been promoted so quickly that he never actually recieved the 1LT rank in the field.

A genuine hero by anyone's definition.

Dave

Don't Americans get medals for the best clean boots, the best cooks, quality bed making skills and the bestest mum in the whole wide world? Or is that just the modern American armed forces?

YIKERS!

Taking no offense (I'm sure none was intended), US soldiers can be awarded medals for bravery and medals for service.

The first category would include things like Bronze and Silver Stars, Purple Hearts, Distinguished Service Cross, and the Medal of Honor. Medals in this category are earned in the field, in action against an enemy.

The second category would include things like service and theater ribbons, good conduct, etc. So serving in the front lines for "X" period would probably get you something, and serving in a particular theater for "X" period might also get you something (even if you were not in the front lines).

Taking Neville Brand (famous character actor in the 50's and 60s) as an example, he was awarded:
Silver Star (for gallantry in combat)
Purple Heart (wounded)
European/African/Middle Eastern Theater Ribbon with three Battle Stars (participated in three major campaigns, including Ardennes and Rhineland)
Combat Infantry Badge

All of which would be combat based, plus

Good Conduct Medal
American Defense Service Ribbon
Overseas Service Bar
Service Stripe

Less familiar with those, but pretty sure the first three at least are non-combat related. So if I didn't miss one, then he was awarded 8 "medals" for his service to his country, at least half for combat.

Audie Murphy had 33 awards by comparison (many were combat related, some not).

I am unfamiliar with the "medals" other nations award their troops, but I always assumed they had combat and service types as well.

If memory serves me correctly, 11 VC's were awarded at Rorke's Drift, 7 to members of the 24th Foot, (later the South Wales Borderers), and one each to Lt. Chard (Royal Engineers), Lt. Dalton of the commissariat, the surgeon, whose name I don't recall (Royal Army Medical Corps) and Cpl. Schiess of the Natal Native Police, who apparently was Swiss.

When they hit the beach at Gallipoli, the East Lancashires won 8 VC's "before breakfast", and three residents of the same street in Winnipeg (Canada) all won the VC fighting on the Western Front in WWI, leading the street to be renamed 'Valour Road'………….