Many war heroes have been inspirational leaders among the troops with which they served. One such was 2d Lieutenant Harold D. Wilson of Rushville, Missouri, who distinguished himself in combat on March 3, 1945, the day he was killed in action.

He served in the 70th Infantry Division, whose veterans in the 70th Infantry Division Association are preserving the Division's history and carrying on its traditions.

Wilson was every inch an Infantry officer. He had come up through the enlisted ranks. His troops respected him although they thought of him as "Little Boy Blue." He was twenty-one but looked like seventeen. His hair was blond. He had a high-pitched voice but his diction was precise and clear. His inspirational qualities are documented in the history of the 274th Infantry Regiment, "Snow Ridges and Pill Boxes," 1947, and in a tribute, "The Last Full Measure of Devotion," written by one of his soldiers, Kevin Corrigan, in the Atlantic Monthly, June 1946.

On March 3, 1945, Wilson, as "I" Company executive officer, elected to accompany one of the Company's leading platoons in an advance onto Siegfried Line defenses near Stiring-Wendel, France. lst Lieutenant William Beck, platoon leader, was killed. Wilson took over, becoming at once the unit's driving force.

Here is how Corrigan describes his actions at one point during the advance. "We went through the woods far enough to satisfy him; then he said, 'All right, we're going out of these woods. Keep right on going across the clearing.' As soon as we got out of the woods, of course, some machine guns opened up on us. 'That's all right, men, we'll go right across here in short rushes. Everybody up. Let's go now -- short rushes.' The men started some rushes. 'Here, here, we can do better than that. Now give me some good rushes. You there, soldier, that wasn't a rush at all -- that was just a flop. Now you get right up and give me a nice rush."'

"Mind you," Corrigan continued, "this isn't an umpire on maneuvers - this is a leader in combat. All the time he was standing up directing the thing. Why he wasn't killed I'll never know."

Wilson met his death later in the day after the platoon had reached an objective and had taken prisoners. By that time he had a bullet hole through his helmet but only a scratch on his forehead. He had entered a house accompanied by several of his men to clear it as an operations base. While at an upstairs window giving directions to soldiers outside, he was struck by two rifle rounds just above his heart. His dying words were as a prayer: "God help me through this."

"A good leader is everything," wrote Corrigan. "Men will follow a good leader any place. Every company needs a good leader, but the trouble is they don't last. If all leaders had been on the ball, there wouldn't have been the need for such extreme leadership as Wilson's. I've seen brave men, but no one like 'Little Boy Blue."'

Lieutenant Wilson was posthumously awarded the Silver Star Medal for bravery in combat on March 3, 1945, verified and reissued by order of the Department of the Army in 1990, after a lengthy effort by Corrigan and myself to seek in his name a Congressional Medal of Honor. He had been awarded a Bronze Star Medal on January 17, 1945. Sergeant Dan Yarus, an "I" Company soldier, wrote from Germany in 1945 to Wilson's parents in Missouri, saying in part: "If it weren't for your son's ability as a leader as well as his fortitude to read the enemy's mind, this company could not have taken their objective the way they did. I'd like to add further he was the greatest man in the company and admired by everyone."

In a letter to Kevin Corrigan in 1981, Wilson's brother, Senator Truman E. Wilson of the Missouri legislature, wrote: "My big brother was, and his memory still is, a source of pride and inspiration to me."

General Orders - 274th Honor Roll