WWII · Battle Death Record
Ernest Prussman
Private First Class, U.S. Army · Massachusetts
Medal of Honor
Personnel File — Core Information
- Name
- Ernest Prussman
- Entered the Service From
- Massachusetts
- Rank
- Private First Class
- Service
- U.S. Army
- Unit / Regiment
- 13th Infantry Regiment, 8th Infantry Division
- War
- WWII
- Date of Death
- September 8, 1944
- Awards
- Medal of Honor, Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge
- Burial / Memorial
- Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial, Saint-James, France
- Grave
- Plot A, Row 12, Grave 14
Their story
Near Loscoat, Brittany, France, on 8 September 1944, PFC Prussman advanced ahead of his squad against fortified German positions, disarming two riflemen and then destroying a machine gun nest and capturing its crew. Mortally wounded by an enemy rifleman as he pressed the attack, he threw a hand grenade as he fell, killing his opponent and demoralizing the enemy enough to allow his battalion to advance. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Compiled from American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) and National Archives (NARA) records and public sources.
This record is one of more than 200,000 in our historical archive. Some information may have been corrupted or lost over decades of data conversion. Corrections are welcome — please contact the archive.