WWII · Battle Death Record
Walter Wetzel
Private First Class, U.S. Army · Michigan
Medal of Honor
Personnel File — Core Information
- Name
- Walter Wetzel
- Entered the Service From
- Michigan
- Rank
- Private First Class
- Service
- U.S. Army
- Unit / Regiment
- 13th Infantry Regiment, 8th Infantry Division
- War
- WWII
- Date of Death
- April 3, 1945
- Awards
- Medal of Honor, Purple Heart
- Burial / Memorial
- Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, Margraten, Netherlands
- Grave
- Plot N, Row 18, Grave 10
Their story
As acting squad leader defending a command post at Birken, Germany, on April 3, 1945, Pfc. Wetzel was in a room when two German-thrown grenades landed among his comrades. He threw himself on the grenades, absorbing their full blast with his body and sacrificing his life to save the other soldiers. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on February 26, 1946.
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.