JERSEY HERO WOULDN’T LEAVE BUDDY, CAUGHT IN FLAMING TANK

Cut Down by Nazi Machine Guns as He Tried Rescue—French Honor Him

By Robert W. Richards United Press War Correspondent

WITH THIRD ARMY in Alsace Lorraine, October 11, 1944 (U. P.)—In this tiny village which must go unnamed for fear of German reprisals, men and women come from their homes smiling proudly whenever American tanks null past.

Sometimes these people wave and sometimes they just stand looking. They tell their children:

“There go your brothers.”

For these Frenchmen in this town, near the quiet Marne Canal and only a stone’s throw from the hated Boche, are blood brothers of all American armored men—especially the crack Fourth Armored Division.

It was the Fourth Armored which shattered remnants of German forces in their village. And it was a sergeant of the Fourth Armored who showed them that these tank-riding Yankees not only know how to fight but how to die.

From hidden places, from haylofts, barns and attics, they had watched the dramatic action. When it ended the entire town was so moved by what it had seen that the people gathered in a body, walked to the square and picked up the sergeant’s crumpled body.

They buried him not far from the spot where he fell and every day since then some of these villagers cover his grave with fresh flowers.

When the people watched the fighting this is what they saw:

Two German 88’s were concealed near the town square.

Down the road, rumbling over rough pavement, came a long line of American Sherman tanks. The people held their breaths. They had no chance to shout warnings.

The first Sherman roared past the square and turned left into the town moving north. The German gunners were surprised or unprepared for they did not fire.

A second tank rolled into the square. By this time the Nazi gunners were ready and the 88’s roared.

The crippled tank wheeled and faced its enemy but it was unable to return the fire. Other tanks pulled back behind the protection of a house.

While the people watched this tank became a roaring furnace. They were happy to see a man leap from the top of the burning turret. They screamed to him:

“Come to us. Come this way.”

But the soldier wearing sergeant’s stripes returned to the blazing tank.

This hard-muscled young tank commander who used to work in a New Jersey copper plant had realized that his bow gunner remained trapped.

He scrambled to the tank’s top and attempted to pry open the red hot hatch. While he struggled German machine gunners got busy. They riddled him through and through and he fell in the mud of the road.

He lay there while fellow tankmen from another direction destroyed the enemy 88s. They were so occupied with the task of killing Germans that they roared past his body without stopping.

Later they returned hut the sergeant wasn’t there.

Admiring townsfolk already had buried him.

* * *

4TH A. D. HERO GIVES LIFE, WINS TOP HONOR

Sgt. Joseph J. Sadowski, of Perth Amboy, N. J., a tank commander in the famous 4th Armored Division, who returned to his flaming tank in the face of withering enemy fire and almost certain death in an effort to rescue a trapped comrade, has been awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously, the War Department has announced.

Maj. Gen. Francis Mallon, commanding general of the Army Ground Forces Replacement Depot No. 1, Fort George G. Meade, Md., presented the medal to Sergeant Sadowski’s father, Mr. John Sadowski, at a ceremony held April 21 at Fort Meade.

Mrs. John Sadowski, mother of the sergeant, and his five brothers and two sisters also attended the ceremony along with high ranking officers of Army Ground Forces.

The action in which Sergeant Sadowski gave his life occurred last September 14 at Valhey, France, when the tank which he commanded was struck by an 88-mm shell at close range while advancing upon the town with the leading elements of Combat Command A, 4th Armored Division.

With his tank disabled and in flames, Sergeant Sadowski ordered his crew to dismount and take cover in the adjoining buildings. Discovering that his bow gunner was still in the tank and for some reason unable to dismount, he rushed back to the burning vehicle, ignoring a hail of enemy machine gun and bazooka fire, and attempted to pry open the bow gunner’s hatch.

While working feverishly to release his comrade from the flaming tank, Sergeant Sadowski was cut down by a stream of machine gun bullets.

Other units of the task force, stunned and momentarily confused by the suddenness and ferocity of the enemy attack, witnessed the action of Sergeant Sadowski and, the citation states:

“The gallant and noble sacrifice of his life in the aid of his comrade, undertaken in the face of almost certain death, so inspired the remainder of the tank crews that they pressed forward with great ferocity and completely destroyed the enemy forces in this town without further loss to themselves.”

Sergeant Sadowski was active in outdoor sports and in boxing, in which he excelled, he was presented with a golden belt buckle as a result of his achievements in the Middlesex County Boxing Tournament of 1935.

In addition to the nation’s highest award, he earned the Purple Heart and was entitled to wear the American Defense and the European Theater Ribbons.

Sergeant Sadowski was a member of Company A, 37th Tank Battalion. (Armored News, 30 April 1945)