Melvin E. Biddle is a very good example of what you may think of when you think of world war II
hero's.  He displayed great courage in his service especially while he served in Belguim.
 About two months after Melvin E. Biddle had parachuted into the southern end of France, Melvin
E. Biddle joined the 517th Parachute Ifantry regiment.  It was December and many of the armed forces were
already hoping for a chance to go back home.  It was then on December 16th that the German armies
lead the Battle of the Bulge. 
 It was on the morning of December 23 that Private Melvin E. Biddle's battlion lead a rescue
attempt on the small town of Hotton, near Soy, Belgium.  The people that they were trying to rescue
were mostly non-combat personal such as cooks clerks etc. As the soldiers moved forward one of the
two lead scouts stepped on a land mine and badly injured both of them.  With both of their lead scouts
down the Commanding Officer pointed to Melvin and barked "You, out front."  Under heavy gunfire Melvin
moved forward crawling through the under brush.  Melvin came to about 20 yards of the german command
post and killed three snipers with astounding acuracy as they came out of the command post.
Bravely Melvin pressed forward another 200 yards until he came upon a enemy machine post.  Throwing
grenades he killed the occupants of the turret.  Melvin signaled back to his battlion that the
coast was clear and moved ahead.   Along the way Melvin encountered another machine gun emplacement
and killed it's three occupants.  Fearlessly Melvin charged within 20 yards of yet another machine
gun emplacement and threw his last grenade then charged in with his gun blazing.

On the morning of December 23, Pvt. First Class Biddle’s battalion was near the Belgian town of Soy, trying to rescue a company made up primarily of cooks and clerks that had been encircled by the German advance. Things got off to a very bad start. The two lead scouts of the battalion were injured and taken out of action when one of them stepped on a mine. The commanding officer then pointed at Biddle and barked, “You! Out front!” Crawling through the snowy underbrush of a densely wooded area, Biddle ran into a German outpost. He killed three snipers who appeared one after the other, then moved forward until he saw an enemy machine-gun nest, which he took out with hand grenades. Signaling his company to advance, he destroyed two more German machine-gun positions.

After he returned to his position, his commanding officer instructed Biddle to go back behind enemy lines to try to take a prisoner. As he was moving through a field, he heard a large number of German soldiers approaching and hid in a drainage ditch until they had passed by. Then -— it seemed almost a dream -— he saw a lone German officer all dressed up in a hat with a shiny bill, a greatcoat, and polished jackboots, looking as if he was about to attend an official review. Biddle stood and pointed his rifle at the man in hopes of capturing him, but the officer pulled out a Luger, fired a wild volley, and ran off.

Biddle continued to scout enemy positions, then returned to his unit and hunkered down for the night, so cold that he feared that his finger would freeze on the trigger of his rifle. Sometime after midnight, he heard a roar above him and saw flashes of light as an American P-38 night fighter shot down a Junkers bomber. The following morning, Christmas Eve, he found the dead pilot and copilot of the downed German plane frozen in their cockpit.

Shortly afterward, he heard the command again: “Biddle, out front!” When he had advanced several hundred yards into enemy territory, he saw 13 German soldiers running hunched over across a field right in front of him. He opened fire and killed them all. Then moving forward, he saw a boy, perhaps 14 years old, in a German uniform. He had been tied to a tree to keep him from retreating, and there were hand grenades and a rifle at his feet. Another GI who had come up behind Biddle yelled at him to shoot; instead, Biddle took the boy prisoner.

A week later, in the middle of another battle, Biddle was hit in the neck by a piece of shrapnel, which narrowly missed his jugular. He was sent to England to recuperate. Several weeks later, on a train headed back to his outfit, he read in Stars and Stripes that he would be receiving the Medal of Honor.

On October 12, 1945, when President Harry Truman presented the medal to Biddle, he whispered to him, “People don’t believe me when I tell them that I’d rather have one of these than be president.”

Source:http:   //dailynightly.msnbc.com/2007/06/medal_of_honor__1.htmlMELVIN E. BIDDLE

Melvin E. Biddle is a very good example of what you may think of when you think of world war II
hero's.  He displayed great courage in his service especially while he served in Belguim.
 About two months after Melvin E. Biddle had parachuted into the southern end of France, Melvin
E. Biddle joined the 517th Parachute Ifantry regiment.  It was December and many of the armed forces were
already hoping for a chance to go back home.  It was then on December 16th that the German armies
lead the Battle of the Bulge. 
 It was on the morning of December 23 that Private Melvin E. Biddle's battlion lead a rescue
attempt on the small town of Hotton, near Soy, Belgium.  The people that they were trying to rescue
were mostly non-combat personal such as cooks clerks etc. As the soldiers moved forward one of the
two lead scouts stepped on a land mine and badly injured both of them.  With both of their lead scouts
down the Commanding Officer pointed to Melvin and barked "You, out front."  Under heavy gunfire Melvin
moved forward crawling through the under brush.  Melvin came to about 20 yards of the german command
post and killed three snipers with astounding acuracy as they came out of the command post.
Bravely Melvin pressed forward another 200 yards until he came upon a enemy machine post.  Throwing
grenades he killed the occupants of the turret.  Melvin signaled back to his battlion that the
coast was clear and moved ahead.   Along the way Melvin encountered another machine gun emplacement
and killed it's three occupants.  Fearlessly Melvin charged within 20 yards of yet another machine
gun emplacement and threw his last grenade then charged in with his gun blazing.  Herocly Melvin returned
to his commander, only to be sent back out to scout out enemy positions and try to take one of the
germans prisoner.  While he was scouting Melvin heard a large group of soldiers approaching.  Quickly
Melvin hid himself in a ditch off the side of the road.  He got back up only to find a single German
soldier in the middle of the road.  Melvin pulled out his gun and tried to get him to surrender.  The
German whipped out a Luger shot wildly and ran.    Melvin continued to scout around enemy bases until he
accumulated enough imformation to return back to camp.  The information that Melvin collected later
let