After nearly 100 years, this WWI soldier received his Medal of Honor
Published: 5 April 2025
By Jon Guttman
via the Navy Times website
Sgt William Shemin
Sgt. William Shemin was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor nearly 100 years after his heroic actions during WWI. (Congressional Medal of Honor Society)
War brings out the best and worst in its participants. One seldom knows what qualities one brings onto the battlefield until a situation arises when that service person has to make a fateful choice. In the case of William Shemin, World War I presented more than one call beyond duty.
Born on Oct. 14, 1896, to Russian Jewish immigrants in Bayonne, New Jersey, Shemin played semi-professional baseball while attending the New York State Ranger School, graduating in 1914. His ambitions to take up forestry had to be postponed, however, when America declared war against Germany on April 6, 1917. Shemin enlisted on Oct. 2, and after training at Camp Greene, North Carolina, he shipped out for France, where he was assigned to G Company, 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment, 4th Division, American Expeditionary Forces.
On Aug. 3, 1918, the Second Battle of the Marne took a turn in which the last German offensive on the Western Front was thrown back and the Allies were taking the initiative. In the area of Bazoches-sur-Vesle, the 4th Division relieved the battered 42nd Division and was joined by the 32nd Division in keeping up the pressure on the retreating Germans.
Amid the fighting, Shemin saw a soldier cut down 150 yards from the nearest cover. As his citation notes, Shemin “left cover and crossed an open space … exposed to heavy machine-gun fire” to rescue the wounded man. The following day, Shemin saw another soldier go down and again exposed himself to intense enemy gunfire to rescue him.
Shemin saved yet another wounded man, but by that time G Company had taken such heavy attrition on its commissioned and senior noncommissioned officers that Shemin found himself the highest-ranking troop left. As his citation continues, Shemin promptly took charge and “displayed great initiative under fire” until wounded on Aug. 9.
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