This WWI soldier saved two men from a burning tank with his bare hands
Published: 21 April 2026
via the Military Times website
Sgt. Reidar Waaler
Sgt. Reidar Waaler received the Medal of Honor from Gen. John Pershing on Feb. 4, 1919.
When the American Expeditionary Forces joined the Allied armies on the Western Front in World War I, there was one condition upon which their commander, Gen. John Pershing, insisted. He wanted the AEF to fight as an army, not a collection of separated units scattered among the Allied armies. For the most part, he got his way by the time the United States’ First Army was launched against the Germans at Saint-Mihiel in September 1918.
There were, nevertheless, a handful of American divisions that were “loaned” among the French, the British and the Australians, leaving their partners a general impression of naïve green soldiers capable of learning fast. Among those fast learners was Sgt. Reidar Waaler of Company A, 105th Machine-Gun Battalion, 27th Division, who entered the fray at Le Hamel on July 4, 1918.
Waaler’s peripatetic life story began on Feb. 12, 1894, with his birth in the Norwegian suburb of Oslo. A few years later, his family moved to resettle in New York City. Waaler had enlisted in the 27th Division, a New York National Guard unit, and had risen in rank to sergeant by the time his activated division was shipped overseas.
At Le Hamel the 27th and 30th divisions fought alongside the Fourth Australian Division under one of the most effective tacticians in the British Army: Lt. Gen. John Monash. By September, Monash had been knighted and was commanding the Australian Corps, taking the two American divisions with him.
As the British prepared to advance on the German Hindenburg Line, the infantry of the Australian 3rd and 5th Australian divisions and the U.S. 27th and 30th divisions were lent backup by British Tank Mark V battalions.
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