'Give them hell!' The Black Medal of Honor recipient who called an artillery strike on his position
More than 70 years ago, Lieutenant John R. Fox was penned in on the second-floor of a building in an Italian village. German soldiers had overrun the town just before Christmas, 1944, leaving Fox and a few other forward observers as the only Americans left. Over the radio he was directing an artillery strike that put several Nazis but also Fox himself in the crosshairs.
“That was just where I wanted it. Bring it 60 yards!” he told artillery soldiers.
Fox’s decision in the village of Sommocolonia, Italy would help turn the tide of the fight, at the cost of his life. He would eventually receive the Medal of Honor for his heroism, but only five decades later, his service was ignored due to the racism of the time.
John R. Fox was born in 1915 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He studied at Wilberforce University in Ohio, a historic Black university. While there, he joined the ROTC program, which at the time was run by Aaron Fisher, a Black World War I veteran who had earned the Distinguished Service Cross for his time in France. Fox graduated, commissioned a second lieutenant and was assigned to the 366th Infantry Regiment. This was in the days of a segregated military, and the 366th was an all-Black unit. He also started training in artillery.
https://taskandpurpose.com/history/john-r-fox-medal-of-honor-valor/
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The commander of the 598th directly called Fox, asking for confirmation. Fox didn’t waiver. He confirmed he wanted the artillery strike launched.
“The last communication from Lieutenant Fox was, ‘Fire It! There’s more of them than there are of us. Give them hell!’” his Medal of Honor citation noted.
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