Alton "Knappie" Knappenberger MoH RIP

Kyt · Jun 14, 2008

'One man army' Alton Knappenberger dies -- themorningcall.com

Alton W. Knappenberger, who was born in Coopersburg, worked on a pig farm and received the nation's highest military honor during World War II, died of natural causes Monday in Pottstown Memorial Hospital. He was 84.

Pfc. Knappenberger, an Army draftee, was awarded the Medal of Honor for acting with ''conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity'' in his first and only combat experience just days after the Allied landing at Anzio, Italy, in 1944.

He picked up a Browning automatic rifle, ran alone to a knoll and held off a German attack for more than two hours near Cisterna di Latina, 30 miles from Nazi-held Rome, on Feb. 1, 1944. The field was littered with 60 German dead.

''Knappie,'' as his buddies called him, served in Company C, 30th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division. His commanding general called him ''a one-man army.'' He went home to the Perkiomen Valley in August 1944 amid wide acclaim and pitched war bonds.

But throughout the rest of his life he shunned publicity, seeking a return to obscurity. He drove a truck, laid blacktop and ran backhoes. He lived in a trailer in the woods of Earl Township, Berks County, near Boyertown.

His life story appeared in The Morning Call on Memorial Day 2004.

With his death, only 28 of the 464 Medal of Honor recipients from World War II survive.

A funeral service will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the R.L. Williams Jr. Funeral Home, Skippack Pike at Cedars Road, Skippack, Montgomery County. A viewing will be held from 5-7 p.m. Burial will be in Arlington National Cemetery.
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Kyt · Jun 14, 2008

MOH Citation for Alton Knappenberger

KNAPPENBERGER, ALTON W.

Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Cisterna di Littoria, Italy, 1 February 1944. Entered service at: Spring Mount, Pa. Birth: Cooperstown, Pa. G.O. No.: 41, 26 May 1944.

Citation:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty in action involving actual conflict with the enemy, on 1 February 1944 near Cisterna di Littoria, Italy. When a heavy German counterattack was launched against his battalion, Pfc. Knappenberger crawled to an exposed knoll and went into position with his automatic rifle. An enemy machinegun 85 yards away opened fire, and bullets struck within 6 inches of him. Rising to a kneeling position, Pfc. Knappenberger opened fire on the hostile crew, knocked out the gun, killed 2 members of the crew, and wounded the third. While he fired at this hostile position, 2 Germans crawled to a point within 20 yards of the knoll and threw potato-masher grenades at him, but Pfc. Knappenberger killed them both with 1 burst from his automatic rifle. Later, a second machinegun opened fire upon his exposed position from a distance of 100 yards, and this weapon also was silenced by his well-aimed shots. Shortly thereafter, an enemy 20mm. antiaircraft gun directed fire at him, and again Pfc. Knappenberger returned fire to wound 1 member of the hostile crew. Under tank and artillery shellfire, with shells bursting within 15 yards of him, he held his precarious position and fired at all enemy infantrymen armed with machine pistols and machineguns which he could locate. When his ammunition supply became exhausted, he crawled 15 yards forward through steady machinegun fire, removed rifle clips from the belt of a casualty, returned to his position and resumed firing to repel an assaulting German platoon armed with automatic weapons. Finally, his ammunition supply being completely exhausted, he rejoined his company. Pfc. Knappenberger's intrepid action disrupted the enemy attack for over 2 hours.
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Antipodean Andy · Jun 15, 2008

Rather good with his BAR by the sounds of it.

It's always the quiet ones, as they say. RIP.

Pathfinder · Jun 15, 2008

RIP Knappie.

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Alton "Knappie" Knappenberger MoH RIP

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