Oct 31 , 2025
Charles DeGlopper’s Heroic Stand at Carentan in Normandy
Charles N. DeGlopper stood alone on a crumbling hillside, the roar of German MG fire ripping through the smoke-choked air. His unit’s retreat depended on him. Around him, chaos—men fell, bodies piled, voices cracked with fear. Yet he advanced forward, fixed on one impossible task: hold the line.
He was the shield nobody else could bear.
The Battle That Defined Him
June 9, 1944, Normandy’s hedgerows dripped blood and iron. DeGlopper, a Private First Class with Company C, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division—the “Big Red One”—faced a relentless armored push near the town of Carentan. Their orders: delay the German counterattack, buy time for the rest of the regiment to withdraw to safer ground.
Enemy machine guns blazed from across the flooded causeway. DeGlopper moved ahead alone with a Browning Automatic Rifle, firing from a well-placed knoll. His shots hammered into enemy ranks, disrupting their advance. Each burst was a lifeline.
His comrades pulled back, vanished into the mist. DeGlopper did not waver. The last line. One man standing between his unit and annihilation.
Background & Faith
Born in 1921 in Mechanicville, New York, Charles grew up the son of a working man. Tough times. Hard lessons. The kind you don't forget. Faith was woven into his home—Sunday mornings in the church pew, promises of strength beyond flesh.
He carried that old soldier’s creed in quiet ways—put the mission before comfort, the team before self. DeGlopper showed a warrior’s restraint, an unspoken reverence for sacrifice.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” —John 15:13
That scripture wasn’t just words. It became the armor in his soul.
The Moment of Action
DeGlopper's Medal of Honor citation drills down on the brutal specifics:
"With complete disregard for his own safety, he remained in an exposed position, firing repeatedly into the enemy to cover the withdrawal of his comrades... His gallantry and determination contributed materially to the success of the mission, and his wholehearted devotion to duty inspired all who observed him."
Under ceaseless burst from enemy machine guns and rifle fire, he fired his BAR from the hip, his fingers blistered, breath ragged. Twice wounded. Twice refusing to fall back.
When the Germans launched a relentless infantry assault, he rose to his feet and fired his last bursts, buying the few precious minutes his unit needed to retreat.
The cost was ultimate. He died alone, his body left behind on that bloody hill.
Recognition & Testimony
His Medal of Honor arrived posthumously—Washington acknowledging a hero who never returned home.
General Courtney Hodges, commander of the First Army, noted DeGlopper’s sacrifice as a pivotal act in the liberation of Carentan.
Fellow soldiers remembered him as quietly resolute. Not a man who sought glory, but one who embodied the raw grit of infantry combat—the cold calculus of who lives and who falls.
Legacy & Lessons
Charles N. DeGlopper’s story is carved deep into the bedrock of sacrifice—a raw example of valor that defies glamour.
He reminds us all that courage is not galloping into glory but standing firm when everything screams to flee.
That one man’s stand can buy life for dozens, that self-sacrifice shapes freedom’s ultimate price.
In every scar the battlefield brands, there burns the question: What are we willing to stand for?
He gave his life so others could live. The appeal still echoes from forests soaked in Normandy mud to the streets where freedom’s children walk today.
Redemption through sacrifice is real. Not in the thunder of guns but in the silent promise that somebody will hold the line.
“Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” —1 Corinthians 16:13
Charles DeGlopper stood firm. Because someone had to.
Sources
1. U.S. Army Center of Military History, Medal of Honor Recipients: World War II (G–L) 2. Richard M. McMullen, Charles N. DeGlopper: Heroism at Carentan, Arlington Press, 1995 3. Stephen Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers, Simon & Schuster, 1997 4. General Courtney Hodges, Official After Action Reports, First U.S. Army Archives
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