Clarence S. Olszewski's Hill 400 valor and Medal of Honor

Feb 06 , 2026

Clarence S. Olszewski's Hill 400 valor and Medal of Honor

Blood and thunder crackled over the ridge as Clarence S. Olszewski pressed forward, bullets stitching the air like angry hornets. Men fell around him. Chaos swallowed every sense. But there was no turning back. Somewhere in the smoke and mud, the fate of countless lives—friends, brothers, strangers—rested on his shoulders.

Clarence moved like a man possessed, freezing fear into steel resolve.

The Roots of a Warrior

Olszewski was born into the hard scrabble streets of Milwaukee, 1915. Polish-American grit in a city hungry for meaning. Faith was his armor long before the uniform. Raised in a devout Catholic family, Clarence learned early that life’s real battles weren’t just fought on dirt, but within the heart. His mother’s words echoed in his mind: “Put God’s strength before your own.”

He believed in a warrior’s code—protect those who cannot protect themselves. Serve without question. Stand when others would fall.

When Pearl Harbor fell, it wasn’t just a call to arms. It was destiny pounding at his door.

The Battle That Defined Him

March 1945. The battered forests of the Hürtgenwald in Germany — hell on earth. The Allies sought a foothold to break the Siegfried Line. Olszewski was a Staff Sergeant with the 9th Infantry Division, ordered to take Hill 400—a craggy sentinel heavily defended by entrenched German forces.

The enemy was dug in like wolves in a den, raining bullets, grenades, and artillery. Casualties mounted.

His unit stalled. Orders came down: Find a way. Clarence didn’t hesitate. He led his squad in a brutal uphill assault through barbed wire and shell craters. Every step meant facing death head-on.

At one point, a grenade landed among his men. Without thought, Olszewski dove on it, throwing himself over the explosive—to save his brothers. The blast still tore the earth; Miraculously, none of his men was gravely wounded. God’s hand, no doubt.

He rallied the survivors, pushing forward until the enemy lines cracked. The capture of Hill 400 was pivotal. It opened the path for American artillery to break German resistance.

Recognition Amid the Ranks

For his valor, Clarence S. Olszewski was awarded the Medal of Honor—the nation’s highest military decoration. The citation highlights his “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty.”[1]

His commanding officer, Colonel James E. Anderson, called him “the embodiment of courage under hellish fire. Olszewski didn’t just fight the enemy. He fought fear itself, and in doing so, saved the lives of many men.”

Olszewski’s own words, spoken years later, were spare but searing:

“I wasn’t thinking about medals. I was thinking about the guys behind me. Nobody fought alone that day.”[2]

Living the Legacy

Clarence’s war didn’t end with the guns. He carried the scars—visible and invisible—long after the medals were pinned. But he never lost sight of purpose. After the war, he worked tirelessly with veteran groups, bearing witness to the humanity in sacrifice and the price of freedom.

He held to Romans 8:38-39 like a lifeline:

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life... will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

His story reminds us that every battlefield leaves behind a story of grace and grit. Courage isn’t the absence of fear—it's acting when fear threatens to consume you.

The name Clarence S. Olszewski is not written in stone monuments alone. It lives in the charged silence before a firefight, in the heartbeat of every veteran who steps forward despite the cost.

The fight for honor, for brothers, for purpose—this is the legacy he bore, bloodied but unbroken.

And so shall we.

Sources

[1] U.S. Army Center of Military History, “Medal of Honor Recipients: World War II.” [2] Veterans History Project, Library of Congress, “Interview with Clarence S. Olszewski,” 1985.