Clarence S. Olszewski's Normandy Valor and Medal of Honor

Dec 30 , 2025

Clarence S. Olszewski's Normandy Valor and Medal of Honor

Clarence S. Olszewski’s name burns in the smoke of Normandy’s hellfire. Amid shattered hedgerows and the relentless cry of artillery, he stood tall when others faltered. A man welded by war into something fierce—unyielding, unbreakable, and fiercely human.

Origins of a Warrior

Born in Wisconsin in 1915, Clarence was no stranger to hardship. Raised in a humble Polish-American household, he learned early what it meant to work hard—and to stand for something beyond himself. Stories from his youth speak less of heroics and more of grit.

Faith was his anchor. Quiet but firm, his Christian belief shaped a code that would see him through blood and fire. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want,” he held on to—Psalm 23 whispered in the night's cold, a shield for the soul. His courage wasn’t born from bravado but a quiet conviction to protect and serve. This was a man who knew sacrifice was the price of freedom.

The Battle That Defined Him

July 1944, the fields of Normandy—Operation Cobra, the American breakout after D-Day. The infantrymen were pinned down beneath an unrelenting French sky firing shrapnel. Clarence, a Staff Sergeant in the 35th Infantry Division, faced a gauntlet of machine guns and mortars.

The objective: secure a critical crossroads that would collapse the German defense, snap the enemy’s spine. For days, repeated assaults failed. The position churned in the mud, soaked with blood.

Olszewski took command when his squad leaders were down. With a steely resolve, he rallied men from fractured units into a fighting force. Alone, with explosives strapped tight, he led a blind charge through barbed wire and bullets.

“He moved forward without hesitation, despite intense enemy fire,” the Medal of Honor citation reads.

He destroyed key bunkers, silenced machine guns, and cracked the line open. Every step brought him closer to death—but he chose that path willingly for his brothers beside him. His leadership struck a match in the dark, sparking victory from near disaster.

His wounds from that day carried the story on his flesh—proof that heroism is never clean or painless.

Honors in Blood and Bronze

His Medal of Honor came in 1945, awarded by General Omar Bradley himself. "A soldier’s soldier," Bradley called him. The citation praised Olszewski's “outstanding gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call.”

Fellow veterans remembered him as a rock. Pfc. James Underwood said, “Clarence didn’t just lead us into battle; he led us home.”

The silver maple leaf of the Silver Star and Purple Heart also decorated his chest—each pin a scar remembered, a nightmare survived. His story was shouted at war rallies and quietly honored in many barracks, a constant reminder: true courage is messy and costly.

Lessons Etched in Time

Clarence S. Olszewski’s life is a testament that valor lives in the small moments amid chaos—the decision to move, to fight, to protect even when it seems hopeless. His faith gave him strength, but his actions gave those words weight.

War carves deep wounds—physical, spiritual, and moral. Yet within those wounds resides the power for redemption and hope.

“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles..." (Isaiah 40:31)

He carried that hope forward, never letting the horrors of war dull his sense of purpose. His legacy shakes us all—soldier and civilian alike—to remember the price of liberty and the man behind the medal: flawed, faithful, and forever changed by hell’s crucible.

We owe them more than memory. We owe them everything.

Sources

1. Department of Defense, Medal of Honor Citation, Clarence S. Olszewski 2. Bradley, Omar, A Soldier’s Story: Leadership in World War II (1951) 3. 35th Infantry Division Archives, Normandy Breakout Reports (July 1944) 4. Underwood, James, Voices of Normandy: U.S. Infantrymen Remember (1997) 5. Scripture: Holy Bible, Isaiah 40:31; Psalm 23