b. 25/12/1900 Sedden, Poland. d. 28/04/1943 near Medjez-el-Bab, Tunisia.
DATE OF MOH ACTION: 28/04/1943 near Medjez-el-Bab, Tunisia.
Nicholas MInue MOH
Army records show that Minue was born Dec. 25, 1900, in Sedden, Poland, to Ukrainian parents who had quickly moved him back to their homeland. By 1906, John and Mary Minue had moved their young son and a daughter to the U.S., settling in Carteret, N.J. There, they had two more sons.
According to a 1944 Army press release, Minue went to school through 5th grade before going to work at an engineering firm. He enlisted in the Army in 1918 during World War I and served a year before being discharged. Minue eventually became a U.S. citizen and re-enlisted in the Army in 1927. According to Army records, for reasons that are unclear, he remained at the rank of private until the early 1940s when he was promoted to sergeant. But he volunteered to give up that rank so he could fight overseas in a combat unit when the U.S. joined World War II.
In November 1942, Minue was one of the first soldiers to deploy to the North African theater, where he was assigned to Company A of the 6th Armored Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division. According to U.S. Africa Command Public Affairs, he went ashore near Casablanca, Morocco, as part of Operation Torch, which was meant to draw Axis forces away from the eastern front of the European war and provide a launching point for the Allies in Italy. From Morocco, Minue fought through Algeria during the spring of 1943.
On April 28, 1943, Minue and his company were near the town of Medjez-El-Bab, Tunisia. About 50 minutes southwest of Tunis, the hilly area sat along a critical position on the Axis perimeter. Company A’s mission was to attack an enemy defensive position in the area, despite the enemy having the high ground. Minue was a member of an advance team moving toward their target when they were suddenly flanked by enemy rifle and machine gun fire.
Minue quickly volunteered to single-handedly charge the machine gun nest. Without concern for his own life, he charged the position and used his bayonet to kill 10 enemy soldiers. He destroyed the machine gun nest and continued moving forward to oust more enemy riflemen from their entrenched positions. Eventually, though, he was fatally wounded.
Minue’s actions in the face of inevitable death gave his fellow soldiers the morale and time to push farther ahead and drive the enemy from the area. According to the American Battle Monuments Commission, Axis resistance in the area collapsed within two weeks.
For his bravery, Minue was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on April 1, 1944. At the ceremony at Fort DuPont, Del., Maj. Gen. Alvan C. Gillem presented the medal on behalf of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Mary Minue, Nicholas’s mother. According to the group Ukrainian American Veterans, Minue was the first Ukrainian American to receive the Medal of Honor.
Minue is also one of the few Medal of Honor recipients to have been interred overseas and is buried in the North Africa American Cemetery in Carthage, Tunisia. Minue’s adopted hometown of Carteret, N.J., remembers him with local namesakes: Private Nicholas Minue School and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Nicholas Minue Post No. 2314. A U.S. Army ferry that began service in 1957 from Manhattan in New York City to a military installation on nearby Governors Island also bore his name.
MOH CITATION:
For distinguishing himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the loss of life above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy on 28 April 1943, in the vicinity of Medjez-el-Bab, Tunisia. When the advance of the assault elements of Company A was held up by flanking fire from an enemy machine-gun nest, Pvt. Minue voluntarily, alone, and unhesitatingly, with complete disregard of his own welfare, charged the enemy entrenched position with fixed bayonet. Pvt. Minue assaulted the enemy under a withering machine-gun and rifle fire, killing approximately 10 enemy machine gunners and riflemen. After completely destroying this position, Pvt. Minue continued forward, routing enemy riflemen from dugout positions until he was fatally wounded. The courage, fearlessness, and aggressiveness displayed by Pvt. Minue in the face of inevitable death was unquestionably the factor that gave his company the offensive spirit that was necessary for advancing and driving the enemy from the entire sector.
BURIAL LOCATION: ABMC NORTH AFRICA CEMETERY, CARTHAGE, TUNISIA.
SECTION E, ROW 8, GRAVE 4.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: FAMILY.
