This Week in History: Dirk J. Vlug's one-man attack on enemy tanks
During this week in 1916, a hero is born. Like so many in his generation, Dirk J. Vlug would be called upon to fight evil half a globe away.
“We all told our friends and wives and sweethearts that we’d be back in a year. But we didn’t get back in a year. We didn’t get back for 4½ years,” he later told a reporter.
By December 15, 1944, Pfc. Vlug was serving with the 126th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division in the Philippines. Our soldiers were guarding Ormoc Road on Leyte Island.
Suddenly, the American roadblock was attacked by a group of five enemy tanks. Just as suddenly, Vlug turned into a one-man army. Armed with a rocket launcher and six rounds of ammunition, he left his covered position and advanced towards the tanks.
How was he not hit? The machinegun fire directed at him, Vlug’s Medal citation would later say, was “intense.”
Vlug advanced to the first tank and destroyed it with a single round. Then he moved on to the second tank. The crew of that tank was ready, dismounting from their vehicle and coming toward him. But Vlug simply whipped out a pistol, shooting one of the enemy. As the survivors scrambled back into the tank, he took out the tank, too, using the rocket launcher that he still held.
By then, three more tanks were headed Vlug’s way. The story concludes at the link in the comments.
