Word Celebrity Blog

John Robert Fox


John Robert Fox (May 18, 1915–December 26, 1944) was killed in action when he deliberately called for artillery fire on his own position, after his position was overrun, in order to defeat a German attack in the vicinity of Sommocolonia, northern Italy during World War II.

He belatedly received the Medal of Honor in 1997, for willingly sacrificing his life


Early Life

John Fox was born in Cincinnati, Ohio May 18, 1915, and attended Wilberforce University, graduating with an ROTC commission of second lieutenant in 1940. He was 29 years old when he called artillery fire on his own position the day after Christmas in 1944, for which he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 1982. More than fifty years after his death, Fox was awarded the Medal of Honor. He is buried in Colebrook Cemetery in Whitman, Massachusetts.

In the early 1990s it was determined that  black American soldiers were denied consideration for the Medal of Honor solely due to their race. After a review, by the government, seven black American soldiers had their Medals upgraded in January, 1997 to the Medal of Honor; First Lieutenant Fox was one of the seven.


Military Service

The 92nd Infantry Division known as the Buffalo Soldiers, was a segregated black American division that fought in World War II. First Lieutenant John R. Fox was of the 366th Infantry Regiment when he made the ultimate sacrifice in order to defeat the enemy and save the lives of his fellow soldiers.

When a massive German assault was launched on Sommocolonia, windswept mountain village in December 1944, a scant two platoons of American infantrymen were dug in here. Their own commanding officers expected them to throw down their guns and run.

But for 20 critical hours, the tiny complement of 70 men, held out against an offensive that might have changed the course of World War II.

A mile to the north of Sommocolonia was the forward encampment of the German 14th Army, which had been instructed not to take prisoners from the 92nd Division because its soldiers were black - and, by official Nazi standards, not fully human.

Six miles to the south was the command post of the American Fifth Army, which refused to provide either reinforcements for the besieged troops in Sommocolonia or blood transfusions for their wounded. They were black, and by official U.S. Army standards in World War II, not fully soldiers.

Lieutenant Fox was part of a small forward observer party that had volunteered to stay behind in the Italian village of Sommocolonia, in the Serchio River Valley. Allied forces had been forced to withdraw from the village after it had been overrun by the enemy. From his position on the second floor of a house, Lieutenant John Fox directed defensive artillery fire.

The enemy was in the streets and attacking in strength, greatly outnumbering the small group of American soldiers. Lieutenant Fox radioed in to have the artillery fire adjusted closer to his position, then radioed again to have the shelling moved even closer.

Otis Zachary was the  soldier receiving the message of John Fox's closest friends. They had trained together in Massachusetts in 1942 and shipped out on the same transport for Italy.

Artillery Officer Zachary understood that the targeting at Sommocolonia was Lieutenant Fox's decision. He had called and said, "I want everything you've got put on my coordinates," Zachary was stunned, for that would bring the deadly fire right on top of Lieutenant Fox’s position; there was no way he would survive.

"Fox, that will be right on you. I can't do that," the artillery officer Zachary yelled into the phone.

"Fire it!" John Fox yelled back.

Zachary had refused. to change the coordinates until he was ordered by a colonel to do what Lieutenant Fox asked.

Zachary, the soldier, fired on the position.





















Zachary, the man, was tormented by the belief that that his shells had killed John Fox, his oldest friend in the Army. "When something like that happens, you go half nuts," he told friends a half century later. "A lot of things still come back to me at night, so that I can't sleep for thinking about them."

This shelling delayed the German advance until other units could reorganize to repel the attack.

Of the 95 American and Italian Partisan defenders of Sommocolonia, 18 made it back alive to U.S. Fifth Army lines.

Three days later, the German offensive sputtered to a halt, and by January 1, Sommocolonia was firmly back in Allied hands.

Records show that only a few soldiers or civillians have lived to tell about the battle when an elite Austrian alpine unit attacked the 70 Buffalo soldiers defending the village of Sommocolonia. By that time, the Allied forces had largely taken control of Italy.


























Lieutenant John Fox's action permitted Allied forces, who had been forced to withdraw, to organize a counterattack and regain control of the village. After the Allied units had retaken the village, they found the bodies of Lieutenant Fox and others in his unit with the bodies of about one hundred enemy soldiers.

Sommocolonians hid terrified in their basements during the fighting, and when Axis forces took the village, they were forced out, homeless in the middle of winter, climbing over the dead bodies of black Americans who had been their friends and who had shared their army rations with them when they were starving.

The account of their valor was lost in history for more than half a century until a special act of Congress in 1996 secured the Medal of Honor to Lieutenant  Fox and six other black American soldiers.



























 Lieutenant John Fox is survived by his wife Arlene Fox, son Jerrold Pope (professor of  voice at Florida State University) and daughter Sandra, and two grandchildren, Morgan and Cassandra Charles and his two sisters.


Honors

After the war the citizens of Sommocolonia, Italy erected a monument to nine men who were killed during the artillery barrage - eight Italian soldiers, and Lieutenant Fox.

In 2005, the toy company Hasbro introduced a 12-inch action figure "commemorating Lt. John R. Fox as part of its "G.I. Joe Medal of Honor series."







Medal Of Honor Citation

For his "gallant and courageous actions, at the supreme sacrifice of his own life," John Fox was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. His widow, the former Arlene Marrow of Brockton, Massachusetts, received his medal from President Bill Clinton in a White House ceremony on January 13, 1997. On that day, President Clinton also awarded the medal to six other previously neglected African American World War II veterans, including Vernon Baker, the only one of the seven was still living.























Citation:

For extraordinary heroism against an armed enemy in the vicinity of Sommocolonia, Italy on 26 December 1944, while serving as a member of Cannon Company, 366th Infantry Regiment, 92d Infantry Division. During the preceding few weeks, Lieutenant Fox served with the 598th Field Artillery Battalion as a forward observer. On Christmas night, enemy soldiers gradually infiltrated the town of Sommocolonia in civilian clothes, and by early morning the town was largely in hostile hands. Commencing with a heavy barrage of enemy artillery at 0400 hours on 26 December 1944, an organized attack by uniformed German units began.

Being greatly outnumbered, most of the United States Infantry forces were forced to withdraw from the town, but Lieutenant Fox and some other members of his observer party voluntarily remained on the second floor of a house to direct defensive artillery fire. At 0800 hours, Lieutenant Fox reported that the Germans were in the streets and attacking in strength. He then called for defensive artillery fire to slow the enemy advance. As the Germans continued to press the attack towards the area that Lieutenant Fox occupied, he adjusted the artillery fire closer to his position. Finally he was warned that the next adjustment would bring the deadly artillery right on top of his position. After acknowledging the danger, Lieutenant Fox insisted that the last adjustment be fired as this was the only way to defeat the attacking soldiers. Later, when a counterattack retook the position from the Germans, Lieutenant Fox's body was found with the bodies of approximately 100 German soldiers. Lieutenant Fox's gallant and courageous actions, at the supreme sacrifice of his own life, contributed greatly to delaying the enemy advance until other infantry and artillery units could reorganize to repel the attack.

His extraordinary valorous actions were in keeping with the most cherished traditions of military service, and reflect the utmost credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army