Michael Daly was awarded the Medal of Honor in ’45

Published 5:00 am Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Michael Daly, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his single-handed offensive against German troops during the battle for Nuremberg in World War II, died Friday at his home in Fairfield, Conn. He was 83.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, said his brother-in-law William Wallace.

On the morning of April 18, 1945, Daly, a lieutenant in the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, was leading his company through the shell-battered ruins of Nuremberg when the men came under machine-gun fire.

Daly moved ahead alone and engaged in four separate firefights. He destroyed three machine-gun emplacements — the final one by firing his rifle from a range of 10 yards — and killed 15 Germans. The next day, he was shot in the face and evacuated.

On Aug. 23, 1945, having been promoted to captain, he received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor, from President Harry Truman at the White House. The citation credited him with “voluntarily taking all major risks himself and protecting his men at every opportunity.” He was also a two-time recipient of the Silver Star.

The day after the Medal of Honor ceremony in 1945, he was honored at a parade in Fairfield with his father, a colonel, who had re-entered the Army and had been wounded in France.

After the war, Daly was a salesman for an oil company and invested in real estate.