Subdeacon Joe Posted January 11 Posted January 11 “With his bayonet he killed 5 of the enemy, and when it was broken, used the butt of his rifle, capturing 15 prisoners.” Born in what is today Serbia, Aleksa Mandušić, know as Jake Allex, joined the US Army in Chicago, to fight in World War 1. In the Battle of Amiens, early August 1918, allied troops were pinned down by intense German machingun and artillery from a “a bare seventy-five-foot-high ridge" — Chipilly Ridge. Three Battalions of Americans from the 33rd Infantry Division are assigned to take this ridge. With all his officers killed or wounded, Corporal Allex takes command, leading his men in an assault on the ridge: by sheer force of will, blood, and steel, Allex leads the charge — alone for the last 30 yards. The Americans seize the ridge. His Medal of Honor Citation: “At a critical point in the action, when all the officers with his platoon had become casualties, Corporal Allex took command of the platoon and led it forward until the advance was stopped by fire from a machinegun nest. He then advanced alone for about 30 yards in the face of intense fire and attacked the nest. With his bayonet he killed 5 of the enemy, and when it was broken, used the butt of his rifle, capturing 15 prisoners.” Raising to the rank of Sergeant during the war, he died in Chicago in 1959, at the age of 72. 1 4 Quote
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