Capt. Ben Salomon was a dentist who volunteered to replace the 2nd battalion's wounded surgeon during the battle of saipan in world war II.
his aid station was set up 50 yards from the forward foxhole. fighting was heavy and the japanese soon overran the perimeter. then they made the mistake of getting anywhere near Captain Salomon's aid station
he saw a japanese soldier bayonet an unarmed, wounded american soldier that was laying on a stretcher. Salomon shot the japanese soldier with a nearby rifle, and then returned to his patient. two more enemy soldiers came in the tent. Salomon clubbed the first guy, rammed the butt of the rifle in the second guy’s stomach, then shot and killed the first guy and bayoneted the second.
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four more soldiers began to crawl under the tent sides of the aid station. Salomon shot one, knifed another, killed the third with a bayonet and head-butting the fourth who was then shot and killed by one of Salomon’s patients.
was he done? nope.
Salomon ordered the medics to evacuate the wounded. Captain Benjamin Salomon manned a belt-fed .30-caliber machine gun and attempted to hold off the enemy until the wounded were clear.
The attack lasted 15 hours. the US army retook the positions the next day. Salomon’s body was found slumped over his machine gun. In front of him were the bodies of 98 japanese soldiers. following the blood trail leading from his body, it was clear that Salomon had repositioned the incredibly heavy machine gun four times, each move because the dead had piled up so high in front of him that he couldn’t get a clear line of fire through the stack of corpses.
an autopsy showed that during most of this fighting, he had been fatally wounded, having been shot and bayonetted 24 times before death. his body had 76 bullet wounds and many bayonet and shrapnel wounds.
it took over 50 years for him to get the medal of honor.
