Fox, John Robert
1915-1944 · Contribution: 1944-1997
Received the Medal of Honor posthumously in 1997 for deliberately calling artillery fire onto his own position to repel a German attack near Sommocolonia, Italy, in December 1944 — one of seven Black WWII veterans honored after a 1990s Army study confirmed racial discrimination had denied Black soldiers fair Medal of Honor consideration
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Impact on the world
As a forward artillery observer with the all-Black 92nd Infantry Division stationed in the Italian village of Sommocolonia, Fox stayed behind with a small observation party on December 26, 1944, after German forces overran the town, and directed defensive artillery fire from a second-floor position as the enemy advanced; when the Germans closed to within 60 yards, he ordered the barrage brought directly onto his own position, telling his artillery commander, “Fire it! There's more of them than there are of us. Give them hell!” The resulting bombardment killed Fox and roughly 100 German soldiers, halting the German advance long enough for American forces to reorganize and recapture the village within a week. He received the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously in 1982 after his family petitioned for recognition, and it was upgraded to the Medal of Honor in the January 1997 White House ceremony, accepted by his widow, Arlene Fox.
Life & background
Born May 18, 1915, in Cincinnati, Ohio, the oldest of three sons, Fox began college at Ohio State University before transferring to Wilberforce University, a historically Black institution, where he studied science and joined the ROTC program under World War I Distinguished Service Cross recipient Captain Aaron R. Fisher. He graduated and was commissioned a second lieutenant on June 13, 1940, joining the all-Black 366th Infantry Regiment at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, where he trained in artillery observation, and deployed to Italy's Po Valley with the 92nd Infantry Division in November 1944, attached as a forward observer to the 598th Field Artillery Battalion. He volunteered for the extended, dangerous four-day Christmas outpost duty in Sommocolonia that led to his death on December 26, 1944, and was buried in Colebrook Cemetery in Whitman, Massachusetts. The village of Sommocolonia dedicated a peace park to Fox and his unit in 2000, and Fort Sill's 1st Battalion, 22nd Field Artillery headquarters was renamed Fox Hall in his honor in 2021.
Sources
- National Park Service; National Museum of the United States Army; National WWII Museum; Task & Purpose
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