Date of birth:

April 4th, 1923 (Haverford/Pennsylvania , United States)

Date of death:

August 26th, 2015 (Portland/Oregon, United States)

Service number:

0-516679

Nationality:

American (1776 - present, Republic)

Robert Weiss was born in 1923 as the son of a Hungarian Jewish couple who had emigrated at the end of the Great War.
He was educated at Perrdue University, Indiana, just before the US entered the war, and he joined the army in 1943, aged 20.
After the victory in Normandy was wounded in Belgium and evacuated to a hospital in newly liberated Paris. He was back on the front lines for the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes until the end of January 1945, and for the crossing of the Rhine two months later.
After the war, he attended law school at the University of Chicago and worked as an attorney and published the book Fire Mission! (first published as Enemy north, south, east and west), about his war time experciens.

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Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Awarded on:

2007

Award presented by the Consul General of France, based in San Francisco, during a ceremony in the Fireside Room of the Governor Hotel, located at 614 SW 11th Avenue, near Alder Street, in Portland.

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

2nd Lieutenant

Unit:

Forward Observer, Battery B, 230th Field Artillery Battalion, 30th Infantry Division "Old Hickory", U.S. Army

Citation:
"For gallantry in action from 5 August 1944 - 12 August 1944, while serving with the 230th Field Artillery Battalion, 30th Infantry Division, in France. Lieutenant Weiss' great heroism and tireless energy were materially responsible for trapped units of an infantry regiment being able to hold out against overwhelming odds. He fearlessly exposed himself, in moving from one observation post to another, often deliberately drawing enemy mortar, artillery, and small arms fire so that he could better the effect of artillery fire on the enemy. Lieutenant Weiss' gallantry aided greatly in turning back several counterattacks."

In all, Weiss called in 193 artillery strikes in six days, sometimes at the rate of every 15 minutes.

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Unit:

Forward Observer, Battery B, 230th Field Artillery Battalion, 30th Infantry Division "Old Hickory", U.S. Army

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Unit:

Forward Observer, Battery B, 230th Field Artillery Battalion, 30th Infantry Division "Old Hickory", U.S. Army

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Unit:

Forward Observer, Battery B, 230th Field Artillery Battalion, 30th Infantry Division "Old Hickory", U.S. Army

This award was obtained in the form of an Oak Leave to be attached on the ribbon of the first award.

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

1st Lieutenant

Unit:

Forward Observer, Battery B, 230th Field Artillery Battalion, 30th Infantry Division "Old Hickory", U.S. Army

• - Hewitt, R.L., Workhorse of the Western Front – The Story of the 30th Infantry Division, The Battery Press, Nashville, USA, 1980
  - Featherston, A., Saving the Breakout – The 30th Division’s Heroic Stand at Mortain, August 7-12, 1944, Presidio Press Inc., Novato, U.S.A., 1993
  - The 30th Infantry Division In World War II
  - Historique de la 30th Infantry Division
  - Valor awards for Robert L. Weiss
  - Obituaries | News | The Independent
  - Robert Weiss 230th Field Artille