Some years ago I read about Second Lieutenant Alexander "Sandy" Nininger and the action on Bataan's Abucay Line in January of 1942. I was impressed enough that I wanted to tell the story at my history group, but as I did my research I found three differing accounts of what happened. I can only wonder at which is the most accurate. In anycase, I think these different accounts demonstrate just how confusing a battlefield can be.
From John Toland's But Not in Shame: The Six Months After Pearl Harbor (Random House: New York, 1961) page 177:
Second Lieutenant Alexander Nininger, Jr., a recent graduate of West Point, now came over to help [Captain Ernest] Brown mop up. [Brown's reserve comapany had been ordered forward to plug a hole in the line.] Recklessly he ran from foxhole to foxhole, wiping out dug-in Japanese with grenades. Finally a burst from a machine gun cut him down. Locating its position, he staggared forward. Just as he hurled a grenade, a burst of fire caught him in the face. He dropped dead - and became the first to win the Medal of Honor on a World War II battlefield. Even as he died he had killed the machine-gun crew. . . .
From Edward F. Murphy's Heroes of WWII (Random House: New York, 1990) pgs 22-23:
On the morning of January 12, when [Captain Ernest] Brown realized there were far more infiltrators than his weakened company could handle, [Lt. Alexander] Nininger and two squads from his platoon were released from their reserve position to help him. Quickly moving to the area held by Brown's Company K, Nininger found that the Japanese occupied the Allied foxholes they had overrun the previous night. Their presence threatened the integrity of the entire sector.
Nininger loaded himself down with grenades, slung a captured Japanese light machine gun over his shoulder, and began a one-man assault on the enemy positions. Over and over he attacked them in their foxholes. He'd toss in a grenade and follow the blast with rapid bursts from his machine gun. Dogged by persistent sniper fire he ignored it to continue his attack.
Soon, the . . . young second lieutenant was far ahead of his comrades. Completely on his own, he pressed forward into the dense jungle. Suddenly, a Japanese rifle slug plowed through his shoulder. He staggered, then caught himself and moved on, wiping out still another enemy foxhole. When he ran out of machine-gun ammo, he pulled out his .45 pistol.
Hit a second, then a third time, Nininger ignored the pain and fought on. As he moved in on still another Japanese-occupied foxhole, three enemy soldiers suddenly fell on him, stabbing from behind with their bayonets. Whirling around, Nininger killed all three at point-blank range with his .45 before collapsing on the jungle floor.
No one ever knew for sure how many Japanese [Nininger] had killed, but his valiant actions greatly bolstered the courage of the Filipinos. Inspired, they raced forward, wiping out the infiltrators and restoring the torn line. Nininger's actions had bought Bataan's desparate defenders a few more days.
In a solemn ceremony on February 10, 1942, at McDill Army Air Base, Tampa, Florida, Nininger's father accepted his son's posthumous Medal of Honor. Sandy Nininger was the army's first Medal of Honor Hero in the war.
From Gerald Astor's Crisis in the Pacific: The Battles for the Philippine Islands by the Men Who Fought Them (Donald I. Fine Books: New York, 1996) pg 115-116:
[Major Philip] Fry mentioned a method to deal with the infiltration of of enemy soldiers, the creation of anti-sniper parties consisting of riflemen, demolition engineers and some volunteers like Lt. Alexander "Sandy" Nininger. A Georgia-born youth. . . . Nininger, fresh out of the infantry school at Fort Benning, had only come to the Philippines and the 57th Regiment in November 1941, his furlough prior to overseas shipment cut short by the growing crisis.
Three weeks before the 57th Regiment confronted the enemy on Bataan, Nininger, assigned to Company A of the 1st Battalion, received a promotion to first lieutenant. His area was dormant, except for the murderous snipers. According to his superiors, Nininger volunteered to accompany one party of [Filipino] Scouts bent on rooting out the infilitrators. His company commander, Cap. Frederick Yeager, gave Nininger the names of six or eight of the best marksmen in the outfit but specified they must all be volunteers. Everyone elected to participate, and the heavily armed patrol set out. Those behind them heard heavy exchanges of gunfire and explosions. The party returned intact with their ammunition expended. Nininger insisted on another expedition but this time he selected only three scouts for the mission.
"After some time," writes [Captain] John Olson, "they came running back. Shouting to his men to remain, the lieutenant grabbed some more grenades and a bandolier of ammunition and raced back into the trees. He was never seen alive again. His body was found later leaning against a tree. Lying around him were three dead Japanese, one of whom was reported to have been an officer. Nininger's pistol and a Browing Automatic Rifle that he borrowed from another member of K Company had been taken by the enemy, even though they made no attempt to recover their dead."
Subsequently, Nininger was posthumously awarded the nation's highest military decoration, the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was the first American to receive the honor during World War II.
Nininger seems to have demonstrated genuine valor although the eyewitness testimony that is a prerequisite for a Medal of Honor is murky. His regimental commander Colonel Clarke wrote more than two years later: "Sandy received permission to go forward in the 3rd Battalion sector. He was loaded down with grenades and with a Garand rifle slung over his shoulder. He carried under his arm a Japanese 'tommy gun.' Sandy shot his first Jap out of a tree and as the body feel at his feet he was so excited he stood up in the face of terrific rifle fire and yelled like a schoolboy. He threw grenade after grenade. Men of Company K counted twenty Japs killed by his grenades.
"Many reports of further action by Sandy were made by the second in command of the 2nd battalion in the counterattack to regain Company K position. Sandy had apparently used up all his ammunition and was now using his bayonet. His final action, as described by this same officer, was when he saw Sandy, wounded again, and when he seemed to be staggering from loss of blood, three Jpas charged toward him with bayonets. He killed all three of them and apparently fell of exhaustion. . . . Suffice it to say his action acted like a tonic on the men around him and added greatly to the success of the counterattack."
Nininger's heroics drew similarly high praise in the purple prose from others who could not possibly have witnessed the events. But the encomiums, like that of Clarke, in the form of letters to the dead man's family seem inspired more by desires for reflected glory than for drafting a factual record.
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