Orders, Decorations and Medals

The Bronze Star and Purple Heart pair awarded to Private First Class H. H. Dunn, 87th Mountain Infantry, United States Army, who was killed in action in Italy April 1945

Bronze Star, the reverse engraved ‘Harry H. Dunn’; Purple Heart, the reverse engraved ‘Harry H. Dunn’, both in cases of issue, together with a Combat Infantry badge, extremely fine (3) £200-300

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Ron Penhall Collection.

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Harry Henderson Dunn was killed in action in Italy on 15 April 1945, while serving as a runner in the 87th Mountain Infantry, United States Army. Several months later, Lieutenant J. Hawkins of ‘A’ Company, a Weapons Platoon Leader and a friend of Dunn, wrote to his mother, a letter from which the following extracts have been taken:

‘I knew Harry from the time he joined ‘A’ Company at Camp Swift until shortly before his death. I wish I could have written to you long ago but you see I was hit on the same day as Harry and am only now getting back to the Company ...

Our first action together was the attack on Mount Belvedere. ‘A’ Company’s objective was a little town on the mountainside named Corona. We moved into the town about dawn and after some brisk fighting cleaned out the enemy. I was seeing to the setting up of my mortars in the town square where there were several burned out tanks. As I passed one of these tanks a German sniper rose out of the turret and levelled his rifle at me. Before he could squeeze the trigger Harry cut him down with his Tommy gun. So you see, Mrs. Dunn, I can safely say had it not been for Harry I would not be alive today. And so for those first weeks in combat we worked together, we dug foxholes together, and slept together in the same hole. We went out ahead of the lines at night to lay barbed wire and more than once “hit the dirt” together for protection from artillery. You can not live very long like that, Mrs. Dunn, without knowing a man inside and out and becoming friends ...

After Belvedere came the push to capture the town of Castel D’Aiano, which ‘A’ Company did. There again Harry and I dug our hole together in the darkness on the edge of that ghostly ruined town. The only light came from burning buildings or a flare as it went out over German territory. We dug the hole deep that night and carefully arranged our ammunition and grenades - and when dawn came the Jerries counter-attacked. For some fifteen minutes that seemed like ages we fought and sweated side by side, and when full daylight came the Jerries had been driven off ...

Then for four days the Germans dropped everything they had in the way of artillery on that tortured town. We could hardly move from our foxholes during the daylight. Harry and I would sit at the bottom of our hole and listen to the shells come in - wondering if the next one was going to make a direct hit. More than once as I looked at Harry I knew he was praying - praying that a man does under artillery ...

It was during this time that the Company Commander’s own runner was given a Sergeant’s job and the Captain took Harry as his own runner. I was sorry to lose Harry but I know that the captain could not have chosen better ... And so came 14 April, when ‘A’ Company jumped off on the final push. ‘A’ Company went through some hard times then, and on that drive we lost 164 men out of 190 in the Company, so you see Harry was not alone. Of the 164 casualties, 36 were deaths. ‘A’ Company suffered the highest casualty rate in the 10th Division ... ’

Dunn was actually killed by enemy fire on 15 April 1945, during his Company’s advance on “Hill 802”, near Le Coste. Originally interred in the U.S. Military Cemetery near Granaglione, his remains were repatriated for re-burial by his parents in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto, Canada in late 1948.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including Purple Heart certificate of award, dated 6 August 1945; official U.S.A. “Grateful Memory” certificate; Roll of Honour certificate (from Christ Church, Deer Park); Royal Canadian Yacht Club, Toronto “Evening of Remembrance” programme, 17 June 1946, the list of fallen including Dunn; together with a copy of the History of the 87th Mountain Infantry, by Captain G. F. Earle (published circa 1946); and an old carbon copy of a letter received by Dunn’s mother from a member of his unit after his death in action, dated 22 June 1945 (as quoted above).