Remembering a Veteran: Private Nels Wold, 138th Infantry, 35th Division (KIA)

Nels Wold Before the War

Nels Wold was born in Winger, Minnesota, in 1895 to parents who had emigrated from Norway. He was one of ten siblings. As a teen, Wold worked a few jobs before joining the Army in April 1918. Shortly after that, his unit—Company I, 138th Infantry, 35th Division—shipped out to Europe.

Much of that summer was spent training, but by autumn the 22-year-old Wold found himself in the trenches during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, a major part of the final Allied offensive of the war.

On the foggy morning of 26 September 1918, his unit and thousands of other Allied troops near Cheppy, France, made up the spearpoint of a massive drive to finally push the German Army out of France.

According to the 35th Division’s history, Wold’s company had been held up by several German machine gun nests, so he volunteered to sneak up on one of them. It was a success—he managed to silence the guns, kill some enemies, and bring back some Allied prisoners—so he sneaked up on three more nests. After silencing all four, he had brought back 11 prisoners.

Later that day, Wold jumped from a trench and rescued a fellow soldier who was about to be shot, taking down the would-be enemy shooter in the process.

His success was short-lived, unfortunately. Wold tried to sneak up on a fifth machine gun nest, but the Germans saw him coming and fired. He went down.

At Winger, Minnesota

When Wold’s company realized he wasn’t coming back, they rushed the nest as a group and took out the enemy inside, dragging the injured Wold nearly a mile to safety, where he died telling his comrades to tell his family he loved them.

Wold didn’t survive, but his company was able to advance thanks to his courage. For that, he earned the Medal of Honor, which was given to his siblings by famed Gen. Leonard Wood during a ceremony in his hometown on 31 December 1919.

Wold was originally buried in France, but three years to the day after his death, his remains were returned and buried next to his parents in a cemetery near his hometown.

Source: "Medal of Honor Monday," Department of Defense, 28 January 2019