Walt Ehlers: Staff sergeant who was awarded a US Medal of Honor for saving allied lives on the beach during D-Day

Ehlers in 2001 with the Medal of Honor he earned in Normandy on 6 June 1944 (AP)

Walter Ehlers accomplished awe-inspiring acts of bravery during D-Day, earning a Medal of Honor for knocking out two German machine-gun nests and saving countless Allied lives. The 23-year-old staff sergeant charged through gunfire to kill seven enemy soldiers, chase away several others, put a halt to mortar fire and carry a wounded comrade to safety, even after he been shot in the back. His passing leaves seven surviving Second World War Medal of Honor recipients.

"He would always tell you his brother was his hero," his wife recalled. The brothers had enlisted in 1940 and took part in the invasions of North Africa and Italy before D-Day in June 1944. The day before, their superiors told them they were separating them to improve the odds that at least one would survive.

As the landing craft arrived under heavy fire, Ehlers led his soldiers on to the sand. His brother, on another boat, was killed.Ehlers single-handedly knocked out two machine-gun nests, andchased away a group of Germans firing mortar rounds. His Medal citation reads: "The intrepid leadership, indomitable courage, and fearless aggressiveness displayed by S/Sgt. Ehlers in the face of overwhelming enemy forces serve as an inspiration to others."

After the war, his wife recalled with a laugh, "He wanted to get into the movies." He did play a West Point cadet in the 1955 John Ford film The Long Gray Line, but that apart, he spent many years working for the Veterans Administration. On the 50th anniversary of D-Day he returned to France, where he joined President Clinton and others in commemorating the event.

Walter David Ehlers, soldier: born Junction City, Kansas 7 May 1921; married; died Long Beach, California 20 February 2014.