Examples Of World War II Heroes

A hero is defined as “a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.” To me, this couldn’t be more true. People in today’s society love stories of heroism and bravery in difficult and fearsome situations such as war. A plethora of people died in World War II; within the fighting, there were millions of heros and plenty of opportunities to demonstrate heroism. World War II heroes include Lyudmila Pavlichenko, Van T. Barfoot, Audie Murphy, George Ham Cannon, and Maximilian Kolbe. The Soviet Union recruited many female warriors into their army, and later trained them each to be snipers. Unlike the other females in the Soviet army, Lyudmila Pavlichenko was older than the other girls, and was a sharpshooter before entering the military. Of all the female soldiers in the Soviet army, Pavlichenko had the best war record by far: 309 confirmed kills, 36 of them being enemy
After killing over 200 Germans, it is not difficult for one to imagine the number of awards Murphy received. By the end of the war, Audie Murphy had 33 medals and awards and later starred in over 40 movies. But what makes him a hero? Audie was so determined to join the army, that he lied about his age and made it in at age 16. While fighting in Sicily, Italy, Murphy contracted malaria, but he pressed on and impressed the high ranking officers who decided to promote him. Later in 1944, his best friend was killed right in front of him by a German soldier who was pretending to surrender. Infuriated, Murphy charged the Germans and killed the soldier and attacked many other German positions. Audie Murphy was awarded 33 U.S. military medals for his brave actions while fighting. To me, Audie Murphy seems like the person everyone wants to be friends with, because he would fight hard to honor his fallen friends, which is truly