Medal of Honor (2018) s01e05 Episode Script
Vito Bertoldo
[man.]
More than 40 million Americans have served in the United States armed forces.
Of those, fewer than 3,600 have been awarded the military's highest honor.
[clock ticks.]
[ticking gets louder.]
[ticking gets louder.]
[ticking slows down.]
[loud, slow ticking.]
[Ronald Reagan.]
Where did we find such men? We find them where we've always found them, in our villages and towns, on our city streets, in our shops, and on our farms.
[Dwight H.
Johnson.]
summoned a degree of courage that stirs wonder and respect and an overpowering pride in all of us.
[George W.
Bush.]
It recognizes gallantry that goes above and beyond the call of duty.
[Barack Obama.]
We may not always hear of their success, but they are there in the thick of the fight, in the dark of night, achieving their mission.
[man.]
Once you've already crossed that line where you expect not to survive, you are enabled to perform remarkable acts of heroism.
[man.]
In December of 1944, the Americans were up for a rude awakening.
We think the war's almost over.
We think the Germans are defeated and maybe the war would be over at Christmas.
It was definitely not over by Christmas.
Hitler had been, sort of, saving some of his best troops for this last German offensive of the war.
[man.]
The Germans had brought a number of divisions down into France.
They're making their last, best attempt to gain some ground and break the Ally line.
[footage narrator.]
The very-much-alive German Army gathered its forces in the Forest Isles, to strike one strong, decisive blow at the American Army.
[man.]
We don't expect these offensives, so we don't have a big reserve.
There's no tank divisions to call upon and it's sort of a pretty desperate defense of these towns.
Vito Bertoldo and his unit arrived in Hatten, France.
There had been fighting in and around Hatten for about a month.
So, a lot of the houses and buildings were destroyed, damaged.
It was pure hell.
Vito and a handful of other members from his squad were given the task to stay in place and defend, and buy time, delaying the German advance while the rest of his infantry battalion can withdraw from the city.
[plane engine roars overhead.]
[distant explosions.]
[distant explosions.]
[distant machine-gun fire.]
[walking soldier.]
What are we still doing in this goddamn place? [senior soldier.]
Hey, Booger? Why don't you relieve Vito up there? [Vito.]
I'm good.
You're good, Booger.
Come on, Vito.
I'll get something to eat later.
Okay.
[Sean.]
This is a level of warfare that very few living people have seen.
The violence, and the danger, and the risk.
The sound.
Large armies coming down the main street.
Aircraft overhead with mortars and artillery.
The buildings are destroyed in many cases, but they're made of stone or brick, which allows a great place to go to provide some protection from bullets or from shrapnel and even from being seen.
The Germans are attacking with an armored force.
So, tanks are coming down the streets with infantrymen behind them.
Vito Bertoldo and the other members of his squad have only rifles and automatic weapons.
They've got to stop them and provide some time and space so that the rest of the unit can retreat from the city or withdraw from the city.
The orders were for the men to hold at all costs, and that meant no retreat.
They had to man this line and they had to hold it.
That action at Hatten, it is a piece of a bigger puzzle, and a part of the wall that the American forces were, at that point.
[Sean.]
The Germans are attacking, they're attacking aggressively, and they've got to hold the new line of defense.
It's a terrible mission, a mission nobody wants, to delay the enemy, because it puts you in the most dangerous place.
You'd like to be on the first train outta Dodge and moving with the main force in the withdrawal.
But some soldiers are gonna always be picked to delay the enemy, and left in place.
And that's where Vito was, waiting for the German attacking force.
[distant explosions.]
[distant gunfire.]
Hey Vito, how many times? How many times what? They 4-F'ed you more than once, you kept coming back? So d'you want me to stay home? [senior soldier.]
Okay, hero.
[woman.]
If an individual wasn't fit for service through a medical screening, they would be determined 4-F.
There'd be a medical condition, your eyesight or hearing, and you'd be considered 4-F, and you'd be relieved from service.
[doctor.]
Do me a favor, breathe in, son.
Been eating much lately? [Vito.]
Yes, sir.
I gained five pounds.
[Doctor.]
Hmm.
Why don't you take those glasses off for me, would ya? Just follow my finger right here.
Let's take a look at the chart over here, would you please? - Glasses, sir? - No glasses.
Cover your right eye, and start reading from line number five.
E R L [Sean.]
When there's a draft, of course, we want to send our strongest, our most fit, our healthiest soldiers to the front.
P L - All right, son.
That's good.
Grab a seat.
- Do you want the right eye? No, that's fine.
Vito wasn't one of them.
[exuberant wartime music.]
One of the things that happens in World War II is, initially, particularly before Pearl Harbor, we're very strict on who can serve, and particularly, who can volunteer.
But as we need more and more manpower, we start re-looking at who's truly physically qualified and who's not.
And so, some men who had initially been classified 4-F, they determined can, in fact, serve.
You men are about to be inducted into the Army of the United States.
As I call your name, take one step forward.
[Peter.]
Vito was a kinda tough guy, even though physically, you know, he had this eyesight problem.
He was a tough kid growing up.
If you think about the typical Italian American family of that time, patriarchal, certainly, but in a real sense, the mother was kind of the glue of the family.
And in Vito's case, when he was young, his mother died.
That glue dissolved.
For Vito's father to be a coal miner and to take care of five children would have been almost impossible.
And so, Vito and some of his siblings went to the orphanage.
And so growing up, it made him probably tougher.
I don't think Vito's profile, a slender-built man with poor eyesight, was really made out to be a front line infantryman, but he wanted to serve.
[Peter.]
He was commissioned for limited service.
He could only perform certain services.
And in Vito's case, it turns out he would be a cook.
[Corine.]
Regardless of what your position is, you're still an infantry soldier.
So the expectation is that you are if you go to combat, that you are expected to not only know how to use your weapon, but you know how to lead soldiers, you know how to defend yourself, and you know how to kill the enemy.
[Sean.]
That's where all of our training starts.
We all learn to use that weapon.
Whether it's a cook or whether it's a mechanic, we all are familiar with that rifle and we all know how to use it.
[Joseph.]
But once he was in, I think he felt he could do more.
And had asked for a transfer into the infantry, and he got his wish.
At one moment he's a cook in Company A, and somebody taps him on the shoulder and says, "Hey you need to go to Battalion with these other two fellas, and you're gonna be on guard duty up there.
[Sean.]
This is really like a Captain America story, right? The 4-F kid who wasn't even fit to go to combat, but who needles his way in through persistence to make sure that he's serving.
We probably could have seen in his passion and eagerness to serve, that he maybe was meant for something special.
Enemy out! Ten o'clock! Drop your weapons! [enemy soldiers shout in German.]
Drop your weapons! - [enemy shouts in German.]
- [US soldier.]
Drop 'em! Look at this.
Put your weapons down! Good catch, Vito! [enemy soldier shouts in German.]
Put your weapons down! Hands on your head! [Sean.]
The Germans feign a surrender in order to get Vito's squad mates to come out of cover and receive the prisoners.
[Corine.]
They had violated the Geneva Convention, and violated treaties of war, and had ruthlessly just shot down American soldiers that were trying to receive them as prisoners of war.
[G.
Kurt.]
Bertoldo, he was absolutely enraged and I think that adrenaline rush must have been remarkable.
They pissed him off.
[silence.]
At that point, it would be perfectly reasonable to think that the fight is off, we've lost, and I'm gonna do everything I can to get with the withdrawal force.
[Peter.]
Vito makes a choice to hold his position and to defend that line, by himself, at all costs.
[Sean.]
In order to effectively engage the Germans, he had to get some place where he could shoot them.
The way the Germans must have been coming into town, he did not have good fields of fire.
[Sean.]
This is simple geography.
If I can't see him, I can't shoot him.
But here's the catch-22.
If you can see him, he can see you.
Vito exposes himself and puts himself in that very small select group of soldiers who have put themselves in a position where they are likely to be killed, laying out in an open street for hours to wait for the enemy to come to him.
[clock ticking.]
[silence.]
[birds twitter.]
[distant explosion.]
[Joseph.]
I served in the military for 44 years in various situations, both peacetime and wartime.
You just don't know, always, how somebody is going to act under pressure or stress.
[distant explosions and gunfire.]
[G.
Kurt.]
There are a lot of men in World War II who are trained, even in elite units, they're spit and polished, they do everything right in training, and they just crack up in their even their first experience in combat.
[dramatic music.]
[cocks gun.]
[machine-gun fire.]
[soldier yells in German.]
[machine-gun fire continues.]
[volley of gunfire.]
[Peter.]
He killed about 20 of the men right there in that action.
None of them made it past the middle of the road.
So he kept doing this right in the middle of the street, exposed.
[ticking.]
[dramatic music.]
[Sean.]
I can see Vito sitting out there, defending for hours, and there are moments of absolute chaos and terror as the Germans attack.
[explosion.]
And the stress created by that is absolutely exhausting.
And then, the Germans withdraw and there's quiet time.
[slow ticking.]
[G.
Kurt.]
I'm sure he was tired, even with the adrenaline rush because he'd been in combat for hours and hours and hours.
It's cold.
He's also sweating a lot because of exerting energy, and then when there's lulls, the sweat is freezing, which is making him colder.
It was truly miserable conditions.
[dawn chorus.]
Vito must be experiencing an unbelievable amount of fatigue.
Then the Germans attack again.
It's remarkable that he was able to maintain a defense in that state of exhaustion.
And I can almost imagine Vito, at that point, wondering why he ever left the kitchen.
Or why, for that matter, he ever joined the Army.
E R That's okay, son.
Grab a seat.
Chronic headaches, sinusitis, poor vision.
Hell, son, I couldn't clear you for a driver's license.
But I can help.
Some job, some place.
A man is not just judged by his time in combat.
No.
He's judged by whether or not he stands up for his country.
[Sean.]
That same determination to go in there, to convince the Army to let him join, his passion and eagerness to serve, even though he didn't have to, is the same determination we now see in the fight itself.
[clock ticks.]
He has created a major problem for the German attacking force.
They can't get past this one guy.
So they now train all of their weapon systems on our 4-F cook Vito Bertoldo.
[Corine.]
It's mind-boggling that he was able to continue for that length of time.
I mean, that's two days of fighting.
I mean When do you stop I mean, you know, there's when d'you stop to eat? When do you stop to You know, you don't.
It's just amazing the stamina that it required to be able to do that.
[shouts in German.]
The roads were heavily mined so the tanks just couldn't roll in.
They had to be very careful.
He knows that the Infantry has to dismount.
[dramatic music.]
[music approaches crescendo.]
[shouts in German.]
[Sean.]
The bullets are snapping by him, laying out in an open street, in full view of tanks, in full view of infantrymen, all attacking him.
There he is in the street.
He gets back into the building [Sean.]
The German 88 millimeter shells have enough explosive power to not only kill him, but kill within a 100Â meter radius.
How Vito had the presence of mind, the patience, and the calm, deliberate, ice-cold ability to hold his fire until the German infantry exposed themselves is a mystery.
Whether it was right by the window or whether it was 25 yards away, how would you like to be looking down the barrel of an 88 millimeter cannon? [fire crackles.]
[German voices close by.]
The tank commander came out of the turret to find out who was still alive.
[Joseph.]
We know that Vito doesn't have great eyesight and at some point his glasses broke.
[metal rattles.]
By the time we're at this level of combat, it is pure survival.
The things that make us human are gone.
Our upbringing is gone.
The way we were raised, the things that we're comfortable with, are all gone.
And what's left is raw, human survival instinct and raw emotion.
[narrator.]
The one-time Four-F and former Army cook had held off a relentless assault by an overwhelming force with a true warrior's exceptional courage and calm.
[G.
Kurt.]
Bertoldo is a story of extraordinary skill and I think, for Americans, he left a real model of heroism.
[Peter.]
Even the Germans that fought in Hatten recognized the staunch defense.
One of the captured German officers later said that he had fought for three years on the Russian front and yet, the defense at Hatten was the most fierce resistance he had ever encountered.
[Sean.]
At some point, any soldier in front line combat makes a decision or he comes to a realization that he's probably going to die.
Once you have made that decision, you can fight very courageously.
And that's what Vito did.
[Joseph.]
Vito Bertoldo's actions on the 9th and 10th, allowed the 1st Battalion, 242 Infantry to regroup, reorganize.
Had the Battalion been overrun, there would have been soldiers out there that probably would have been captured, if not killed.
The defensive battle continued for a few more weeks.
Hitler wouldn't give up, really, until February 1945.
[Peter.]
Their defense of Hatten enabled both the French and the American forces in that area and further north to provide that holding power against the final major German offensive of the war.
HITLER IS GONE [narrator.]
But there was yet another valiant moment ahead for Vito.
Four months after Hatten, his division, the 42nd Infantry, entered Dachau, the first of the Nazi concentration camps inside Germany.
Bertoldo and his men joined the effort to liberate 30,000 prisoners, an extraordinary experience for all soldiers involved, but even more so for the members of the 42nd.
The 42nd Infantry Division is one of the most historic units in the U.
S.
Army.
Their tradition and lineage in World War I, as one of the first divisions in the fight there, and in World War II, as the division that liberated theDachau prison camp, those are some things that are very inspiring for all of our soldiers and kinda ground us in what it is that we do.
It had been a very illustrious division back in World War I, the Rainbow Division, and it gets that name because it was the all-American unit because it drew from many states across the country.
Where a lot of other units had drawn from one state, or even one region of a state.
I think every soldier in the 42nd Division should know who Vito Bertoldo is.
They should look at his example of what a citizen-soldier can do when faced with insurmountable odds.
[narrator.]
Vito Bertoldo had witnessed one of the world's greatest crimes against humanity, yet returned home filled with optimism.
[man.]
He was very generous, very outgoing, outspoken.
Uh, told you what he thought and didn't really sugarcoat it.
[narrator.]
The Master Sergeant brought enthusiasm and energy to post-war life.
I don't think I ever seen him sit down and actually take a break.
He was always moving, always trying to do better at something.
[narrator.]
He was moving forward, but there was one more chapter in his war story yet to be written.
A year after his grueling solo standoff at Hatten, came the news.
Master Sergeant Vito Bertoldo was to be awarded the Medal of Honor by President Truman.
[anthemic classical music.]
[Sean.]
To observe heroism on the battlefield is a humbling experience.
To observe somebody put themselves out there, at great risk of almost certain death, to save you, is a humbling experience.
And for those acts, where the risk of death is almost certain, and those acts that were so decisive in the shaping of the battle, we have reserved the Medal of Honor.
[Corine.]
For me personally, it's more than the bravery.
It's knowing that an individual is willing to do whatever it takes to defend our country.
[Peter.]
One of the criteria for the Medal of Honor, has to be above and beyond the call of duty.
Vito was obligated to follow the orders of his commanding officer.
He was obligated to perform the duties in the Battalion headquarters.
He wasn't obligated to take that Browning automatic rifle and go out in the middle of the street by himself.
Ah, but Vito did.
[Sean.]
Vito's acts were not something that just his commanders saw.
Every other soldier in that unit saw what he had done, and all of those soldiers recommended Vito for the Medal of Honor.
All of them.
[David.]
It was a very big deal in Decatur, Illinois, and the surrounding areas.
My mom went, and his dad and his mother, and some aunts and uncles, they all went to the White House.
Afterwards, there was an after dinner after-award ceremony party.
And they stayed in Washington, going to different functions, and he he was treated pretty well all around town.
[Dennis.]
One of the relatives in Decatur was telling me the story that when he was in the Army, he read in the Stars and Stripes that Vito was being awarded the Medal of Honor, and he said the last he'd heard, he was a cook up in Washington State, so he was quite surprised.
But he said, he was surprised that he got the medal, he was not surprised that Vito would have done that because that's just the kind of person he was.
[narrator.]
But Bertoldo wasn't necessarily the kind of person to detail his own heroics.
At least not until the time was right.
[David.]
When I was very young, I mean probably six or seven, I knew it but it didn't have an impact on me, really, or probably until I entered my teen years.
That's the first time I remember him actually breaking out the medal and the citation, and handing it to me to read.
And he talked to me a little bit about it.
I became more acutely aware of how important that was and mostly how important it was to other people.
[indistinct dialogue.]
[narrator.]
It remains important to the Bertoldo family as well, who gather at the Southern California home of Vito's son, David, to share their extraordinary legacy.
And the title of the story is Family Waits on Medal of Honor Winner.
And that's my mom and that's Vito, [chuckles.]
smoking his big-old cigar.
[woman.]
They called it "Bertoldo Day.
" - [woman 2.]
I know.
I saw that.
- [woman 3.]
That's cool! "The biggest parade to honor hero, Bertoldo Day.
" There's a subdivision up in Forest Park, near Chicago, all the streets are named for the Illinois Medal of Honor winners - and one of them is named Bertoldo.
- [woman 1.]
Oh, wow! [narrator.]
A name synonymous with a special kind of courage.
I think the movies have given us the impression that heroes are big, great big, burly, you know, Rambo- type people.
And that's not true.
I think they're very tough, committed people, and tough doesn't necessarily mean big and strong.
Tough means you don't give up.
[man.]
It didn't sound real at first.
Who gets blown up by a tank and then picks up their machine gun, puts it back together and continues to fire, you know? You know, most people run away or you know, would pretend they're dead so they don't get killed.
But, you know, that's not what he chose to do.
His achievement, is proudly displayed on the family's wall of fame.
[Dennis.]
Reading these things, especially the official commendation, which I think there's a copy over there on the wall, it's just hard to imagine that anybody could go through this and survive.
It just I don't know how he did it.
This was one soldier who would bring his heroism to the home front in a new fight, helping others who served.
[woman.]
I think it's so beautiful, the things that he did after he got out of the military, in terms of being involved in homeless shelters for veterans and housing for veterans and helping the handicapped veterans get employment.
[narrator.]
Vito may be the most famous member of the family, but the Bertoldos boast a history of serving their country.
- Y'all seen this cartoon, right? - [man.]
Right.
This was [David.]
Going back to my great-grandfather who fought in the Spanish-American War, World War I, to my dad, to my son.
You know, I'm glad that I'm very proud of that.
David Bertoldo followed in his father's footsteps, enlisting just as the war in Vietnam broke out.
[David.]
I called him and told him we were getting ready to ship out to Vietnam.
He didn't say a lot, but I did remember a certain quiver in his voice.
He didn't say, "Don't go," or anything else but I could tell there was something but I didn't realize what it was at the time.
It wasn't until my own son called me, many years later, and told me I was in California, my son was back east, and he told me that he was, erm [voice wavers.]
going to the Desert Storm.
I didn't then.
But after I hung up, I cried.
And then I realized, only a father who had been through that knew what his son might have to face.
[narrator.]
Like his father, David Bertoldo would also be recognized for his bravery, a proud achievement that, in its sharing, would turn bittersweet.
I was notified that I was gonna be receiving the Bronze Star.
And I said, "Wait, I'm trying to get hold of my dad," to find 'cause for him to come down.
Apparently, someone was trying to get a hold of me to notify me that he had died.
And they said, "We just Sorry, we just now found you, and wanted to, had to tell you your dad died.
" [narrator.]
Vito Bertoldo passed away on July 23rd, 1966, of lung cancer at just 49.
His second wife, May, and his eight siblings, there to bury him.
Decades later, the next generation remains in awe of Vito's daring despite being outnumbered and outgunned.
[Dennis.]
It's a source of pride to say, "Yes, I had an uncle who was a Medal of Honor recipient.
" And I've fantasized over the years if I were in a situation like that, what would I have done? And I would like to think I would have done no less than what he did.
But I don't know.
[chuckles.]
You don't know until you're actually in that circumstance.
[David C.
.]
I was only 17 years old when I joined.
Yeah, I didn't talk about my grandfather's service because I didn't want to be held to a standard, that high of a standard knowing there's You know, there's no way you can live up to Superman.
[Samantha.]
Hearing these stories and knowing that we have to step up and be strong in life, I think that's what he's taught us.
[David.]
I always knew, as far back as I can remember, of his heroism, and I always viewed him in that vein.
I don't think I ever viewed him as just plain "Dad.
" I always viewed him as "Dad the Hero.
" [narrator.]
On paper, perhaps an unlikely hero, but that's what makes Vito Bertoldo, the 4-F turned Army cook, turned decorated hero, inspiring.
His story reminds us that a tally of shortcomings doesn't have to determine your identity or fate.
What matters is how you answer when called.
How you meet a moment when history itself hangs in the balance.
[Peter.]
The German Panzer 5 tank was developed in response to the Soviet T-34 tank.
It was a large tank.
It was more than 40 tons and it was equipped with a 75 millimeter cannon and two machine guns.
So it, in itself, was a lethal machine, and you can imagine facing it in a tank.
You probably can't imagine facing it alone with just a rifle.
But that's what Vito did.
I don't know how much he retained his faculties, so to speak, at that time, but yeah, he went a little crazy.
I heard it referred to, in terms of somebody else who performed a feat of bravery, you know, they maybe didn't stop to reason, didn't stop to think about "What am I doing and why am I doing it?" They just did it.
And maybe that's what heroes do.
They don't necessarily count up the costs.
They just go and do it.
[David.]
My dad told me, before even I can remember, when I was a kid, that when he talked about some of his battles, he knew that he had to be prepared to die.
And once you accept the fact that you could die, and you you're okay with yourself if that happens, even though you don't want it to be, then you can do a lot of things.
So, I was prepared to die when I moved forward and Well, we were on a patrol and the point squad walked into a Viet Cong ambush and the first two men in the point squad got shot.
And, of course, then everybody hits the deck.
Uh And I was back about 50 feet, 50 yards, probably.
I was an M60 machine gunner.
So I moved forward, carrying my M60, and before I knew it, I was right in the middle of the ambush killing zone.
And so I started firing my machine gun from the hip into the enemy positions.
And I kept firing until they stopped firing at me, and I could see them start to carry off their dead.
And that was the end of that battle.
[Peter.]
A dog tag was a tangible reminder of casualties.
If you were gathering them up, you'd have a handful, and you'd look at them and they're they were men that you knew, men that you've talked with, men that you joked with.
Maybe you bunked with these men.
John Malone.
You know John Malone? Yeah, he got here about a month before you did.
A hell of a guy.
Worked at a dairy farm north of Saint Paul.
Said he even played with Hank Williams once.
Here you had a handful of these little pieces of metal that all represented each one represented a man and his life and his family, and whatever else, and it's right here in your hand, there might be dozens of them.
What's with the bag? When I get home, I'm visiting every one of these families.
I'm gonna let their mothers know their son didn't die alone.
[distant gunfire.]
So there's a very powerful emotional aspect of that, especially because the man kept it around his neck at all times.
Uh In the field Whenever.
He had that around his neck.
So there's that emotional aspect of a dog tag.
Vito Bertoldo's story is so unique as a soldier who came from the ranks of the mess cooks and the mess sergeants in the kitchens, that he's something that we look at all the time when we're looking at some of our soldiers that are not front line infantrymen, we can talk to them about how soldiers like Vito, who are cooks, go on to become great heroes and save a lot of folks' lives.
You know, I didn't, at the time, I didn't join the Marine Corps with the intent of proving to my dad I was a better man than him or anything.
Uh But I think I hoped that it would make him more proud of me, for example.
And I think my own son, you know wishes he had earned my respect for his war stories and war battles and what he did, which he has.
You know, and I think if my dad had been alive, he would be proud, too.
More than 40 million Americans have served in the United States armed forces.
Of those, fewer than 3,600 have been awarded the military's highest honor.
[clock ticks.]
[ticking gets louder.]
[ticking gets louder.]
[ticking slows down.]
[loud, slow ticking.]
[Ronald Reagan.]
Where did we find such men? We find them where we've always found them, in our villages and towns, on our city streets, in our shops, and on our farms.
[Dwight H.
Johnson.]
summoned a degree of courage that stirs wonder and respect and an overpowering pride in all of us.
[George W.
Bush.]
It recognizes gallantry that goes above and beyond the call of duty.
[Barack Obama.]
We may not always hear of their success, but they are there in the thick of the fight, in the dark of night, achieving their mission.
[man.]
Once you've already crossed that line where you expect not to survive, you are enabled to perform remarkable acts of heroism.
[man.]
In December of 1944, the Americans were up for a rude awakening.
We think the war's almost over.
We think the Germans are defeated and maybe the war would be over at Christmas.
It was definitely not over by Christmas.
Hitler had been, sort of, saving some of his best troops for this last German offensive of the war.
[man.]
The Germans had brought a number of divisions down into France.
They're making their last, best attempt to gain some ground and break the Ally line.
[footage narrator.]
The very-much-alive German Army gathered its forces in the Forest Isles, to strike one strong, decisive blow at the American Army.
[man.]
We don't expect these offensives, so we don't have a big reserve.
There's no tank divisions to call upon and it's sort of a pretty desperate defense of these towns.
Vito Bertoldo and his unit arrived in Hatten, France.
There had been fighting in and around Hatten for about a month.
So, a lot of the houses and buildings were destroyed, damaged.
It was pure hell.
Vito and a handful of other members from his squad were given the task to stay in place and defend, and buy time, delaying the German advance while the rest of his infantry battalion can withdraw from the city.
[plane engine roars overhead.]
[distant explosions.]
[distant explosions.]
[distant machine-gun fire.]
[walking soldier.]
What are we still doing in this goddamn place? [senior soldier.]
Hey, Booger? Why don't you relieve Vito up there? [Vito.]
I'm good.
You're good, Booger.
Come on, Vito.
I'll get something to eat later.
Okay.
[Sean.]
This is a level of warfare that very few living people have seen.
The violence, and the danger, and the risk.
The sound.
Large armies coming down the main street.
Aircraft overhead with mortars and artillery.
The buildings are destroyed in many cases, but they're made of stone or brick, which allows a great place to go to provide some protection from bullets or from shrapnel and even from being seen.
The Germans are attacking with an armored force.
So, tanks are coming down the streets with infantrymen behind them.
Vito Bertoldo and the other members of his squad have only rifles and automatic weapons.
They've got to stop them and provide some time and space so that the rest of the unit can retreat from the city or withdraw from the city.
The orders were for the men to hold at all costs, and that meant no retreat.
They had to man this line and they had to hold it.
That action at Hatten, it is a piece of a bigger puzzle, and a part of the wall that the American forces were, at that point.
[Sean.]
The Germans are attacking, they're attacking aggressively, and they've got to hold the new line of defense.
It's a terrible mission, a mission nobody wants, to delay the enemy, because it puts you in the most dangerous place.
You'd like to be on the first train outta Dodge and moving with the main force in the withdrawal.
But some soldiers are gonna always be picked to delay the enemy, and left in place.
And that's where Vito was, waiting for the German attacking force.
[distant explosions.]
[distant gunfire.]
Hey Vito, how many times? How many times what? They 4-F'ed you more than once, you kept coming back? So d'you want me to stay home? [senior soldier.]
Okay, hero.
[woman.]
If an individual wasn't fit for service through a medical screening, they would be determined 4-F.
There'd be a medical condition, your eyesight or hearing, and you'd be considered 4-F, and you'd be relieved from service.
[doctor.]
Do me a favor, breathe in, son.
Been eating much lately? [Vito.]
Yes, sir.
I gained five pounds.
[Doctor.]
Hmm.
Why don't you take those glasses off for me, would ya? Just follow my finger right here.
Let's take a look at the chart over here, would you please? - Glasses, sir? - No glasses.
Cover your right eye, and start reading from line number five.
E R L [Sean.]
When there's a draft, of course, we want to send our strongest, our most fit, our healthiest soldiers to the front.
P L - All right, son.
That's good.
Grab a seat.
- Do you want the right eye? No, that's fine.
Vito wasn't one of them.
[exuberant wartime music.]
One of the things that happens in World War II is, initially, particularly before Pearl Harbor, we're very strict on who can serve, and particularly, who can volunteer.
But as we need more and more manpower, we start re-looking at who's truly physically qualified and who's not.
And so, some men who had initially been classified 4-F, they determined can, in fact, serve.
You men are about to be inducted into the Army of the United States.
As I call your name, take one step forward.
[Peter.]
Vito was a kinda tough guy, even though physically, you know, he had this eyesight problem.
He was a tough kid growing up.
If you think about the typical Italian American family of that time, patriarchal, certainly, but in a real sense, the mother was kind of the glue of the family.
And in Vito's case, when he was young, his mother died.
That glue dissolved.
For Vito's father to be a coal miner and to take care of five children would have been almost impossible.
And so, Vito and some of his siblings went to the orphanage.
And so growing up, it made him probably tougher.
I don't think Vito's profile, a slender-built man with poor eyesight, was really made out to be a front line infantryman, but he wanted to serve.
[Peter.]
He was commissioned for limited service.
He could only perform certain services.
And in Vito's case, it turns out he would be a cook.
[Corine.]
Regardless of what your position is, you're still an infantry soldier.
So the expectation is that you are if you go to combat, that you are expected to not only know how to use your weapon, but you know how to lead soldiers, you know how to defend yourself, and you know how to kill the enemy.
[Sean.]
That's where all of our training starts.
We all learn to use that weapon.
Whether it's a cook or whether it's a mechanic, we all are familiar with that rifle and we all know how to use it.
[Joseph.]
But once he was in, I think he felt he could do more.
And had asked for a transfer into the infantry, and he got his wish.
At one moment he's a cook in Company A, and somebody taps him on the shoulder and says, "Hey you need to go to Battalion with these other two fellas, and you're gonna be on guard duty up there.
[Sean.]
This is really like a Captain America story, right? The 4-F kid who wasn't even fit to go to combat, but who needles his way in through persistence to make sure that he's serving.
We probably could have seen in his passion and eagerness to serve, that he maybe was meant for something special.
Enemy out! Ten o'clock! Drop your weapons! [enemy soldiers shout in German.]
Drop your weapons! - [enemy shouts in German.]
- [US soldier.]
Drop 'em! Look at this.
Put your weapons down! Good catch, Vito! [enemy soldier shouts in German.]
Put your weapons down! Hands on your head! [Sean.]
The Germans feign a surrender in order to get Vito's squad mates to come out of cover and receive the prisoners.
[Corine.]
They had violated the Geneva Convention, and violated treaties of war, and had ruthlessly just shot down American soldiers that were trying to receive them as prisoners of war.
[G.
Kurt.]
Bertoldo, he was absolutely enraged and I think that adrenaline rush must have been remarkable.
They pissed him off.
[silence.]
At that point, it would be perfectly reasonable to think that the fight is off, we've lost, and I'm gonna do everything I can to get with the withdrawal force.
[Peter.]
Vito makes a choice to hold his position and to defend that line, by himself, at all costs.
[Sean.]
In order to effectively engage the Germans, he had to get some place where he could shoot them.
The way the Germans must have been coming into town, he did not have good fields of fire.
[Sean.]
This is simple geography.
If I can't see him, I can't shoot him.
But here's the catch-22.
If you can see him, he can see you.
Vito exposes himself and puts himself in that very small select group of soldiers who have put themselves in a position where they are likely to be killed, laying out in an open street for hours to wait for the enemy to come to him.
[clock ticking.]
[silence.]
[birds twitter.]
[distant explosion.]
[Joseph.]
I served in the military for 44 years in various situations, both peacetime and wartime.
You just don't know, always, how somebody is going to act under pressure or stress.
[distant explosions and gunfire.]
[G.
Kurt.]
There are a lot of men in World War II who are trained, even in elite units, they're spit and polished, they do everything right in training, and they just crack up in their even their first experience in combat.
[dramatic music.]
[cocks gun.]
[machine-gun fire.]
[soldier yells in German.]
[machine-gun fire continues.]
[volley of gunfire.]
[Peter.]
He killed about 20 of the men right there in that action.
None of them made it past the middle of the road.
So he kept doing this right in the middle of the street, exposed.
[ticking.]
[dramatic music.]
[Sean.]
I can see Vito sitting out there, defending for hours, and there are moments of absolute chaos and terror as the Germans attack.
[explosion.]
And the stress created by that is absolutely exhausting.
And then, the Germans withdraw and there's quiet time.
[slow ticking.]
[G.
Kurt.]
I'm sure he was tired, even with the adrenaline rush because he'd been in combat for hours and hours and hours.
It's cold.
He's also sweating a lot because of exerting energy, and then when there's lulls, the sweat is freezing, which is making him colder.
It was truly miserable conditions.
[dawn chorus.]
Vito must be experiencing an unbelievable amount of fatigue.
Then the Germans attack again.
It's remarkable that he was able to maintain a defense in that state of exhaustion.
And I can almost imagine Vito, at that point, wondering why he ever left the kitchen.
Or why, for that matter, he ever joined the Army.
E R That's okay, son.
Grab a seat.
Chronic headaches, sinusitis, poor vision.
Hell, son, I couldn't clear you for a driver's license.
But I can help.
Some job, some place.
A man is not just judged by his time in combat.
No.
He's judged by whether or not he stands up for his country.
[Sean.]
That same determination to go in there, to convince the Army to let him join, his passion and eagerness to serve, even though he didn't have to, is the same determination we now see in the fight itself.
[clock ticks.]
He has created a major problem for the German attacking force.
They can't get past this one guy.
So they now train all of their weapon systems on our 4-F cook Vito Bertoldo.
[Corine.]
It's mind-boggling that he was able to continue for that length of time.
I mean, that's two days of fighting.
I mean When do you stop I mean, you know, there's when d'you stop to eat? When do you stop to You know, you don't.
It's just amazing the stamina that it required to be able to do that.
[shouts in German.]
The roads were heavily mined so the tanks just couldn't roll in.
They had to be very careful.
He knows that the Infantry has to dismount.
[dramatic music.]
[music approaches crescendo.]
[shouts in German.]
[Sean.]
The bullets are snapping by him, laying out in an open street, in full view of tanks, in full view of infantrymen, all attacking him.
There he is in the street.
He gets back into the building [Sean.]
The German 88 millimeter shells have enough explosive power to not only kill him, but kill within a 100Â meter radius.
How Vito had the presence of mind, the patience, and the calm, deliberate, ice-cold ability to hold his fire until the German infantry exposed themselves is a mystery.
Whether it was right by the window or whether it was 25 yards away, how would you like to be looking down the barrel of an 88 millimeter cannon? [fire crackles.]
[German voices close by.]
The tank commander came out of the turret to find out who was still alive.
[Joseph.]
We know that Vito doesn't have great eyesight and at some point his glasses broke.
[metal rattles.]
By the time we're at this level of combat, it is pure survival.
The things that make us human are gone.
Our upbringing is gone.
The way we were raised, the things that we're comfortable with, are all gone.
And what's left is raw, human survival instinct and raw emotion.
[narrator.]
The one-time Four-F and former Army cook had held off a relentless assault by an overwhelming force with a true warrior's exceptional courage and calm.
[G.
Kurt.]
Bertoldo is a story of extraordinary skill and I think, for Americans, he left a real model of heroism.
[Peter.]
Even the Germans that fought in Hatten recognized the staunch defense.
One of the captured German officers later said that he had fought for three years on the Russian front and yet, the defense at Hatten was the most fierce resistance he had ever encountered.
[Sean.]
At some point, any soldier in front line combat makes a decision or he comes to a realization that he's probably going to die.
Once you have made that decision, you can fight very courageously.
And that's what Vito did.
[Joseph.]
Vito Bertoldo's actions on the 9th and 10th, allowed the 1st Battalion, 242 Infantry to regroup, reorganize.
Had the Battalion been overrun, there would have been soldiers out there that probably would have been captured, if not killed.
The defensive battle continued for a few more weeks.
Hitler wouldn't give up, really, until February 1945.
[Peter.]
Their defense of Hatten enabled both the French and the American forces in that area and further north to provide that holding power against the final major German offensive of the war.
HITLER IS GONE [narrator.]
But there was yet another valiant moment ahead for Vito.
Four months after Hatten, his division, the 42nd Infantry, entered Dachau, the first of the Nazi concentration camps inside Germany.
Bertoldo and his men joined the effort to liberate 30,000 prisoners, an extraordinary experience for all soldiers involved, but even more so for the members of the 42nd.
The 42nd Infantry Division is one of the most historic units in the U.
S.
Army.
Their tradition and lineage in World War I, as one of the first divisions in the fight there, and in World War II, as the division that liberated theDachau prison camp, those are some things that are very inspiring for all of our soldiers and kinda ground us in what it is that we do.
It had been a very illustrious division back in World War I, the Rainbow Division, and it gets that name because it was the all-American unit because it drew from many states across the country.
Where a lot of other units had drawn from one state, or even one region of a state.
I think every soldier in the 42nd Division should know who Vito Bertoldo is.
They should look at his example of what a citizen-soldier can do when faced with insurmountable odds.
[narrator.]
Vito Bertoldo had witnessed one of the world's greatest crimes against humanity, yet returned home filled with optimism.
[man.]
He was very generous, very outgoing, outspoken.
Uh, told you what he thought and didn't really sugarcoat it.
[narrator.]
The Master Sergeant brought enthusiasm and energy to post-war life.
I don't think I ever seen him sit down and actually take a break.
He was always moving, always trying to do better at something.
[narrator.]
He was moving forward, but there was one more chapter in his war story yet to be written.
A year after his grueling solo standoff at Hatten, came the news.
Master Sergeant Vito Bertoldo was to be awarded the Medal of Honor by President Truman.
[anthemic classical music.]
[Sean.]
To observe heroism on the battlefield is a humbling experience.
To observe somebody put themselves out there, at great risk of almost certain death, to save you, is a humbling experience.
And for those acts, where the risk of death is almost certain, and those acts that were so decisive in the shaping of the battle, we have reserved the Medal of Honor.
[Corine.]
For me personally, it's more than the bravery.
It's knowing that an individual is willing to do whatever it takes to defend our country.
[Peter.]
One of the criteria for the Medal of Honor, has to be above and beyond the call of duty.
Vito was obligated to follow the orders of his commanding officer.
He was obligated to perform the duties in the Battalion headquarters.
He wasn't obligated to take that Browning automatic rifle and go out in the middle of the street by himself.
Ah, but Vito did.
[Sean.]
Vito's acts were not something that just his commanders saw.
Every other soldier in that unit saw what he had done, and all of those soldiers recommended Vito for the Medal of Honor.
All of them.
[David.]
It was a very big deal in Decatur, Illinois, and the surrounding areas.
My mom went, and his dad and his mother, and some aunts and uncles, they all went to the White House.
Afterwards, there was an after dinner after-award ceremony party.
And they stayed in Washington, going to different functions, and he he was treated pretty well all around town.
[Dennis.]
One of the relatives in Decatur was telling me the story that when he was in the Army, he read in the Stars and Stripes that Vito was being awarded the Medal of Honor, and he said the last he'd heard, he was a cook up in Washington State, so he was quite surprised.
But he said, he was surprised that he got the medal, he was not surprised that Vito would have done that because that's just the kind of person he was.
[narrator.]
But Bertoldo wasn't necessarily the kind of person to detail his own heroics.
At least not until the time was right.
[David.]
When I was very young, I mean probably six or seven, I knew it but it didn't have an impact on me, really, or probably until I entered my teen years.
That's the first time I remember him actually breaking out the medal and the citation, and handing it to me to read.
And he talked to me a little bit about it.
I became more acutely aware of how important that was and mostly how important it was to other people.
[indistinct dialogue.]
[narrator.]
It remains important to the Bertoldo family as well, who gather at the Southern California home of Vito's son, David, to share their extraordinary legacy.
And the title of the story is Family Waits on Medal of Honor Winner.
And that's my mom and that's Vito, [chuckles.]
smoking his big-old cigar.
[woman.]
They called it "Bertoldo Day.
" - [woman 2.]
I know.
I saw that.
- [woman 3.]
That's cool! "The biggest parade to honor hero, Bertoldo Day.
" There's a subdivision up in Forest Park, near Chicago, all the streets are named for the Illinois Medal of Honor winners - and one of them is named Bertoldo.
- [woman 1.]
Oh, wow! [narrator.]
A name synonymous with a special kind of courage.
I think the movies have given us the impression that heroes are big, great big, burly, you know, Rambo- type people.
And that's not true.
I think they're very tough, committed people, and tough doesn't necessarily mean big and strong.
Tough means you don't give up.
[man.]
It didn't sound real at first.
Who gets blown up by a tank and then picks up their machine gun, puts it back together and continues to fire, you know? You know, most people run away or you know, would pretend they're dead so they don't get killed.
But, you know, that's not what he chose to do.
His achievement, is proudly displayed on the family's wall of fame.
[Dennis.]
Reading these things, especially the official commendation, which I think there's a copy over there on the wall, it's just hard to imagine that anybody could go through this and survive.
It just I don't know how he did it.
This was one soldier who would bring his heroism to the home front in a new fight, helping others who served.
[woman.]
I think it's so beautiful, the things that he did after he got out of the military, in terms of being involved in homeless shelters for veterans and housing for veterans and helping the handicapped veterans get employment.
[narrator.]
Vito may be the most famous member of the family, but the Bertoldos boast a history of serving their country.
- Y'all seen this cartoon, right? - [man.]
Right.
This was [David.]
Going back to my great-grandfather who fought in the Spanish-American War, World War I, to my dad, to my son.
You know, I'm glad that I'm very proud of that.
David Bertoldo followed in his father's footsteps, enlisting just as the war in Vietnam broke out.
[David.]
I called him and told him we were getting ready to ship out to Vietnam.
He didn't say a lot, but I did remember a certain quiver in his voice.
He didn't say, "Don't go," or anything else but I could tell there was something but I didn't realize what it was at the time.
It wasn't until my own son called me, many years later, and told me I was in California, my son was back east, and he told me that he was, erm [voice wavers.]
going to the Desert Storm.
I didn't then.
But after I hung up, I cried.
And then I realized, only a father who had been through that knew what his son might have to face.
[narrator.]
Like his father, David Bertoldo would also be recognized for his bravery, a proud achievement that, in its sharing, would turn bittersweet.
I was notified that I was gonna be receiving the Bronze Star.
And I said, "Wait, I'm trying to get hold of my dad," to find 'cause for him to come down.
Apparently, someone was trying to get a hold of me to notify me that he had died.
And they said, "We just Sorry, we just now found you, and wanted to, had to tell you your dad died.
" [narrator.]
Vito Bertoldo passed away on July 23rd, 1966, of lung cancer at just 49.
His second wife, May, and his eight siblings, there to bury him.
Decades later, the next generation remains in awe of Vito's daring despite being outnumbered and outgunned.
[Dennis.]
It's a source of pride to say, "Yes, I had an uncle who was a Medal of Honor recipient.
" And I've fantasized over the years if I were in a situation like that, what would I have done? And I would like to think I would have done no less than what he did.
But I don't know.
[chuckles.]
You don't know until you're actually in that circumstance.
[David C.
.]
I was only 17 years old when I joined.
Yeah, I didn't talk about my grandfather's service because I didn't want to be held to a standard, that high of a standard knowing there's You know, there's no way you can live up to Superman.
[Samantha.]
Hearing these stories and knowing that we have to step up and be strong in life, I think that's what he's taught us.
[David.]
I always knew, as far back as I can remember, of his heroism, and I always viewed him in that vein.
I don't think I ever viewed him as just plain "Dad.
" I always viewed him as "Dad the Hero.
" [narrator.]
On paper, perhaps an unlikely hero, but that's what makes Vito Bertoldo, the 4-F turned Army cook, turned decorated hero, inspiring.
His story reminds us that a tally of shortcomings doesn't have to determine your identity or fate.
What matters is how you answer when called.
How you meet a moment when history itself hangs in the balance.
[Peter.]
The German Panzer 5 tank was developed in response to the Soviet T-34 tank.
It was a large tank.
It was more than 40 tons and it was equipped with a 75 millimeter cannon and two machine guns.
So it, in itself, was a lethal machine, and you can imagine facing it in a tank.
You probably can't imagine facing it alone with just a rifle.
But that's what Vito did.
I don't know how much he retained his faculties, so to speak, at that time, but yeah, he went a little crazy.
I heard it referred to, in terms of somebody else who performed a feat of bravery, you know, they maybe didn't stop to reason, didn't stop to think about "What am I doing and why am I doing it?" They just did it.
And maybe that's what heroes do.
They don't necessarily count up the costs.
They just go and do it.
[David.]
My dad told me, before even I can remember, when I was a kid, that when he talked about some of his battles, he knew that he had to be prepared to die.
And once you accept the fact that you could die, and you you're okay with yourself if that happens, even though you don't want it to be, then you can do a lot of things.
So, I was prepared to die when I moved forward and Well, we were on a patrol and the point squad walked into a Viet Cong ambush and the first two men in the point squad got shot.
And, of course, then everybody hits the deck.
Uh And I was back about 50 feet, 50 yards, probably.
I was an M60 machine gunner.
So I moved forward, carrying my M60, and before I knew it, I was right in the middle of the ambush killing zone.
And so I started firing my machine gun from the hip into the enemy positions.
And I kept firing until they stopped firing at me, and I could see them start to carry off their dead.
And that was the end of that battle.
[Peter.]
A dog tag was a tangible reminder of casualties.
If you were gathering them up, you'd have a handful, and you'd look at them and they're they were men that you knew, men that you've talked with, men that you joked with.
Maybe you bunked with these men.
John Malone.
You know John Malone? Yeah, he got here about a month before you did.
A hell of a guy.
Worked at a dairy farm north of Saint Paul.
Said he even played with Hank Williams once.
Here you had a handful of these little pieces of metal that all represented each one represented a man and his life and his family, and whatever else, and it's right here in your hand, there might be dozens of them.
What's with the bag? When I get home, I'm visiting every one of these families.
I'm gonna let their mothers know their son didn't die alone.
[distant gunfire.]
So there's a very powerful emotional aspect of that, especially because the man kept it around his neck at all times.
Uh In the field Whenever.
He had that around his neck.
So there's that emotional aspect of a dog tag.
Vito Bertoldo's story is so unique as a soldier who came from the ranks of the mess cooks and the mess sergeants in the kitchens, that he's something that we look at all the time when we're looking at some of our soldiers that are not front line infantrymen, we can talk to them about how soldiers like Vito, who are cooks, go on to become great heroes and save a lot of folks' lives.
You know, I didn't, at the time, I didn't join the Marine Corps with the intent of proving to my dad I was a better man than him or anything.
Uh But I think I hoped that it would make him more proud of me, for example.
And I think my own son, you know wishes he had earned my respect for his war stories and war battles and what he did, which he has.
You know, and I think if my dad had been alive, he would be proud, too.