The WWII Scout Who Spent a Night in German Lines

A week into the Battle of the Bulge, the Belgian town of Hotton was cut off, and the paratroopers sent to break through picked one man to walk out ahead of everyone — a quiet replacement named Melvin Biddle. Over two days they sent him out front three times. On the second night he ran the wrong way in the dark, into the German lines instead of his own, and lay motionless in the snow while hobnailed boots passed inches from his hand. He found out he had been recommended for the Medal of Honor from a man in his own company who never realized who he was talking to. This is his story told from the account he recorded himself — including the places where his own version quietly disagrees with the citation that made him famous.