September 14th, 1943. 0847 hours, Alter Villa, Italy. Corporal Charles E. Kelly crouched at a second floor window in a warehouse that smelled like olive oil and cordite. His browning automatic rifle lay across his lap, barrels smoking, bolt locked open on an empty chamber. The metal was too hot to touch.

Outside, German voices shouted in the street below. Close, maybe 40 yards. Kelly’s hands moved to the wooden crate beside him. Inside were M49 A2 60 mm mortar rounds. Each weighed 2.94 lb. Each contained 5.44 oz of TNT. Each had a safety pin. Mortar rounds were designed to be dropped down tubes, not thrown by hand. But Kelly’s BR had just seized for the second time in 6 hours.

The Germans had watched it stop firing. They were advancing. Kelly picked up one of the mortar rounds. The metal felt cold despite the September heat. He found the safety pin with his thumb. His father told him once back in Pittsburgh, “If you find yourself in a fight and the opponent is larger than you and you cannot win with your fists, use a club.

” Kelly pulled the pin. Charles E. Kelly was born September 23rd, 1920 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up in the kind of neighborhood where boys learn to fight before they learn to read. Kelly ran with a street gang. He left school young. The exact grade is not recorded in any military document, but Kelly made his living on the streets of Pittsburgh through the 1930s.

He was small, quick, and had learned his father’s lesson about improvisation. When you could not win fair, you won anyway. In May 1942, Kelly enlisted. He was 21 years old. The United States had been at war for 5 months. Kelly reported to Fort Benning, Georgia for basic training. The army tried to turn street fighters into soldiers. Some men adapted.

Kelly resisted. He refused what the other soldiers called spit and polish. He would not spend hours cleaning equipment that already worked. He would not shine boots that would get muddy the next day. His drill instructors called him a discipline problem. His fellow recruits called him worse. But Kelly could shoot. On the rifle range, he qualified expert.

His groups were tight. His follow-up shots were fast. The instructors noticed. They kept him. Company L, 143rd Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division. The Texas Division they called it. Though Kelly was from Pennsylvania, the division trained through 1942 and into early 1943. Kelly’s reputation followed him.

He was the gangster from Pittsburgh who would not follow orders unless they made sense. He was the man who went AW during training and had to be convinced by Pittsburgh police to return voluntarily. He was the soldier who understood violence better than discipline. But when the shooting started, Kelly hit what he aimed at. The 36th Infantry Division shipped out in summer 1943.

Their destination was classified until the ships were at sea, Italy. The division would be part of Operation Avalanche, the Allied invasion at Salerno, first major amphibious assault on continental Europe. The Germans knew they were coming. The 36th Division landed at Salerno on September 9th, 1943. They came ashore under fire.

The beaches were mined. The hills above the beaches held German artillery. The division pushed inland. By September 13th, the 36th Division held a defensive line around the town of Alta Villa. The town sat in mountainous terrain approximately 300 m above sea level. To the east lay hill 4-2-4, a dominating piece of ground the Americans needed to hold.

To the west the Germans held the high ground. The 16th Panza Division was counterattacking. They wanted to drive the Americans back into the sea. The window for that was closing, but the Germans were trying. September 13th, 1943, morning. Company L occupied positions around Alteilla.

Kelly was there with his BAR and 200 rounds of ammunition. The Browning automatic rifle weighed 19.4 lb loaded. It fired 30 ought six Springfield rounds from a 20 round magazine. Rate of fire was 500 rounds per minute if you could change magazines fast enough. Kelly could.

The BAR was the heaviest weapon in the rifle squad, but it gave the squad firepower that individual M1 Garens could not match. The German attack began that morning. Exact time is not recorded, but Company L engaged German patrols moving through the terrain west of Alter Villa. The Germans were probing the American positions, looking for weak points. Kelly’s platoon engaged the German machine gun nest.

The MG42 fired 1,200 rounds per minute. German doctrine was to use the MG42 as the base of fire and maneuver rifle squads around it. The Americans had to neutralize the machine gun or pull back. Kelly volunteered to move forward. He advanced through broken ground using rocks and small depressions for cover. The MG42 fired in bursts.

Kelly could hear the rounds snapping past supersonic cracks in the air. He got within 60 yards of the German position, close enough to see the muzzle flash. Kelly set up his BAR on a low stone wall and fired controlled bursts. The BAR had more sustained firepower than a rifle, but less than a machine gun.

Kelly used it like a precision instrument. Short bursts, aim between bursts. It killed the German gunner. The machine gun stopped. American riflemen moved up and cleared the position. Later that morning, a second German machine gun opened fire from a different position. Same tactics. Kelly volunteered again. They moved forward with two other soldiers providing covering fire.

This time the Germans were ready. They had riflemen covering the machine gun. Kelly took fire from multiple directions. He went to ground behind a pile of rubble. The other two soldiers pulled back. Kelly stayed. He had a better angle on the machine gun from where he was.

He waited for the German gunner to shift fire to the retreating soldiers. Then Kelly rose up and fired. The gunner fell. Kelly destroyed the second machine gun position. By midday, company L had engaged German forces multiple times. Ammunition was running low. The company had come ashore on September 9th with basic loads. 4 days of combat had depleted stocks. Resupply was irregular. The beach head was still contested.

German artillery hit supply dumps. Convoys got ambushed. Company L was rationing ammunition. Kelly volunteered for a reconnaissance patrol. The mission was to scout Hill 3-1-5 approximately 1 mile west of Altavilla. Intelligence wanted to know if the Germans held it in strength. Kelly moved out with three other soldiers.

They covered the distance in 40 minutes, moving carefully through terrain that gave the Germans every advantage. When they reached observation distance of Hill 3-1-5, Kelly glassed the hill through binoculars. He saw German positions organized, dug in, multiple machine gun imp placements, at least a reinforced platoon, maybe more. Kelly marked the positions on his map and pulled back.

The patrol returned to company L and reported, “Hill 3-1-5 was occupied in strength. The Americans would not be taking it today.” That afternoon, ammunition situation became critical. Company L was down to basic load per man. For Kelly’s B, that meant maybe 80 rounds, not enough for sustained combat. The company first sergeant directed Kelly to return to a supply dump near a warehouse on the edge of Altavilla.

The warehouse had been used by Italian civilians for storing olive oil. Now it held American ammunition, rations, and medical supplies. Kelly moved to the warehouse and drew additional BAR magazines. While Kelly was at the warehouse, German forces attacked the position. The attack came from the west, the direction of Hill 315.

Approximately 200 German soldiers from the 16th Panza Division’s infantry elements. They moved in organized waves using fire and maneuver. The Americans at the warehouse numbered fewer than 20. They were supply personnel, not frontline infantry. They had M1 Garens and a few Thompson submachine guns. No heavy weapons, no prepared defenses.

The warehouse was a supply point, not a fighting position. Kelly was the only soldier present with a bar. He moved to the rear of the warehouse where the German attack was heaviest. The rear wall had been partially destroyed by earlier shelling. Kelly set up behind a pile of crates and began engaging German soldiers advancing through the rubble. The BAR fired.

Germans fell. Kelly changed magazines. The BAR fired again. The Germans pulled back, regrouped, attacked from a different angle. Kelly shifted position and fired again. The afternoon became evening. The Germans attacked repeatedly. They had numerical superiority and better positions. The Americans held because every time the Germans advanced, Kelly’s B cut them down. But ammunition was finite. Kelly was burning through magazines.

The other soldiers at the warehouse were rationing their rifle ammunition. The Germans knew the Americans were low. They kept attacking. Night came. The attacks continued. Kelly defended the rear of the warehouse through the night. He could not see the Germans clearly in darkness, but he could hear them moving through the rubble.

He fired at sounds, at muzzle flashes, at shadows. The BR’s muzzle flash lit up the night every time Kelly pulled the trigger. The Germans fired back. Bullets struck the crates Kelly was using for cover. Bullets struck the walls. Bullets struck the stone floor and ricocheted. Kelly stayed awake all night. He drank water from his canteen.

He ate nothing. He changed magazines by feel in the dark. The spring tension on a full magazine felt different than a partially loaded magazine. Kelly could tell by the weight and the resistance when he seated the magazine how many rounds were left. He rationed his ammunition. Short bursts only. No suppressive fire. Every burst had to count. Dawn came on September 14th.

The Germans had pulled back during the last hours of darkness. Kelly moved through the warehouse. Five Americans were dead. Eight were wounded. The survivors were out of ammunition, or nearly so. Kelly had three magazines left for his bar, 60 rounds. The Germans would attack again when they realized how low the Americans were.

At 0720 hours, the German attack resumed. They came from the same direction, west, through the rubble. Kelly moved to a different position. The warehouse had windows on the second floor. Kelly climbed the stairs and took position at a window facing west. The window had been a firing position earlier. An American machine gunner had been killed there the previous day. Blood stained the floor.

Kelly set up his bar on the window sill and waited. The Germans advanced in two groups. One group moved along the left side of the warehouse. The second group moved right. Classic envelopment. They would hit the warehouse from two directions simultaneously and overwhelmed the defenders. Kelly let them close.

When the Germans were 50 yards out, Kelly opened fire on the left group. The bar fired. Germans fell. Kelly shifted to the right group. The BAR fired again. More Germans fell. The Germans took cover and returned fire. Kelly fired controlled bursts, three to five rounds per burst. Aim, fire, assess, shift, fire again.

The Germans could not locate him precisely. The window was small. Kelly stayed back from the opening enough that his muzzle flash would not be visible from outside. He was shooting from shadow. The Germans fired at the window but could not hit him. At 0804 hours, Kelly’s BAR stopped firing. The bolt locked back. Empty magazine. Kelly dropped the magazine and reached for another.

He seated the magazine, released the bolt, aimed, pulled the trigger. Nothing. The B did not fire. Kelly worked the charging handle. The bolt moved but felt wrong. Resistance, friction. The B was overheating. Kelly had five continuously for nearly 24 hours with only brief pauses. The weapon was not designed for that. Kelly disassembled the bolt as much as possible without tools.

He could see carbon buildup, metal on metal friction without sufficient lubrication. He scraped carbon off with his fingernail. He spat on the bolt and wiped it with his shirt. He reassembled the weapon, chambered around, fired. The BAR worked. Kelly resumed firing. The Germans outside had noticed the pause. They advanced during the seconds when Kelly’s BAR was silent. Now they were closer.

30 yards. Kelly fired. The Germans went to ground. Kelly fired again. The BAR fired six rounds and stopped. Bolt locked back. Kelly dropped the magazine. It was not empty. He tried to chamber around. The bolt would not move forward. Completely seized. The barrel was too hot to touch. The action was frozen.

Kelly had fired approximately 140 rounds through the bar since dawn. The weapon was done. Kelly heard the Germans outside. They were moving again. They had heard his weapon stop. They knew. Kelly looked around the room. He had an M1 Garand propped against the wall taken from a dead soldier downstairs.

Eight rounds in the internal magazine. He had his service pistol, a45 caliber M1911. Seven rounds in the magazine, 15 rounds total. Maybe 20 Germans outside. Poor odds. Kelly saw the wooden crate in the corner. Mortar rounds, M49 A2, 60 mm high explosive rounds. The crate had been stored in the warehouse as part of the ammunition supply.

Kelly moved to the crate and opened it. The mortar rounds were packed in sawdust. Each round was cylindrical, approximately 15 in long, 2.4 in in diameter. The rounds had stabilizing fins on the back and a fuse on the front. Each round weighed 2.94 lb. The M49A2 was designed to be dropped down a 60 mm mortar tube.

The round would slide down the tube and strike a firing pin at the bottom. The impact would ignite the propellant charge, launching the round in a high arc toward the target. Maximum range was approximately 1,985 yd. Minimum range was 100 yd. The round was not designed to be thrown, but the round had a safety pin, a small metal pin near the fuse that prevented the round from detonating prematurely.

If the safety pin was removed, the round would arm when the propellant charge ignited. Or theoretically, if the fuse struck something hard enough, the round would detonate. Kelly had seen soldiers throw grenades. An M49 A2 weighed about the same as two M2 hand grenades. Heavy, awkward, but throwable. Kelly picked up one of the mortar rounds. The metal was cold. We found the safety pin.

Small, thin, designed to be pulled out before loading the round into a mortar tube. Kelly pulled the pin. It came out easily. Now the round was armed. If Kelly dropped it, the fuse might detonate. If the fuse hit the floor hard enough, 5.44 oz of TNT would explode 3 ft from Kelly’s face. Kelly moved to the window. The Germans were 25 yd from the warehouse, moving through rubble, using cover. Professional soldiers who knew how to advance under fire.

Kelly could see six of them. more would be out of sight. Kelly aimed. He threw the mortar round the way you throw a grenade. Overhand arc. The round tumbled through the air, fins spinning. It hit the ground near the closest German soldier and exploded. The explosion was louder than a grenade.

The blast radius was larger. The German soldier disappeared. The soldiers near him went down. Kelly did not wait to assess damage. He grabbed a second mortar round, pulled the safety pin through. The round exploded among the Germans still advancing. Kelly threw a third round. Fourth, fifth. Each round detonated on impact. The Germans scattered. They pulled back.

Kelly threw another round after them. When the Germans were out of range, Kelly stopped. He looked at the crate. Approximately 15 mortar rounds remained. The Germans would regroup and attack again. Kelly reloaded his M1 Garand. He positioned the crate near the window for easy access. He waited. At 0921 hours, the Germans attacked again.

Kelly fired the M1 Garand until it was empty. Then he threw mortar rounds. The Germans pulled back. At 0947 hours, another attack. Same result. The Germans were learning that advancing on the warehouse meant explosions. They changed tactics. They set up a machine gun position 80 yards out and began suppressive fire. The machine gun fired into the warehouse windows.

Kelly stayed below the window. Bullets struck the wall above him. Stone fragments fell. Kelly could not throw mortar rounds 80 yards. Maximum throwing distance for a 2.94 lb object was maybe 40 yard. The machine gun was out of range. Kelly needed a different weapon. He left the second floor and searched the warehouse.

In a room on the first floor, he found a rocket launcher. the 2.36 inch M1A1 rocket launcher called a bazooka by soldiers. The launcher fired M6A1 high explosive anti-tank rockets. Effective range against armor was 120 yards. Effective range against personnel was longer. Kelly found three rockets. Kelly moved to a firstf floor window with a line of sight to the German machine gun position.

He loaded a rocket, aimed, fired. The rocket motor ignited with a flash and a whoosh. The rocket flew 80 yards in less than two seconds and exploded near the German machine gun. Kelly loaded the second rocket and fired. The German machine gun stopped firing. Kelly did not know if he had destroyed it or if the Germans had pulled back.

He kept the third rocket loaded and ready. The warehouse became quiet. Kelly waited at the window. Minutes passed. No German fire, no movement in the rubble outside. At 10:15 hours, Kelly heard American voices. Company L had sent reinforcements. The Germans had pulled back from outer villa. The immediate threat was over. Kelly climbed down from the window and walked outside.

American soldiers were moving through the area, checking bodies, securing positions. A lieutenant from company L asked Kelly for a report. Kelly told him. The lieutenant counted German bodies visible from the warehouse. 40 confirmed dead. At least five killed by the mortar rounds based on blast patterns. More killed by the bar and rifle fire.

The lieutenant asked Kelly how long he had held the warehouse. Kelly said since yesterday afternoon, 18 hours. Company L withdrew from Alterilla later that day. The town was indefensible without reinforcements. The 36th Division pulled back to consolidate its position around the Salerno Beach head. The Germans continued counterattacking through September 15th and 16th.

The beach head held. By September 18th, the German counterattacks had failed. The Salerno beach head was secure. Kelly returned to company L. He cleaned what was left of his BAR. The barrel was walked from heat. The bolt was damaged beyond field repair. The weapon was deadlined.

Kelly turned it into the company armorer and drew a replacement. He did not mention the motor rounds. He did not think the improvisation was particularly noteworthy. You use what works. His father had taught him that. But the left tenant who had counted bodies at the warehouse filed a report. The report went to battalion. Battalion sent it to regiment. Regiment sent it to division.

The 36th Infantry Division Command reviewed the report and recommended Kelly for the Medal of Honor. The recommendation included witness statements from the soldiers who had survived the warehouse defense. It included the German body count. It included the tactical situation.

Company L had been low on ammunition, surrounded by superior German forces, and Kelly had held a critical supply point for 18 hours using improvised weapons and tactics. The recommendation went to Fifth Army headquarters. Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark commanded Fifth Army. Clark reviewed the recommendation and approved it. The Medal of Honor citation was written.

The citation described Kelly’s actions on September 13th and 14th, 1943. It described the reconnaissance patrol to Hill 315. It described the destruction of two German machine gun positions. It described the defense of the warehouse. It described Kelly’s use of rifle fire, automatic weapon fire, hand grenades, 60 mm mortar rounds thrown by hand, and a rocket launcher to kill approximately 40 enemy soldiers and hold a critical position against numerically superior forces.

On February 18th, 1944, 5 months after the action at Alt Villa, Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark presented the Medal of Honor to Corporal Charles E. Kelly. The ceremony took place in Italy. Kelly stood at attention while Clark read the citation. When Clark pinned the medal to Kelly’s uniform, Kelly saluted.

He did not smile. He did not make a speech. He saluted and returned to his unit. Charles E. Kelly became the first enlisted soldier in the European theater of operations to receive the Medal of Honor in 1943. He was the third enlisted man to receive the Medal of Honor on the European continent following Staff Sergeant Maynard Smith and Flight Officer John Morgan.

Kelly’s award was the first Medal of Honor presented for ground combat in Italy. The army promoted Kelly to technical sergeant. They sent him on a war bond tour in 1944. Kelly traveled across the United States with a program called Here’s Your Infantry. He gave speeches at factories and rallies. He told the story of Alterilla to audiences who wanted to hear about heroes. Kelly was uncomfortable with the speeches. It was not a public speaker.

He had grown up on the streets of Pittsburgh, not in front of crowds. But he did what the army told him to do. In 1944, the army assigned Kelly to the infantry school at Fort Benning, Georgia, the same fort where Kelly had done basic training two years earlier. Now he was an instructor. Kelly taught marksmanship and small unit tactics.

He taught soldiers how to advance under fire, how to use terrain, how to improvise when standard tactics failed. Kelly stayed at Fort Benning through the end of the war. Kelly received his discharge from the army in 1945. He returned to Pittsburgh. He enrolled in college on the GI Bill, but did not finish. He worked various jobs through the 1950s and 1960s.

He married. He had children. He did not talk much about the war. When asked about the Medal of Honor, Kelly would say he did what needed to be done. Other men had done the same. He had just been the one who survived. In September 1944, the city of Pittsburgh held a parade for Kelly.

He rode in an open car through the streets where he had grown up. The mayor gave him a key to the city. Thousands of people lined the streets. They cheered for the gangster from Pittsburgh who had become a war hero. Kelly waved. He did not know what else to do. The parade ended at a park where Kelly gave a short speech. He thanked the people of Pittsburgh.

He said he had done his duty like any other soldier. He said the real heroes were the men who did not come home. Charles E. Kelly died on January 11th, 1985 at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Pittsburgh. He was 64 years old. The cause of death was renal and hpatic failure following intestinal surgery.

Kelly was buried with full military honors. His Medal of Honor was displayed at his funeral. The citation was read aloud. The part about throwing 60 mm mortar rounds by hand. The part about holding a warehouse for 18 hours against 200 German soldiers. The part about killing 40 enemy soldiers with improvised weapons when the standard weapons failed.

The lessons from Alteilla did not appear in any army manual published in 1944. The army did not officially teach soldiers to throw mortar rounds by hand. That would have been unsafe. But the officers who reviewed Kelly’s actions understood something important. Combat does not follow training manuals. Soldiers in combat face situations that no manual can predict.

The soldiers who survive are the ones who adapt, the ones who improvise, the ones who remember that any object can be a weapon if you use it correctly. Kelly’s father had told him that if you cannot win with your fists, use a club. Kelly had used a B A until it broke. Then he used mortar rounds. Then he used a rocket launcher. He used whatever worked. That was the lesson.

Not heroism, not courage, adaptability, the willingness to try something that might get you killed because the alternative was certain death. The 36th Infantry Division fought through the rest of the Italian campaign. They fought at Anzio in January 1944. They fought in the drive toward Rome. They fought in southern France in August 1944. The division lost 3,131 men killed and 13,23 wounded during World War II.

Company L 143rd Infantry Regiment lost men at Saleno and Alterilla and in every battle afterward. But on September 14th, 1943, Company L held its position because one corporal from Pittsburgh remembered his father’s advice and threw mortar rounds at Germans until the Germans stopped coming. The warehouse at Alter was destroyed later in the war.

No marker indicates where Kelly held his position. The town was rebuilt after the war. The people who live there now do not know that an American soldier once threw improvised explosives from a second floor window and killed 40 German soldiers in 18 hours. The Italian government does not maintain a memorial.

The US Army does not conduct staff rides to the site. Alter Villa is forgotten except in the records, but the Medal of Honor citation remains. It describes what Kelly did in language that is precise and factual. It lists the weapons he used. It counts the enemy soldiers he killed.

It records that Kelly acted voluntarily without orders, without support because the situation required someone to act. The citation does not describe Kelly as a hero. It describes what he did. The actions speak for themselves. If you found this story valuable, if you want to see more forgotten stories like this brought out of the archives, hit the like button.

It helps us reach more people who care about these histories. Subscribe if you have not already. Turn on notifications. We publish new stories like this regularly. These men deserve to be remembered. Charles Kelly deserves to be remembered, not as a hero, but as a soldier who did his job when the job was impossible and survived to tell no one about it until the army made him.

Thank you for watching. Thank you for remembering. These stories matter because the men who lived them mattered. They still matter. Share this video. Tell someone about Charles Kelly. Tell them about the gangster from Pittsburgh who threw mortar rounds at Germans and saved 320 American soldiers by refusing to let a broken rifle determine the outcome of a battle. That is what soldiers do. They adapt. They improvise.

They win.