WWII Hero Honored With Memorial In Puyallup

PUYALLUP, WA — Victor Leonard Kandle, a Puyallup High School graduate and posthumous Medal of Honor recipient, will next week receive the hometown hero treatment when city officials and Washington State Sen. Hans Zeiger dedicate a memorial in his honor, acknowledging the ultimate sacrifice he made while fighting in the European theater during World War II.

Born in 1921 on his family's homestead near Roy, Washington, Kandle, who graduated in Puyallup with the Class of 1939, earned his Medal of Honor during combat actions taken Oct. 9, 1944.

According to Kandle's Medal of Honor citation, which was posthumously issued on May 11, 1945, "His intrepidity and bold leadership resulted in the capture or killing of three enemy officers and 54 enlisted men, the destruction of three enemy strongpoints, and the seizure of enemy positions which had halted a battalion attack."

More than two months after this specific act of heroism, on Dec. 31, 1944, Kandle was killed in action when he was hit by a German infantry grenade whilst riding atop an American tank into enemy territory.

The greater Puyallup community reportedly mourned Kandle after his death in 1944, and the Army Reserve Center in Tacoma was dedicated as the "Lt. Victor L. Kandle Hall" on Oct. 17, 1958, but no specific monument to his memory was ever formally established in the city.

To remedy that, Puyallup Valley VFW Post 2224 recently campaigned to raise money for a monument to Kandle that would stand at his former school. That monument will be dedicated at 3:30 p.m. May 24 at Puyallup High School, 105 Seventh St. SW.

The memorial lists Kandle's awards and recognitions as well as the full citation for his Medal of Honor. It reads as follows:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. On 9 October 1944, at about noon, near La Forge, France, 1st Lt. Kandle, while leading a reconnaissance patrol into enemy territory, engaged in a duel at pointblank range with a German field officer and killed him.

Having already taken five enemy prisoners that morning, he led a skeleton platoon of 16 men, reinforced with a light machinegun squad, through fog and over precipitous mountain terrain to fall on the rear of a German quarry stronghold which had checked the advance of an infantry battalion for two days.

Rushing forward, several yards ahead of his assault elements, 1st Lt. Kandle fought his way into the heart of the enemy strongpoint, and, by his boldness and audacity, forced the Germans to surrender.

Harassed by machinegun fire from a position which he had bypassed in the dense fog, he moved to within 15 yards of the enemy, killed a German machinegunner with accurate rifle fire and led his men in the destruction of another machinegun crew and its rifle security elements.

Finally, he led his small force against a fortified house held by two German officers and 30 enlisted men. After establishing a base of fire, he rushed forward alone through an open clearing in full view of the enemy, smashed through a barricaded door, and forced all 32 Germans to surrender.

His intrepidity and bold leadership resulted in the capture or killing of 3 enemy officers and 54 enlisted men, the destruction of three enemy strongpoints, and the seizure of enemy positions which had halted a battalion attack.

Following his death, Kandle was buried in the Epinal American Cemetery and Memorial in Dinozé, France.