Staff Sergeant Reckless
c. 1948 – 1968Decorated war horse who made 51 solo trips carrying nearly 9,000 pounds of ammunition under heavy artillery fire during the Battle for Outpost Vegas.
Audie Murphy
1925 – 1971Most decorated U.S. combat soldier of World War II who single-handedly repelled a German company atop a burning tank destroyer.
Bill Millin ("Piper Bill")
1922 – 2010Marched up and down Normandy's Sword Beach under relentless machine-gun fire playing bagpipes to lead Allied commandos on D-Day.
Witold Pilecki
1901 – 1948Voluntarily allowed himself to be imprisoned in Auschwitz to gather intelligence and build an armed underground resistance movement inside the death camp.
Desmond Doss
1919 – 2006Saved 75 wounded soldiers atop Hacksaw Ridge during the Battle of Okinawa without carrying a single weapon.
Irena Sendler
1910 – 2008Smuggled 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto, preserving their true identity records in jars buried under an apple tree.
Nancy Wake ("The White Mouse")
1912 – 2011Top Gestapo target who led 7,000 Maquis guerrillas in attacks against German garrisons and once killed an enemy sentry with her bare hands.
Francis Pegahmagabow
1889 – 1952Most decorated Indigenous soldier in Canadian military history, credited with 378 enemy kills and capturing over 300 combatants.
Léo Major
1921 – 2008Single-handedly liberated the Dutch city of Zwolle in 1945, capturing over 90 German prisoners in a single night.
Nicholas Winton
1909 – 2015Organized eight trains to rescue 669 Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, keeping his deed secret for 50 years.
Cher Ami
1918 – 1919World War I homing pigeon that delivered a desperate message despite being shot in the breast, blinded in one eye, and losing a leg, saving 194 Allied soldiers.
Simo Häyhä (The White Death)
1905 – 2002Finnish military sniper credited with over 500 kills in just 100 days during the Winter War—the highest recorded sniper body count in military history.
Bing the ParaDog
1942 – 1955Airborne combat dog who parachuted into Normandy on D-Day and Nazi Germany during Operation Varsity, locating landmines and protecting paratroopers on the frontlines.
Nicholas Alkemade
1912 – 2002RAF tail gunner who survived a 18,000 ft fall without a parachute after jumping from a burning Lancaster bomber over Germany.
Second Lieutenant Marcus 'Falcon' Reed
1922 – 199819-year-old rookie pilot who bolted an improvised steel tube wing turret to his P-40 Warhawk to defend Clark Field against a wave of Japanese Zeros.
Albert Séverin Roche
1895 – 1939The most decorated French soldier of World War I, famously dubbed 'the first soldier of France' by Marshal Ferdinand Foch after capturing over 1,180 enemy prisoners.
Hannie Schaft (The Girl with the Red Hair)
1920 – 1945WWII Dutch resistance fighter who dyed her red hair black to evade Gestapo, executed multiple Nazi soldiers, and famously sneered 'I shoot better than you' at her executioners.
Mariya Oktyabrskaya (The Fighting Girlfriend)
1905 – 1944Soviet WWII tank driver who sold all her possessions to purchase a T-34 battle tank after her husband was killed, naming it 'Fighting Girlfriend' and proving her heroism on the Eastern Front.