The late Harold Beck of Rochelle served as a combat medic in the United States Army during World War II. He earned the Bronze Star Medal for his actions at the Bridge at Remagen in 1945.

Beck enlisted into the Army in 1943 at age 19. He was trained as a combat medic before being sent to Europe. He was a private first class in the 303rd Medical Battalion and was assigned to the 78th Infantry Division. He served two years in the Army.

Beck made 11 trips across the heavily shelled Remagen Bridge to evacuate casualties on March 8 and 9, 1945, in Germany. On two occasions he stopped on the bridge to administer first aid to soldiers injured by enemy shelling, bombing and strafing. He then carried the casualties to safety. Beck evacuated approximately 50 people during that period.

Upon receiving the Bronze Star Medal for his actions at the Bridge of Remagen, Beck sent the honor back home to his family. World War II historian John Wright of Malta has collected information and memorabilia on World War II for the past 56 years. He’s made a number of community presentations on Beck’s service.

“He was with a more active combat unit,” Wright said. “He would have seen a lot of wounded and dead men on an almost continuous basis for a couple of years. The Bridge of Remagen is over the Rhine River in Germany. It was a large bridge and it was a long way across. To pick up people and carry them across that bridge wouldn’t have been easy to do.”

The battle took place from March 7 to 25, 1945. American forces suffered 7,400 casualties in the fight for the Remagen Bridge, including 863 men killed. The war ended about six weeks after the capture of the bridge. Wright called the battle a “significant moment” in World War II, ranking among Pearl Harbor, D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge and Iwo Jima.

The Rhine River was the last natural barrier to keep American troops out of Germany. German forces had blown up every bridge over the river along the entire length of the country as American troops neared with the exception of the Bridge at Remagen, a railroad bridge.

As American forces neared the bridge, the Germans set it with explosives, but it was not enough to bring the bridge down. Americans saw the bridge still standing, and decided to go across into artillery and rifle fire from the other side.

“As the bridge was being taken, troops from all over the area within 50 miles pivoted and went towards the bridge,” Wright said. “At some point, Harold Beck’s 78th Division ends up there and he ends up working as a medic on the bridge doing what amounts to a lot of effort. People from Rochelle should know about him and be really proud that someone like that came from their city.”

Combat medics like Beck were tasked with making their way to wounded troops to try to help them.

“His job was to give some comfort to those men,” Wright said. “If need be, he’d give them a painkilling injection or try to quickly treat a wound that saves them to get to proper medical doctors. Oftentimes field hospitals were five miles from where the fighting was and they’d have to be evacuated.”

Beck grew up and went to school in Rochelle, where he enlisted from. After the war, he came back to Rochelle and he married his wife, Doris, in 1949. They had two daughters. He attended Northern Illinois University after the war, graduated with a degree in teaching and became a grade school teacher in Rochelle. He eventually became principal for a Rochelle grade school. Beck died in 1983 at age 59.

“He was like so many young men that went into the service during World War II and he acquitted himself as well as he could,” Wright said. “Medics’ service in combat counts just as much as the service of those carrying guns. They’re in the exact same atmosphere. Medics were highly regarded by their fellow soldiers. Because they knew they were the men that would come for them if they needed it.”