LONDON.- Baldwin’s Auctions brings to sale an extremely rare Congressional Medal of Honor, to be offered in a single-lot auction on Thursday 8 August at 399 Strand, London. The only such medal ever to have been granted to a Ukrainian American soldier, it was posthumously awarded to Nicholas Minue following a brave attack against the Germans in Tunisia, Africa, during which he lost his life on 28th April 1943.
The project is being led by Mark Smith, a medals and militaria specialist often seen on the Antiques Roadshow as well as at Baldwins.co . The auction house is working with charity United 24 to help fund Ukrainian humanitarian relief efforts. The item is expected to sell for £250,000–300,000.
Congressional Medals of Honor – the equivalent of the British Victoria Cross – is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians, and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valour. Often awarded in extraordinary circumstances or posthumously, they are incredibly rare to come by, and are illegal to be bought or sold by Americans, unless to be gifted to an American institution. So high is their prestige – and so many the social and financial reward – that they must be returned, on the death of their recipient, to congress for safekeeping. Rarer still is to find a Medal of Honor such as this one, awarded to a Ukrainian soldier. Nicholas Minue was and still is the only Ukrainian born recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Nicholas Minue was born on 13th March 1905 in Sedden, in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, in what was then Austria-Hungary, also known as Zaluzbe or Yezupil in the western area of Ukraine, he being born to ethnic Ukrainian parents. A Ukrainian born young volunteer from the Russian Civil War with the White Russian forces, Minue fought against the Bolsheviks, before emigrating with his family to the United States of America, where he settled in Carteret, New Jersey.
He then enlisted into the United States Army in 1927, and by the outbreak of the Second World War was a Sergeant. For his part, Minue wanted to serve overseas in a combat unit. To do so, he volunteered to give up his rank of sergeant for the lower rank of private. In December 1942, he was assigned to a rifle platoon of Company A, 1st Battalion, 6th Armoured Infantry Regiment, a unit of the 1st Armoured Division, and shortly afterwards joined it in North Africa.
Among the many Ukrainian American soldiers who were heroes and died in the war were Kalakuka and Minue. Kalakuka was the "Hero of Corregidor" in the war against Japan in the Philippines, whilst Minue was posthumously awarded the United States’ highest award, the Congressional Medal of Honor for a brave attack against the Germans of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps in Tunisia at Hill 299, during the advance to Bizerte on 28th April 1943. When his unit had come under machine gun fire, Minue had affixed his bayonet and assaulted the enemy, killing 10 machine gunners and riflemen. He continued to attack until he was mortally wounded.
The citation for Minue’s posthumous award reads as follows: “For distinguishing himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the loss of his life above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy on 28th April 1943, in the vicinity of Medjez el Bab, Tunisia. When the advance of the assault elements of Company A was held up by flanking fire from an enemy machine-gun nest, Pvt. Minue voluntarily, alone, and unhesitatingly, with complete disregard of his own welfare, charged the enemy entrenched position with fixed bayonet. Pvt. Minue assaulted the enemy under a withering machine-gun and rifle fire, killing approximately 10 enemy machine-gunners and riflemen. After completely destroying this position, Pvt. Minue continued forward, routing enemy riflemen from dugout positions until he was fatally wounded. The courage, fearlessness and aggressiveness displayed by Pvt. Minue in the face of inevitable death was unquestionably the factor that gave his company the offensive spirit that was necessary for advancing and driving the enemy from the entire sector."
Minue now lies buried in the North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial in Carthage, Tunisia, his grave can be found in Section E, Line 8, Grave 4. The newspaper ‘The Ukrainian Weekly’ of New York and Jersey City of Saturday, 15th April 1944, reported on the presentation of the Congressional Medal of Honor to Minue’s grieving mother, Mrs Mary Minue of Carteret, New Jersey. ‘With tears streaming down her face’, the presentation of the medal was made to her at Fort Dupont, Delaware, by Major General Alvan G. Gillem, Jr, representing President Roosevelt. Minue was the only Ukrainian American to win the Congressional Medal of Honor during the Second World War. His award is particularly poignant concerning the ongoing Russian invasion of the Ukraine, and how a Ukrainian came to America’s aid at its time of need when fighting Nazism. Minue earned his adopted country's highest honour, and in so doing gave his life in order to protect American servicemen.
At Kyiv in 2015, the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance produced its reference book titled ‘Ukraine in World War II’, as published for the 70th anniversary of victory over Nazism in World War II. This 27 page booklet notes that some 80,000 Ukrainians were serving in the United States Army, with a further 45,000 in the forces of the British Empire, and some 6,000 in the French armed forces. On pages 24-25 some 10 Ukrainian heroes are documented, one of whom is Minue. These 10 names comprising 9 men and 1 woman, identify two Ukrainian heroes serving with the United States armed forces, with in addition to Nicholas Minue, the name of Michael Strank, who was one of the six United States Marine Corps personnel who are recorded in Joe Rosenthal’s “Raising of the Flag on Iwo Jima” photograph. Of the others listed, 4 were with the Soviet Red Army, 2 were with the Free Polish forces, one was with the Royal Canadian Air Force, and the other was the organiser and first chief of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
