The War Hero

Ernest Hemingway 20 years old
serving in the military during
World War 1. 

Hemingway navigating through
World War 2. 

As a young man, Hemingway served in the Military with the Red Cross  during World War 1. Not long after serving in the  Army, Hemingway had gotten seriously wounded. While delivering chocolates and cigarettes to soldiers on the line, he was hit by a trench mortar fire, leaving over two hundred sharp fragments in his leg, nearly destroying his knee. Despite his gruesome injury, he had managed to drag another injured solider to safety, having stuffed the cigarettes he was carrying into his own wounds to stop the bleeding temporarily. Hemingway received the silver medal of military valor from the Italian government for his heroic actions that day. After this, he had moved back to the U.S., and then, after some time went by, he went back to Europe to see the action of World War 2 as a war correspondent. Then, Hemingway joined the Royal airforce on bombing raids and followed infantry divisions around Europe wherever fighting was the worst. Hemingway also witnessed the D-Day invasion from one of the landing crafts a couple of miles away from where the invasion had taken place, and recorded many horrors of the war. As time progressed in World War 2, he began to play a more active role in the war than he was supposed to. He would, at times, engage and help the soldiers fight, often throwing grenades on the battlefront. He would often assume the role of a soldier himself, which was an indirect violation of the Geneva Convention's guidelines for war correspondents. From other reports, Hemingway allegedly went on to form his own unit, which shockingly had twice the firepower and alcohol rations of all other units. Hemingway was also accused of keeping a virtual armory in his private room, including anti-tank grenades and German bazookas.