High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Bloch joined the Army from Streeter, North Dakota, and by September 22, 1944 was serving as a first lieutenant in Company E, 338th Infantry Regiment, 85th Infantry Division. On that day, near Firenzuola, Italy, he led three soldiers in an attack on enemy positions which resulted in the capture of nineteen prisoners and the silencing of five machine gun nests. For these actions, he was awarded the Medal of Honor five months later, on February 10, 1945.