During WWI this sailor saved his fellow mate from noxious toilet fumes — earning him the Medal of Honor

[Tony]

Little is known of Wilhelm Smith’s background, save that he was born on April 10, 1870, in a German Empire that would formally unite in the following year. Since then, he emigrated to the United States and enlisted in the U.S. Navy. By January 1916, he was serving as a gunner’s mate third class aboard the battleship New York (BB-34), one of the most up-to-date and powerful warships of its kind. For all that, though, New York was served by a variety of seamen and engineers in an often claustrophobic labyrinth of chambers and passageways. On Jan. 24, 1916, one of New York’s crews within a crew were reminded of how dangerous even a routine procedure could be.