US Navy LCDR Edouard Izac - WWI POW and Medal of Honor Recipient

LCDR Edouard Izac

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In this episode of Duty & Valor, you’ll hear the story of a man who was taken prisoner after the ship he was on was sunk by a German U-boat.  A man who fooled the Germans and was able to gain vital information about his captors’ submarine operations.  A man who wouldn’t give up until he successfully escaped captivity.  A man who would help ensure fellow POW’s were able to safely escape confinement before he would consider doing so himself.  This is the story of Medal of Honor recipient US Navy LCDR Edouard Izac.

Born in Cresco, Iowa on December 18th, 1891 to parents Balthazar and Mathilda, Edouard Izac was the youngest of nine children.  He would eventually move to South St. Paul, Minnesota where he graduated from high school.  After high school he was accepted to the United States Naval Academy, where one day he met Agnes Cabell.  And the day after graduating in 1915, he married Agnes.  

Before the US entered WWI, Izac’s first assignment was aboard the USS Florida, a battleship.  Following his promotion to Lt., he volunteered for the Naval Transport Service and was assigned to the troop transport USS President Lincoln in July of 1917.  The Lincoln was tasked with transporting US servicemen from NY to France, and the ship had four successful round trip journeys and by the time the fifth journey began, Izac was now an executive officer.  The Lincoln made its way across the Atlantic and was able to safely transport troops to the Brittany Coast of France before it began its return to the US on May 29th 1918.  The Lincoln, along with a convoy of three other transport ships, were joined by a destroyer escort until they felt they were beyond the risk of German U-Boat attacks.  

However, on the 31st, the day after the destroyers left them unprotected, the convoy spotted a German U-Boat in the morning light.  The ships were approximately 600 miles off the French coast so there were no reinforcements nearby.  The captain of the Lincoln did his best to evade the U-Boats, but it was an impossible task.  At 08:54, the German U-Boat U-90, was 1,000 yards from the Lincoln when it scored three direct torpedo hits.  It was so heavily damaged that the crew would receive the order to abandon the ship just twenty minutes later.  By 09:30 it had rolled over before it would eventually sink.  Of the 700 crew members aboard the Lincoln when it was hit, 26 men were lost in the attack.  The survivors found themselves aboard lifeboats as the remaining ships of the convoy departed the area to seek safety.

The U-90 surfaced and searched among the survivors, in an attempt to locate the Lincoln’s captain.  Unable to find the captain, or any senior officers, the Germans took William Seach, a Medal of Honor recipient, aboard the U-90 while they continued the search.  They eventually spotted Izac who lied and told the Germans that the Captain had gone down with the ship.  As Izac was a higher rank than Seach, they decided to take him prisoner instead.  As he was brought aboard the U-90, the Germans pushed Seach into the ocean, but luckily he was rescued by one of the lifeboats.

In an important omission, Izac never told the Germans that he spoke and understood German.  His father immigrated to the US from a German speaking part of France, and his mothers family were German.  

The U-90 dove and evaded Allied patrols while making its way back to Germany.  Izac reported that during his five week confinement, he was treated well aboard the submarine and was allowed to dine and play card games with the German officers.  Unaware that he could understand what they were saying, the Germans made no attempt to limit their conversations around him. 

Izac made it a point to observe everything aboard the U-Boat.  He noted, though not in writing, the operations, capabilities, movements and crew conditions aboard the sub.  He was even permitted to use binoculars and look at maps, which allowed him to see the actual route they were taking back to Germany.  This was important because it could tell the Allies where they traveled to avoid naval patrols and various sea defenses such as mines.  At one point during his confinement aboard the U-90, Izac unsuccessfully attempted to escape while they stopped in Denmark.

He was eventually brought aboard a battleship, which would bring him to Germany, were he was transferred to a prison camp in the southwest of the country.  There the conditions were much worse and he was not allowed the small amount of freedom that he was given aboard the naval vessels.  The prisoners there were not treated well and were continually underfed.  Due to this, and his desire to share the intelligence he gathered, Izac attempted to escape again, and again he was unsuccessful.   He was there for four weeks before being sent to another prison camp in July.

En route to the next prison camp, the train he was aboard was traveling at 40 miles an hour when he took the chance to escape.  While being shot at by guards, Izac jumped head first through a window.  Unfortunately he landed hard on the railroad ties and struck his head and injured his knees.  He was unable to complete his escape and he was recaptured.  The guards were so upset at what he did that beat him mercilessly.   One soldier hit him so hard he was reprimanded for breaking his rifle while striking Izac.  They also made him run the remaining distance, five miles, to the prison camp.  He was so badly injured that he was unable to get out of bed for three weeks.  When he finally was able to walk again, he was put into solitary confinement for two weeks.  By this time, he had lost 30 pounds, and it also took another two months before he was able to bend his knees.  To prepare for another escape, he walked as much as could before running and weightlifting to build up his strength.  

After a few months of planning Izac and other American POW’s came up with a plan to escape.  On October 6th, the men, who were wearing German uniforms, cut power to the camp.  As part of the plan, the men were to break up into two man groups as they felt it would make it harder to track them.  It was reported that Izac and Harold Willis drew gunfire from the Germans, which allowed the other men to escape.  Once they felt the men had made their way undetected, the two men made their own escape.  Their goal was to make it to Switzerland but they knew they couldn’t take a direct route, which was only 18 miles.  Rather they followed the Alb river through the Black Forest where it eventually emptied into the Rhine River, which meant that they had to complete a journey of 120 miles to reach safety.  As they weren’t carrying any provisions, the two men had to survive on raw vegetables and anything that they could forage along the way.     

On October 13th, the men reached the Rhine and waited until nightfall before they made their way across the heavily guarded river.  They were discovered by the Swiss and were brought to Berne, where they found the American Legation on Oct. 15th.  From there Izac made his way to Paris, and would arrive in London on October 23rd, before finally arriving in New York on November 11th, the day WWI ended.  Of the 70 men that escaped on the night of the 6th, only three made it to safety.

Though the intelligence that Izac was able to gather did not directly help the WWI war effort, it did help shape future submarine warfare.  Due to this, and along with his heroism and constant escape attempts to share what he learned with the Allies, Edouard Izac was awarded the Medal of Honor on November 11th, 1920, which was the two year anniversary of the end of the war.  The award was presented by the Asst. Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Izac remained with the Navy until 1921 when he retired at the rank of Lt. Commander.  Izac and his family would settle in San Diego where he took a job as a freelance writer.  And in 1934 he ran for Congress and lost before being elected during his second attempt in 1936.  He served in congress for ten years and would eventually move his family to a farm in Virginia.  

On January 18th, 1990, Edouard Izac died at the age of 98, and he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.  

At the time of his death, he was the oldest WWI Medal of Honor recipient.  If you would like to learn more about his story, Izac wrote a book about his ordeal titled Prisoner of the U-90.

Thank you for listening, and if you enjoyed this week's show, we kindly ask that you follow us and leave a review and 5 star rating.  A link to LCDR Izac’s book and sources for today's show can be found in the show notes.  And join us next week where we’ll tell you the story of another true American hero.