Zengel received the Military Medal in March 1918 for taking command of his platoon when his officer and sergeant had been put out of action.

[2] He was 23 years old, and a sergeant of the 5th (Western Cavalry) Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, during the First World War, when on 9 August 1918 east of Warvillers, France, he performed the deed for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross.

He was leading his platoon gallantly forward to the attack, but had not gone far when he realised that a gap had occurred on his flank, and that an enemy machine gun was firing at close range into the advancing line.

Grasping the situation, he rushed forward some 200 yards ahead of the platoon, tackled the machine-gun emplacement, killed the officer and operator of the gun, and dispersed the crew.

[5] Sergeant Zengel spent most of the rest of his life in the town Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, where the local branch of the Royal Canadian Legion has been named in his honour.