William B. Turner
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army 105th Infantry,
27th Division.
Place and date: Near Ronssoy, France, 27 September 1918.
Entered service at: Garden City, N.Y. Birth: Boston,
Mass. G.O. No.: 81, W.D., 1919. Citation: He led a small group of men
to the attack, under terrific artillery and machinegun fire, after
they had become separated from the rest of the company in the
darkness. Single-handed he rushed an enemy machinegun which had
suddenly opened fire on his group and killed the crew with his pistol
[M1911]. He then pressed forward to another machinegun post 25 yards
away and had killed 1 gunner himself by the time the remainder of his
detachment arrived and put the gun out of action. With the utmost
bravery he continued to lead his men over 3 lines of hostile trenches,
cleaning up each one as they advanced, regardless of the fact that he
had been wounded 3 times, and killed several of the enemy in
hand-to-hand encounters. After his pistol ammunition was exhausted,
this gallant officer seized the rifle of a dead soldier, bayoneted
several members of a machinegun crew, and shot the other. Upon
reaching the fourth-line trench, which was his objective, 1st Lt.
Turner captured it with the 9 men remaining in his group and resisted
a hostile counterattack until he was finally surrounded and killed.
Congressional Medal of Honor Citations, U.S. Army
Center of Military History
http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/moh1.htm |