TURNER, WILLIAM B. - Medal of Honor Recipient
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. 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.
This data was extracted from the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, U.S. Senate, Medal of Honor Recipients: 1863-1973 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1973)
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