Medal of Honor: John Cridland Latham, World War I, September 29, 1918

Name: John Cridland Latham
Rank: Sergeant
War: World War I
Date of Action: September 29, 1918
Unit: Machine Gun Company, 107th Infantry, 27th Division
Accredited to: Rutherford, New Jersey

Summary of Action
Separated from their platoon near Le Catelet, France, Latham, Sergeant Alan Eggers, and Corporal Thomas O’Shea found themselves deep inside enemy territory. From a shell hole, they heard cries for help from an American tank disabled just 30 yards away. Without hesitation, the three men rushed forward under withering fire. O’Shea was mortally wounded, but Latham and Eggers pressed on, rescuing a wounded officer and two soldiers, dragging them to cover in a nearby trench sap. Determined to hold, the two sergeants returned to the wrecked tank, dismantled a Hotchkiss gun under fire, and brought it back. All day they poured accurate fire into the enemy, protecting their wounded comrades, before carrying both men and weapon back to American lines under cover of darkness. Latham’s courage and refusal to yield turned what could have been a massacre into a story of survival and valor.

Medal of Honor Citation
LATHAM, JOHN CRIDLAND
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Machine Gun Company, 107th Infantry, 27th Division. Place and date: Near Le Catelet, France, 29 September 1918. Entered service at: Rutherford, N.J. Born: 3 March 1888, Windemere, England. G.O. No.: 20, W.D., 1919. Citation: Becoming separated from their platoon by a smoke barrage, Sgt. Latham, Sgt. Alan L. Eggers, and Cpl. Thomas E. O’Shea took cover in a shellhole well within the enemy’s lines. Upon hearing a call for help from an American tank which had become disabled 30 yards from them, the 3 soldiers left their shelter and started toward the tank under heavy fire from German machineguns and trench mortars. In crossing the fire-swept area, Cpl. O’Shea was mortally wounded, but his companions, undeterred, proceeded to the tank, rescued a wounded officer, and assisted 2 wounded soldiers to cover in the sap of a nearby trench. Sgts. Latham and Eggers then returned to the tank in the face of the violent fire, dismounted a Hotchkiss gun, and took it back to where the wounded men were keeping off the enemy all day by effective use of the gun and later bringing it with the wounded men back to our lines under cover of darkness.