Medal of Honor: Lucian Adams, World War II, October 28, 1944

Name: Lucian Adams
Rank: Staff Sergeant
War: World War II
Date of Action: October 28, 1944
Unit: Company K, 30th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division
Born: June 26, 1922 – Port Arthur, Texas
Entered Service At: Port Arthur, Texas

Summary of Action

By late October 1944, Allied forces pushing through eastern France were mired in the dark, dense Mortagne Forest. A German force had cut off the 3rd Battalion, and every attempt to break through was met by a storm of machine-gun and grenade fire. When his company stalled under heavy losses, Staff Sergeant Lucian Adams refused to stay pinned down.

Armed with a borrowed Browning Automatic Rifle, he charged into the maelstrom — darting from tree to tree, firing from the hip, and closing in on enemy positions. At ten yards, he hurled a grenade that silenced the first machine gun. When a German soldier popped up to throw grenades back, Adams cut him down with a burst of automatic fire. He pressed forward, killing another gunner, forcing two more to surrender, then took out a third machine-gun nest at point-blank range.

In just minutes, Adams had single-handedly killed nine enemy soldiers, destroyed three machine-gun positions, and broken the German defense. His fearless assault cleared the woods and reopened the vital supply route for his trapped battalion — a one-man counterattack that turned the tide of the fight.

Medal of Honor Citation

ADAMS, LUCIAN
Rank and organization: Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army, 30th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division.
Place and date: Near St. Die, France, 28 October 1944.
Entered service at: Port Arthur, Tex. Birth: Port Arthur, Tex. G.O. No.: 20, 29 March 1945.

Citation:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty on 28 October 1944, near St. Die, France. When his company was stopped in its effort to drive through the Mortagne Forest to reopen the supply line to the isolated third battalion, S/Sgt. Adams braved the concentrated fire of machineguns in a lone assault on a force of German troops. Although his company had progressed less than 10 yards and had lost 3 killed and 6 wounded, S/Sgt. Adams charged forward dodging from tree to tree firing a borrowed BAR from the hip. Despite intense machinegun fire which the enemy directed at him and rifle grenades which struck the trees over his head showering him with broken twigs and branches, S/Sgt. Adams made his way to within 10 yards of the closest machinegun and killed the gunner with a hand grenade. An enemy soldier threw hand grenades at him from a position only 10 yards distant; however, S/Sgt. Adams dispatched him with a single burst of BAR fire. Charging into the vortex of the enemy fire, he killed another machinegunner at 15 yards range with a hand grenade and forced the surrender of 2 supporting infantrymen. Although the remainder of the German group concentrated the full force of its automatic weapons fire in a desperate effort to knock him out, he proceeded through the woods to find and exterminate 5 more of the enemy. Finally, when the third German machinegun opened up on him at a range of 20 yards, S/Sgt. Adams killed the gunner with BAR fire. In the course of the action, he personally killed 9 Germans, eliminated 3 enemy machineguns, vanquished a specialized force which was armed with automatic weapons and grenade launchers, cleared the woods of hostile elements, and reopened the severed supply lines to the assault companies of his battalion.