Medal of Honor: William B. Turner, World War I, September 27, 1918

Name: William B. Turner
Rank: First Lieutenant
War: World War I
Date of Action: September 27, 1918
Unit: 105th Infantry, 27th Division
Accredited to: Garden City, New York

Summary of Action
In the darkness near Ronssoy, France, Turner and a small group of men became cut off from their company amid fierce German artillery and machine gun fire. Rather than retreat, he led them forward. When an enemy gun opened fire, Turner charged it alone, killing the crew with his pistol. He pressed on to another machine gun post, killing one of the gunners before his men finished the fight. Bleeding from three wounds, Turner drove his men through three successive enemy trench lines, killing several Germans in brutal hand-to-hand combat. When his pistol ran empty, he seized a fallen soldier’s rifle and bayoneted enemy machine gunners into silence. With only nine survivors, Turner captured the fourth trench, held off a counterattack, and was finally surrounded and killed—having achieved the impossible through courage and sacrifice.

Medal of Honor Citation
TURNER, WILLIAM B.
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.