The President of the United States
in the name of The Congress
takes pleasure in presenting the
Medal of Honor
to
*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.
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