BOLDEN, PAUL L.
Rank and organization: Staff Sergeant,
U.S. Army, Company 1, 120th Infantry, 30th Infantry Division. Place and date:
Petit-Coo, Belgium, 23 December 1944. Entered service at: Madison, Ala. Birth:
Hobbes Island, Ala.. G.O. No.: 73, 30 August 1945-.
Citation:
He voluntarily attacked a formidable enemy strong point in Petit-Coo, Belgium, on 23
December, 1944, when his company was pinned down by extremely heavy automatic and
small-arms fire coming from a house 200 yards to the front. Mortar and tank artillery
shells pounded the unit, when S/Sgt. Bolden and a comrade, on their own initiative, moved
forward into a hail of bullets to eliminate the ever-increasing fire from the German
position. Crawling ahead to close with what they knew was a powerfully armed, vastly
superior force, the pair reached the house and took up assault positions, S/Sgt. Bolden
under a window, his comrade across the street where he could deliver covering fire. In
rapid succession, S/Sgt. Bolden hurled a fragmentation grenade and a white phosphorous
grenade into the building; and then, fully realizing that he faced tremendous odds, rushed
to the door, threw it open and fired into 35 SS troopers who were trying to reorganize
themselves after the havoc wrought by the grenades. Twenty Germans died under fire of his
submachinegun before he was struck in the shoulder, chest, and stomach by part of a burst
which killed his comrade across the street. He withdrew from the house, waiting for the
surviving Germans to come out and surrender. When none appeared in the doorway, he
summoned his ebbing strength, overcame the extreme pain he suffered and boldly walked back
into the house, firing as he went. He had killed the remaining 15 enemy soldiers when his
ammunition ran out. S/Sgt. Bolden's heroic advance against great odds, his fearless
assault, and his magnificent display of courage in reentering the building where he had
been severely wounded cleared the path for his company and insured the success of its
mission.
