Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

Lieutenant

Unit:

Motor Battalion Imperial Light Horse Kimberly Regiment, 11th South African Armoured Brigade, 6th South African Armoured Division, South African Army

Awarded on:

September 25th, 1945

For extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy near Caldarara De Reno, Italy on 21 April 1945. As a Platoon Commander in the Imperial Light Horse Kimberly Regiment (Motor Battalion), Lieutenant Lord's unit was the center element of a company assault on the heavily defended enemy village of Caldarara De Reno. Upon reaching the outskirts of the objective, the unit was halted in its advance by a vicious crossfire of German machine guns. Lieutenant Lord inched his way forward under this deadly hail of lead and viciously hurled hand grenades at the emplacements, silencing two machine guns. Immediately the enemy brought an even greater amount of automatic fire to bear upon Lieutenant Lord's now exposed position. Undaunted and displaying outstanding bravery, he leaped up, charged this new threat and with blazing submachine gun fire accounted for the crews of two more positions. Continuing to move relentlessly forward as his platoon, now able to advance, followed their fearless leader, he engaged another German strong point, killing or wounding seven of the enemy. Upon looking back he saw one section of his platoon pinned down by fire which swept across the road leading to the objective. Returning to this group he quickly rallied them and in the face of this intense fire led them into the town. By this extraordinary heroism Lieutenant Lord personally destroyed five enemy positions in the advance toward his company's objective and another within the village during the bitter street fighting, and in addition he and his men took eighty prisoners and killed an uncounted number of Germans in this highly successful operation.

Headquarters, U.S. Army-Mediterranean Theater of Operations, General Orders No. 250