Period:

First World War (1914-1918)

Rank:

1st Lieutenant

Unit:

Company M, 3rd Battalion, 105th Infantry Regiment, 53rd Infantry Brigade, 27th Division, U.S. Army

Awarded on:

June 26th, 1919

Citation:
"For extraordinary heroism on 27 September 1918, while serving with Company M, 105th Infantry, 27th Division, in action at Ronssoy, France. Lieutenant Turner 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 one 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 three lines of hostile trenches, cleaning up each one as they advanced, regardless of the fact that he had been wounded three 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, First Lieutenant Turner captured it with the nine men remaining in his group and resisted a hostile counterattack until he was finally surrounded and killed. "

War Department, General Orders No. 81 (June 26, 1919)