WWI · Battle Death Record
William Turner
First Lieutenant, U.S. Army · New York
Medal of Honor
Personnel File — Core Information
- Name
- William Turner
- Entered the Service From
- New York
- Rank
- First Lieutenant
- Service
- U.S. Army
- Unit / Regiment
- 105th Infantry Regiment, 27th Division
- War
- WWI
- Date of Death
- September 27, 1918
- Awards
- Medal of Honor, World War I Victory Medal, Mexican Border Service Medal, Croce al Merito di Guerra (Italy), Cruz de Guerra Third Class (Portugal)
- Burial / Memorial
- Somme American Cemetery and Memorial, Bony, France
- Grave
- Plot B, Row 13, Grave 1
Their story
On September 27, 1918, near Ronssoy, France, First Lieutenant Turner led a small group of men in an attack under terrific artillery and machine-gun fire after becoming separated from the rest of the company in the darkness; single-handedly he rushed and destroyed multiple enemy machine-gun positions, killing crews with his pistol, and cleared successive trench lines. Although wounded three times, he captured the objective with his remaining men before being killed during a German counterattack. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Compiled from American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) and National Archives (NARA) records and public sources.
This record is one of more than 200,000 in our historical archive. Some information may have been corrupted or lost over decades of data conversion. Corrections are welcome — please contact the archive.