_1st Division, 26th Infantry, Company “G”_
He was cited for extraordinary heroism in action between the Argonne
and the Meuse. With great coolness and bravery under machine-gun and
shell fire, he maintained liaison between his battalion and company
and assisted in reorganizing his platoon after the platoon commander
was wounded.]
“There were Freddy Schroeder and Leo Smith on an ‘island platform’
of the road, with seemingly nothing left to do but to abandon their
ambulances and crawl to safety the best they could. They didn’t do
anything of the kind. Right out in the open they tugged at every
sizable chunk of débris in sight and built a sort of bridge across the
forward shell hole and went onward and brought welcome food and water
to the marooned detachment. And in their own good time they came
back over their ‘bridge’ again, jumped out and built another ‘bridge’
of the same kind over the second shell hole, and about dusk, sailed
victoriously to their Red Cross quarters unharmed.
“Finally there was another day that must be told of. It was the day
at St. Souplet when two of the stricken residents of the little town
crawled back to our lines and told the Mayor of Busigny (which had
just been captured from the Huns) that many civilians, dozens of whom
were wounded, were hiding in the cellars of St. Souplet. None of them
dared show himself. The German patrols were still poking about the town
and their machine guns were sweeping the village streets. Shells were
dropping and death threatened the hidden ones in the cellars in other
ways, especially in the form of gassing, the poisonous gas naturally
tending to work downward to the cellars and other subterranean passages
where the men, women, and children of St. Souplet lay hidden.