_32nd Division, 125th Infantry, Company “M”_
While crossing the River Ourcq near Sergy, July 31, 1918, the corporal
of his squad was wounded by machine-gun fire. The enemy continued to
fire on the wounded man and Private Devereaux, alone, with the fire of
his rifle, attacked the machine-gun and put it out of action.]
In the great list, the never fully-to-be-completed list of heroic
deeds in the four years’ war, is there any deed more sublime in
essential quality than that of Sergt. Willard D. Purdy, Company A,
127th Infantry, A. E. F.? You never heard of it? That’s the amazing
thing—that this splendid exhibition of the highest character of devoted
courage is hardly known at all! Really, it was so great a heroism that
it seemed a commonplace in the telling. Here is the story. It reads
very simply in the bald despatch of a newspaper man reporting the facts
from Washington.