_Sampler, Samuel H., Sergeant_, Co. M, 142nd Infantry, 36th Division,
Mangum, Okla.—St. Etienne, France, Oct. 8, 1918. His company having
suffered severe casualties during an advance under machine-gun fire,
was finally stopped. Sergeant Sampler, then a Corporal, detected
the position of the enemy machine guns on an elevation. Armed with
German hand grenades, which he had picked up, he left the line and
rushed forward in the face of heavy fire until he was near the hostile
nest, where he grenaded the position. His third grenade landed among
the enemy, killing two, silencing the machine guns and causing the
surrender of twenty-eight Germans, whom he sent to the rear as
prisoners. As a result of his act the company was immediately enabled
to resume the advance.
* * * * *
_Turner, Harold L., Corporal_, Co. F, 142nd Infantry, 36th Division,
Seminole, Okla.—St. Etienne, France, Oct. 8, 1918. After his platoon
had started the attack, Corporal Turner assisted in organizing a
platoon consisting of the battalion scouts, runners, and a detachment
of the Signal Corps. As second in command of this platoon, he
fearlessly led them forward through heavy enemy fire, continually
encouraging the men. Later he encountered deadly machine-gun fire which
reduced the strength of his command to but four men, and these were
obliged to take shelter. The enemy machine-gun emplacement, twenty-five
yards distant, kept up a continual fire from four machine guns. After
the fire had shifted momentarily, Corporal Turner rushed forward with
fixed bayonet and charged the position alone, capturing the strong
point, with a complement of fifty Germans and four machine guns.
His remarkable display of courage and fearlessness was instrumental
in destroying the strong point, the fire from which had blocked the
advance of his company.
[Illustration: American Troops at the Double-Quick