MARINE RAIDERS WHO WERE AWARDED
THE MEDAL OF HONOR DURING WW II
WALSH, William G.
Gunnery Sergeant, USMCR. Born 7 April, 1922, Roxbury,
Mass. (1-2 p12)
"For extraordinary gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of
his life above and beyond the call of duty as Leader of an Assault Platoon,
attached to Company G, Third Battalion, Twenty seventh Marines, Fifth
Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces at Iwo Jima,
Volcano Islands, on 27 February, 1945. With the advance of his company
toward Hill 362 disrupted by vicious machine-gun fire from a forward position
which guarded the approaches to the key enemy-stronghold, Gunnery Sergeant
Walsh fearlessly charged at the head of his platoon against the Japanese
entrenched on the ridge above him, utterly oblivious to the unrelenting
fury of hostile automatic weapons fire and hand grenades employed with
fanatic desperation to smash his daring assault. Thrown back by the enemy's
savage resistance, he once again led his men in a seemingly impossible
attack up the steep, rocky slope, boldly defiant of the annihilating streams
of bullets which saturated the area. Despite his own casualty losses and
the overwhelming advantage held by the Japanese in superior numbers and
dominant position, he gained the ridge's top only to be subjected to an
intense barrage of hand grenades thrown by the remaining Japanese staging
a suicidal list stand on the reverse slope. When one of the grenades fell
in the midst of his surviving men, huddled together in a small trench,
Gunnery Sergeant Walsh, in a final valiant act of complete self sacrifice,
instantly threw himself upon the deadly bomb, absorbing with his own body
the full and terrific force of the explosion. Through his extraordinary
initiative and inspiring valor in the face of almost certain death, he
saved his comrades from injury and possible loss of life and enabled his
company to seize and hold this vital enemy position. He gallantly gave
his life for his country."
History of Medal of Honor:
http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/index.html
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