Francis R. Austin

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Francis R. Austin, First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Haumont, France, November 11, 1918. First Lieutenant Austin led a platoon of machine guns and two 1-pounder guns with their crews under cover of a fog within the enemy’s wire and attacked at close range a strong point held by twenty-five men and ten machine-guns. After this position had been reduced, concentrated machine-gun fire from the ranks forced Lieutenant Austin and his party to withdraw. Exposing himself in order to place his men under cover, he was mortally wounded, but he directed the dressing of the wounds of his men and their evacuation before he would accept any aid for himself. He died a few hours later.