Fred J. Harder

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Fred J. Harder, First Sergeant, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Eclisfontaine, France, September 29, 1918. Responding to a call for volunteers, Sergeant Harder crossed an open space, a distance of about 300 yards, under terrific hostile fire of machine guns and artillery, to the position held by his machine-gun company, to inform them of the location of enemy machine-gun nests and snipers, who had escaped detection. The enfilading fire of the enemy threatened to wipe out his company, but the success of Sergeant Harder’s mission enabled our guns to silence the fire of the enemy.