Henry M. Noel

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Henry M. Noel, Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action east of Belleau Wood, France, July 20, 1918. Discovering a German machine-gun nest which was inflicting severe damage upon his battalion, Second Lieutenant Noel led 12 men to the right flank of the nest and charged it up a steep hill under fire from other guns. He and his men wiped out this center of resistance and made possible the advance of his company. Although wounded himself, he personally took command of large numbers of men of the company, after his captain and other platoon commanders had been killed or wounded, and advanced with them to the company’s objective and held it.