John A. Crane

By direction of the President, under the provisions of the act of Congress approved July 9, 1918 (Bul. No. 43, W.D., 1918), Lieutenant Colonel (Field Artillery) John A. Crane, United States Army, is cited by the Commanding General, 1st Division, American Expeditionary Forces, for gallantry in action and a silver star may be placed upon the ribbon of the Victory Medals awarded him. Lieutenant Colonel Crane distinguished himself by gallantry in action while serving with the 1st Division, American Expeditionary Forces, in action during the operations connected with the capture and defense of Cantigny, France, 27 to 31 May 1918. Lieutenant Colonel Crane by courageous and skillful conduct in the command of his battalion of the 6th Field Artillery, by which he secured great accuracy of fire of his guns, contributed materially to the success of the operation.

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to John A. Crane, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Cantigny and again in the battle of July 18, 1918, southwest of Soissons, France. Having on the morning of that day advanced his batteries three miles and, finding that the normal liaison between Artillery and Infantry was not then operating and that observation of fire from near the batteries was impossible, Lieutenant Colonel Crane went forward himself to locate our Infantry front lines and to personally conduct fire on the enemy’s forces. He advanced through heavy enemy artillery and machine-gun fire over a terrain easily visible to the enemy to the front line of the supported infantry at Chaudun, where he drew down a violent shelling from enemy artillery. Undeterred by this and seeing German machine- gun detachments advancing to a position a short distance from him, he continued to seek a favorable point of observation. While engaged in this dangerous and self-imposed mission he was desperately wounded. This inspiring action on the part of the battalion commander, locating and supporting the advance Infantry elements, permitted the supported Infantry to seize and hold a line ahead of adjacent units, and, protected by its supporting Artillery, to hold the lead in the attack of the Tenth French Army.