Joseph Bourdu

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Joseph Bourdu, Master Gunner, French Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Le Ruddin, Vosges, France, June 15, 1918, while a battalion of the 11th Infantry was halted on the road near Le Ruddin, Vosges, it came under heavy shell fire from a German battery. First Lieutenant Edison M. Boarke, badly wounded in the left arm and shoulder, attempted to reach a place of safety by rolling down an embankment near the road, when he was picked up by Master Gunner Bourdu, under heavy shell fire, and carried on his back to a place of safety.