General Orders 1946 - Fort Benning

GENEB~ O~UWS WAR DEPARTNENT
No. 4 } WASH~NGTON 2,i, D. C., 9 January 1946
ILMEDAL OF HONOR.-By direction of the President, under the provisions
of the act of Congress approved 9 July 1918 (WD Bul. 43, 1918). a Medal of
Honor for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and
beyond the call of duty was awarded by the War Departmcnt in the name of
Congress to the followiug-named officer and enlisted marl :
First Lieutenant Frank Burke, 01288033, Army of rhe United States, fought
with extreme gallantry on 17 April 19-15 In the streets of war-torn Nurnbcrg,
Germany, where the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, was engaged in
rooting out fanatical defenders if the citadel of Sazism. As battalion trans-
portation oilicer, Lieutenant Burke had gone forward to select a motor-pool
site, when, in a desire to perform more than his assigned duties and pnrtici-
pate in the fight, he adyanced beyond the lines of the forward riflemen. Detect-
ing a group of about 10 Germans making preparations for a local counterattack,
he rushed back to a nearby American company, secured a light machine gun
with ammunition, and daringly opened fire on this superior force, which de-
ployed and returned his fire with machine pistols, rifles, and rockct launchers.
From another allgle a German machine gun tried to blast him from his em-
placement, hut Lieutenant Burke killed this gun crew and drove off the sur-
viVOM of the unit he had originally attacked. Giving his next attention to
enemy infantrymen in ruined buildings, he picked UD a rifle, dashed more than
100 yards through intense fire and engaged the Germans from behind an
abandoned tank. A sniper nearly hit him from a cellar only 20 yards away, but
he dispatched this adversary by running directly to the basement window.
firing a full clip into it and then plunging through the darkened a~erture to
Complete the job. He withdrew from the Bght only long enough to replace his
jammed riflle and secure grenades, tllen reengaged the Germans. Binding his
shots ineffective, he pulled the pins from two grenades, and, holding one in
each hand, rushed the enemy-held building, hurling his missiles just as the
enemy threw a potato masher grenade at him. In the triple explosion the Germans
were wiped out and Lieutenant Burke was dazed; hut he emerged from the
shower of debris that engillfed him, recovered his riflc, and went on to kill
three more Germans and meet the charge of a machine pistol-man, whom he cut
down With three calmly delivered shots. He then r-tired toward the American
lines an& there assisted a platoon in a raging, 30-minute fight against formidable
armed hostile forces. This enmy group was repulsed, and the intrepid Bghter
moved to another friendly group which broke the power of a German unit
armed with a 20mm. gun in a fierce fire fight. In 4 hours of heroic action
Lieutenant Bul ke singlehaudedly killed 11 and wounded 3 enemy soldiers and
took a lending role in engajcnlents in which an additional 21) enemy were
killed or wounded. His extraordinary bravery and superb Bghting skill were
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