Cecil Hamilton Bolton

Wounded twice, he led attacks which silenced the enemy guns.

Cecil Hamilton Bolton received the Medal of Honor for leading two soldiers against German machine guns and an artillery position after the crossing of the Mark River in the Netherlands on 2 November 1944. Severely wounded and briefly unconscious, he recovered, waded through icy canals and continued attacking the positions that had stopped his company.

Born on 7 October 1908 in Crawfordville, Florida, Bolton moved with his family to Sheffield, Alabama, during childhood. He was drafted into the Army on 27 July 1942. By the autumn of 1944, he was a first lieutenant commanding the weapons platoon of Company E, 413th Infantry Regiment, 104th Infantry Division. The division’s advance in the Netherlands brought his company across the Mark River into a battlefield lit by moonlight and swept by German artillery and machine-gun fire.

Two concealed machine guns inflicted casualties and prevented the company from advancing. Bolton tried to suppress them with mortar fire, but the darkness made their positions difficult to identify. A German shell badly wounded his legs and knocked him unconscious. When he came round, he gave instructions to his platoon, crawled forward and took a two-man bazooka team on a mission to silence the guns at close range.

They approached the first position through chest-deep canal water. Covered by his companions, Bolton charged a house and killed its two machine-gunners with grenades. The three soldiers then crossed exposed ground to destroy the second position, before returning to the canal to approach an 88-mm gun. Bolton directed the bazooka team’s rockets against it. Wounded again on the return journey, he sent his companions back to safety and crawled after them until he collapsed inside the American lines. Their attack opened the way for the battalion to reach its objective.

President Harry S. Truman presented Bolton the Medal of Honor at the White House on 23 August 1945. The general-order date of 1 September 1945 is distinct from that presentation. Bolton continued his Army career after World War II, served during the Korean War and attained the rank of colonel. His other decorations included the Silver Star, two Bronze Star Medals, the Army Commendation Medal and the Purple Heart with an oak leaf cluster. He died in San Antonio, Texas, on 22 January 1965, aged 56, and is buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.

Medal of Honor citation: “As leader of the weapons platoon of Company E, 413th Infantry, on the night of 2 November 1944, he fought gallantly in a pitched battle which followed the crossing of the Mark River in Holland. When 2 machineguns pinned down his company, he tried to eliminate, with mortar fire, their grazing fire which was inflicting serious casualties and preventing the company's advance from an area rocked by artillery shelling. In the moonlight it was impossible for him to locate accurately the enemy's camouflaged positions; but he continued to direct fire until wounded severely in the legs and rendered unconscious by a German shell. When he recovered consciousness he instructed his unit and then crawled to the forward rifle platoon positions. Taking a two-man bazooka team on his voluntary mission, he advanced chest deep in chilling water along a canal toward 1 enemy machinegun. While the bazooka team covered him, he approached alone to within 15 yards of the hostile emplacement in a house. He charged the remaining distance and killed the 2 gunners with hand grenades. Returning to his men he led them through intense fire over open ground to assault the second German machinegun. An enemy sniper who tried to block the way was dispatched, and the trio pressed on. When discovered by the machinegun crew and subjected to direct fire, 1st Lt. Bolton killed 1 of the 3 gunners with carbine fire, and his 2 comrades shot the others. Continuing to disregard his wounds, he led the bazooka team toward an 88-mm. artillery piece which was having telling effect on the American ranks, and approached once more through icy canal water until he could dimly make out the gun's silhouette. Under his fire direction, the two soldiers knocked out the enemy weapon with rockets. On the way back to his own lines he was again wounded. To prevent his men being longer subjected to deadly fire, he refused aid and ordered them back to safety, painfully crawling after them until he reached his lines, where he collapsed. 1st Lt. Bolton's heroic assaults in the face of vicious fire, his inspiring leadership, and continued aggressiveness even through suffering from serious wounds, contributed in large measure to overcoming strong enemy resistance and made it possible for his battalion to reach its objective.”