George Benton Turner

At 45 years old, Private First Class George Benton Turner walked into the middle of a French street carrying a rocket launcher and faced two German tanks advancing behind roughly 75 enemy infantrymen. He had already volunteered for one world war and missed combat. In the second, he repeatedly resisted opportunities that could have taken him away from the front. On 3 January 1945, at Philippsbourg, France, that determination placed Turner directly in the path of Operation Nordwind and led to one of the most remarkable Medal of Honor actions of the Second World War.

George Benton Turner was born on 27 June 1899 in Longview, Texas, the son of Gaines and Emme Turner. He attended Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri, but left without completing a degree. In 1918, at the age of nineteen, Turner enlisted in the United States Marine Corps with hopes of serving overseas during the First World War. The Armistice came before he could deploy to the fighting in Europe, and he left the service without having seen combat. Years later, around 1928, he moved to Los Angeles County, California, where he worked as a legal secretary and also in the wholesale grocery business.

More than two decades after his first enlistment, Turner volunteered again. He entered the United States Army from Los Angeles in October 1942, already 43 years old, and was assigned to Battery C, 499th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 14th Armored Division. Turner was considerably older than most of the soldiers around him, yet contemporary accounts describe a man determined not merely to serve, but to serve where the fighting was hardest. Officers encouraged him to pursue officer candidate school and a commission, but Turner declined. A commission could have removed him from the front, and the front was exactly where he wanted to remain.

The 14th Armored Division landed at Marseille, France, on 29 October 1944. Within weeks its elements were fighting with the U.S. Seventh Army, first along the Franco-Italian frontier and then through the Vosges Mountains and onto the Alsatian Plain. Turner quickly demonstrated the aggressiveness that would later define his Medal of Honor action. A detailed historical account credits him with earning the Bronze Star Medal in November 1944 after he spent approximately two hours in a church steeple directing artillery fire while enemy shells fell around his observation position. The original individual Bronze Star order has not yet been located, but the episode is specifically identified in the historical account as the action for which he received the decoration.

Then came Operation Nordwind. Beginning on 1 January 1945, German forces launched a major armored and infantry offensive against the U.S. Seventh Army in Alsace. Two days later, Turner was at Philippsbourg, only a short distance from the German frontier, when an enemy armored infantry attack cut him off from his artillery unit. He encountered an American infantry company withdrawing under pressure and saw two German tanks, supported by approximately 75 infantrymen, advancing through the village. Instead of withdrawing with them, Turner went forward.

Seizing a rocket launcher, Turner advanced through intense small-arms and cannon fire and took up a position in the roadway. He fired on the approaching armor, destroying one German tank and disabling the other. He then removed a machine gun from a nearby half-track, placed it in the open street, and poured fire into the advancing German infantry, killing or wounding numerous enemy soldiers and breaking up the attack. What might have been enough for one act of battlefield gallantry was only the beginning.

During the American counterattack, an enemy antitank gun disabled two supporting U.S. tanks. Turner fired a light machine gun from the hip to suppress the enemy while the American tank crews escaped. Seeing that one crewman remained trapped inside a burning vehicle, Turner ran through enemy fire and attempted to reach him. The tank's ammunition exploded before the rescue could be completed, painfully wounding Turner. The wound documented in his Medal of Honor citation is the combat injury associated with his Purple Heart entitlement. Yet even after being wounded, Turner refused evacuation.

His fight continued into the following day. Turner helped drive off an enemy patrol, assisted in the capture of a hostile strongpoint, and then voluntarily drove a truck carrying wounded soldiers through enemy fire to a rear aid station. The official citation concluded that his courage and "magnificently heroic initiative" materially contributed to the defense of Philippsbourg and inspired the soldiers around him. The formal Medal of Honor action date is 3 January 1945, even though the citation makes clear that his actions continued into 4 January.

Turner's Medal of Honor was personally presented by President Harry S. Truman at the White House on 23 August 1945. He was 46 years old at the time of the presentation, making him one of the older American servicemen to receive the Medal of Honor for World War II. The award was subsequently published in War Department General Orders No. 79, dated 14 September 1945, which identified Turner as a member of Battery C, 499th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 14th Armored Division, and recognized his conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty at Philippsbourg.

The Medal of Honor stands at the center of Turner's honors record, but it does not tell the entire story. Historical evidence also credits him with the Bronze Star Medal for his earlier forward-observer action, while the wound explicitly recorded in his Medal of Honor citation supports the Purple Heart associated with his service. The campaign and service ribbons represented in his reconstructed ribbon rack reflect his service across both world-war eras and his wartime service with the 14th Armored Division. Unlike his valor decorations, those campaign and service awards recognize qualifying service rather than individual acts described by separate battlefield citations.

Turner's military story also received a remarkable final chapter long after his death. In 2019, the 86th Texas Legislature adopted House Concurrent Resolution No. 120 directing the governor to posthumously award George Benton Turner the Texas Legislative Medal of Honor, the state's highest military award. The resolution recalled his courage at Philippsbourg and declared him deserving of recognition for his "gallant and intrepid service." The measure passed the Texas House by 147 votes to none and the Senate by 31 votes to none before being signed by the governor.

After the Second World War, Turner returned to civilian life with his wife, Lucille, in California. He died on 29 June 1963, just two days after his 64th birthday. He was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 41, Site 589, where his grave preserves the name of a soldier whose age, rank, and background gave little indication of what he would do when a French village came under attack.

George Benton Turner's legacy is not simply that he destroyed a tank, held back enemy infantry, attempted to save a trapped tanker, or carried wounded men through fire. It is that he repeatedly chose to move toward danger when retreat would have been understandable. He had missed the battlefield in 1918, returned to uniform in his forties, resisted opportunities that could have carried him away from the front, and ultimately proved at Philippsbourg that courage is measured neither by age nor by rank. For his actions during Operation Nordwind, Private First Class George Benton Turner became the 14th Armored Division's Medal of Honor recipient and secured a permanent place among the most extraordinary American soldiers of World War II.