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Citation... Staff Sergeant Rudolph B. Davila distinguished
himself by extraordinary heroism in action, on 28 May 1944, near
Artena, Italy. During the offensive which broke through the
German mountain strongholds surrounding the Anzio beachhead, Staff
Sergeant Davila risked death to provide heavy weapons support for a
beleaguered rifle company. Caught on an exposed hillside by heavy,
grazing fire from a well-entrenched German force, his machine gunners
were reluctant to risk putting their guns into action. Crawling fifty
yards to the nearest machine gun, Staff Sergeant Davila set it up alone
and opened fire on the enemy. In order to observe the effect of his
fire, Sergeant Davila fired from the kneeling position, ignoring the
enemy fire that struck the tripod and passed between his legs.Ordering a
gunner to take over, he crawled forward to a vantage point and directed
the firefight with hand and arm signals until both hostile machine guns
were silenced.
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Bringing his three remaining
machine guns into action, he drove the enemy to a reserve
position two hundred yards to the rear. When he received a
painful wound in the leg, he dashed to a burned tank and,
despite the crash of bullets on the hull, engaged a second enemy
force from the tank’s turret. Dismounting, he advanced 130 yards
in short rushes, crawled 20 yards and charged into an enemy-held
house to eliminate the defending force of five with a hand
grenade and rifle fire. Climbing to the attic, he straddled a
large shell hole in the wall and opened fire on the enemy.
Although the walls of the house were crumbling, he continued to
fire until he had destroyed two more machine guns. His intrepid
actions brought desperately needed heavy weapons support to a
hard-pressed rifle company and silenced four machine gunners,
which forced the enemy to abandon their prepared positions.
Staff Sergeant Davila's extraordinary heroism and devotion to
duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military
service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the
United States Army. | |
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