"The story of the heroism of this young soldier of Greek extraction is a glorious one. His platoon badly punished by German machine gun fire, the Lieutenant started to go out to the front to see how this nest could be flanked. A young lad with an automatic rifle jumped up and said: ‘Lieutenant, I can wipe out these men,' and the Lieutenant answered, ‘Go ahead.' "The lad, who was Dilboy, threw himself flat and wriggled forth, killing several of the machine gunners with bursts from his automatic rifle."
ARMY WILL HONOR DILBOY, WAR HERO
The New York Times
Monday, November 5, 1922.
Private Killed at Belleau Wood
Will Be Buried at
Arlington.
WASHINTON, Nov. 4.
With full military honors the body of Private George Dilboy of Massachusetts, who had been recognized by War Department as "one of the outstanding heroes of the World War," will be buried, Nov. 12, at Arlington Cemetery. Army officers and former comrades of the lad, who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously, will join in paying tribute to his memory.
Dilboy lost his life at Belleau Wood. His body was sent to the home of his parents at Alachata, Turkey, wheer, [sic] it has been charged, Turkish soldiers broke open the coffin, stripped it of the American flag and desecrated the body, the incident resulting in diplomatic exchanges between the United States and Turkey. Dilboy's body has been sent to the United States for burial at his parent's request.
An announcement of plans of the funeral ceremony made public today by the War Department said:
"The story of the heroism of this young soldier of Greek extraction is a glorious one. His platoon badly punished by German machine gun fire, the Lieutenant started to go out to the front to see how this nest could be flanked. A young lad with an automatic rifle jumped up and said: ‘Lieutenant, I can wipe out these men,' and the Lieutenant answered, ‘Go ahead.'
"The lad, who was Dilboy, threw himself flat and wriggled forth, killing several of the machine gunners with bursts from his automatic rifle. In his progress he was hit twice by a German sniper, but he never stopped to think about himself and kept on. When he reached the place to charge he found two remaining Germans; he stood up and received a burst from the machine guns which literally cut off his right leg. He dropped on this back and with his left heel pushed himself forward.
There he turned his head, aimed his last shot and killed the two men. "Lying on his back, with his right hand uppermost, the lad motioned to his platoon to go forward, and died with a smile on his face."
Transcribed for educational, archival and "fair use" purposes only.
By Sofia Kontogeorge Kostos
A KNOWN FACT:
Some Turks desecrate(d) the graves of the Christians who once lived in Turkey (Asia Minor). (SKK)
Related link:
George Dilboy on Wikipedia
Sofia Kontogeorge-Kostos is the author of Before the Silence: Archival News Reports of the Christian Holocaust that begs to be Remembered available in hardback and Kindle
See also: Georgie! My Georgie!: The First Greek-american to Win the Medal of Honor
Carved in Stone: The story of George Dilboy