Replacement WWI Distinguished Service Cross (Albert W. Klick, 103rd Infantry)

Replacement issue World War I Distinguished Service Cross. Distinguished Service Cross, wrap brooch, unnumbered, hand-engraved “Albert/W. Klick”; World War I Victory Medal, clasps “Champagne-Marne”, “St. Mihiel” and “Defensive Sector” (ribbon heavily worn and missing its brooch). With a 26th Division patch and single sergeant’s stripes.

Sergeant Albert W. Klick received the Distinguished Service Cross in War Department General Orders No. 26 (1919) “for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company H, 103rd Infantry Regiment, 26th Division, AEF, near Bois-de-St.-Remy, France, 12 September 1918. With the aid of six comrades, Sergeant Klick attacked and put out of action a machine-gun which was checking the advance of his company. Later he captured, without aid, about 20 prisoners, and, while advancing against another nest on about Nov 11, 1918, where he was twice wounded. Although in severe pain, he declined the use of a litter, walking three kilometers to a dressing station.” With copied award cards showing that a duplicate DSC was authorized 20 June 1947. Klick also received a Silver Star for actions during the St. Mihiel operations, and received three duplicate medals (1937, 1940 and 1947). He received a Purple Heart in 1932 for wounds received on 13 September 1918, and received duplicate medals in 1937, 1940 and 1947.

Klick was born in 1889 in Mecklenburg, Germany, and immigrated to the United States in 1907. He enlisted in the Massachusetts National Guard in February 1917 and served overseas from September 1917 through January 1919. Klick died in December 1960 and is buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, California.