The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Corporal Harry W. Fanning (ASN: 147449), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with 117th Trench Mortar Battery, 42d Division, American Expeditionary Forces, near Le Chamois, France, 5 March 1918. Corporal Fanning was in charge of a trench mortar emplacement which was firing a barrage against an enemy raid. One of the bombs from the mortar fell on the side of the emplacement and was rolling into the emplacement where the gun crew and four other men were located. Corporal Fanning rushed across the emplacement, seized the bomb as it was rolling, and unscrewed the fuse, thereby exposing himself to great danger and by his heroic action saving the lives of his comrades in the emplacement.