The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Sergeant Emile Deleau, Jr., United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty February 1 and 2, 1945, while serving with Company A, 142d Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division. Sergeant Deleau led a squad in the night attack on Oberhoffen, France, where fierce house-to-house fighting took place. After clearing one building of opposition, he moved his men toward a second house from which heavy machinegun fire came. He courageously exposed himself to hostile bullets and, firing his submachine gun as he went, advanced steadily toward the enemy position until close enough to hurl grenades through a window, killing three Germans and wrecking their gun. His progress was stopped by heavy rifle and machinegun fire from another house. Sergeant Deleau dashed through the door with his gun blazing. Within, he captured ten Germans. The squad then took up a position for the night and awaited daylight to resume the attack. At dawn of 2 February Sergeant Deleau pressed forward with his unit, killing two snipers as he advanced to a point where machinegun fire from a house barred the way. Despite vicious small-arms fire, Sergeant Deleau ran across an open area to reach the rear of the building, where he destroyed one machinegun and killed its two operators with a grenade. He worked to the front of the structure and located a second machinegun. Finding it impossible to toss a grenade into the house from his protected position, he fearlessly moved away from the building and was about to hurl his explosive when he was instantly killed by a burst from the gun he sought to knock out. With magnificent courage and daring aggressiveness, Sergeant Deleau cleared four well-defended houses of Germans, inflicted severe losses on the enemy and at the sacrifice of his own life aided his battalion to reach its objective with a minimum of casualties.