Memorial

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On 9 November, C Company ran into an antitank ditch near Morville. The German 11th Panzer Division began to knock out seven tanks one by one down the line.

1st Sgt Turley drove the lead tank. The regular driver had come down with a severe case of jitters. Turley had taken over for him at the last minute.

Turley and platoon leader 2nd Lt Kenneth W. Coleman knew the Germans would slaughter the company if the men stayed with the tanks. The company commander, Capt McHenry gave the order to dismount.

The tankers crawled through the freezing muddy waters of the ditch under pelting rain and snow while hot shell fragments fell all around them. When German artillery began to walk a line toward the ditch, the tankers’ situation looked hopeless.

Turley and Coleman watch the pathetic scene. Tankers hugged the cold, wet ground in the open as German bullets ended their war. The two leaders acted. Coleman gathered the men still in the column. He followed behind, laying fire to cover their evacuation while they struggled to safety in front of him. Turley remained between the enemy and the tankers to cover Coleman and the rest of the company making their escape. Both men moved with automatic weapons and ammunition in hand, firing at the enemy.

Turley and Coleman moved back-to-back. Coleman tried to hurry the men away from the ditch and out of the range of the German weapons. Tankers continued to fall.

When the Germans recovered from the surprise of Turley’s and Coleman’s action, they killed Coleman. Turley continued until a burst of fire nearly cut him in two. He collapsed, in the slush, weapon in hand. Some said an 88mm shell landed where he fell.

Correspondent Trezzvant Anderson described Turley’s devotion to duty: “Standing behind the ditch, straight up, with a machine gun and an ammo belt around his neck, Turley was spraying the enemy with machine-gun shots as fast as they could come out of the muzzle of the red-hot barrel. He stood there covering for his men, and then fell, cut through the middle by German machine-gun bullets that ripped through his body as he stood there firing the M.G. to the last. That’s how Turley went down and his body crumpled to the earth, his fingers still gripped that trigger….But we made it!”

For this action 1st Sgt Turley and 2nd Lt Coleman were awarded the Silver Star Medal posthumously.

Lt Coleman is also buried at Lorraine Cemetery.

The men of the 761st who were killed during the liberation of Morville-lès-Vic are remembered on a monument at the Rue Principale, just outside the village.

Turley Barracks in Mannheim, Germany was named in his honor during the American Occupation of Germany and during the following Cold War. The installation was renamed under the provision of the Designation of Military Installation program as the Samuel J. Turley Barracks in October 1947.

The 761st Tank Battalion was the first African American armored unit to see combat and apart from some officers consisted entirely of African American soldiers.