SMLE-armed Pvt. Harry Shelley, Co A, U.S. 132nd Infantry Regiment, 33rd “Prairie” Division receives the British Distinguished Conduct Medal from King George V, for his 4 July 1918 actions in the Battle of Hamel, where elements of the 33rd were attached in platoon-sized groups to Australian units– the first time American outfits were under British command in the Great War. The award was issued, among others, at Molliens, on 12 August 1918
The four companies of Yanks fighting at Hamel earned no less than 4 DCMs, 4 Military Crosses, and 6 Military Medals.
The same group was decorated with a host of American honors including at least one Medal of Honor (CPL Thomas A. Pope Company “E”, 131st Infantry Regiment, the last surviving Great War MoH recipient who died in 1989, aged 94) and 8 DSCs, with the above PVT. Shelley received one of the latter.
King George V and General John Pershing inspecting men from every unit of the 33rd American Division which took part in the fighting at Hamel on 4 July and Chipilly on 8 August. Molliens, 12 August 1918. IWM Q 9259
Activated in July 1917, the 33rd was formed from the Illinois National Guard and, from Hamel through Saint-Mihiel suffered almost 7,000 casualties (KIA – 691, WIA − 6,173) in just five months on the Western Front.
Reformed for WWII, they would fight in the Pacific from New Guinea to Luzon, earning six Presidential Unit Citations after suffering another 2,500 casualties.