Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

Civilian Pilot

Unit:

U.S.S. Dallas (DD-199), U.S. Navy

Awarded on:

March 17th, 1943

Awarded for:

Operation Torch

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

Civilian Pilot

Unit:

U.S.S. Dallas (DD-199), U.S. Navy

Awarded on:

May 1943

Awarded for:

Operation Torch

"For extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty while serving as a Civilian Pilot aboard the U.S.S. Dallas (DD-199) in support of the landing operations during the occupation of French North Africa, 8 and 9 November 1942. Personally taking the helm, Malavergne guided the destroyer through heavy seas, breaking over a bar at the mouth of the Sebou River, snapped a steel cable boom stretched across the river entrance, and steamed into the channel. Though shore batteries, machine guns, and snipers on the banks kept the vessel under heavy fire, Malavergne threaded a tortuous way among the wrecks of merchant ships that had been scuttled in the channel, often literally ploughing through the mud of the shallow river bottom, and landed United States raider forces ten miles from an airfield that the raiders successfully captured."

Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 314