Staff Sergeant Walter D. Ehlers of the 19th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division, United States Army, displayed conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity near Goville, France, on June 9-10, 1944. Acting as the spearhead of the attack, he repeatedly led his men against heavily defended enemy strong points and exposed himself to deadly hostile fire whenever the situation required heroic leadership. Without waiting for orders, he led his squad against a strongly defended enemy position, personally killing 4 members of an enemy patrol that attacked him on the way. Crawling forward under machinegun fire, he attacked the gun crew and put the weapon out of action. He then turned against 2 mortars protected by the crossfire of 2 machineguns and led his men through the fire to kill or drive off the mortar section, killing 3 men himself. After clearing the mortar positions, he advanced again on a machinegun position and knocked it out single-handed despite being greatly outnumbered. The next day, after the platoon had advanced deep into enemy territory and was ordered to withdraw from an untenable position under heavy enemy fire, he remained after his squad had covered the withdrawal of the rest of the platoon and drew much of the hostile fire onto himself so that his own squad could withdraw. Though wounded, he carried his wounded automatic rifleman to safety, returned across the shell-swept field to retrieve the automatic rifle, refused evacuation after treatment, and returned to lead his squad. His intrepid leadership, indomitable courage, and fearless aggressiveness in the face of overwhelming enemy forces inspired others.