With a patrol from the company, Christian moved out to cross Highway 6 near Valmontone and conduct a reconnaissance of the surroundings at 23:00 on June 2 during the advance on Rome. By 01:00 on the next day they had mostly finished their task, but were ambushed from three sides in a clearing, coming under fire from three tanks, three machine guns, and at least sixty infantry. The patrol's second-in-command later reported that the patrol leader was quickly killed and its survivors went to the ground. The latter witnessed Christian, a Thompson gunner, and the patrol's Browning Automatic Rifle man, Private Elden H. Johnson, stand up to divert German attention and signal for the patrol to move to the rear. Christian was soon hit by a 20 mm round that nearly severed his leg, but continued to crawl forward and fire upon the German infantry, killing and wounding at least three. Within ten yards of the German positions, he emptied his gun into a German machine pistol man, reloaded and managed a last burst before he was killed by German fire. For these actions, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor a year later, on May 30, 1945; Johnson, who had been killed about the same time, also received the award.