Sgt. Alvin C. York; the humble legend of no man's land. The Tennessee marksman who decided to go to war because he knew he would be helping stop the Germans and save American lives.
On October 8, 1918, York’s battalion was sent to secure the Decauville railway, just north of Chatel-Chehery, France. Roughly 30 men were ordered to flank the German line and destroy the machine guns from the rear. They captured about 70 Germans and were trying to disarm them, when the machine guns spotted them and turned around to fire on them. 9 Americans around York dropped immediately, 6 of them dead. York was now in charge, and left the 7 Americans still fit for duty to guard the Germans while he ran from cover to cover up the hill, shooting the whole way.
Sgt. York recalls: “And those machine guns were spitting fire and cutting down the undergrowth all around me. I didn’t have time to dodge behind a tree or dive into the brush… As soon as the machine guns opened fire on me, I began to exchange shots with them. There were over thirty of them in continuous action, and all I could do was touch the Germans off just as fast as I could. I was sharp shooting… All the time I kept yelling at them to come down. I didn’t want to kill any more than I had to. But it was they or I. And I was giving them the best I had.” He shot 15 men dead with his own rifle, and was out of ammunition. He then pulled his .45 and shot 6 more that charged him with bayonets. He then grabbed one of their rifles and fired on a few more machine gun nests, until the Germans surrendered. 132 prisoners were captured in total.
For his actions, Sgt. York was initially awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (later upgraded to a MOH). Even thought Sgt. York became WWI’s most famous American hero, he could not stand talking about what he did to become so.
When a friend back home asked him how many Germans he killed, York started sobbing so hard he threw up. He had killed at least 28. #ww1 #stayzero #zerofoxtrot #military #hero