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First-hand account of the battle of Argonne by, Alvin C. York |
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Among all the heroes who performed remarkable achievements, the great, outstanding figure not only among the Tennessee troops but also among all the troops of the American Expeditionary Forces, was Serg. Alvin C. York, of Pall Mall, Fentress County, Tenn. He had the honor of performing the greatest deed accomplished by any individual soldier. So noteworthy was his achievement that it made him a national hero. A newspaper man who interviewed York gives the following account direct from the sergeant himself:
“York was on the extreme left of the advance, his platoon being the support platoon of the left assault company.
“ ‘We were losing a lot of men,’ he said. ‘See that little rise just where the slope of the hill comes down? Well, it looked like we couldn't get beyond that. The line just seemed to melt away when it reached there.’
“This was due to the fact that boche machine guns on the hill—now known as York's Hill—had the Americans enfiladed. Therefore Sgt. Harry M. Parsons, formerly an actor who was in command of the platoon, was ordered to advance with his men and cover the left flank. The fire was too hot in the valley, so they skirted the foot of the hill in order to gain some protection.
“Parsons ordered Acting Sgt. Bernard Early to take two squads and put the enemy machine guns out of action. That was when the real business began. Early had under him sixteen men, including Corporal York.
“It was a clear day. There had been mists in the valley and shrouding the hills just after dawn, but they had lifted, so that the movements of the Americans were perfectly visible to the enemy along the ridges. As the little party started up the hill, which they proposed to clear of boches, machine guns peppered them from the Cornay Ridge at their backs; but the trees and brush were very thick and they escaped beyond observation without losing a man. The nests they were after lay on the other side of a slope; the boches were firing at the infantry in the valley, and were wholly unconscious of the detachment bent on circling round behind them.
“The Americans went stumbling upward through the leafy jungle.
“About two-thirds of the way up they came upon an old wide trench, probably built by the French early in the war. They entered this and followed it. The clamor of the fight on the other side of the hill now grew less.
The trench led over the crest. Going warily in single file, now stopping to listen and make sure that no enemy lurked near, now moving with painful caution, lest they be heard, the detachment penetrated upward through the dense woods and began to descend the other slope. Sergeant Early was in the lead. Until wounded he directed all the operations; his behavior throughout the entire affair was of the highest order.
“Still they saw no Germans. They could hear firing off at their right, they could hear it ahead; but not a sign of the enemy did they see. Finally they debouched upon a path, and there in the wet earth were fresh footprints.
“Which way had we better take?” whispered Sergeant Early to Corporal York.
“ ‘Let's right-oblique,’ answered the mountaineer; and they right-obliqued and went downward along the path.
“Suddenly they espied two Germans ahead of them in the path. Both wore the Red Cross brassard, and both started to run at the first glimpse of the Americans. Some shots were fired and one stopped. He surrendered; the other disappeared.
“ ‘It looked like a battle was coming,’ said York, ‘so we went into skirmish order!’
“They scattered out amid the riot of brush and pushed forward. Presently the leaders of the party arrived at the stream, and there on the other side were about twenty or thirty Germans, gathered near a small hut that was evidently some kind of P. C. At any rate several officers were holding a conference and a number of the men were squatted on the ground apparently about to eat.
“The Americans instantly let fly. A few of the enemy returned the shots, but the majority dropped guns and equipment and threw up their hands, shouting ‘Kamerad!’
“What had happened? How came the enemy behind them?
“ ‘Don't shoot!’ ordered Sergeant Early. ‘They're going to surrender.’
“Surrender they did, the whole outfit, including the major in command of the battalion.
“ ‘What are you? English?’ he asked.
“ ‘Americans,’ answered York.
“ ‘Good Lord!’ said the major.
“Early's detachment now made preparations to take them out. But before they could move all hell broke loose. Along the steep slope of the hill facing them, not thirty yards away, was machine gun after machine gun, snugly placed in fox holes, but pointing in the other direction. The boches manning them swung these guns round and opened up a fusillade on the attackers. The valley became a chattering, shrieking bedlam. Some Heinies on a hill far to the rear of the Americans sensed a new menace and opened up wildly against their own position, but their fire was many yards high and merely seared the tops of the trees.
“At the first blast of fire every Heinie prisoner dropped flat on his stomach and hugged the ground. The Americans followed their example but six were killed.
“Nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine men out of a million would have considered the situation hopeless. The millionth man was Corp. Alvin C. York. The second elder was down on his haunches amid the brush picking off the boches as fast as he could shoot. From this moment the battle became all York's.
“Six of the detachment were killed almost immediately after the machine guns opened up; three were wounded, including the sergeant in command. York and seven privates remained.
“He never thought of surrender. His problem was to make the enemy give up as quickly as possible and he kept yelling to them to ‘Come down!’
“Bang! Bang! ‘Come down!’ York would shout, precisely as though the surrender of a battalion to an individual soldier were the usual thing—and I really believe he regards it that way, provided the soldier be an American.
“ ‘Somehow I knew I wouldn't be killed,’ he said. ‘I've never thought I would be—never once from the time we started over here.’
“At the first crack of the machine guns on the slope opposite him York dropped to earth. He was in a narrow path leading toward the emplacements. Directly in front lay the boche prisoners, groveling in fear of their comrades' fire. The machine guns were less than thirty yards away and were blazing straight down. Their stream of fire mowed off the tops of the bushes as though they had been cut with a scythe.
“And then the second elder got going on his own account. Sighting as carefully as he was wont to do in the turkey matches at home in Tennessee he began potting the boches in their fox holes and the boches who were behind trees, and the boches who were firing at him from the shelter of logs. And with every shot he brought down an enemy. No, I am wrong; he showed me a crease on a tree bole later and confessed his belief that he had missed that one.
“ ‘You never heard such a clatter and racket in all your life,’ he said. ‘I couldn't see any of our boys. Early and Cutting had run along toward the left in front of me just before the battle started, but I didn't know where they were.’
“ ‘If I'd moved I'd have been killed in a second. The Germans were what saved me. I kept up close to them, and so the fellers on the hill had to fire a little high for fear of hitting their own men. The bullets were cracking just over my head and a lot of twigs fell down.’
“ ‘Well, I fired a couple of clips or so—things were moving pretty lively, so I don't know how many I did shoot—and first thing I knew a boche got up and flung a bomb about the size of a silver dollar. It missed and wounded one of the prisoners on the ground, and I got the boche—got him square.’
“ ‘Next thing that happened, a lieutenant rose up from near one of them machine guns and he had seven men with him. The whole bunch came charging down the hill at me—like this. They held their guns like this.’
“ ‘I had my automatic out by then and let them have it. Got the lieutenant right through the stomach and he dropped and screamed a lot. All the boches who were hit squealed just like pigs. Then I shot the others.’
“ ‘You killed the whole bunch?’
“ ‘Yes, sir. At that distance I couldn't miss.’ He killed this detachment before they could charge twenty yards downhill—eight men.
“ ‘As soon as the Germans saw the lieutenant drop, most of them quit firing their machine guns and the battle quieted down. I kept on shooting, but in a minute here came the major who had surrendered with the first bunch. I reckon he had done some shooting at us himself, because I heard firing from the prisoners and afterward I found out that his pistol was empty.
“ ‘He put his hand on my shoulder like this and said to me in English: “Don't shoot any more, and I'll make them surrender.” So I said “All right,” and he did so and they did so.’
“As York himself would phrase it the battle now quieted down, and the boches descended from their positions on the hill. They came in droves; their arrival swelled the number of prisoners to ninety.
“As they toiled up the hill the major tried to engage York in conversation.
“ ‘How many men have you got?’ he inquired.
“ ‘I got aplenty,’ returned the second elder grimly, and made him step faster.
“It was impossible to see where they were going, on account of the thick brush, but York knew that the direction was right to bring them out on the side of the hill where the Americans ought to have established a post of command by this time. A hundred yards or more, and they were challenged. They stumbled upon another boche machine-gun nest. York thrust the major in [p.651] front of him, covered the crew with his pistol and ordered them to surrender. They abandoned their weapons and equipment and joined the prisoners.
“During the journey back they flushed several more nests. In one the crew offered resistance.
“ ‘I had to shoot a man there,’ remarked Corporal York regretfully. ‘When we hit the next nest and I got ready to settle them if they didn't give up, the major tapped me on the shoulder and said: “Don't kill any more and I'll make them surrender.” And he did.’
“On the far slope of the hill York heard a loud challenge of ‘Halt!’ and perceived a bunch of doughboys about to fire. He shouted to them that he was bringing prisoners, and they permitted him to approach. The men were part of a detachment that had taken up position in the old abandoned trench York and his party had followed earlier in the day.
“ ‘I certify that I personally counted the prisoners reported to the P. C. of the Second Battalion, Three Hundred and Twenty-eighth Infantry, by Corp. Alvin C. York, Company C, Three Hundred and Twenty-eighth Infantry on October 8, 1918, and found them to be 132 in number.—Jos. A. Woods, First Lieut., Asst. Div. Inspector.’
“After reporting there York had to take his prisoners farther back. Their route lay through the valley for some distance, and a boche lookout on a knoll atop Cornay gave the range to his artillery. A few seconds and shells began bursting close to the column. The prisoners yelled and squealed and some of them attempted to scatter. The Americans herded them back into line and York broke the whole column into a run, which was sustained until they got beyond the shelling.
“The German major was about the gloomiest officer on the continent of Europe that night; not even Ludendorff felt half so bad. Here he had surrendered to a handful of the enemy; the rest of his command had been put out of action by one lone redhead!
“There on the scene of the fight at the foot of York's Hill are six graves where our dead lie buried. Simple wooden crosses mark them, and at the head repose the helmets, rifles, and belts of the soldiers who gave their lives. Close beside their last resting place purls a tiny stream, and over the wooded hills broods a cathedral bush.
“We stood long beside the graves in silence. At last I said: ‘I cannot understand, even now, how you came out alive.’
“York replied, simply but earnestly: ‘We know there were miracles, don't we? Well, this was one. I was taken care of—it's the only way I can figure it.’ ”
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