On 8th October 1918 an American soldier, Corporal
Alvin C York from Tennessee, carried out one of the most remarkable acts of
single-handed bravery in the whole of World War One, or possibly any war, come
to that.
The bravery of Corporal York
At dawn on 8th October 1918, Corporal York’s
platoon of the 328th Infantry Battalion was in trouble during an
operation in the Argonne Forest of north-eastern France. They were under heavy
machine-gun fire and taking casualties. A detachment of 17 men, including York,
were determined to do something about it and found a way of getting to the rear
of the machine-gun nest from which all the fire was coming.
However, once the Germans were aware of what the Americans
were doing they swung round to attack York’s detachment, and six of the
Americans were quickly killed. York was now the most senior man left and he
took it upon himself to make use of his sharpshooting skills and save the
situation.
With more than 30 machine guns in the nest, York had to be
accurate with his shots, and he was. Every time a gun swung in his direction a
German head was exposed for a brief moment, and York fired at it, never missing
once.
The Germans then tried a different move, namely jumping out
of their trench and charging at him with fixed bayonets. York used his
automatic pistol to take the Germans out one at a time, making sure that he
shot the man nearest to him, so that each man leaving the trench would not be
aware of the danger he faced until it was too late – he wanted them to keep
charging rather than dropping down and shooting at him.
Eventually the Germans gave up and all the remaining
soldiers surrendered to him. In one morning Corporal York had killed 20 German
machine-gunners, put 35 of their guns out of action and captured 132 men.
For his action he was promoted to sergeant and awarded the
Medal of Honour (the American equivalent of the Victoria Cross), which he
received from the hands of General Pershing.
© John Welford
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