On this Day a Tennessee Boy Killed 25 and Captured 132 Enemy

During World War I, U.S. Corporal Alvin C. York is credited with single-handedly killing 25 German soldiers and capturing 132 in the Argonne Forest of France. The action saved York's small detachment from annihilation by a German machine-gun nest and won the reluctant warrior from backwater Tennessee the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Born in a log cabin in rural Tennessee in 1887, Alvin Cullum York supplemented his family's subsistence farming by hunting and, like his father, was soon an expert marksman. He also earned a reputation as a hell-raiser, and few imagined he would amount to anything but trouble. Around 1915, however, York experienced a religious conversion after a friend was killed in a bar brawl. He joined the fundamentalist Church of Christ in Christian Union and served as song leader and Sunday school teacher at the local church.

Two months after the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, York received his draft notice. Because his church opposed war, he asked for conscientious objector status but was denied at both the state and local level because the small Church of Christ in Christian Union was not recognized as a legitimate Christian sect. Enlisting in the 82nd Infantry Division, he was offered noncombat duty but eventually agreed to fight after being convinced by a superior that America's cause was just.

On October 8, 1918, York and 15 other soldiers under the command of Sergeant Bernard Early were dispatched to seize a German-held rail point during the Allies' Meuse-Argonne Offensive. The Americans lost their way and soon found themselves behind enemy lines. A brief firefight ensued with a superior German force, and in the confusion a group of Germans surrendered. However, German machine-gunners on a hill overlooking the scene soon noticed the small size of Early's patrol. Yelling in German for their comrades to take cover, the machine gunners opened fire on the Americans, cutting down half the detachment, including Sergeant Early.

York immediately returned fire and with his marksman eye began picking off the German gunners. He then fearlessly charged the machine-gun nest. Several of the other surviving Americans followed his lead and probably contributed to the final total of 25 enemy killed. With his automatic pistol, York shot down six German soldiers sent out of the trench to intercept him. The German commander, thinking he had underestimated the size of the American force, surrendered as York reached the machine-gun nest. York and the other seven survivors took custody of some 90 Germans and on the way back to the Allied lines encountered 40 or so other enemy troops, who were coerced to surrender by the German major that the Americans had in their custody. The final tally was 132 prisoners.

York was promoted to the rank of sergeant and hailed as the greatest civilian soldier of the war by several Allied leaders. He was given a hero's welcome upon his return to the United States in 1919 and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military decoration. In the 1920s, he used his fame to raise funds for the York Industrial Institute (now Alvin C. York Institute), a school for underprivileged children in rural Tennessee. He later opened a Bible school. Sergeant York, the 1941 film starring Gary Cooper, was based on his life. York died in 1964.

OK Irate One . . . You asked for it and I found it. Actually, I had forgotten that I wrote it.

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CHILDREN AND SHOOTING

It’s interesting to hear that a few of the Hollywood mannequins and their directors were actually surprised at scenes in a new movie. But, the most interesting point was the utter hypocrisy of it all.

It was Hollywood, after all, that put out films about students shooting up high schools. Hollywood also thought that a long series of bloody slasher films were great entertainment. So too, with a couple hundred urban, suburban and country shoot ‘em ups. In fact, it wasn’t long ago that Hollywood seemed to think that the more human blood and guts splattered throughout a film the better it would do at the box office.

These violence oriented films were, of course, targeted at children and young teens. Many of them received an “R” rating, but that has seldom stopped kids from seeing them. All of the films are also played often on television.

So it was interesting to see that Matt Drudge reported: “A loud ‘gasp’ was heard in the screening room as the camera zoomed in for a closeup of the kids. Shots are fired. Blood splatters on Redcoats. … They go into woods and ambush the Redcoats, killing around 15 men. ‘One son is around 13 years old, the other is 10,’ says an insider.”

The film was the “Patriot,” of course, and the protagonist is shown taking up arms against those in authority who would confiscate personal arms. The offending part to those on the far left is when the hero reaches into a chest and gives his sons rifles. The kids then go out into the woods and ambush Redcoats, killing a few.

So, let’s examine this prevailing Hollywood mindset here: Shooting up people in high schools and slashing people to death at summer camps is fine entertainment, apparently. Protecting ones family, home and neighborhood, on the other hand, is not. Interesting!

There were a couple other shoot ‘em up films about real American heroes a few years back. Lest we forget, perhaps it is time to remember a more modern reason that children should be taught to safely use firearms accurately.

An article in the June 14, 1919 issue of “The Literary Digest,” describes a big bashful, red headed mountain boy from the village of Pall Mall, in Fortress County, Tennessee. This boy grew up where good shooting is the rule, not the exception. However, he was also from a strict religious sect, so when drafted into the Army for World War I, the young man entered as a conscientious objector.

It was said that part of the heroism of this young man was his honesty in changing his convictions when he was convinced that he was wrong. Maybe. But, on October 8, 1918, in the Argonne Forest of France, their came a time when war was all around him and his friends were dying. That was when this young conscientious objector from Tennessee, an excellent rifle and pistol shot from boyhood, blended his civilian and military training into action. As the story goes, he killed twenty or twenty- five of the German enemy, captured 132 others - including a major and three lieutenants - and put thirty-five machine guns out of action, all in very short order.

That is, of course, part of the saga of Sergeant Alvin C. York, a true American hero. Read more about Sergeant York at: http://ac.acusd.edu/History/text/ww1/sgtyork.html

A few years after Sergeant Alvin C. York returned home, a son was born to poor Texas sharecroppers, one of nine children. That put this young man in the proper age group to fight in World War II. And, herein developed another story of yet another American who learned to shoot at an early age.

By age 12, this Texas boy was already a great shot with a rifle. At that time, his family was very poor, so he quit school to work for a neighboring farmer. When the war started, the 17 year old boy enlisted.

This young man rose to national fame as the most decorated U.S. combat soldier of World War II. Among his 33 awards and decorations was the Medal of Honor, the highest military award for bravery that can be given to any individual in the United States, for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.” He also received every decoration for valor that his country had to offer, some of them more than once, including 5 decorations by France and Belgium. Credited with killing over 240 of the enemy while wounding and capturing many others, he soon became a legend within the 3rd Infantry Division.

Beginning his service as an Army Private, this young man quickly rose in the enlisted ranks to Staff Sergeant, then was given a “battlefield” commission as 2nd Lieutenant, was wounded three times, fought in 9 major campaigns across the European Theater, and survived the war.

Throughout 1944 and 1945, this man continued to stalk and kill snipers. He would not allow snipers to kill his men without revenge. As the story goes, this excellent sharpshooter “out dueled snipers with little or no fanfare.” No matter that the snipers had high powered scopes while the boy from Texas usually used a carbine.

That young man’s name was Audie Leon Murphy, of course.

On Jan 26, 1945, Audie Murphy climbed aboard a burning tank and fought off six Tiger tanks and two reinforced rifle companies, earning what is still considered today as the most famous Medal of Honor act in World War II. http://www.audiemurphy.com/news1.htm

For even more information about Audie Murphy, go to http://www.audiemurphy.com/congress1.htm, and please pay close attention to a poem by Audie Murphy at the bottom of the page. Because, as we speak of great American Patriots this coming Independence Day, that last verse says it all.
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From Heads Up: Issue #186, June 18, 2000

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