I Got a Plenty

In October 1918 the 82nd Division pushed into the Argonne Forest in the largest battle the U.S. Army had ever fought. Its job on the morning of 8 October was to cross a narrow valley and cut the Decauville Railroad, a German supply line. German machine guns on the ridges stopped the attack cold. A patrol of seventeen men went around the flank to find them.

1. 1887–1917 · Pall Mall, Tennessee

   The valley of the Three Forks

   Alvin Cullum York is born on 13 December 1887 in a log cabin in Fentress County, the third of eleven children. He gets about nine months of schooling. He works as a blacksmith, farmer and laborer, and he hunts. At mountain turkey shoots the target is a bird's head bobbing behind a log, and York is one of the best shots in the hills.

2. 5 June 1917 · The draft

   A man of faith goes to war

   York joined a strict church in 1915 and believes the Bible forbids killing. He registers for the draft, his conscientious objector claim is denied, and in November 1917 he reports to Camp Gordon, Georgia. His company commander, Capt. Edward Danforth, and battalion commander, Maj. G. Edward Buxton, talk Scripture with him for hours. After ten days of leave and prayer at home, York comes back ready to fight.

3. May–October 1918 · France

   The All-Americans

   The 82nd Division drew men from all 48 states, so it called itself the All-American Division. It crossed to France in the spring of 1918 and fought at Saint-Mihiel in September. In the first week of October it entered the Argonne, and on the 7th the 328th took Hill 223 near the village of Châtel-Chéhéry. York, now a corporal in Company G, writes the next order in his diary: take Hills 223 and 240 on the 8th.

4. 8 October · 06:10

   No barrage

   The 2nd Battalion goes over the top from Hill 223 at 06:10. The promised artillery barrage never comes. German machine guns on the ridges ahead and on the left flank sweep the valley, and the attack stalls in the open. York is with the support platoon and watches the men in front of him go down. Somebody has to get at those guns.

   

5. 8 October · Morning

   Behind the German line

   Acting Sgt. Bernard Early leads seventeen men around the left flank: four NCOs, York among them, and thirteen privates. They slip through the brush into the German rear and stumble on two stretcher-bearers. Chasing them across a small stream, they land in a German battalion headquarters at breakfast. About twenty Germans, officers among them, throw up their hands without a fight.

6. 8 October · Moments later

   The guns turn around

   On the ridge above, German machine gunners swing their guns around and open fire into the clearing. The prisoners drop flat. The burst kills six Americans, among them Cpl. Murray Savage, and wounds three, including Sergeant Early. Eight men are left standing. The surviving Americans are pinned among the prisoners. Corporal York is on the left edge of the thicket, in the open, with a clear view up the slope.

7. 8 October · The fight

   One rifle against the ridge

   York shoots the way he did at home, one round each time a German head comes up over a gun pit. Between shots he calls on them to come down and surrender. A small party charges him with bayonets. He drops his empty rifle, draws his .45 pistol and shoots the men at the back first so the rest keep coming. Then the German battalion commander offers to make his men quit.

   York's diaryBy this time the Germans from on the hill was shooting at me. Well I was giving them the best I had.
8. About 10:00

   Only 132

   The officer blows a whistle and the gunners come down with their hands up. York lines the prisoners up in twos, puts the officers in front with his pistol at their backs, and marches them straight through more German positions, collecting those crews too. Back at battalion, the count is 132. Brig. Gen. Julian Lindsey tells him he hears York captured the whole German army. York says he only got 132.

   York, to the German officerHow many have you got? I got a plenty.
9. 8 October · Afternoon

   The railroad is cut

   With the guns on the left ridge silent, the 328th Infantry renews its attack and cuts the Decauville Railroad before the day is out. York reports for duty and is sent back to guard his prisoners. Officers of his regiment later walk the hillside and count 25 dead Germans and 35 machine guns. The division's report says the story was checked in every possible detail.