In a Single Engagement, Alvin York Killed 32 Germans, Captured 132, and Seized 32 Machine Guns
There was little indication that Alvin York (1887 – 1964) would become one of the war’s greatest heroes when America entered the conflict in 1917. Especially since he was a devoted churchgoer and pacifist, who read the Bible as prohibiting killing. He requested a draft exemption as a conscientious objector, but the request was denied, and he was drafted. He got over his pacifism after his officers used Biblical passages to convince him of the morality of fighting for a just cause.
He was shipped to France, and in October of 1918, now-corporal York was sent in a party of 4 non-commissioned officers and 13 privates to silence a German machinegun position. However, the position turned out to be far stronger than expected, and York’s party ended up in the killing fields of over 35 well hidden machineguns. They opened up, and within seconds, nine GIs, including the other three non-commissioned officers, had been cut down, and York found himself in charge of the survivors.
As he described what happened next: “As soon as the machine guns opened fire on me, I began to exchange shots with them. There were over 30 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.”
York simply drew beads with his rifle on any German heads that popped up, and put them down like it was target practice. All while a hail of bullets from dozens of German rifles and machine guns were directed his way. York’s rifle eventually ran out of bullets, so six Germans took the opportunity to charge him with bayonets. He took out his .45 pistol, and shot all six before they reached him: “I teched off the sixth man first; then the fifth; then the fourth; then the third; and so on. That’s the way we shoot wild turkeys at home. You see we don’t want the front ones to know that we’re getting the back ones, and then they keep on coming until we get them all“.
The Germans finally had enough. An officer raised his hands, walked up to York, and told him “If you don’t shoot anymore, I will make them give up“. When it was over, York had single handedly killed 28 Germans, captured 132 more, plus 32 machine guns. The exploit earned him the Medal of Honor, and made him the war’s greatest American hero.