Sgt. Alvin York: The Reluctant WWI Hero & Medal of Honor Recipient

Welcome back everyone.  On today’s episode of Duty & Valor, you’ll hear the story of a man who battled with his religious beliefs before reluctantly fighting in WWI.  A man whose life of hunting and competition shooting would make him a deadly force on the battlefield.   A man who led a small group of men in killing and capturing a much larger enemy force.  This is the story of Medal of Honor recipient US Army Sgt. Alvin York.

Alvin was born on December 13th, 1887 in Pall Mall, TN to parents William and Mary York, and he was the third eldest of eleven children.  Life for him and his family was not easy and the children had to miss a lot of schooling so they could help provide for the family.  Following the death of his father, Alvin took on work as a blacksmith and helped care for his siblings.  Though his family were religious and Alvin attended church regularly, he was not a model Christian.  He drank a lot and continually got into fights, before rededicating himself to a religious life in 1914. 

On June 5, 1917, about three years into WWI, Alvin was drafted into the US Army.  By this point in his life, he believed that the violence of war was against his religious belief and he claimed conscientious objector status.   On three separate occasions he applied, but was denied an exemption as his church, the Church of Christ in Christian Union, was not a recognized sect of Christianity.  By the fall, he had accepted the fact that he either had to report for boot camp or be arrested.  He arrived at Camp Gordon in GA, in the fall of 1917, where he continued to appeal for an exemption, but was denied.  At this point he reluctantly continued his training.  He was assigned to G Company, 328th Infantry Regiment, 82nd Infantry Division.  As he was an experienced hunter, Alvin showed his aptitude with firearms and was recognized as a marksman.  

During training, Alvin made one last attempt for his conscientious objector status by petitioning directly to Maj. Buxton, his battalion commander.  The two met privately for hours where the two defended their positions by referencing biblical passages.  Alvin left the meeting still not sure if he could accept the role of a fighting military man, so he returned home for a short time to reflect.  He eventually decided that he would follow his soul and let God set a path for him in war, and he returned to his unit before they deployed to Europe.

York, along with the other men of the 328th, arrived in France in June of 1918 and they were sent directly to the Western front, shortly before the start of the Meuse- Argonne Offensive.    This decisive offensive stretched along the Western Allied front and was the last major Allied advance of the war.  

On the night of October 7th, 1918, Acting Corporal York and other men of G Company found themselves in a wet roadside drainage ditch as they observed other men of the 82nd Infantry, attempting to take a hill from the Germans.  Hill 223, approximately 40 KM northwest of Verdun, was a major obstacle in the Allied attempt to capture a nearby railroad.   

Though the Germans were well entrenched, they would eventually be pushed off the hill and the Americans prepared to advance further into the valley.  The men of Company G were ordered to gather and prepare for an advance at 0600 on the morning of Oct, 8th.  This advance was planned to start after a barrage of Allied artillery.  But the barrage never came.  Maybe it was because the valley beneath HIll 223 was covered in fog and they didn’t have clear targets, or maybe the battle plan wasn’t communicated properly.  Regardless, by 0610, the advance began without artillery support.  As the allied troops made their way down the North side of the hill, the valley erupted in heavy machine gun fire.  

The Germans were guarding the railroad and had long maintained a presence in the surrounding valley, which allowed them to position themselves to effectively direct fire at any advancing force from multiple directions.   The Germans were firing from three sides, but the fire was heaviest from the Allied left flank.  Even though the valley was covered in heavy fog, the Germans knew that their fire was hitting their targets as they heard the screams of the injured and dying men. 

York, along with 16 other men, were ordered to flank the Germans and take out the machine guns that were pinning them down.  It was reported that the men made a mistake reading their map, as it was in French, and they found themselves further behind the German lines than they were expecting.  The Americans weren’t the only ones surprised by this, the superior German forces were no less so.  They didn’t know they were only facing 17 men so they surrendered.  Once they realized the small size of the American force, they began yelling which alerted their comrades who came to their rescue.   Atop a nearby hill, the German machine guns who were firing at the Allied forces then turned their guns around and yelled for their men to lay down, before opening fire on the Americans.  Of the 17 men, 9 were killed, but they didn’t surrender.  

As all of the noncommissioned officers were killed, York was left in charge of the men.  He returned the machine gun fire and kept moving.  He said that the reason he did so was to force them to “show their heads above the trenches” in order to “sight him in or swing their guns” at him, and when they did lift their heads he said he “touched them off”.  The other men followed York’s lead and effectively returned fire, which allowed them to advance up the hill at the machine gun emplacements.  After killing a number of men, York began yelling at the Germans to surrender and come down the hill so he didn’t have to kill anyone else.  They refused and at one point a German officer led five other men  a bayonet attack directly at York.  He took aim at the furthest German with his .45 automatic pistol and killed him.  He then aimed at the next furthest man and shot him, and he repeated this until all of the assaulting Germans were killed.    

A German commander made an error in estimating the size of the American force and surrendered his 90 men to the eight man detachment.  On their return to the Allied line, they encountered more Germans and they forced their captures to order them to surrender also.  By the time they reached the Allied lines, they had taken another 42 men prisoner.  Because of their heroism, the Allied forces were able to overrun the remaining German forces and they would soon capture the railroad as was their plan.  

In total 132 Germans were captured, with countless others injured or killed and 35 machine guns captured by the eight men.  Though the exact number killed is not reported, York was credited with killing 20 men by himself, and he was credited with leading the men to their unbelievable feat.  In fact it was so unbelievable that after the war on February 3rd, 1919, now Sgt. York was ordered back to the battle field to personally show General Pershing and other officers where and how such a small number of men captured 132 Germans and silenced so many machine guns.  After a day out in the field, it was clear that Sgt. York’s heroism in combat merited him being awarded the Medal of Honor.  And it wasn’t long after that he was given the award by General Pershing himself.

Following the war, Alvin married Gracie Loretta Williams and the two would go on to have ten children, three daughters and seven sons. Sgt. York tried to stay out of the public spotlight and he dedicated himself to ensuring children had access to education.  He built and ran the York Agricultural Institute in Tennessee, and his grandson, Army Col. Gerald York is quoted as saying that his grandfather wanted to be “remembered for his work in education”.  Sgt. York gave his permission for his story to be told on the big screen as long as they didn’t “Hollywoodize” his story, and in 1941 the movie titled Sgt. York, starring Gary Cooper, was released.

When WWII started, Sgt. York volunteered for the US Army but was not allowed into active duty.  He was commissioned as a Colonel in the US Signal Corps and toured the US on a war bond drive.   

As his grandson says, “Through his work, my grandfather’s story teaches the next generation about history and heroes.  More than his actions on the battlefield, the man behind the medals makes Alvin York’s legacy so intriguing.   

Sgt. Alvin York died on Sept. 2nd, 1964 in Nashville at the age of 76, and is buried at the Wolf River Cemetery in Pall Mall, TN.   

Thank you for listening, and if you enjoyed this week's show, we kindly ask that you follow us and leave a review and 5-star rating. Links to the sources for today's show can be found in the show notes, as well as at dutyandvalor.com. And join us next week where we’ll tell you the story of another true American hero.