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Site of Sgt. York's WWI heroics found?

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  • Site of Sgt. York's WWI heroics found?

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11965337/from/RS.4/

    Location of Sgt. York’s WWI heroics found?
    Researchers: Chatel-Chehery, France, is site of storied U.S. military exploit

    MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Researchers say they believe they have found the site where Sgt. Alvin C. York single-handedly captured more than 100 German soldiers during World War I in one of the U.S. military’s most storied exploits.

    The precise location of the fight, immortalized in a 1941 Oscar-winning film starring Gary Cooper, has long been disputed, but two researchers from York’s home state of Tennessee say they unearthed spent shell casings they believe to be from York’s rifle this month from a site near Chatel-Chehery, France.

    “They were buried 6 to 9 inches below the surface,” said Michael Birdwell, associate professor of history at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville. “We’re 80 percent certain that we have found the right location.”

    York was part of an Oct. 8, 1918, surprise rear attack on a row of German machine gunners. When the sergeant in command was killed, York — then a corporal — used the raccoon-hunting skills he honed in the backwoods of Tennessee to pick off at least 20 gunners, shooting them when they raised their heads to aim.

    A total of 132 German soldiers either surrendered or were captured. York, who marched the German POWs to the U.S. lines, was awarded the Medal of Honor and promoted to sergeant.

    These rusted shell casings, shown in a March photo taken near the French village of Chatel-Chehery, are believed to have been fired by Sgt. Alvin C. York.
    A team led by Tom Nolan, a geographer at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, reviewed York’s journal, French and German trench maps, and maps drawn by York’s commanding officer. Nolan and Birdwell superimposed that historical data onto a modern topographic map and downloaded it to a handheld Global Positioning System device.

    They found not only the .30-06 casings they suspect came from York’s Lee-Enfield Model 17 rifle, but shell casings and live rounds from German and French ordnance. They did not find rounds from a pistol York also fired.

    French officials have expressed interest in placing a monument and possibly a park on the site, Nolan said.

    © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
    There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

  • #2
    A couple of things; York did not act entirely alone. He still had most of his squad with him though their sergeant took numerous bullet hits. York did take out the machinegun team and then took to the high ground to pick off Germans along the trench line. But herding them together needed the rest of his squad.

    Therefore his recognition was not only for being such a crack shot but being a good leader of his men.

    Secondly there is controversy as to what kind of a rifle York used. It is true that when the American soldiers got to France they were to turn in their Springfields and were issued 1917 "American" Enfields (.30-06 versions of the British Pattern 14). According to York's descendants in a recent issue of the American Rifleman (I'm a life member of the NRA - naturally) he hated the peep sights of the Enfield for two reasons; one: they were not adjustable for windage and two: the peep aperture restricted vision for "wing" shooting. The Springfields of that time used a vee notch rear sight.

    His descendants said he (as well as many other doughboys over there) found ways to trade their Enfields for Springfields. Supposedly York used a Springfield during his engagement but because it was "kum shawed" its serial number was never recorded and it was left behind in Europe.

    Back in the 1950s he was interviewed for a TV show and was asked to clarify what pistol he also used in that engagement. Some accounts said that he used a Colt .45 ACP and others that he used a captured German Luger (as Cooper used in the movie). York answered that things happened so fast he truthfully could not remember what kind of a pistol he wielded on that very active and nerve racking day.
    Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

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