On this episode of Our American Stories, Sgt. Alvin York— the reluctant World War I infantryman who became an American legend—has stood as a symbol of courage and sacrifice for over a century.The Tennessee mountaineer whose religious convictions at first kept him from fighting became the recipient of the Medal of Honor and nearly 50 other decorations for single-handedly capturing (132) or killing (28) an entire German machine‐gun battalion.Here to tell the story is JD Phillips, who runs the popular YouTube channel, The Appalachian Storyteller.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
Sergeant Alvin York, the reluctant World War One infantryman who
became an American legend, has stood as a symbol of
American courage and sacrifice.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
For well over a century.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
The Tennessee mountaineer, whose religious convictions at first kept him
from fighting, became the recipient of the Medal of Honor
for single handedly capturing or killing an entire German machine
gun battalion.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Here to tell his story is j. D.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Phillips, who runs the popular YouTube channel The Appalachian Storyteller.
JD will be telling the story of Alvin York as
Alvin himself, using York's own words from his autobiography, Sergeant York,
Let's take a listen.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Truth be told. I couldn't tell you how long my
ancestors have called these mountains home. It's further back than
I could ever know. You see, they were the first
white people to ever set foot on this land, dating
back to my great great grandfather. When he first arrived,
he lived in a cave near the Wolf River, in
(01:22):
an area now known as Pall Mall Valley in East
Tennessee after somehow getting past the Cherokeees. And since he
was the first white man here, he had the first
choice of the land. And that's how it came to
be that my family owns all the valley and most
of the mountains surrounding it. Like most mountain men back
in those days, my grandpa was a fighter. He left
(01:44):
this valley to go and fight in the Great Mexican War,
where he served with skill and honor. However, war can
kill a man even while his heart still beats, leaving
a soulless man the equivalent of a dead man walking.
And when my Grandpap returned from Mexico, he was a
shadow of himself and he soon died. Now, my Grandpap
(02:07):
on my mama's side was also a fighter, a Northerner
who fought with the cavalry. After the war, he had
made enemies with rival clans. Back in those days, there
was no law to speak of, and every man put
on a pistol every morning, just as sure as he
put on his pants and his boots. When one of
those leaders of the rival clan died, folks pointed fingers
(02:29):
at Grandpap and even though there was no evidence they
killed Grandpap, they hooked a mule to his body, and
they drug him through the dirt streets of Jamestown, and
they shot his body to pieces as a warning to
anyone who might ever cross them. So you see, my
ancestors were all pioneers and soldiers, god fearing people, like
(02:52):
most mountain folk. I grew up in a one room
log cabin, the same one my father and his father
before him lived in. I sat in the same spot
where our ancestors first cleared the land, hewing the logs
with the broad axe. The walls were chinked with horse hair, mud,
(03:13):
and sticks, and the inside of the cabin walls was
covered in newspapers and pages of magazines to help keep
the bitter winter cold out. My paw was a blacksmith,
and his shop was located in the very same cave
where my great great Grandpap had spent his first night
when he first came into this valley. Like many of
(03:34):
my ancestors, it came before me. His cave is where
I cut my teeth as a blacksmith apprentice. While work
was a necessity of daily life, my father's first love
was hunting with its trusty muzzleoder. He spent most of
his days hunting and blacksmith and at night.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
And Paul he was.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
The best shot I'd ever seen in my life, and
he taught me how to shoot. He loved competing with
other shooters, and Paul would in every match. A popular
game back then was to tie a turkey behind a log,
and the marksmen would position themselves about one hundred yards
away and they would take turn shooting. Each time the
turkey would poke his head up from behind the log,
(04:15):
the winner would get ten cents and get to keep
the turkey. And Paul's advice to me would always be,
just be accurate the first time. And when you shoot
a muzzle loader, well, we all learned how to make
each shot count. I love my Paw. I grew up
with him, and I worked in the blacksmith's shop with him.
(04:36):
Like all Mountain women, Mama was a hard worker and
she loved the Lord, her man, and her children. Even
though we didn't have much, she did her best to
raise me right, and Lord knows that she had her
hands full with eleven boys and three girls. Even though
I was the third oldest of the boys, I was
the biggest and the strongest of all my brothers. All
(05:00):
of us kids had a hard time going to school,
mainly because back in those days, there were hardly any
schools in these remote mountains, and even if there was
a school, it would be three miles away through the
rugged terrain on a road that was barely more than
an animal trail. Those folks needed their kids at home
helping with tending to the animals and the crops, so school,
(05:24):
how it was mostly an afterthought. It only ran for
about three months a year, but when it was in session,
there would be a hundred or so barefooted mountain children
piled into a small one room schoolhouse with primitive bench
seating with no backs. By the time I was in
the third grade, my paw he suddenly died. Life could
(05:48):
never be the same, so I quit school and I
never went back. All totaled, I had just nine months
of schooling, and with me being the biggest boy in
the house, I was suddenly task with somehow bringing money
into the household to help us survive. When I wasn't
(06:11):
working on her farm or in the blacksmith shop, Mama
would hire me out to work on neighboring farms for
forty cents a day. And by the time I was
in my teens and with my PAW's stern hand no
longer around to guide me, it wasn't long before I
started getting into trouble and developing a reputation for being
a bit of a hell raiser. Maul did her best
(06:34):
to keep me in line, but every day after work,
I'd spend all night drinking and gambling. Now, just because
I'd quit school in third grade didn't mean I couldn't read.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Oh heck.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
I loved to read about the outlaws like Frank and
Jesse James. I admired the way those boys could shoot,
and I still love to shoot, just like my pau
had taught me. I'd put a target up on a tree,
and I'd ride my horse around and around tree, shooting
it up. Before long, I could shoot as well as
my paw ever did, And although I was working as
(07:07):
much as possible, my downfall proved to be the powerful
combination the moonshine and cards.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
And you've been listening to JD. Phillips, the Appalachian storyteller,
using the words of Sergeant York himself. When we come
back more of this remarkable story here on our American Stories.
This is Lee Habib, host of our American Stories, the
show where America is the star and the American people,
(07:35):
and we do it all from the heart of the
South Oxford, Mississippi. But we truly can't do this show
without you. Our shows will always be free to listen to,
but they're not free to make. If you love what
you hear, consider making a tax deductible donation to our
American Stories. Go to our American Stories dot com. Give
a little, give a lot. That's our American Stories dot com.
(08:09):
And we continue with our American Stories and with JD. Phillips,
the Appalachian storyteller, telling the story of Alvin York In
Alvin Yorke's own words from his autobiography, let's pick up
where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Week after week, I would gamble all my money away
out all night drunk, and naturally that led to fist fighting.
Now I can't tell you how many grown men I
fought when I was a teen, but I can tell
you this, I never got whipped unless it was by
my maw, night after night, month after month. This went
(08:48):
on for nearly six years until I was in my
early twenties, Yet each time I'd stare at the bottom
of another empty bottle, I realized that no matter how
much I drank, it would never be able to feel
the void inside my soul. Folks around me were living
their lives, but I was stuck in a drunken stuber Constantly,
(09:08):
I knew I needed to change, but like so many
great men before me, I was a slave to the
poison contained in each sip of moonshine. The only person
in my life who hadn't given up on me was
my mother. There she was constantly telling me, son, you
best go easy down that road and get right with
(09:29):
the Lord. One night, my best friend was killed in
a bar of fight, and I staggered home drunk from Nome.
I got in after midnight, and I found my mom
sitting out waiting for me. Ma, why aren't you in bed,
I asked, I can't. I can't never sleep for worrying
(09:51):
about the day that somebody's gonna come walking through that
door and telling me that you're dead, she said, And
in that moment, my mother stood up and she looked
deep into my eyes, and she said, son, when are
you going to become a real man like your father
and your grandfather's and those words hid me hard. And
(10:14):
I promised her that night that I would never drink again.
I would never smoke, chew, cuss, or fight or gamble again.
And so it was from that moment on, I never
drank any whiskey, touched any cards, or fought against any man.
(10:34):
Mama saved my life that night. Just like Paul in
the Bible, the things I once loved I now hate.
One night there was a revival and an evangelist from
Indiana was preaching at the small church down the road.
His words spoke to me, and for the first time
I really listened. I mean, I had grown up Methodists,
(10:57):
but there was something different about this preacher. And after
the meeting, I spent many days talking with him, and
I respected the words that this man spoke. He spoken
away I'd never heard before, and I believe what he said,
and he drew me closer to God. He always spoke
with the strict words from the scriptures. It was far
different than my Methodist upbringing. He spoke of punishment for
(11:19):
the wicked and a place of happiness for those who
lived for the Lord. And before long I got saved
in the wolf Creek Church of Christ, and eventually I
became an elder in the church. Heck, I had always
had a good singing voice, and soon I was leading
the singing choir. Somehow I had turned my entire life
around from the road of destruction that I was bound for. Now,
(11:44):
even though we didn't have many newspapers or major roads
out in our little area, the railroads were quickly being built,
and they became the primary source of how folks first
got word of news going on in the outside world.
I was working on the railroad in harrim In, Tennessee,
(12:04):
when I heard about this great war that was going on.
A few weeks later, I got a postcard in the
mail telling me to go register just in case the
government wanted me to go fight in the war. There,
I was a grown man, thirty years old. I was
driving steel and blasting dynamite and mountains, hoping to build
the railroad for one dollar and sixty cents a day.
(12:28):
While I loved my country, I was a devout Christian,
and I'd swore off fightin many years ago, and the
very thought of killing a man went against every fiber
of my being. I simply wrote on that postcard that
I wouldn't go and fight because it was against my religion,
and I mailed it back to him. Yet, a few
(12:48):
months later, I got an official letter notifying me that
the Church of Christ wasn't recognized by the government as
an official religion. Therefore, my request not to fight was denied,
and I was ordered to report to Jamestown, Tennessee, to
be shipped off to Army basic training in Atlanta, Georgia immediately.
(13:11):
For the next two nights, I wrestled deep within my
soul on what I should do. I couldn't find assurance
in the thought of fighting and killing foreign men whom
I harbored no ill will or hate for. Suddenly, on
the third day, I found myself standing on my Grandpa's
favorite spot on our farm. It was here that, after
(13:31):
two and a half days, the voice of God spoke
to my heart and he assured me that the calling
was right and that it was all right for me
to go. And God assured me that I would return
to my family without a single scratch upon my head.
And while it was very hard for my mother and
my brothers and my sisters to accept, just like that,
(13:51):
I left the mountains of each Tennessee for the first
time in my life, bound for the unknown of the
other side of the world. Within a few days, I
arrived at Camp Gordon after several days of traveling on
a train.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I was exhausted.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
The first morning, they made all the new recruits pick
up cigarette butts in the yards. I looked around, and
I saw nothing but sandy flatness. I never realized how
much I loved those mountains that I grew up in
until that moment. Before long, they assigned me to Accompany G.
Three hundred and twenty eighth Infantry, the eighty second Division.
(14:31):
Now this division was made up of men from every
state in America. There were rural folk and city folk,
all just blended together. Yet I was the only mountain
man in the entire company. The only thing we all
had in common was we were all poor, or as
the drill sergeants kept telling us, the best that America
had to offer to defend freedom. They put me in
(14:53):
the bunks near a bunch of Italian and Greek men.
None of us could understand what the other fellow was
even saying. Was a sleepless night. I had never been
so homesick in my entire life. Before long, they put
a gun in my hand, and they seemed proud at
the quality of the weapon, all those city boys being
with pride. Most of them they had never held a
(15:16):
gun before me. My first thought was how greasy it was.
My paw taught me how to keep a rifle as
clean as a newborn baby, because back home, our lives
depended on these guns. First thing I did was to
take that thing and break it into a million parts
and clean it squeaky clean. The looks on the drill
sergeant's faces seemed like they had never seen someone clean
(15:38):
a gun like that before, and one of them asked
me how I knew how to do it, and I replied, Sir,
we make our own rifles back home, Sir.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
We make our own rifles back home. Sir Alvin Yorke
said to his commanding officer at the time, what a
scene that must have been, Right, all these city slickers
holding a gun for the first time, and here's Yorke
looking at it with semi disgust, needing feeling the urge
to take it apart and clean it up, and everybody
just watching in amazement. What a beautiful, simple, sort of
(16:11):
hillbilly answer to a straight question.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
You're listening to J. D.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Phillips, who runs the popular YouTube channel, The Appalachian Storyteller,
and he's using Sergeant Yorke's own words from his autobiography,
his own life story and war diary, And my goodness,
what a story. Growing up in a one room log cabin,
the father of blacksmith and a great shot.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
When you shoot a.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Muzzleloader, his dad told him you make each shot count.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
The boy they did.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
His dad dies when he's in the third grade. He
quits school and he never goes back, only nine months
of education. But he's the oldest boy in the house.
He has to hit the streets, he has to hustle,
and he's got this void. He's lost his dad, and
he just starts to drink. He starts to gamble, and
he just starts getting into trouble. Then one night, his
(17:06):
best friend gets killed. He goes home and he sees
his mom. She says to him, son, when are you
going to become a real man like your father and grandfather?
And those words cut through him. The next thing you know,
he was getting his life in order. An evangelist, a
traveling evangelist, came through town and he rediscovered his faith
(17:28):
and a spirit in him and just gave up the
bad things in his life and started anew. Then came
the call for the military. He tried to get out
of it, tried to claim a religious exemption. It didn't happen.
And then he heard this sense and voice from God.
The next thing you know, he finds himself oversees ready
for war. The story of Alvin Yorke continues here on
(17:49):
our American stories.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
And.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
We continue with our American stories and with the story
of Sergeant Alvin York as told by J. D. Phillips.
Let's pick up were JD last left off.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Most of the new recruits were city boys, and I'll
tell you they couldn't hit nothing with those guns. Not
only would they miss the entire target, but they'd missed
the entire heel that the target was mounted on me.
I'd been shooting squirrels since that's five, and killing turkeys
at one hundred and fifty yards by the time I
was nine. Seems like all I remember doing in basic
(18:41):
training was shooting, but mostly hiking while carrying as much
weight as a man could possibly haul by himself. Days
of endless marching hikes and told that gun I never
saw so many folks fall out from exhaustion it. Before long,
I got a letter telling me that I've been assigned
to the front lines on the other side of the world,
(19:04):
in France. Before long, I was on a train to
New York City, and a few days later Boston, Massachusetts.
An officer came through and he asked every man in
the company if they objected to going across the ocean
and fighting. When he asked me, I told him I
didn't object because I loved my country. However, to be honest,
(19:25):
I wasn't sure who was even in.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
The right of the wrong in this war.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
He simply replied to me that blessed are the peace makers,
and that we were the peace makers. After hearing that,
we all thought that as soon as we got over there,
we would be keeping the peace. And I'll tell you
right now nothing could have been further from the truth.
At four o'clock the next morning, we all loaded onto
(19:50):
an old ship and we started for France. This was
the first time I'd ever seen the ocean water. Everywhere
I looked water, and when I looked back towards America,
all I saw was water. While the Greeks and Italians
and the Jews withstood the voyage just fine. The rocking
back and forth of the ship kept me sick the
(20:12):
entire time. We went to sleep wearing our full gear
and life preservers twenty four to seven, just in case
we were attacked. I had never wanted to go back
to those mountains more than I did in that moment.
Sixteen days later, as the sun was setting on the
water behind us to the west, we arrived in Liverpool, England.
(20:35):
Within three days we were on the move, traveling towards France.
By now I was making friends with all the other
fellas in the company. My three friends were named Corporal
Murray Savage and Sergeant Harry Parsons. They were both from Brooklyn,
New York, and then there was Lieutenant Stuart from Georgia. Anyway,
we arrived in France and the first thing they gave
(20:57):
us with gas masks. For the first month, it seemed
that all we would do was take a train to
some small town or village and higher round until we
would suddenly get orders to board another train to some
small town or village and repeat the process. Finally, we
got orders to relieve the twenty six Division boys in
the Montsect sector in Rambu Court. We'd moved during the
(21:20):
middle of the night and we would stay there for
the next ten days. Apparently this is where the army
would send all the new troops for one final train
in session before sending them into no man's land. Tennessee
started to seem like something I had only dreamed in
my mind, and I started to question if it ever
really existed or if I would ever.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
See it again.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Occasionally fire would come in from artillery shells. Putting on
gas masks became second nature because of the constant gas shells,
And then there was the constant threat of snipers. Some
of us new meat. We would constantly be duck in
our heads as the sounds of bullets whizzed by, But
after a few boys were shot, we soon realized that
(22:05):
it was no use to duck, since no one ever
hears the bullet that hits em. At first, there was
the endless waiting in the trenches, and that seemed to
be the hard part for the Greeks and the Italians.
They wanted to go on the offensive. Every time one
of them would do something foolish like sneaking out of
the trench trying to get a better look at things,
some one would die. And that was the trouble with
(22:27):
my platoon. Every one was so antsy and they couldn't
sit still. They wanted to attack and get the war
over With me. I spent most of my time reading
the small bible that I kept in my pocket. I
must have read that thing at least five times. We
spent the next two months constantly moving positions in the trenches.
We never knew what was the grand scheme of things.
(22:49):
It was a hurry up and wait and always do
what you're told. Suddenly, without warning, we were part of
a big American offensive. We captured a small town named Nory,
and we kept clawing our way forward. Our whole battalion
found ourselves right in the heart of the Saint Michael Drive,
and suddenly we were on the front lines. When the
(23:10):
enemy launched into an all out offensive. We began losing
men immediately to machine gun fire. Our biggest problem was
we were too anxious to get to the enemy, and
(23:31):
we kept pushing forward when we should have shown more patience.
I'll say this though, those Greeks and Italians, they moved
full steam ahead, no matter what the cost was. After
we captured this town. We went house to house looking
for any prisoners or anything of value that we might use.
Most soldiers were looking for booze, and they quickly drank
(23:52):
any they had found. And while we were dug in here,
there was a huge grape vineyard in the distance. And
the longer we stayed dug in those trenches, the hungrier
we all got, and the better those grapes looked. Finally,
we couldn't stand it, so we all went into the vineyard,
unaware that there was a German observation balloon high above.
(24:12):
They unleashed an assault on us, and they killed several
more of our men, And once we made it back
to the trenches, the captain ordered us all to stay
out of those grapes. But I have to tell you
I was starving and man, I couldn't get those grapes
out of my mind. So that night I snuped back
into the vineyard as quiet as a mouse went. Suddenly
(24:35):
a mortar shell exploded near by me. I started running
for my life when I ran into another man and
we both fell to the ground. I quickly realized that
it was the captain himself. Turns out he couldn't get
those grapes off his mind either. It seems like all
of us tried hard to find some humor to maintain
(24:56):
our sanity. Constantly wearing gas masks for hours day, constant bombing,
sharpshooters and machine gun nests killed men every day, And
when a man was dead, dying, or badly injured, no
one came for him. They lay there beside you for
days at a time. Soon we had orders to move
(25:19):
to prepare for the Battle of Argone. We hiked for
miles through the woods that were shot up something terrible.
Even the ground was all tore up from the shelling.
By daybreak, we had made it to the main road,
and aeroplanes were buzzing our heads while we crawled over
dead men and horses. All the while, shells were exploding
(25:40):
all around us. Somehow we made it to the side
of the road and some small holes that served as
makeshift bunkers.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
We weren't yet close.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Enough for the machine gun nests to reach us, but
the constant shelling from the aeroplanes was non stop, and
I saw a lot of men just blown to pieces.
When the orders finally came in, it was our job
to take Hell two forty and he'll two twenty three
by the next day. And that day started with with
a slow drizzle, but that didn't stop the shells from falling.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
And you've been listening to J. D.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Phillips who runs the popular YouTube channel, The Appalachian Storyteller,
and he's telling the story of Alvin York as Alvin himself,
using Yorke's own words from his autobiography Sergeant York, his
own life story and war diary. And my goodness, what
a story you're hearing, thinking little in the beginning of
(26:42):
what was to come, because well, he hadn't seen combat yet,
being moved from place to place within the United States,
seeing the ocean for the first time, meeting people from
all kinds of different ethnic backgrounds, thinking he was going
to go over there and quote, keep the peace. And
as he said, nothing could have been further from the
truth when he finally entered wheel combat. And my goodness,
(27:06):
what kind of combat those World War One vets faced.
When we come back more of the remarkable story of
Sergeant Alvin York here on our American Stories. And we
(27:37):
continue with our American Stories and the story of Sergeant
Alvin York.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Let's pick up with J. D.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Phillips where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Our machine gun battalion was moving alongside on the opposite
side of the road, and we saw bomb after bomb
fall on them. The whole area looked like a tornado
a tour through it all day and all night long.
The machine gun nests flashed and fired non stop. Somehow,
(28:10):
in that moment, my mind traveled back home to the
other side of the world. I was standing on the
porch of a log cabin watching an old time thunderstorm
rolled across the mountains. All I had in this moment
was my faith in God. Somehow, though we mobilized with
(28:33):
orders to take Hill two twenty three. The orders were
who began to push at six a m. Just before sunrise,
take the hill and advance across the valley to the
mountains on the other side to try to take the railroad,
which was an important lifeline for the German army supplies.
By six ' ten we reached the top of the hill.
(28:55):
The German machine guns were firing at us from those
sides and in the front of us, one by one.
I watched as my buddies were hit, and soon we
secured Hill two twenty three and we set our eyes
towards the push towards the railroad, But the valley was
several hundred yards wide and machine gun nests dug in
on the opposite sides, with more guns perched on the
(29:17):
mountain planks in the ridges. To even try and run
across that valley seemed like suicide. The first wave of
American troops took off across the field, ne were cut down.
The second wave came and suffer at the exact same fate.
Almost every man was killed. Suddenly the order was given
(29:39):
to dig in. We were stopped dead in our tracks.
The artillery shells kept falling and thirty machine gun nests
kept firing non stop. We were trapped and they knew
exactly where we were. Somehow we had to get to
those machine guns that were located about three hundred yards
in front of us. We decided we would send a
small group to try to go around and somehow attacked
(30:01):
the guns from the back. So I was one of
seventeen men in order to carry out the surprise attack.
Now the valley, it had lots of trees and brush
and hilly terrain for us to move stealthily and quickly
and quietly. We moved as our hearts were beating out
of our chest. Before long we had crossed over the
(30:21):
hill and positioned ourselves in a gully behind them. We
were now in no man's land, behind the enemy lines.
The brush was so thick we couldn't even see the Germans,
but the sound of the machine guns was a nightmare.
We kept moving until we crossed a small stream, when
(30:42):
suddenly we stumbled upon fifteen Germans who were eating their
breakfast in the middle of all this carnage. They jumped up,
and to our surprise, they threw their hands up and surrendered. Amazingly,
not one shot was fired. However, by now we'd been
spotted by the machine guns on top of the hill,
and they turned their guns around and started shooting at us.
(31:05):
They were only thirty yards away. Six of us were
killed instantly and three more wounded. That left only eight
of us. My friend Corporal Savage was among the dead.
All of my commanding officers were dead. That left me
in charge, and I was all alone out in the open.
The machine guns were cutting down the brush all around
(31:26):
me like a lawn more.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
All the while, the.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Germans were yelling orders to one another, and I couldn't
understand anything they were saying. I didn't know where my
other seven men were.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
But most of them were.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Holding guns on the German prisoners. I knew that the
Germans would have to pop their heads up to see
where I was and point their machine gun at me,
and some calm came over me, like a rush of
hot water. As I laid there in the grass, I
began to fire back at the machine gun nest I
never blinked, and every time I saw a German pop
his head up from behind those sand bags, it was
(31:58):
like I was shooting turkey tied behind a log back
in the mountains, except those German heads were much bigger
than turkey heads, and there was no way I could
miss anytime one of them is so much as moved,
I fired, and I never missed the mark. It all
went on for nearly five minutes, nearly thirty machine guns
firing all around me. I emptied several clips, and the
(32:20):
barrel of my gun was red hot. Suddenly, six Germans
jumped up out of a nearby trench about twenty five
yards away, and they charged me with bayonets attached to
their rifles. They were screaming and running full speed. I
only had about a half a clip left of my rifle,
so I pulled out my pistol and I shot every
one of them. I immediately returned to fire and with
(32:44):
my rifle at those machine guns. By now I had
killed over twenty of them before a German major appeared
with his hands up out of the trench in front
of me, yelling English, English, and I replied, no American,
and he yelled, if you'll stop firing, I'll make them surrender.
I quickly pointed my rifle at him, and I said,
if you don't make them surrender, I'll blow your head off.
(33:06):
The major began blowing a whistle, and one by one
they came down with their hands up, and he threw
down their guns and their belts. One man was taking
off his belt when he threw a hand grenade at me,
and it exploded in the air right in front of me.
Somehow I wasn't hurt, and I killed him instantly, Seeing
(33:27):
that every man on the hill surrendered, nearly one hundred
of them. And as I stood and looked around me,
every tree, every bush, and every bit of grass was gone.
Every area except the spot where I hid during the
assault had been shot up. There I stood without a
hair harmed on my head. God had truly kept me
(33:49):
from harm, all told the Mountain Boy from East Tennessee.
Alvin York had captured one hundred and thirty two German
soldiers and one of the greatest battles of World War One.
(34:10):
He returned home to America held as the greatest war
hero in history. For his actions, he was awarded the.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Medal of Honor.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
A Hollywood movie was made about him.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
Now supposing these yet cartridges, is a flock of wild
turkeys a flying across the ridge, coming this way, see.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Right at me.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
Now, which one of them would you shoot? Questions? I'd
take a crack at all of them and trust to luck.
But he wouldn't have no luck that way. Push it? Oh, well,
then I picked the monument.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
So what the monument? The guy out in front?
Speaker 4 (34:41):
So that ain't right either. If you want to get
more than one turkey, I wish one has got the
most mean of them.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, what's the answer.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
Well, if you shoot this one here, the leader, the
rest of them will see him drop and fly off.
See so you drawed down on the last turkey yet,
and then the next one. See kind of coming from
back to front. Then the rest of them won't know
there's being hit. And if, of course, they might flare
off some when the shooting starts. But if a feller's
(35:09):
got himself a repeating rifle, he's got a good chance
of getting the whole flock.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
He says, all.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
Right, take you sure he's dumb animals. Seems you picked
up a good bit down the hills, Alvin. Anybody that's
done any hunt knows that.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
In every consumer product in America wanted his endorsement. Yet
Alvin turned his back on all of the fame and
he returned home to his farm in Tennessee. He dedicated
the remainder of his life establishing schools and educational opportunities
for the mountain children of East Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
And a terrific job on the editing, production and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, And a.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Special thanks to J. D.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Phillips who runs the popular YouTube channel The Appalachian Storyteller.
And again a special thanks to J. D. Phillips for
playing the part of Alvin and reading from and performing
parts of his remarkable life story.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
And what a story it was.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
The description of those battlefield scenes are remarkable, those machine
gun nests, the flashing lights from those machine guns going
day and night, and all the while memories rekindled about home.
And Alvin said, all I had in these moments was
my faith in God. And of course he was relying
(36:31):
on his faith in God facing the full force of
a mighty German army and a mechanized German army, and
the world had never seen mechanization like this before, combined
with the savagery of Bayonets.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
So it was sort of an old war World War One.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
And a new war, and the combination and horrors of both.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Remember, the first thing he.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Was issued was a gas mask, because the use of
gas in this war was prominent as well a barbaric,
a type of warfare that the Geneva Convention outlawed in
World War II was not used the way it might have.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Because of that, and because of the.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Experience with nerve gas. Then what he was known for
that remarkable battle in which essentially he captured over one
hundred and thirty Germans almost single handedly. For his bravery,
York was awarded the Medal of Honor, and all because
of that crack shooting that he learned in the Hill
(37:28):
country of Tennessee turkey hunting. As he put it, the
heads of the Germans were a lot bigger than those
turkey heads. When he came back home, every consumer product
company in the world wanted his image, wanted his likeness,
wanted his endorsement.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
That he turned his back on fame.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Sergeant Alvin York did, returned home to his farm in
Tennessee and spent his adult life working on educational opportunity
for the East Tennessee Mountain kids.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
We've grown up just like him.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
The story of Sergeant Alvin York here on our American
Stories
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
Sergeant Alvin York, the reluctant World War One infantryman who
became an American legend, has stood as a symbol of
American courage and sacrifice.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
For well over a century.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
The Tennessee mountaineer, whose religious convictions at first kept him
from fighting, became the recipient of the Medal of Honor
for single handedly capturing or killing an entire German machine
gun battalion.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Here to tell his story is j. D.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Phillips, who runs the popular YouTube channel The Appalachian Storyteller.
JD will be telling the story of Alvin York as
Alvin himself, using York's own words from his autobiography, Sergeant York,
Let's take a listen.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Truth be told. I couldn't tell you how long my
ancestors have called these mountains home. It's further back than
I could ever know. You see, they were the first
white people to ever set foot on this land, dating
back to my great great grandfather. When he first arrived,
he lived in a cave near the Wolf River, in
(01:22):
an area now known as Pall Mall Valley in East
Tennessee after somehow getting past the Cherokeees. And since he
was the first white man here, he had the first
choice of the land. And that's how it came to
be that my family owns all the valley and most
of the mountains surrounding it. Like most mountain men back
in those days, my grandpa was a fighter. He left
(01:44):
this valley to go and fight in the Great Mexican War,
where he served with skill and honor. However, war can
kill a man even while his heart still beats, leaving
a soulless man the equivalent of a dead man walking.
And when my Grandpap returned from Mexico, he was a
shadow of himself and he soon died. Now, my Grandpap
(02:07):
on my mama's side was also a fighter, a Northerner
who fought with the cavalry. After the war, he had
made enemies with rival clans. Back in those days, there
was no law to speak of, and every man put
on a pistol every morning, just as sure as he
put on his pants and his boots. When one of
those leaders of the rival clan died, folks pointed fingers
(02:29):
at Grandpap and even though there was no evidence they
killed Grandpap, they hooked a mule to his body, and
they drug him through the dirt streets of Jamestown, and
they shot his body to pieces as a warning to
anyone who might ever cross them. So you see, my
ancestors were all pioneers and soldiers, god fearing people, like
(02:52):
most mountain folk. I grew up in a one room
log cabin, the same one my father and his father
before him lived in. I sat in the same spot
where our ancestors first cleared the land, hewing the logs
with the broad axe. The walls were chinked with horse hair, mud,
(03:13):
and sticks, and the inside of the cabin walls was
covered in newspapers and pages of magazines to help keep
the bitter winter cold out. My paw was a blacksmith,
and his shop was located in the very same cave
where my great great Grandpap had spent his first night
when he first came into this valley. Like many of
(03:34):
my ancestors, it came before me. His cave is where
I cut my teeth as a blacksmith apprentice. While work
was a necessity of daily life, my father's first love
was hunting with its trusty muzzleoder. He spent most of
his days hunting and blacksmith and at night.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
And Paul he was.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
The best shot I'd ever seen in my life, and
he taught me how to shoot. He loved competing with
other shooters, and Paul would in every match. A popular
game back then was to tie a turkey behind a log,
and the marksmen would position themselves about one hundred yards
away and they would take turn shooting. Each time the
turkey would poke his head up from behind the log,
(04:15):
the winner would get ten cents and get to keep
the turkey. And Paul's advice to me would always be,
just be accurate the first time. And when you shoot
a muzzle loader, well, we all learned how to make
each shot count. I love my Paw. I grew up
with him, and I worked in the blacksmith's shop with him.
(04:36):
Like all Mountain women, Mama was a hard worker and
she loved the Lord, her man, and her children. Even
though we didn't have much, she did her best to
raise me right, and Lord knows that she had her
hands full with eleven boys and three girls. Even though
I was the third oldest of the boys, I was
the biggest and the strongest of all my brothers. All
(05:00):
of us kids had a hard time going to school,
mainly because back in those days, there were hardly any
schools in these remote mountains, and even if there was
a school, it would be three miles away through the
rugged terrain on a road that was barely more than
an animal trail. Those folks needed their kids at home
helping with tending to the animals and the crops, so school,
(05:24):
how it was mostly an afterthought. It only ran for
about three months a year, but when it was in session,
there would be a hundred or so barefooted mountain children
piled into a small one room schoolhouse with primitive bench
seating with no backs. By the time I was in
the third grade, my paw he suddenly died. Life could
(05:48):
never be the same, so I quit school and I
never went back. All totaled, I had just nine months
of schooling, and with me being the biggest boy in
the house, I was suddenly task with somehow bringing money
into the household to help us survive. When I wasn't
(06:11):
working on her farm or in the blacksmith shop, Mama
would hire me out to work on neighboring farms for
forty cents a day. And by the time I was
in my teens and with my PAW's stern hand no
longer around to guide me, it wasn't long before I
started getting into trouble and developing a reputation for being
a bit of a hell raiser. Maul did her best
(06:34):
to keep me in line, but every day after work,
I'd spend all night drinking and gambling. Now, just because
I'd quit school in third grade didn't mean I couldn't read.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Oh heck.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
I loved to read about the outlaws like Frank and
Jesse James. I admired the way those boys could shoot,
and I still love to shoot, just like my pau
had taught me. I'd put a target up on a tree,
and I'd ride my horse around and around tree, shooting
it up. Before long, I could shoot as well as
my paw ever did, And although I was working as
(07:07):
much as possible, my downfall proved to be the powerful
combination the moonshine and cards.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
And you've been listening to JD. Phillips, the Appalachian storyteller,
using the words of Sergeant York himself. When we come
back more of this remarkable story here on our American Stories.
This is Lee Habib, host of our American Stories, the
show where America is the star and the American people,
(07:35):
and we do it all from the heart of the
South Oxford, Mississippi. But we truly can't do this show
without you. Our shows will always be free to listen to,
but they're not free to make. If you love what
you hear, consider making a tax deductible donation to our
American Stories. Go to our American Stories dot com. Give
a little, give a lot. That's our American Stories dot com.
(08:09):
And we continue with our American Stories and with JD. Phillips,
the Appalachian storyteller, telling the story of Alvin York In
Alvin Yorke's own words from his autobiography, let's pick up
where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Week after week, I would gamble all my money away
out all night drunk, and naturally that led to fist fighting.
Now I can't tell you how many grown men I
fought when I was a teen, but I can tell
you this, I never got whipped unless it was by
my maw, night after night, month after month. This went
(08:48):
on for nearly six years until I was in my
early twenties, Yet each time I'd stare at the bottom
of another empty bottle, I realized that no matter how
much I drank, it would never be able to feel
the void inside my soul. Folks around me were living
their lives, but I was stuck in a drunken stuber Constantly,
(09:08):
I knew I needed to change, but like so many
great men before me, I was a slave to the
poison contained in each sip of moonshine. The only person
in my life who hadn't given up on me was
my mother. There she was constantly telling me, son, you
best go easy down that road and get right with
(09:29):
the Lord. One night, my best friend was killed in
a bar of fight, and I staggered home drunk from Nome.
I got in after midnight, and I found my mom
sitting out waiting for me. Ma, why aren't you in bed,
I asked, I can't. I can't never sleep for worrying
(09:51):
about the day that somebody's gonna come walking through that
door and telling me that you're dead, she said, And
in that moment, my mother stood up and she looked
deep into my eyes, and she said, son, when are
you going to become a real man like your father
and your grandfather's and those words hid me hard. And
(10:14):
I promised her that night that I would never drink again.
I would never smoke, chew, cuss, or fight or gamble again.
And so it was from that moment on, I never
drank any whiskey, touched any cards, or fought against any man.
(10:34):
Mama saved my life that night. Just like Paul in
the Bible, the things I once loved I now hate.
One night there was a revival and an evangelist from
Indiana was preaching at the small church down the road.
His words spoke to me, and for the first time
I really listened. I mean, I had grown up Methodists,
(10:57):
but there was something different about this preacher. And after
the meeting, I spent many days talking with him, and
I respected the words that this man spoke. He spoken
away I'd never heard before, and I believe what he said,
and he drew me closer to God. He always spoke
with the strict words from the scriptures. It was far
different than my Methodist upbringing. He spoke of punishment for
(11:19):
the wicked and a place of happiness for those who
lived for the Lord. And before long I got saved
in the wolf Creek Church of Christ, and eventually I
became an elder in the church. Heck, I had always
had a good singing voice, and soon I was leading
the singing choir. Somehow I had turned my entire life
around from the road of destruction that I was bound for. Now,
(11:44):
even though we didn't have many newspapers or major roads
out in our little area, the railroads were quickly being built,
and they became the primary source of how folks first
got word of news going on in the outside world.
I was working on the railroad in harrim In, Tennessee,
(12:04):
when I heard about this great war that was going on.
A few weeks later, I got a postcard in the
mail telling me to go register just in case the
government wanted me to go fight in the war. There,
I was a grown man, thirty years old. I was
driving steel and blasting dynamite and mountains, hoping to build
the railroad for one dollar and sixty cents a day.
(12:28):
While I loved my country, I was a devout Christian,
and I'd swore off fightin many years ago, and the
very thought of killing a man went against every fiber
of my being. I simply wrote on that postcard that
I wouldn't go and fight because it was against my religion,
and I mailed it back to him. Yet, a few
(12:48):
months later, I got an official letter notifying me that
the Church of Christ wasn't recognized by the government as
an official religion. Therefore, my request not to fight was denied,
and I was ordered to report to Jamestown, Tennessee, to
be shipped off to Army basic training in Atlanta, Georgia immediately.
(13:11):
For the next two nights, I wrestled deep within my
soul on what I should do. I couldn't find assurance
in the thought of fighting and killing foreign men whom
I harbored no ill will or hate for. Suddenly, on
the third day, I found myself standing on my Grandpa's
favorite spot on our farm. It was here that, after
(13:31):
two and a half days, the voice of God spoke
to my heart and he assured me that the calling
was right and that it was all right for me
to go. And God assured me that I would return
to my family without a single scratch upon my head.
And while it was very hard for my mother and
my brothers and my sisters to accept, just like that,
(13:51):
I left the mountains of each Tennessee for the first
time in my life, bound for the unknown of the
other side of the world. Within a few days, I
arrived at Camp Gordon after several days of traveling on
a train.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I was exhausted.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
The first morning, they made all the new recruits pick
up cigarette butts in the yards. I looked around, and
I saw nothing but sandy flatness. I never realized how
much I loved those mountains that I grew up in
until that moment. Before long, they assigned me to Accompany G.
Three hundred and twenty eighth Infantry, the eighty second Division.
(14:31):
Now this division was made up of men from every
state in America. There were rural folk and city folk,
all just blended together. Yet I was the only mountain
man in the entire company. The only thing we all
had in common was we were all poor, or as
the drill sergeants kept telling us, the best that America
had to offer to defend freedom. They put me in
(14:53):
the bunks near a bunch of Italian and Greek men.
None of us could understand what the other fellow was
even saying. Was a sleepless night. I had never been
so homesick in my entire life. Before long, they put
a gun in my hand, and they seemed proud at
the quality of the weapon, all those city boys being
with pride. Most of them they had never held a
(15:16):
gun before me. My first thought was how greasy it was.
My paw taught me how to keep a rifle as
clean as a newborn baby, because back home, our lives
depended on these guns. First thing I did was to
take that thing and break it into a million parts
and clean it squeaky clean. The looks on the drill
sergeant's faces seemed like they had never seen someone clean
(15:38):
a gun like that before, and one of them asked
me how I knew how to do it, and I replied, Sir,
we make our own rifles back home, Sir.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
We make our own rifles back home. Sir Alvin Yorke
said to his commanding officer at the time, what a
scene that must have been, Right, all these city slickers
holding a gun for the first time, and here's Yorke
looking at it with semi disgust, needing feeling the urge
to take it apart and clean it up, and everybody
just watching in amazement. What a beautiful, simple, sort of
(16:11):
hillbilly answer to a straight question.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
You're listening to J. D.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Phillips, who runs the popular YouTube channel, The Appalachian Storyteller,
and he's using Sergeant Yorke's own words from his autobiography,
his own life story and war diary, And my goodness,
what a story. Growing up in a one room log cabin,
the father of blacksmith and a great shot.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
When you shoot a.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Muzzleloader, his dad told him you make each shot count.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
The boy they did.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
His dad dies when he's in the third grade. He
quits school and he never goes back, only nine months
of education. But he's the oldest boy in the house.
He has to hit the streets, he has to hustle,
and he's got this void. He's lost his dad, and
he just starts to drink. He starts to gamble, and
he just starts getting into trouble. Then one night, his
(17:06):
best friend gets killed. He goes home and he sees
his mom. She says to him, son, when are you
going to become a real man like your father and grandfather?
And those words cut through him. The next thing you know,
he was getting his life in order. An evangelist, a
traveling evangelist, came through town and he rediscovered his faith
(17:28):
and a spirit in him and just gave up the
bad things in his life and started anew. Then came
the call for the military. He tried to get out
of it, tried to claim a religious exemption. It didn't happen.
And then he heard this sense and voice from God.
The next thing you know, he finds himself oversees ready
for war. The story of Alvin Yorke continues here on
(17:49):
our American stories.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
And.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
We continue with our American stories and with the story
of Sergeant Alvin York as told by J. D. Phillips.
Let's pick up were JD last left off.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Most of the new recruits were city boys, and I'll
tell you they couldn't hit nothing with those guns. Not
only would they miss the entire target, but they'd missed
the entire heel that the target was mounted on me.
I'd been shooting squirrels since that's five, and killing turkeys
at one hundred and fifty yards by the time I
was nine. Seems like all I remember doing in basic
(18:41):
training was shooting, but mostly hiking while carrying as much
weight as a man could possibly haul by himself. Days
of endless marching hikes and told that gun I never
saw so many folks fall out from exhaustion it. Before long,
I got a letter telling me that I've been assigned
to the front lines on the other side of the world,
(19:04):
in France. Before long, I was on a train to
New York City, and a few days later Boston, Massachusetts.
An officer came through and he asked every man in
the company if they objected to going across the ocean
and fighting. When he asked me, I told him I
didn't object because I loved my country. However, to be honest,
(19:25):
I wasn't sure who was even in.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
The right of the wrong in this war.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
He simply replied to me that blessed are the peace makers,
and that we were the peace makers. After hearing that,
we all thought that as soon as we got over there,
we would be keeping the peace. And I'll tell you
right now nothing could have been further from the truth.
At four o'clock the next morning, we all loaded onto
(19:50):
an old ship and we started for France. This was
the first time I'd ever seen the ocean water. Everywhere
I looked water, and when I looked back towards America,
all I saw was water. While the Greeks and Italians
and the Jews withstood the voyage just fine. The rocking
back and forth of the ship kept me sick the
(20:12):
entire time. We went to sleep wearing our full gear
and life preservers twenty four to seven, just in case
we were attacked. I had never wanted to go back
to those mountains more than I did in that moment.
Sixteen days later, as the sun was setting on the
water behind us to the west, we arrived in Liverpool, England.
(20:35):
Within three days we were on the move, traveling towards France.
By now I was making friends with all the other
fellas in the company. My three friends were named Corporal
Murray Savage and Sergeant Harry Parsons. They were both from Brooklyn,
New York, and then there was Lieutenant Stuart from Georgia. Anyway,
we arrived in France and the first thing they gave
(20:57):
us with gas masks. For the first month, it seemed
that all we would do was take a train to
some small town or village and higher round until we
would suddenly get orders to board another train to some
small town or village and repeat the process. Finally, we
got orders to relieve the twenty six Division boys in
the Montsect sector in Rambu Court. We'd moved during the
(21:20):
middle of the night and we would stay there for
the next ten days. Apparently this is where the army
would send all the new troops for one final train
in session before sending them into no man's land. Tennessee
started to seem like something I had only dreamed in
my mind, and I started to question if it ever
really existed or if I would ever.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
See it again.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Occasionally fire would come in from artillery shells. Putting on
gas masks became second nature because of the constant gas shells,
And then there was the constant threat of snipers. Some
of us new meat. We would constantly be duck in
our heads as the sounds of bullets whizzed by, But
after a few boys were shot, we soon realized that
(22:05):
it was no use to duck, since no one ever
hears the bullet that hits em. At first, there was
the endless waiting in the trenches, and that seemed to
be the hard part for the Greeks and the Italians.
They wanted to go on the offensive. Every time one
of them would do something foolish like sneaking out of
the trench trying to get a better look at things,
some one would die. And that was the trouble with
(22:27):
my platoon. Every one was so antsy and they couldn't
sit still. They wanted to attack and get the war
over With me. I spent most of my time reading
the small bible that I kept in my pocket. I
must have read that thing at least five times. We
spent the next two months constantly moving positions in the trenches.
We never knew what was the grand scheme of things.
(22:49):
It was a hurry up and wait and always do
what you're told. Suddenly, without warning, we were part of
a big American offensive. We captured a small town named Nory,
and we kept clawing our way forward. Our whole battalion
found ourselves right in the heart of the Saint Michael Drive,
and suddenly we were on the front lines. When the
(23:10):
enemy launched into an all out offensive. We began losing
men immediately to machine gun fire. Our biggest problem was
we were too anxious to get to the enemy, and
(23:31):
we kept pushing forward when we should have shown more patience.
I'll say this though, those Greeks and Italians, they moved
full steam ahead, no matter what the cost was. After
we captured this town. We went house to house looking
for any prisoners or anything of value that we might use.
Most soldiers were looking for booze, and they quickly drank
(23:52):
any they had found. And while we were dug in here,
there was a huge grape vineyard in the distance. And
the longer we stayed dug in those trenches, the hungrier
we all got, and the better those grapes looked. Finally,
we couldn't stand it, so we all went into the vineyard,
unaware that there was a German observation balloon high above.
(24:12):
They unleashed an assault on us, and they killed several
more of our men, And once we made it back
to the trenches, the captain ordered us all to stay
out of those grapes. But I have to tell you
I was starving and man, I couldn't get those grapes
out of my mind. So that night I snuped back
into the vineyard as quiet as a mouse went. Suddenly
(24:35):
a mortar shell exploded near by me. I started running
for my life when I ran into another man and
we both fell to the ground. I quickly realized that
it was the captain himself. Turns out he couldn't get
those grapes off his mind either. It seems like all
of us tried hard to find some humor to maintain
(24:56):
our sanity. Constantly wearing gas masks for hours day, constant bombing,
sharpshooters and machine gun nests killed men every day, And
when a man was dead, dying, or badly injured, no
one came for him. They lay there beside you for
days at a time. Soon we had orders to move
(25:19):
to prepare for the Battle of Argone. We hiked for
miles through the woods that were shot up something terrible.
Even the ground was all tore up from the shelling.
By daybreak, we had made it to the main road,
and aeroplanes were buzzing our heads while we crawled over
dead men and horses. All the while, shells were exploding
(25:40):
all around us. Somehow we made it to the side
of the road and some small holes that served as
makeshift bunkers.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
We weren't yet close.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Enough for the machine gun nests to reach us, but
the constant shelling from the aeroplanes was non stop, and
I saw a lot of men just blown to pieces.
When the orders finally came in, it was our job
to take Hell two forty and he'll two twenty three
by the next day. And that day started with with
a slow drizzle, but that didn't stop the shells from falling.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
And you've been listening to J. D.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Phillips who runs the popular YouTube channel, The Appalachian Storyteller,
and he's telling the story of Alvin York as Alvin himself,
using Yorke's own words from his autobiography Sergeant York, his
own life story and war diary. And my goodness, what
a story you're hearing, thinking little in the beginning of
(26:42):
what was to come, because well, he hadn't seen combat yet,
being moved from place to place within the United States,
seeing the ocean for the first time, meeting people from
all kinds of different ethnic backgrounds, thinking he was going
to go over there and quote, keep the peace. And
as he said, nothing could have been further from the
truth when he finally entered wheel combat. And my goodness,
(27:06):
what kind of combat those World War One vets faced.
When we come back more of the remarkable story of
Sergeant Alvin York here on our American Stories. And we
(27:37):
continue with our American Stories and the story of Sergeant
Alvin York.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Let's pick up with J. D.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Phillips where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Our machine gun battalion was moving alongside on the opposite
side of the road, and we saw bomb after bomb
fall on them. The whole area looked like a tornado
a tour through it all day and all night long.
The machine gun nests flashed and fired non stop. Somehow,
(28:10):
in that moment, my mind traveled back home to the
other side of the world. I was standing on the
porch of a log cabin watching an old time thunderstorm
rolled across the mountains. All I had in this moment
was my faith in God. Somehow, though we mobilized with
(28:33):
orders to take Hill two twenty three. The orders were
who began to push at six a m. Just before sunrise,
take the hill and advance across the valley to the
mountains on the other side to try to take the railroad,
which was an important lifeline for the German army supplies.
By six ' ten we reached the top of the hill.
(28:55):
The German machine guns were firing at us from those
sides and in the front of us, one by one.
I watched as my buddies were hit, and soon we
secured Hill two twenty three and we set our eyes
towards the push towards the railroad, But the valley was
several hundred yards wide and machine gun nests dug in
on the opposite sides, with more guns perched on the
(29:17):
mountain planks in the ridges. To even try and run
across that valley seemed like suicide. The first wave of
American troops took off across the field, ne were cut down.
The second wave came and suffer at the exact same fate.
Almost every man was killed. Suddenly the order was given
(29:39):
to dig in. We were stopped dead in our tracks.
The artillery shells kept falling and thirty machine gun nests
kept firing non stop. We were trapped and they knew
exactly where we were. Somehow we had to get to
those machine guns that were located about three hundred yards
in front of us. We decided we would send a
small group to try to go around and somehow attacked
(30:01):
the guns from the back. So I was one of
seventeen men in order to carry out the surprise attack.
Now the valley, it had lots of trees and brush
and hilly terrain for us to move stealthily and quickly
and quietly. We moved as our hearts were beating out
of our chest. Before long we had crossed over the
(30:21):
hill and positioned ourselves in a gully behind them. We
were now in no man's land, behind the enemy lines.
The brush was so thick we couldn't even see the Germans,
but the sound of the machine guns was a nightmare.
We kept moving until we crossed a small stream, when
(30:42):
suddenly we stumbled upon fifteen Germans who were eating their
breakfast in the middle of all this carnage. They jumped up,
and to our surprise, they threw their hands up and surrendered. Amazingly,
not one shot was fired. However, by now we'd been
spotted by the machine guns on top of the hill,
and they turned their guns around and started shooting at us.
(31:05):
They were only thirty yards away. Six of us were
killed instantly and three more wounded. That left only eight
of us. My friend Corporal Savage was among the dead.
All of my commanding officers were dead. That left me
in charge, and I was all alone out in the open.
The machine guns were cutting down the brush all around
(31:26):
me like a lawn more.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
All the while, the.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Germans were yelling orders to one another, and I couldn't
understand anything they were saying. I didn't know where my
other seven men were.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
But most of them were.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Holding guns on the German prisoners. I knew that the
Germans would have to pop their heads up to see
where I was and point their machine gun at me,
and some calm came over me, like a rush of
hot water. As I laid there in the grass, I
began to fire back at the machine gun nest I
never blinked, and every time I saw a German pop
his head up from behind those sand bags, it was
(31:58):
like I was shooting turkey tied behind a log back
in the mountains, except those German heads were much bigger
than turkey heads, and there was no way I could
miss anytime one of them is so much as moved,
I fired, and I never missed the mark. It all
went on for nearly five minutes, nearly thirty machine guns
firing all around me. I emptied several clips, and the
(32:20):
barrel of my gun was red hot. Suddenly, six Germans
jumped up out of a nearby trench about twenty five
yards away, and they charged me with bayonets attached to
their rifles. They were screaming and running full speed. I
only had about a half a clip left of my rifle,
so I pulled out my pistol and I shot every
one of them. I immediately returned to fire and with
(32:44):
my rifle at those machine guns. By now I had
killed over twenty of them before a German major appeared
with his hands up out of the trench in front
of me, yelling English, English, and I replied, no American,
and he yelled, if you'll stop firing, I'll make them surrender.
I quickly pointed my rifle at him, and I said,
if you don't make them surrender, I'll blow your head off.
(33:06):
The major began blowing a whistle, and one by one
they came down with their hands up, and he threw
down their guns and their belts. One man was taking
off his belt when he threw a hand grenade at me,
and it exploded in the air right in front of me.
Somehow I wasn't hurt, and I killed him instantly, Seeing
(33:27):
that every man on the hill surrendered, nearly one hundred
of them. And as I stood and looked around me,
every tree, every bush, and every bit of grass was gone.
Every area except the spot where I hid during the
assault had been shot up. There I stood without a
hair harmed on my head. God had truly kept me
(33:49):
from harm, all told the Mountain Boy from East Tennessee.
Alvin York had captured one hundred and thirty two German
soldiers and one of the greatest battles of World War One.
(34:10):
He returned home to America held as the greatest war
hero in history. For his actions, he was awarded the.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Medal of Honor.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
A Hollywood movie was made about him.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
Now supposing these yet cartridges, is a flock of wild
turkeys a flying across the ridge, coming this way, see.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Right at me.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
Now, which one of them would you shoot? Questions? I'd
take a crack at all of them and trust to luck.
But he wouldn't have no luck that way. Push it? Oh, well,
then I picked the monument.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
So what the monument? The guy out in front?
Speaker 4 (34:41):
So that ain't right either. If you want to get
more than one turkey, I wish one has got the
most mean of them.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, what's the answer.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
Well, if you shoot this one here, the leader, the
rest of them will see him drop and fly off.
See so you drawed down on the last turkey yet,
and then the next one. See kind of coming from
back to front. Then the rest of them won't know
there's being hit. And if, of course, they might flare
off some when the shooting starts. But if a feller's
(35:09):
got himself a repeating rifle, he's got a good chance
of getting the whole flock.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
He says, all.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
Right, take you sure he's dumb animals. Seems you picked
up a good bit down the hills, Alvin. Anybody that's
done any hunt knows that.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
In every consumer product in America wanted his endorsement. Yet
Alvin turned his back on all of the fame and
he returned home to his farm in Tennessee. He dedicated
the remainder of his life establishing schools and educational opportunities
for the mountain children of East Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
And a terrific job on the editing, production and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, And a.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Special thanks to J. D.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Phillips who runs the popular YouTube channel The Appalachian Storyteller.
And again a special thanks to J. D. Phillips for
playing the part of Alvin and reading from and performing
parts of his remarkable life story.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
And what a story it was.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
The description of those battlefield scenes are remarkable, those machine
gun nests, the flashing lights from those machine guns going
day and night, and all the while memories rekindled about home.
And Alvin said, all I had in these moments was
my faith in God. And of course he was relying
(36:31):
on his faith in God facing the full force of
a mighty German army and a mechanized German army, and
the world had never seen mechanization like this before, combined
with the savagery of Bayonets.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
So it was sort of an old war World War One.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
And a new war, and the combination and horrors of both.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Remember, the first thing he.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Was issued was a gas mask, because the use of
gas in this war was prominent as well a barbaric,
a type of warfare that the Geneva Convention outlawed in
World War II was not used the way it might have.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Because of that, and because of the.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Experience with nerve gas. Then what he was known for
that remarkable battle in which essentially he captured over one
hundred and thirty Germans almost single handedly. For his bravery,
York was awarded the Medal of Honor, and all because
of that crack shooting that he learned in the Hill
(37:28):
country of Tennessee turkey hunting. As he put it, the
heads of the Germans were a lot bigger than those
turkey heads. When he came back home, every consumer product
company in the world wanted his image, wanted his likeness,
wanted his endorsement.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
That he turned his back on fame.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Sergeant Alvin York did, returned home to his farm in
Tennessee and spent his adult life working on educational opportunity
for the East Tennessee Mountain kids.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
We've grown up just like him.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
The story of Sergeant Alvin York here on our American
Stories
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