Thunder in the Argonne by Douglas V. Mastriano

Author:Douglas V. Mastriano
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2018-11-22T16:00:00+00:00

Map 13.2. York’s Unit Attacks into the Argonne Forest, 8 October 1918. (Mastriano, Alvin York)

The 210th had marched through the night, and as soon as they arrived near Vollmer’s headquarters they cast aside their equipment and began to eat breakfast. Their move across the Meuse Valley and into the Argonne was not an easy endeavor. The men were constantly forced off the road to make room for artillery and field ambulances. To make matters worse, French and American observers saw their movement and harassed them with artillery. The Prussians were physically exhausted. Once they stopped, the men passed out canned meat, bread, and marmalade and sat on the damp meadow ground to catch their breath. Vollmer arrived and rebuffed them for their sloppiness, but the leader of the group responded, “We hiked all night and first of all we need something to eat.”24 As Vollmer contemplated what to do next, suddenly from the south he heard the two medic soldiers yelling something about the Americans. Before he had a chance to do anything, the Prussians suddenly jumped to their feet with their hands in the air, yelling, “Kamerad! Kamerad!” Vollmer turned around and was captured by a “large and strong American man with a red-mustache, broad features and a freckle face.” It was Corporal Alvin C. York.25

The seventeen Americans bagged about seventy Germans in the meadow through the shock of their sudden appearance. Bernard Early ordered the men to compress the large group of Germans into a manageable mass and then move them out to the American lines. However, some of the Germans deliberately dragged their feet in the hopes that the machine gun on the hill above would notice their plight. As the prisoners slowly moved, the Germans above noted the slackening of fire below. The German machine gun commander, Leutnant Paul Lipp, saw the dilemma. He ordered his machine gun repositioned, then motioned to the prisoners to fall to the ground, upon which Paul Vollmer yelled “get down” and the German prisoners fell to the ground, leaving the seventeen Americans exposed. Lipp’s machine gun sprayed the area, killing six Americans and wounding three. The surviving eight Americans huddled on the ground with the German prisoners, trying not to get shot. There was a moment of chaos for the Americans, trying to figure out who was now in command. The soldiers yelled to each other, and it was discerned that York was the only noncommissioned officer not dead or seriously wounded. The conscientious objector York was the only leader left, and the burden of command fell to him.

York contemplated what to do. The main thing was Corporal Murray Savage, York’s only real friend, who had been torn to pieces by the German machine gun.26 Scanning the environment, there were nine dead or wounded Americans scattered across the meadow, with German prisoners huddled on the ground. In that instant, York had clarity of mind and knew exactly what to do. After ordering the other seven soldiers to keep down, York

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.