Sgt. Alvin York

On the morning of 8th October, 1918, American forces were held up by intense machine-gun fire from a wooded slope on the edge of the Argonne Forest. A patrol was sent out to silence these guns, but ran into heavy fire and lost half its strength. At that time a Corporal, Alvin York found himself in charge of 7 other soldiers and surrounded by the enemy. York, who was a bit seperated from his friends, was armed with a US Enfield Model 1917 rifle and a Colt Model 1911 .45 pistol.
With his rifle, Corporal York started picking off the German machine gunners, with deadly accuracy until suddenly, a German officer led a bayonet charge against his position. Having exhausted his rifle ammunition at that point, York coolly drew his Colt pistol and dropped each of the advancing Germans, one by one. He then resumed fire at the machine gunners with his rifle and as the Maxim fire began to slacken, he called on the Germans to surrender. The German Major in command thought that he was facing many more Americans than York and his buddies, so he and about fifty troops surrendered.
Holding his pistol to the officer's head, Cpl. York marched the prisoners back towards American lines. As they did so, more and more Germans joined them until by the time they reached Battalion HQ, York had collected 132 prisoners.
Alvin York was promoted to sergeant and awarded the Medal of Honor, plus many other Allied decorations. sal;

Great link, Bombardier, I really enjoyed reading the account in his own words. And the way he just talks about 'touching them off' as he dropped them, especially remaining cool as he 'touched off' with his pistol, from back to front, each of the ones charging him at bayonet point, so the ones in front didn't realise they were being whittled down! A remarkable man.