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SERGEANT YORKAND HIS PEOPLE

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A Fight in the Forest of the Argonne UST to the north of Chatel Chehery, in the Argonne Forest in France, is a hill which was known to the American soldiers as "Hill No. 223." Fronting its high wo... oded knoll, on the way to Germany, are three more hills. The one in the center is rugged. Those to the right and left are more sloping, and the one to the left—which the people of France have named "York's Hill" — turns a shoulder toward Hill No. 223. The valley which they form is only from two to three hundred yards wide. Early in the morning of the eighth of October, 1918, as a floating gray mist re- laxed its last hold on the tops of the trees [15] . SERGEANT YORK AND HIS PEOPLEon the sides of those hills, the "All America" Division—the Eighty-Second—pouredover the crest of No. 223. Prussian Guardswere on the ridge-tops across the valley, andbehind the Germans ran the DecauvilleRailroad—the artery for supplies to a salientstill further to the north which the Germanswere striving desperately to hold. The sec-ond phase of the Battle of the MeuseArgonne was on. As the fog rose the Americans "jumpedoflf" down the wooded slope and the Germans opened fire from three directions.With artillery they pounded the hillside.Machine guns savagely sprayed the treesunder which the Americans were moving.At one point, where the hill makes a steepdescent, the American line seemed to fadeaway as it attempted to pass. This slope, it was found, was being sweptby machine guns on the crest of the hill to\l62 IN THE FOREST OF ARGONNE the left which faced down the valley. The Germans were hastily "planting" other machine guns there. The Americans showered that hilltop with bullets, but the Germans were en- trenched. The sun had now melted the mist and the sky was cloudless. From the pits the Germans could see the Americans working their way through the timber. To find a place from which the Boche could be knocked away from those deathdealing machine guns and to stop the digging of "fox holes" for new nests, a non- commissioned officer and sixteen men went out from the American line. All of them were expert rifle shots who came from the support platoon of the assault troops on the left [Show More]

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