Wouldn't be beleivable.

Post #3,226 by mhuber 7/31/01 11:37:15 AM Reply	Wouldn't be beleivable. That story could only happen in real life. For those unfamiliar, York was a young man seriously dedicated to peace. IIRC, he was drafted. Anyway, he found himself alone and facing a German installation that was about to do some things that were not peacable. (Was it executing the rest of his unit? I really should look this up again.) So Sgt. York captured them. All by himself. The story goes that he later explained that he surrounded them... Saved many Allied lives. And did so while respecting, as much as possible under the circumstances, the lives of the enemy. From what I have heard, he remained a very gentle and peacefull man. A hero in every sense of the term. It is a shame that his story is not more commonly known. ----------------------------------- Including the nearly ancient Greek one. But not the really ancient Greek term. That term meant a vampire-type undead person, and later the usage changed to refer specificaly to one who lives past death by epic poetry of his deeds. White guys in suits know best - Pat McCurdy
Post #3,247 by wharris2 7/31/01 1:03:22 PM Reply	Here's the story His unit was pinned down by a machine gun nest, and they were trying to outflank it and come at it from the rear. The rest of the flanking unit captured a number of Germans and between guarding them and trying to keep from being shot by the machine guns were trying to figure out what to do. York went on ahead to the machine gun emplacement and started picking them off one by one (as he put it, they had to stick their heads up to see him and he'd touch them off when they did) until a few rushed him. Eventually the German unit became so demoralized that the major surrendered his unit . As York was marching his 100 prisoners back to the American lines, they picked up a few others. From his account ([link\|http://www.alvincyork.org/Diary.htm\|http://www.alvincyork.org/Diary.htm]), There were considerably over 100 prisoners now. It was a problem to get them back safely to our own lines. There were so many of them, there was danger of our own artillery mistaking us for a German counterattack and opening upon us. I sure was relieved when we ran into the relief squads that had been sent forward through the brush to help us. OCTOBER 8th 1918 (continued) So when I got back to my major's p.c. I had 132 prisoners. We marched those German prisoners on back into the American lines to the battalion p.c. (post of command), and there we came to the Intelligence Department. Lieutenant Woods came out and counted 132 prisoners. And when he counted them he said, "York, have you captured the whole German army?" And I told him I had a tolerable few. French Zombies are zapping me with lasers!
Post #3,347 by Ashton 8/1/01 2:01:25 AM Reply	No idea he had kept a diary - thanks. While the Hollywood version did present some improbables - like the Major? being much concerned with York's philosophical misgivings - it seems that Gary Cooper gave us a reasonable facsimile of York. (The artifice of giving turkey calls! as he picked off the Germans in a trench, one by one - seems utterly York-like, as I read his own words.. Hell, even if it isn't true (?) I'd prefer to believe it.) At least I cannot imagine a sequel which might add anything to his performance - there are no young Gary Coopers. Would that H'wood would learn that you just can't remake most other classic performances (say, Sabrina.. or any of the noir flics). Cheers, A.

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