when most people think of a war hero they probably instinctively just jump to John Rambo the fictional hero from the Vietnam War well John Rambo is actually based off of a real war hero Roy Benvdas roy Benvdz joined the army because he wanted to be like Audi Murphy the most decorated war hero of World War II and Audi Murphy joined the military because he wanted to be like this man today we're talking about Alvin York a 6' 215-lb red-headed hillbilly blacksmith from the mountains of Tennessee that was drafted into World War I despite his desire to be a conscientious objector due to his devout Christian beliefs by the time his paperwork had cleared recognizing him as a conscientious objector he decided to go into combat anyways because he had become convinced that he was on a mission from God to protect the innocent and he would go on to become one of America's greatest war heroes in World War I and we're gonna get into it right after a word from our sponsor oh my god i told you it was 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makes money since their service is free or they're going to collect your personal information then turn around and sell it to data brokers on the internet and then they're going to turn around and sell it to whoever buys it and next thing you know you're getting 17,000 rooc calls every single day and that's where Delete Me comes in they will look through all the major data brokers and find the ones that are selling your personal information and submit opt- out requests on your behalf and then they are legally obligated to comply and then they'll continue to monitor these data brokers and if they get your information again delete me will submit an opt- out request again basically you're paying Delete Me to get rid of all the downsides of all of the free stuff on the internet which I think is absolutely worth it if you want to check them out I'll have a link and a discount code down below let's get back to the video all right our story begins on December 13th 1887 when Alvin York is born he is born he has a mother a father two older brothers and would later go on to have eight younger siblings and they all grew up in a two-bedroom log cabin in Paul Mall Tennessee right next to the Kentucky border the York family has been in this exact spot for generations alvin's great greatgrandfather originally settled here and when he first lived there he was living inside of a cave they then later built this log cabin and that cave was converted into a blacksmith shop the same exact blacksmith shop that Alvin works in as an apprentice his entire childhood underneath his dad when they're not busy farming their 75 acres and going hunting for food okay if you're not picking up what I'm putting down I'm trying to explain to you that these are straight up mountain folk and have been for hundreds of years okay they're devout Christians living out in the rural area by themselves they just want to be left alone to their own affairs and be self-sufficient and his family is very very good at it now Alvin was the third oldest the third son of 11 siblings and I don't want to say he was the favorite child but him and his dad did have a very special relationship because he wanted to be just like his dad he was attached to his dad at the hip from the time that he could walk he was getting up every morning going hunting with his dad then he was coming back and he was working in the field with his dad then they were coming back eating dinner and he was going out and making horseshoes and working in the blacksmith shop with his dad and he did that for his entire childhood one of the things that Alvin excelled at the most was hunting he was just a natural marksman he was extremely extremely accurate by the time he was 10 years old he was so accurate with his rifle that when he went turkey hunting rather than shooting the body and ruin a bunch of the meat he would opt to just blow the turkeyy's head off completely saving all of the meat bear in mind this is with a Civil War era black powder musket not a shotgun so that's extremely impressive by the time he was a teenager the nearest town Paul Mall Tennessee would have shooting competitions every weekend and sometimes these shooting competitions would have prizes there'd be four separate events if you won one of the events the prize wasn't cash it was a cow so you would actually win a quarter of that cow young teenage Alvin York would walk miles into town partake in this shooting competition with his muzzle loader win all four events and then opt to just take the whole cow and walk it home so he didn't have to carry all the slaughtered meat himself and he would then slaughter the cow once he got home h not only was Alvin extremely accurate with a firearm but by the time he was 18 19 20 years old he was a pretty big dude by that point in time like he was the biggest guy in his family and the biggest guy in town he was a 6' red head coming in at 215 lbs that had been doing nothing but running around in the woods hunting for food and blacksmithing his entire life he was built like a brick [ __ ] house he was so big and so jacked compared to everybody else living up in the Appalachia Mountains that they would just refer to him as big you know as in like hey go talk to Alvin about that oh okay sure which one's Alvin [ __ ] the big and this has been his entire life at this point his childhood his teenage years his early 20s just hunting out in the woods blacksmithing farming getting food to survive minding his own business and going to church on Sundays that's what he does that's all he ever wants to do it's just a perfect peaceful happy life as time goes on his two older brothers wind up finding wives they move out they start their own families now Alvin is the oldest sibling in the house and then in 1911 his father passes away and Alvin becomes the man of the house and Alvin obviously does not take this that well his dad was his best friend he was attached to the man at his hip his entire life not only is he gone and he lost his friend but he has to immediately step in and fill the giant shoes that he left behind to provide for his mother and his eight younger siblings during this time Alvin quits going to church he picks up a drinking problem a smoking problem a gambling problem he's doing everything he can to make money and provide for his family but any free time he has he's spending at the bar getting belligerently drunk over the course of the next couple years Alvin gets a reputation for being a troublemaker he's always getting in fights both fists knives thankfully he's able to avoid gunfights because anytime somebody wants to pull a gun because he's a big dude he pulls out his gun and shoots something as a demonstration of how accurate he is one account said a man pulled a gun on him he pulled out his gun and then shot the head off a lizard behind him at which point that guy was like "You know what never mind i'm good." Puts the gun back away which is probably the correct answer now this raises a question how does he always get in all these fights but he never actually gets in trouble well one this is the early 1900s in rural Tennessee and Appalachia so there isn't much law enforcement but to make things worse his preferred bar is known as the Blind Tiger which is literally on the border between Kentucky and Tennessee and inside the bar there's a white line painted across the floor labeling each state Kentucky and Tennessee so even when the sheriffs did show up all anybody in the bar would do is if the Tennessee sheriff showed up they would walk over to the Kentucky side and be like "You don't have any jurisdiction here." and vice versa you're just out of our jurisdiction and so if I'm cross the line and you're over there there's no way that you Now to us modern-day people obviously this sounds a little bit ridiculous that they would just walk across a painted line on the ground like it was you know assault line that demons can't cross and the law enforcement can't get you but back then it's really how it went because if one two even three deputies showed up to a bar fight and there's 40 people in the bar and they all walk to the other side and they're like "You have no jurisdiction here." and the other 40 dudes all have guns guess what you don't really have any jurisdiction here the only jurisdiction you have is to lose a 40on on three gunfight okay this is 1912 rural Tennessee there's no calling for backup for the sheriff's department there's no local police department there's no highway patrol there's no national guard no FBI no feds nobody's coming to back you up if you get into some [ __ ] with the wrong people you're just going to be another [ __ ] that went missing in the mountains of Appalachia the end so Alvin York is just kind of an unstoppable terror on the town when he's drunk he gets mean he's huge you can't beat him in a fist fight you can't beat him in a gunfight there's not really anything you can do to the guy he winds up getting accused of selling stolen guns never gets in trouble for it he'd walk out of the bar at sunrise absolutely hammered a rooster would crow he'd pull out his gun and shoot somebody's rooster just cuz he was hung over and didn't want to hear it he'd be drunk in the middle of town yelling while churches in session trying to disrupt everything just there was nothing anybody could do about the guy and this went on for years and the entire time he's just breaking his mom's heart because this is not the sweet young kid that she raised this isn't the man his father was this isn't the man he was supposed to be he was supposed to be his dad version 2.0 bigger and stronger and hopefully even better and he's just not turning out that way then on New Year's Eve 1914 Alvin goes out drinking comes back home you know 3:00 in the morning pissed drunk and his mom stays up all night waiting for him and she finally confronts him and just says "Alvin when are you going to start being the man that your father and your grandfathers were?" And the words hit Alvin like an absolute truck he knows what he's been doing is wrong and he just breaks down he's literally on his knees sobbing with his head in his mom's lap crying and apologizing he promises his mom he's going to turn it around he's going to start going to church again he's going to give up gambling smoking drinking fighting everything he's going to be the man his father was and the man that he was supposed to be and his mom just says "I know you will." And that's it january 1st 1915 Alvin York is a completely new man he gives up all of it he starts going to church again and he just starts doing all the things that he should have been doing all along i'm paraphrasing here but he would later go on to write that essentially he had fought an awful lot of men at this point in his life and the fight that he had with himself to give up drinking and smoking was absolutely the hardest fight he ever had but he does it and within a couple of years he's an elder in his church he's literally teaching Sunday school to kids and he's overall just an upstanding member in his community his reputation isn't fully repaired yet but it's definitely getting better around this point in time he falls in love with the girl down the road Gracie he meets up with her in private all the time they never do anything wrong they never kiss they don't even hold hands but they just talk and Alvin York wants to marry this woman problem is is her father does not approve because he's only been an upstanding member of the community for a couple of years now and he was an absolute carer for like 5 years before that and he's not convinced that Alvin York is a good man yet and York just kind of accepts that he knows that he did wrong and he's got to prove that he's a good man now so he just gives the father more time and just keeps being an upstanding member in the community he keeps seeing Gracie but they never kiss they never hold hands they never do anything that would be considered wrong for you know Christians in the early 1900s and that's his plan he's going to prove to Graciey's father that he's a good man over time and then he's going to marry that girl make her his wife and he's going to go on to live happily ever after but then in September of 1917 he gets a red card in the mail from Washington DC alvin York has just been notified that he is to go sign up for the draft to go fight in World War I now he's a devout Christian at this point he truly truly believes in his heart "Thou shalt not kill." He does not think that he is supposed to fight kill do any of that business and he does not want to go off to war and do it so on the draft card they sent him where he's supposed to fill out all of his information they ask on there "Are you a conscientious objector?" He checks "Yes." Explain your reasoning he simply writes "I don't want to fight." And mails it back off i'm not leaving i'm not [ __ ] leaving obviously that gets rejected alvin York kind of not knowing what to do goes to the pastor for help the pastor helps him file an appeal to send it off to Nashville and with that appeal he has two sworn statements one from Alvin one from the pastor saying "Hey this is his religion he is not supposed to be killing people he should be recognized as a conscientious objector." They mail that off to Nashville and it still gets rejected again and the reasoning behind that was is because Alvin York's sect of Christianity was Pentecostal which is a fairly new sect of Christianity at this point in time i believe it started in the early 1900s as kind of a veer off from Methodists so the draft committee in Nashville is essentially like look this is a new church it's not nationwide it's not well recognized all the other mainstream Christian denominations Catholic Orthodox Baptist Methodist Lutheran they're all getting drafted and going off to war you guys can too at this point in time unless you were like actually a pastor or priest in one of these Christian denominations conscientious objector status was more reserved for like Quakers Amish and Menanites so that's it alvin York's getting drafted by November he's got orders to report for duty and by February he is attached to G Company of the 328th Battalion of the 82nd Infantry Division also known as the All-American Division now typically at this point in time in World War I World War II divisions are kind of divvied up by the region that they come from right like the 34th Infantry Division is a bunch of guys from the Midwest the 77th Infantry Division is a bunch of guys from New York and New Jersey the 442nd Infantry Regiment is a bunch of Japanese Americans from the West Coast and Hawaii but the 82nd Infantry Division in World War I is kind of an experiment because they just threw everybody into the same infantry division they've got people from all 50 states and 20% of the men weren't even born in America so you can imagine the culture shock for Alvin some hillbilly that's lived in rural Tennessee his entire life probably never traveled more than 60 miles away from his home and now he's in this place surrounded by people from all 50 states poles Italians Greeks it's absolutely crazy alvin later said he'd never seen a group of men that could outdrink out curse and outfight these guys and that's why they are the all-American division because they are the embodiment of the concept of the American melting pot and that's why their logo today says AA on it for athletic alcoholics i mean all-American he's absolutely right so he goes into training york starts doing everything he's told to do to the best of his ability but in the background he's still kind of trying to go through the paperwork go through the chain of command and get himself recognized as a conscientious objector because at the end of the day he still does not want to go off and have to take somebody's life because he truly believes thou shalt not kill you know quite a bit of killing does occur in a war despite that if push comes to shove it's looking like he might be the best man doing it because he grew up his entire life no scope headshotting turkeys with a Civil War era muzzle loader and the Army has just given him a model 1917 infield high-powered rifle chambered in 306 and this thing is an absolute killing machine in the hands of Alvin York he is sitting there in training hitting bullseye after bullseye he is the best shot in the entire division you got to remember pretty broad group of people there's a lot of people in this division that grew up in a city that have never even seen a rifle and Alvin's been handling one since he could walk also around this point York starts keeping a diary mostly just his personal thoughts on how he's dealing with the potential you know internal struggle of having to go off to war and take somebody's life when he doesn't feel like that's the right thing to do and eventually you know word gets around that York is keeping a diary which is against the rules cuz you're not supposed to keep a diary because you could write down important intel and if you get captured off in war and they capture your diary you could end up betraying information to the enemy so his commanding officer Captain Danforth kind of confronts him about it and is like "Hey are you keeping a journal?" At which point York being a devout Christian man not wanting to lie kind of dodges the question he says "Sir I'm not saying whether I do or whether I don't." At which point the captain says "A diary is going to betray you and your comrades." At which point York replies "Sir I didn't come to fight in a war and get captured if the Germans want to get any intel out of me they're going to have to get it out of my dead body." And that's coming from the 6' 215lb redhead brick [ __ ] house hillbilly that only knows how to hit bullse eyes so the captain's like "Fuck it all right." And York just keeps maintaining this diary but because York was honest with Captain Danfor he kind of comes to him and is like "Hey I want to talk to you about this i think I should be a conscientious objector i do not want to go out to combat and have to kill somebody i truly believe thou shalt not kill." Captain Danforth doesn't have that you know authority to grant him that so he kicks it up the chain of command and he ends up talking to his boss Colonel Buckton colonel Buckston a devout Christian man but unlike York he also believes that Christians have an obligation to go off and fight for their country when it's needed so he calls York into his office york shows up york explains everything you know a devout Christian elder of my church thou shalt not kill at which point Colonel Buckton is like "So do you believe everything that's in the Bible?" To which York is like "Absolutely yes sir." At which point Buckston hits him with a verse from the Bible luke 22 he who hath no sword let him sell his garment and buy one york immediately fires back with another piece of scripture that supports his position then Colonel Bucksen fires back with another piece of scripture that supports his and they go back and forth having this scripture rat battle for over an hour book of Isaiah chapter 6 [Laughter] [Music] yeah it's like two wizards having a battle with Bible verses for over an hour it's absolutely crazy and then Colonel Buckton ends up winning when he hits York with Ezekiel 33 if the watchman sees the sword coming and blows no trumpet the blood of the people is on his hands and this shatters York's entire world view york has this epiphany maybe he's been sent there by God because he's the watchman maybe he's supposed to be there to protect the innocent so now he doesn't know what to do but unbeknownst to him while this has been going on his pastor and Gracie and his mom back home have been writing every politician trying to get him recognized as a conscientious objector they even wrote the office of the president and they got it pushed through york receives the paperwork all he has to do is sign his name on the dotted line and he will be recognized as a conscientious objector but now he doesn't know if that's what he's supposed to do maybe he's supposed to go off and fight in this war so Captain Danforth gives him 10 days to go back home and figure it out he goes home he sees Gracie she supports whatever he's going to do and then he just goes out in the woods on his favorite rock with his Bible and he sits there for 36 hours reading the Bible and praying doesn't eat doesn't drink fast the entire time we don't really know what happened up there but we do know when he comes back down he decides that he's going to go off to war okay pause just so we're on the same page whether you're religious and believe in this type of stuff or you're an atheist or you're religious but you believe York might be a little bit crazy none of that matters the only thing that matters with this now is that the 6 foot tall redhead brick [ __ ] house expert marksman now believes that he is on a mission from God to defend the innocent and that should terrify absolutely everybody okay and if you don't understand the significance of this I've been doing combat sports my entire life taekwondo karate boxing kickboxing i'm a jiu-jitsu coach i've got certifications in MACP from my time in the army if you name a combat sport I've probably done it to some extent and I've done it against a broad demographic of people and I'm telling you right now the toughest people on the planet are these rural farm kids that grew up in the middle of bum [ __ ] nowhere you borderline have to kill them just to get them to slow down and that's when they're doing it for fun okay i've never had to compete against one of these dudes when they thought they were on a mission from God to defeat me and I'm going to be honest I don't want to it sounds like an absolutely horrible time so York finishes up his 10 days of leave heads back over to G company reports to Captain Danforth captain Danforth asks him if he wants to fight Germans york replies "If a man can make peace through fighting he's a peacemaker." And with that they ship off to war may 1st they board the ship to head across the Atlantic Ocean and York has never seen the ocean before it's the most beautiful incredible thing he's ever seen in his entire life he's just completely aruck at its beauty and then 5 minutes later he's violently puking and he gets seasick the entire voyage so the 82nd makes it into theater in June 1918 and they spend the first couple of months of there kind of getting rotated into reserve positions you know they're occupying trenches that aren't seeing a lot of combat or they're going out on patrols they do see some combat they get hit with artillery there's sniper fire but it's not the front line like it's not where all the action is happening despite that during this time York really lays down a pretty impressive demonstration of his faith because this dude again believes that he's on a mission from God and in his mind God's not going to let him get hurt and even if he does it's part of God's plan so it's okay he does not give a [ __ ] about anything like they have enemy artillery fire coming in everybody else is hitting the dirt hiding foxholes and York is just standing there like "It'll be fine god's going to protect me." Which sounds stupid but it's not stupid if it works and it works the entire time and the dude never gets so much as a scratch in his journal he literally writes that enemy sniper fire when it's close sounds like angry bumblebees when I used to rob their nest back at home like everybody else is having the worst time of their life and him almost getting his head taken off by an enemy sniper is bringing back fond childhood memories i'm in danger okay he also wrote in his journal quote there's no use in worrying about shells if you can't alter things just ask God to help you and accept it men who worry destroy their peace of mind without doing any good okay he's like the Terminator version of the slightly awkward homeschooled kid that you met at your first job in high school okay don't give me that look you know exactly what I'm talking about from here they start seeing more heavy combat they have to go in and push the Germans out of this stronghold called St mahal they go in they push the Germans out the Germans end up retreating they take over the town hooray after they take over the town right outside the town there's all these vineyards full of fresh grapes grapes are essentially candy and these guys have been eating army rations for months that sounds delicious so all the soldiers are going out into these vineyards they're eating grapes the Germans send up weather balloons they end up spotting a bunch of soldiers in these vineyards and they start dropping artillery on them all the soldiers retreat the chain of command's like "Okay no more going out in the vineyards to eat grapes because they're going to blow your ass up." But Sergeant York knows he's not going to get blown up because God's going to protect him so he sneaks off on his own against orders to go eat some grapes sergeant York is out there it's peaceful he's eating grapes he's having a moment to himself in the silence and then he turns around and it's Captain Danforth and they kind of look at each other like "Oh [ __ ] we're both caught." And Captain Danforth is like "You're not supposed to be here." And York is like "Yes sir." And Captain Danfor is like "These grapes are delicious." And York is like "Yes sir." From here York and the 82nd are going from St mahale to another town called Shantel Sheree it has been held by the Germans for over four years the entire duration of World War I the Germans have been here whether York and the rest of the 82nd realize it at this point in time or not they are about to participate in the Muse Argon offensive it is quite literally the largest military offensive in US military history not largest at this point in time no just the largest ever period okay to put this into perspective when people think of like huge military offensives everybody automatically thinks of you know D-Day Saving Private Ryan other TV shows and movies about World War II it's this massive battle scene right d-day had 156,000 men hitting the beach the Muse Argon offensive is 2 million men attacking the German front it is a military operation that is quite literally so large it is hard to conceptualize okay there's 50 states in the United States 11 of them have less than 2 million people okay there's 11 states in the United States that have less people living in them in totality between old people young people kids than the amount of soldiers that are about to rush the German line so this is only one very very small chunk of an enormous battle but York and the 82nd show up to Shantel Sheree germans don't even put up a fight for it they literally just leave the town and head off into the wood line outside the town now right outside the town there's a big hill called Hill 223 then there's a big valley and then on the other side of that valley there's three more hills in a triangular formation so the 82nd goes in they push the Germans off hill 223 they take that hill now they're looking forward it's the valley three triangular hills directly in front of them and they're going to have to cross that valley while the Germans are on top of those other three hills okay if you're not picking up what I'm putting down I'm trying to tell you the 82nd is now going to have to run through a valley aka no cover no concealment while the Germans have the high ground in a triangular formation on top of hills with embedded machine gun positions this is an absolute meat grinder of a situation okay when I say the Germans are dug in I don't mean they dug a little hole and slapped their machine gun over the side of it no they've been there for 4 years okay they have chopped down trees built up actual lumber walls to hide behind with roofs and camouflage the entire things they can't even see where the German machine gun fire is going to be coming from let alone effectively return fire if they're going to have any chance of success at this they're going to have to coordinate with artillery they're going to have to drop artillery at the exact moment that they send a wave of men across the valley and hopefully they're going to be able to overtake these hills and take out the Germans so that's the plan orders come down at 6:10 a.m on October 8th 1918 american artillery is going to bombard the German position hopefully get them to duck their heads and take cover for a minute while America sends out two waves 60 men that try to run across this valley and overthrow their position so they wait and while they're waiting the orders actually end up changing because the unit that's supposed to be on the 82nd flank is hung up taking German fire and they're not in the position they need to be in to be able to support the 82nd unfortunately the runner with these new orders that was sent to Hill 223 winds up getting killed and the message never makes it to the 82nd so as far as they know they're still supposed to attack this objective at 6:10 6:00 rolls around no American artillery bombarding the position yet 6:05 still no artillery bombarding the position at this point people are looking around like "Are we still going to [ __ ] launch this attack without American artillery support what are we doing?" The officer in charge is like "We were ordered to attack at 610 we're attacking at 610." Sure enough 610 rolls around the American artillery never shows up he sends out two waves 60 men none of them make it as this battle unfolds and the German machine guns open fire the chain of command can see there's like 35 machine gun nests all over these three hills there's absolutely no way they're going to make it past 35 German machine guns from here the chain of command decides the best course of action is going to be to send out a small patrol of men they're hopefully going to be able to skirt out around the backside of these German machine gun positions and make it to the center hill where most of their firepower is and take out all those machine gun nests then they should be able to assault through the valley and up onto these hills okay just so we're on the same page this is also not a great plan okay like yes they're not assaulting the positions directly but you know if the Germans are straight in front of you they're going to run off this way still through part of this valley not as big of a part not as much time to fire on them but it's still a valley with no cover no concealment in broad [ __ ] daylight like best case scenario they all run really fast the Germans don't hit them but now the Germans know that they're coming so it's not a good plan but it's the only one we've got so they pick 17 men they've got a sergeant three corporals and a bunch of privates one of those corporals is Corporal Alvin York so they go down to the base of Hill 223 probably get a quick stretch in hype themselves up about to run through German machine gun fire no big deal they're getting ready and they're counting it down and they're all going to hop up and start running for their lives it's like 3 2 1 and right as they say one the German machine gun positions just start getting bombarded with American artillery it showed up late and it showed up at the perfect time as all these guys start running across this narrow stretch of the valley all the Germans are forced to take cover and none of the Germans see these guys clear the valley okay I don't know if it's divine intervention plot armor fate call it whatever you want but in this particular case [ __ ] worked out perfect stop it on the enemy we love you boy jesus Christ they make it through the valley completely undetected into the woodline and now they spend the next hour and a half sneaking through the woods up and around behind the German position after like an hour of sneaking through the woods in pretty much a straight line the sergeant pulls off to the side and he's like "Okay do do we think we've gone far enough that we need to start turning cuz we're going to be behind the German machine gun positions an hour or do we need to go a little bit further?" He wants to consult his corporal see what everybody thinks first two corporals say they've gone far enough they should turn now gets to Alvin York and Alvin York for some reason feels like they haven't gone far enough yet and he's like I think we should keep going straight for a little bit further okay again I have no idea why Alvin York thought that i don't know if he you know has a feeling from God i don't know if he can hear the narrator speaking because he's wearing the plot armor but he decides to keep going straight the sergeant agrees they go straight for a little bit longer and they come up on this like 3ft deep trench now it's not a military trench it's just like a 3-ft deep hole they have no idea why it's there or what it's doing it's clearly not a military trench but it is going to be pretty handy for them to crouch down and walk in and remain concealed and go unnoticed in hindsight historians would figure out later that it was actually a trench that had been there for hundreds of years that was actually used originally as a marker between two separate pieces of property which means the Germans didn't put it there and they probably don't even know it exists so they use this trench to get further and further it slips them right past that first hill and straight towards the hill that's in the center which is their objective so as they're making their way there they come up on this little creek and on this creek there's two German soldiers just filling up an entire cart full of cantens to bring back to all the other Germans those Germans see the Americans they [ __ ] their pants and take off running york and his guys take off chasing them because they want to capture them or kill them so that they don't alert the rest of the Germans that they're there as they're chasing these guys down they come up onto this meadow and in this meadow holy [ __ ] it's the battalion headquarters tent for the entire German unit there and right beside the tent there's like 70 German infantry soldiers that are just sitting in this meadow chilling eating lunch these were the reinforcements that the Germans had brought in to launch a counterattack against the 82nd division now the two Germans that they're chasing do not immediately cut out into the meadow because they don't want to run out into the open because then the Americans are going to shoot them so they want to skirt this tree line and get as close to that tent as they can and then run into the tent and tell the German commander that the Americans are here okay that's a good plan on their part as far as you know not getting shot and dying goes but fortunately for the Americans this gives them time to be like "Fuck that let them keep running through the woodline." They immediately advance into the meadow and attack these 70 soldiers that aren't carrying their guns they're just sitting down chilling eating lunch and immediately force all 70 of them to surrender now the 70 Germans are caught completely off guard all they see is Americans running towards them with their guns up yelling surrender these guys have their guns you know all set to the side half of them are sleeping half of them are eating they think it's a huge American counterattack so they surrender immediately not knowing that it's only 17 guys while the Germans are standing up putting their hands in the air the other two canteen Germans cut out of the wood line run into the battalion command tent and tell the German commander Commander Bulmer the Americans are attacking he freaks out grabs his pistol turns around goes to tell the 70 infantry troops that just showed up get ready for a fight and what he sees is they're already standing with their arms up in the air they've already surrendered and he's like "What the [ __ ] i'm surrounded by idiots he then turns around again probably trying to quickly send a runner or send a radio transmission to his other guys up on the hill letting them know the Americans are here and right in front of him is 6 foot tall red-haired red mustached ginger Alvin York standing there with his gun and he's like "Surrender." So Commander Vulmer who actually went to college in Chicago and in Alvin York's own words speaks better English than he does understands exactly what Alvin York said and agrees to surrender york and Fulmer then leave the tent and they go out and York's going to talk to the rest of his guys and the Germans on top of Hill 2 with their machine guns have figured out something is going on and they scream down at the Germans in German presumably saying get down all the Germans drop and the German machine guns open fire before York's guys even know what's going on they are already getting lit up by these German machine guns within a matter of seconds six Americans are killed three are injured leaving eight men left in play with 70 prisoners and German machine gunners up on the hill opening fire on them of the nine American casualties they include the sergeant and the other two corporals meaning that the only corporal the only NCO the only leadership position left in play is Alvin York and a bunch of privates alvin York is now in charge the rest of the Americans all drop to the ground try to return fire but they're mostly just taking cover alvin York rushes the hill by himself so I'm gonna kill each and every one of you and the only disappointment in it for me is that I only get to do it once the privates then get themselves oriented to the situation and the seven remaining dudes are both returning fire trying to provide covering fire for Alvin York while also trying to make sure that the 70 unarmed Germans behind them don't jump them and overpower them york continues to advance under enemy fire reaches a little swell on the ground and drops down into a prone position not because he's trying to avoid bullet fire god does that for him he just drops down to prone so he can be more accurate so now he's looking down the sights of his rifle and he's just waiting for the German helmet to pop up he's sitting there he's yelling "Surrender give up." He's literally trying to be a nice guy about this german helmet pops up domes the guy immediately and in the back of his head all he can think is "Man these German heads are way bigger than the heads of turkeys back home when I was hunting." He's still continuing to shout surrender as German helmets keep popping up trying to man the machine gun and every time a German helmet pops up he [ __ ] drops them you are amazing at this how did you get so good whacking moles and this goes on for a minute alvin York just being the polite homeschool kid Terminator literally like "Guys seriously please surrender." Bang okay that's enough now you guys can quit bang okay guys please surrender bang during this phase of the battle Alvin York is credited with somewhere between 18 and 23 kills okay now to understand and comprehend what's going to happen next you have to understand the perspective of the Germans that are up on top of the hill they have the high ground they have machine guns they have fortified fighting positions and they are in a firefight with one man some 6-ft tall ginger hillbilly from Tennessee and somehow they're losing and every time one of them builds up the courage to pop up over the burm man the machine gun to return fire this giant ginger sends their brain on a field trip and just so we're all on the same page York is shooting an infield chambered in 3006 that is a high-powered rifle cartridge that is commonly used for hunting elk and moose this rifle and this round is significantly more powerful and way more scary than the scary AR-15s shooting 5.56 that the army uses today to put it into perspective here's a watermelon getting shot by 5.56 and 306 at 16,000 frames per second okay if you're not picking up what I'm putting down I'm trying to tell you that if you're a German on top of that hill and you've just seen 20 of your buddies get their eyebrows sent into [ __ ] orbit that's starting to look like not that great of an idea and you're probably looking for alternatives bearing that in mind the Germans decide they're going to do something that tactically doesn't make a lot of sense they're going to leave their fortified fighting positions they're going to abandon the high ground they're going to grab their rifles fix bayonets and they're going to charge this giant red-headed hillbilly and show them what's up so 12 Germans hop out of their fortified fighting positions with rifles and fixed bayonets and bayonet charge Alvin York which in hindsight was a complete mistake for them and it worked out for Alvin York because Alvin was actually out of rifle rounds altogether and he wasn't going to be able to do anything else but now he's got 12 Germans running at him so he pops up grabs his Colt 1911 chambered in 45 ACP bear in mind he's only got eight rounds and 12 Germans running at him alvin York immediately shoots one drops him at that point four of the other Germans decide "Okay this is clearly the main character i'm an anonymous henchman i'm just going to call it a day." They hop back in the trench and look at you you haven't even got a name tag you got no chance why don't you just fall down go on son so now there's seven Germans still bayonet charging him and he has seven bullets he has to be absolutely perfect now from the lead Germans perspective the guy that's out in front obviously he's the one that's going to get shot first i mean right that's what makes sense you shoot the closest threat first that way nobody comes to get you right so as long as he doesn't get shot everything's going great he sees Alvin York fire the bullet whizzes past him alvin York missed fires again another bullet whizzes past him again again again all of the bullets all six of them go whizzing right past him he's got one bullet left he gets shot directly in the stomach and drops but what actually happened alvin York didn't miss he didn't miss a single time alvin York knew that if he shot the dude in the front everybody behind him was going to see it and they were all going to take cover and he wasn't going to have any ammo so he decided to take out the Germans the same way that you shoot a flock of geese that are flying and he took out the geese at the rear of the formation first working his way to the front so the formation didn't scatter he was shooting the man in the back instead of the man in the front and dropped all seven Germans now cutting back to Alvin York's perspective during this bayonet charge where he's using bird hunting tactics to kill Nazis he has bullets whizzing past him from behind him somebody is shooting at him while he's shooting these Germans it's that German commander Vulmer because remember nobody bothered to take his pistol away from inside the tent because [ __ ] hit the fan so fast and he's trying to save his own guys which is pretty understandable so while York is shooting at Germans with his pistol Vulmer is shooting at York with his pistol and York doesn't give one single [ __ ] because remember he's on a mission from God and God is going to protect him and if he doesn't get protected it's all part of God's plan so it's going to be fine so York just focuses on what he's doing and lets everything else work itself out and of course doesn't get a single scratch on him the entire time wulmer empties the pistol misses every single shot york lands every one of his at this point York turns around wulmer drops the pistol puts his hands up he knows when he's been bested and he looks at York and he just goes "English." Like clearly asking like you know "Hey I speak English let's talk this out." York does not interpret it that way and goes "No." To which Vulmer's like "What?" And York goes "I'm an American." And he's like "Just no I'm saying I speak English quit killing everybody i'll get the guys up there to surrender so you don't have to kill everybody at which point York reloads his pistol points it at Vulmer's like "Okay go ahead." Vulmer starts yelling a bunch of stuff up the hill in German couple seconds later a bunch of more Germans come out no weapons with their hands up and they surrender too germans finish coming down the hill they join the rest of the PS at which point one of the seven remaining privates comes up to York and is like "York what are we going to do with all these prisoners we don't have enough men to handle this many guys and get them back behind our lines." Vulmer hears this and he's like "What i'm sorry how many men do you guys actually have and York is like "I've got plenty don't worry about it." At this point York with Vulmer still at gunpoint is going to use Vulmer to translate and get everything moving he's like "All right get your guys up tell them to get in a column of two we're going to march out of here tell them to pick up your wounded tell them to pick up my wounded and my dead." They're going to carry them back to our lines problem how on earth are we going to get back because we definitely can't go the way we came through the woods we're not going to be able to keep track of like a 100 plus German prisoners through that dense forest we're going to have to go out in the open and the rest of the Germans are going to see us and that's not going to work out at which point Vulmer chimes in and he's like "Well you can take this gully right here and that'll take you right to hill 223." He's obviously trying to set him up for an ambush because he knows where all his soldiers are and York is like "Well we're not [ __ ] going there you know what i'm the main character we're just going to march right down the main road that goes straight to Shantel Sheree straight to Hill 223." So that's what they do they just take off ruck marching right down the middle of this main road in the middle of enemy held territory because York is a main character and it's all part of God's plan I guess so they're making their way there and sure enough they run into an entire platoon of Germans that are guarding the road because obviously however from the Germans perspective there's like seven Americans and 100 plus Germans there's absolutely no way that those Americans have those Germans as PS so they don't open fire they end up walking up and approaching to see what's going on figuring the Americans are the PS once they get close enough to realize the Americans are the ones with the guns York shoves his pistol into Vulmer's back and is like "Make them surrender tell them they're surrounded." Vulmer does what he's told tells them to drop their guns they're surrounded they do it because Vulmer's a battalion commander they drop their guns and they get taken as PS too from there they just keep marching to Hill 223 and as they start getting closer the Americans see a massive formation of German uniforms approaching and they start freaking out thinking it's a giant counterattack they start moving men around getting ready for a fight and as they keep getting closer and closer they're looking through field glasses and they see York's big ginger ass with a gun pointed at the German and it's like "Holy [ __ ] York captured everybody." So they get to the base of Hill 223 the 82nd commander meets him down there he's like "York holy [ __ ] how many men did you capture?" To which York replies "Honestly I have no idea sir." And the commander's like "That all right well um uh you're promoted to sergeant by the way great work um march these guys into Shantel Sheree and I'll count them off as they march by I guess commander then proceeds to count them off as they march by york had captured 132 Germans so York marches his PS off to Shantel Sheree and the rest of the 82nd resumes their attack because now the Germans have 35 less machine gun positions and the ones that do remain don't have a chain of command to be giving them orders so they overtake the objective they secure the area fairly easily york makes it to Shantel Sheree where battalion headquarters are battalion headquarters is like "We don't we don't have the logistics for this many prisoners march them up to regimental headquarters." Marches them up to regimental headquarters they can't take that many prisoners either march them to division headquarters marches them all the way to division headquarters when he gets there General Lindsay like the main guy in charge of the 82nd approaches York and is like "York I hear you've captured the whole damn German army." To which York replies just with sheer Forest Gump levels of modesty "Uh no sir i only captured 132 yes I know that from there he gets some food finds a cot lays down writes in his journal for a little bit cuz you know he's had a pretty eventful day in his journal he writes and I quote "So you can see here in this case of mine where God helped me out i'm a witness to the fact that God did help me out of that hard battle for the bushes were shot up all around me and I never got a scratch." Next morning York reports back to Captain Danforth and he requests to take out a small detail to go back to the sight of his battle and look for any survivors because that's just the type of guy that York is captain Danfor not only agrees to let him do it but he's like "I'm going with you." And he brings some other high-ranking officers with him because they want to hear York explain what the [ __ ] happened by the time they get out there there's no survivors all the dead bodies has already been removed there was never an official body count of how many Germans York killed but pretty much everybody agrees it's somewhere between 20 and 30 that he had killed single-handedly york then takes him to the patch of grass that was his firing position and you know he was in the heat of battle he wasn't really paying attention to what was going on it was all part of God's plan but looking at it in retrospect everything around the patch of grass that he was on is absolutely shot to [ __ ] just hundreds of bullet holes all over it none of them hit Alvin York he dropped his canteen during that firefight that canteen was still there feet from his position and that canteen had 18 bullet holes in it okay literally the holy canteen it's all part of God's plan york finishes explaining everything that happened there they head back to headquarters this is like a big deal right i mean you're going to probably give this guy the Medal of Honor they got to really know what happened and this sounds so incredibly unbelievable like they need to make sure this actually happened before they write this up right so they interview York twice same exact story every time he's incredibly modest about the entire thing tries to give as much credit to the other seven privates as he can they interview the seven privates all seven privates are like "Alvin York's a [ __ ] superhero." They interview some of the Germans the Germans are like "It was [ __ ] crazy i don't know we couldn't hit the guy with bullets." They interview Vulmer the story is the same across everybody it's one of the most wellressearched battles ever from here a couple of weeks go by by October 28th 1918 his unit gets pulled back out of the Argon they go to the rear and then he gets placed on 10 days leave on November 1st and while he's on leave he sends a postcard back home to his mother you know he's probably got a lot to tell her that postcard reads and I quote "Hello I'm okay sending you a postcard view of a little of this country along the coast it's a nice scene." Well that's all he's He's literally Forest Gump that's all I have to say about that that's so right on man you said it all now like I said he goes on 10 days leave on November 1st 1918 guess what happens on November 11th right as he's ending his leave germany surrenders world War I is over coincidence almost unequivocally yes but it's funny to joke that Alvin York was coming off vacation so the Germans just decided to call it a day and end World War I we called him Baba from here Alvin York gets recommended for the Distinguished Service Cross the only reason they weren't going to give him the Medal of Honor was because well the story was too unbelievable and nobody was willing to agree that that actually happened so they conducted an even more thorough investigation turns out it was all 100% legit they upgraded it to the Medal of Honor he gets awarded the Medal of Honor from here they get sent out to some parade field they're ordered to pick up all the cigarette butts out of this parade field because there's some fancy French general coming in to do some ceremony or something rather so York and the rest of the guys are out in this parade field for like 2 days picking up thousands and thousands of cigarette butts turns out the French guy that was coming was actually the French guy Ferdinand Fouch the supreme allied leader of World War I and he was actually coming for Alvin York they have a big ceremony and Ferdinand Fouch awards Alvin York the French Quadigar essentially the French version of the Medal of Honor he pins it right next to York's Medal of Honor and says and I quote "What you did was the greatest thing ever accomplished by any soldier in any of the armies of Europe." From here York gets yanked away he goes on speaking tours all over France he does that for a number of months he's finally ready to go home goes back to America the Americans find out they want to know more about York he does speaking tours all over America at this point he's still in the United States Army he finally gets released from service but the American public wants more they want to know everything he's getting thousand offers to go give speaking engagements which back at this point in time $1,000 is a ton of money he's getting offered $10,000 for his life story in a book he's getting offered $50,000 to do a film about his exploits he rejects all of it he doesn't want any of it he doesn't want the fame he doesn't want to be recognized or glorified for having to take a human life he only feels like he did it because it was absolutely necessary because he is the peacemaker so that's it he just flat out rejects everything goes back into the mountains of Tennessee he just wants to go there live his life read his Bible marry his sweetheart Gracie and that's exactly what he does time goes by and he still has people offering him money left and right for speaking engagements movies books anything and everything you can imagine he's getting offered money to endorse products absolutely everything and eventually he kind of figures you know this is a rare opportunity he could probably do a lot of good in the world if he raised all this money and did something productive with it and he remembers you know he wasn't really able to go to school as a kid he has about a third grade education he was only able to go to school on weekends there just wasn't a school in that part of rural Tennessee when he was growing up and there still isn't today but if he could raise enough money he could change that he could affect the lives of all the kids around him and that's what he decides to do so that's what he does he leverages his fame to raise money to open up schools for kids in rural areas so they can get an education he goes on speaking tours raising money he sells the rights to his book he sells the rights to his war diary that he kept during World War I he sells the rights to a movie goes on bees the technical adviser he ends up raising hundreds of thousands of dollars which at this point in time is millions he ends up founding the York Institute in Jamestown Tennessee which is a privately funded school but it's open to kids for free and this wasn't just like overnight or over a year this took years and years and years to do and over the course of that time he raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and he paid himself almost nothing like he didn't build a new fancy house he didn't buy a bunch of nice stuff for himself or his family he was still living exactly how he grew up the entire time out of the hundreds of thousands of dollars that he made I believe he paid himself just over $6,000 over the course of like a decade the man is truly selfless he literally took just enough money to keep food on the table for his family and gave everything else to this school but as we all know no good deed goes unpunished alvin York the man with a third grade education was under the impression that because he was doing selfless stuff with the money he was literally donating it to give kids an education he thought that that was a charitable donation and that he didn't have to pay taxes on it well apparently he was wrong because he wasn't a you know 401c [ __ ] charity or whatever the [ __ ] with the IRS so none of that counts and Alvin York now owes a ton of money in back taxes and the IRS is coming after him it's never too early to learn that the government is a greedy piglet that suckles on a taxpayers's teit until they have sore chapped nipples okay and just so we're on the same page this is like now the early 1940s two decades have gone by and the tax rate at this point in time is absolutely insane the top marginal income bracket for federal taxes is 81% he made $134,000 with his hit movie that came out in 1941 the IRS said he owed them like $90,000 of that money alvin York didn't have it he used all the money to build this school and start teaching kids for free when the IRS told him that he owed all that money he had a net worth of $21,000 $20,000 of that net worth was just the value of the farm that him and his family lived on you know the same farm that his family has lived on since they came across the ocean and lived there in a [ __ ] cave other than that he had a car that was worth $700 he had $2.20 in his checking account and he got a $10 a month stipend for being a Medal of Honor recipient that was it he gave everything else away thankfully the government steps in because York doesn't have the money to keep funding this school so the government steps in is like "Oh you built the whole school for us you bought instruments for the band books chairs desks everything oh yeah we'd be willing to you know take that over and make it a public school." Which York doesn't give a [ __ ] he literally just wants kids to get an education so of course he signs it over to the government so they can keep maintaining the York Institute and it is literally still in operation to this day it is a public high school in Jamestown Tennessee in addition to that thanks to a literal act of Congress they forgive his debt and he is now debtree now going back to his movie came out in 1941 right as America is getting ready to enter World War II it is a nationwide sensation he becomes the most popular man in the country all over again because of the popularity of this movie and because of the fact that Alvin York served in the 82nd Infantry Division the All-American Division when World War II kicks off and they start reactivating old units one of the first units to get reactivated is the 82nd Infantry which becomes the 82nd Airborne which is still active to this day and it is one of the most prestigious military units in the United States Army in addition to that it inspires tens of thousands of American men to join the military because they want to be a hero too just like Alvin York and one of those Americans is Audi Murphy who would go on to become the most decorated war hero of World War II alvin York would go on to pass away at the age of 76 but his legacy lives on both in the school that he helped found and the 82nd Airborne Division and that time the Army tried to name a god-awful tank after him seriously can we name something else awesome after this guy like the next sniper rifle call it the York Peacemaker that's a dope name he deserves it let's do that this man accomplished incredible and unbelievable things both on and off the battlefield and then afterwards he went on to live a truly selfless life in the service to others and that is why you should never forget the name Alvin York thank you for watching best way to support the channel is go buy some merch over at the fatlectrician.com quackbang out my favorite thing about the Sergeant York movie was he was the technical adviser like he signed off on absolutely everything in the movie he tried to have the other men represented he tried to keep it as accurate as possible but there was one thing he didn't sign off on and I don't even know if he knew they did it because they made it seem like Alvin York kissed Gracie before he went off to war both Alvin his wife and all of their kids after the fact whenever this gets brought up or whenever they're interviewed about it they are adamant and make sure they point out that never happened gracie York is not some hussy that would kiss before their marriage their first kiss was on their wedding day and I don't I don't know i think that's just like funny and cute anyways see you guys later i remember one day back in the argon when we took several prisoners I noticed one German corporal looking us over mildly puzzled he could speak a little English he asked if all of us in the outfit were Americans we told him we were he just shook his head didn't seem that he could take it at all you see the all-American division was made up of boys from all over the country there were boys from uh the mountains like me and boys from the small towns and cities there were southerners New Yorkers middlewesterners as well as boys from the cow country in the Pacific coast and there were men whose folks had been Greek Italian Jewish German Polish Swedish and Irish just every strain of good American you could think of it sure seemed to get this German corpal down he just couldn't understand how we could all pull together and smash up soldiers of the great German race they can't get it through their thick heads that it's not your creed or your high nor the color of your eyes that makes an American it's our freedom and equality over the Constitution and our Bill of Rights that makes an American an almighty fighter once a man has tasted that freedom he'd rather die fighting than to do without it for himself and his