Over the sea went the 82d and was speedily in action, doing valorously
in the Meuse-Argonne battles. And then, Oct. 8, at 6 o’clock in the
morning, the 2d Battalion of the 328th, Corporal York with Company G,
set off from Hill 223 with the Decauville railroad as its objective,
two kilometers to the west. They had to cross a valley of several
hundred yards and climb the ridges of a hill, all the time under
machine gun fire from three directions. The guns from one hill had the
Americans enfiladed, and Acting Sergt. Bernard Early was ordered to
take two squads, and put the guns out of action. Early had sixteen men
under him, one of whom was Corporal York.
They set out to climb the hill with a heavy fire from a ridge at
their backs, but the density of the trees and brush permitted them to
get beyond observation without loss, though bullets continued to cut
through the trees as they struggled and stumbled upward through the
tangle. They crossed the crest and began the descent of the opposite
slope, and suddenly, on the farther side of a little stream they came
upon a group of Germans, twenty to thirty in number, seated on the
ground for a meal.
[Illustration:
© _Underwood, and Underwood._