The Americans fired and there were a few return shots, but the majority
of the surprised Germans threw down their guns and held up their hands
in sign of surrender, and the others followed suit promptly, including
the major in command of the battalion. They were amazed to find that
their captors were American.
Sergt. Early had them line up and was just ready to take them out
when, in the expressive words of a survivor, “all hell broke loose.”
Machine-guns placed in “fox-holes” that had been pointed the other way
were swung round, and from the slope above Early’s detachment, began a
fusillade. The German prisoners at once dropped down and lay on their
bellies as did some of the Americans, others seeking the shelter of
trees. Six of the little detachment were killed outright. Early was
shot three times through the body and Corporal Cutting and Private
Muzzi were wounded. On one side of York was Private Wareing, on the
other Private Dymowski, both shot to pieces, York untouched. This fire
reduced the party to eight, York and seven privates. Of the latter, one
was pinned behind a tree, the others were guarding the prisoners. That
is the testimony of the men themselves. They did no shooting.
“ALL THE TIME I WAS A-USING MY RIFLE”
York, when he dropped at the first fire of the machine-guns, found
himself in a little path by a clump of bushes; the machine-guns were
peppering from a distance of less than thirty yards, cutting off the
tops of the bushes about York. On his return to the United States May
22, 1919, York said to a reporter: “I sat right where I was, and it
seemed as if every gunner was a-firing straight at me. All this time,
though, I was a-using my rifle, and the enemy he was a feeling the
effects of it. One of our boys yelled that it was impossible to get the
best of the situation, but I yelled back ‘Shut up!’ I knew one American
was better than ten Germans if he kept his wits.”
He had no thought of surrender and “Somehow, I knew I wouldn’t be
killed.” Aiming as he used to when shooting off the heads of the
turkeys, he spotted Germans in the “fox-holes,” those firing from
behind trees or over logs, with deadly precision, himself lying low to
have the protection of the German prisoners prostrate between him and
the machine-guns. He was not the man to miss a mark at that range. One
boche had the indiscretion to rise in order to fling a small bomb at
the rifleman. The bomb missed its object; not so the responsive bullet.
“I got him square,” said York.
“I WHIPPED OUT MY AUTOMATIC”
“I turned in time to see a Heinie Lieutenant rise up from near one of
them machine-guns and with six or seven men come charging toward me
with fixed bayonets. They were only twenty yards away from me when I
whipped out my automatic and I potted them off one after another.”
(This man York, by the way, in a contest with an automatic pistol, hit
a penny match-box every shot at forty paces.)
“As soon as the Germans saw the Lieutenant drop, most of the
machine-guns stopped firing and the battle sort of quieted down, but
I kept on shooting until the Major with the first batch of Germans we
had come across, and who was lying on his stomach to avoid being hit
by his own gunners, called to me in perfect English that if I would
stop shooting he would make them all surrender, so I did. Then I called
all our boys, and their affidavits show they came, and we herded the
Germans in front of us and started toward our lines. I walked among
four German officers and had our wounded bring up the rear. The Major
asked me how many men I had, and I just told him, ‘I have a-plenty.’”
On the way they stirred up several more machine-gun nests, one of which
put up a fight and York felt it a regrettable necessity to “shoot a man
there.” After that when a nest was flushed the Major touched him on the
arm and said, “Don’t kill any more, and I’ll make them surrender.” This
was done and the hill was pretty well cleared up before they got to
the other side and York’s herd of prisoners numbered 132, counted and
certified to by Lieutenant Joseph A. Woods, Asst. Division Inspector,
as they were reported to the P. C. of the 2d Battalion, 328 Infantry,
that same Oct. 8.