©Public Domain
Here Schoonover portrays one of the most heroic individual actions of World War I. On October 8, 1918, Sgt. Alvin Cullum York, a member of the 328th Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Division, went out with a patrol near Hill 223 on the Meuse-Argonne battlefield. They met strong resistance from German forces. York assumed command of the patrol, and they silenced two of the dominating machine gun positions that had pinned down American forces in the valley. He and the patrol evacuated all of the wounded, German and American, and returned leading a column of 132 German prisoners. His heroism is legend in the annals of military history. He received the Medal of Honor.
Marshall Ferdinand Foch, Commander-in-Chief, Allied Armies said about Sgt. York’s feat, “The Greatest Thing Accomplished by any Private Soldier of All the Armies of Europe.”
