http://www.alvincyork.org/Diary.htm

Check out the URL for a complete copy. Its worth the time.

On October 8, 1918, Corporal Alvin C. York of the 328th Infantry fought a desperate battle with a German machine gun detachment and brought into camp 132 prisoners. He was promoted to a sergeancy, awarded the D.S.C., the French Croixde de Guerre, many other decorations, and generally acclaimed the greatest individual hero of the war. Much has been written about him, but here, he tells his own story.
This is but a small portion I cut out, The story is from Mr Alvin York in his own word from his diary. The diary details his story from a small farm in Tenn. to MOH and beyond.


In order to sight me or to swing their machine guns on me, the Germans had to show their heads above the trench, and every time I saw a head I just touched it off. All the time I kept yelling at them to come down. I didn't want to kill any more than I had to. But it was they or I. And I was giving them the best I had.
Suddenly a German officer and five men jumped out of the trench and charged me with fixed bayonets. I changed to the old automatic and just touched them off too. I touched off the sixth man first, then the fifth, then the fourth, then the third and so on. I wanted them to keep coming.
I didn't want the rear ones to see me touching off the front ones. I was afraid they would drop down and pump a volley into me.
OCTOBER 8th 1918 (continued)
--and I got hold of the German major, and he told me if I wouldn't kill any more of them he would make them quit firing. So I told him all right, if he would do it now. So he blew a little whistle, and they quit shooting and come down and gave up.
I had killed over twenty before the German major said he would make them give up. I covered him with my automatic and told him if he didn't make them stop firing I would take off his head next. And he knew I meant it. He told me if I didn't kill him, and if I stopped shooting the others in the trench, he would make them surrender.
He blew a little whistle and they came down and began to gather around and throw down their guns and belts. All but one of them came off the hill with their hands up, and just before that one got to me he threw a little hand grenade which burst in the air in front of me.
I had to touch him off. The rest surrendered without any more trouble. There were nearly 100 of them.
OCTOBER 8th 1918 (continued)
So we had about 80 or 90 Germans there disarmed, and had another line of Germans to go through to get out. So I called for my men, and one of them answered from behind a big oak tree, and the others were on my right in the brush.
So I said, "Let's get these Germans out of here."
One of my men said, "it is impossible."
So I said, "No; let's get them out."
So when my man said that, this German major said, "How many have you got?" and I said, "I have got a-plenty," and pointed my pistol at him all the time. In this battle I was using a rifle and a .45 Colt automatic pistol.
So I lined the Germans up in a line of twos, and I got between the ones in front, and I had the German major before me. So I marched them straight into those other machine guns and I got them.
The German major could speak English as well as I could. Before the war he used to work in Chicago. And I told him to keep his hands up and to line up his men in column of twos, and to do it in double time. And he did it. And I lined up my men that were left on either side of the column, and I told one to guard the rear. I ordered the prisoners to pick up and carry our wounded.
I took the major and placed him at the head of the column, and I got behind him and used him as a screen. I poked the automatic in his back and told him to hike. And he hiked.
The major suggested we go down a gully, but I knew that was the wrong way. And I told him we were not going down any gully. We were going straight through the German front line trenches back to the American lines.
It was their second line that I had captured.  

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