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. PROMOTED AND DECORATED