On October 8, 1918, seventeen American soldiers of Company G, 2nd Battalion, 328th Infantry, 82nd Division flanked a German machine gun nest, surprising and capturing dozens of German soldiers. Acting Corporal Alvin York – a conscientious objector turned warrior – was credited with leading the squad and singlehandedly killing 20 Germans, knocking out 35 machine guns, and capturing 132. York later received the Medal of Honor for this action, and his exploits were forever immortalized in the 1941 movie Sergeant York, starring Gary Cooper.
The World War I Podcast covered the story of York in an episode in 2017, but since then, there has been additional scholarship. What about the other sixteen members of the patrol? What role did they play in the action? Why is so little known about them? Is there more to the story? To answer these questions, the World War I Podcast welcomed James P. Gregory Jr. to the podcast. Gregory is a PhD candidate and the author of Unraveling the Myth of Sgt. York: The Other Sixteen.
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