Alvin York did not have much formal schooling, having the approximate equivalent of a third-grade education, but he was well-trained in other areas that would prove to be even more valuable. Raised in Pall Mall, Tennessee, York, along with all the other men and boys in that area, spent the majority of his time on the weekly shooting matches. These matches offered various prizes and sometimes had more than fifty men competing at a time. Through years of practice, Alvin became one of the best shots with a rifle that the area had ever seen. (Cowan). He explained that back home, they shot at turkeys’ heads from 150 yards away! “We tied the turkey behind a log, and every time it bobbed up its head we let fly with those old muzzle loaders of ours. We paid ten cents a shot and if we hit the turkey's head we got to keep the whole turkey.” According to Alvin, “army shooting was tolerably easy” for him. (York). Consequently, in October of 1918, when orders came for his platoon to take Hill 223, York was as prepared as a man could possibly be. In his diary, Alvin explains that they needed to take that hill so that they could reach their main objective, the Decauville Railroad, an extremely important railroad to the Germans. The Germans were in firm control of the area and were defending it with machine guns and with gas. The battalion made it over the hill, but as they tried to cross the valley on the other side, the Germans easily mowed them down. York, along with sixteen others, realized that the only way they were going to overtake the Germans was
Alvin York did not have much formal schooling, having the approximate equivalent of a third-grade education, but he was well-trained in other areas that would prove to be even more valuable. Raised in Pall Mall, Tennessee, York, along with all the other men and boys in that area, spent the majority of his time on the weekly shooting matches. These matches offered various prizes and sometimes had more than fifty men competing at a time. Through years of practice, Alvin became one of the best shots with a rifle that the area had ever seen. (Cowan). He explained that back home, they shot at turkeys’ heads from 150 yards away! “We tied the turkey behind a log, and every time it bobbed up its head we let fly with those old muzzle loaders of ours. We paid ten cents a shot and if we hit the turkey's head we got to keep the whole turkey.” According to Alvin, “army shooting was tolerably easy” for him. (York). Consequently, in October of 1918, when orders came for his platoon to take Hill 223, York was as prepared as a man could possibly be. In his diary, Alvin explains that they needed to take that hill so that they could reach their main objective, the Decauville Railroad, an extremely important railroad to the Germans. The Germans were in firm control of the area and were defending it with machine guns and with gas. The battalion made it over the hill, but as they tried to cross the valley on the other side, the Germans easily mowed them down. York, along with sixteen others, realized that the only way they were going to overtake the Germans was