https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_York
This is something that has bothered me since I was educated about it back in high school (about 12 years ago). To me, it seems like a ridiculous story and I remember being shocked that it was seriously being talked about in class. It's the one thing I still think back on and wonder how people just accept the story (maybe too many video games where you are invincible and you a hit a target with every shot?).
I just wanted to ask what people here think about it, because it seems to have been accepted as a valid account of what happened. So, why do we believe this story of Alvin York's spectacular achievements? Is it just exaggerated? Propaganda?
/u/mormengil wrote a pretty good response on this some time back https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1rxl18/is_there_any_proof_that_sergeant_alvin_york/?st=iz5tquug&sh=87c5ac10
not to discourage any additional responses of course.
We should also note that while Sgt. York was the most extreme example, we have other US troops awarded the Medal of Honor for very similar exploits. So either the same theme keeps getting made up wholesale, or the conditions on the front and nature of the war led to such situations where some men might rise to the occasion.
For instance we have Sgt. Earl D. Gregory the first native Virginian who earned the award, whose citation reads:
For extraordinary heroism on 8 October 1918, while serving with Headquarters Company, 116th Infantry, 29th Division, in action at Bois-de-Consenvoye, France. With the remark "I will get them," Sergeant Gregory seized a rifle and a trench-mortar shell, which he used as a hand grenade, left his detachment of the trench-mortar platoon, and advancing ahead of the infantry, captured a machinegun and three of the enemy. Advancing still farther from the machinegun nest, he captured a 7.5-centimeter mountain howitzer and, entering a dugout in the immediate vicinity, single-handedly captured 19 of the enemy. https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7127190