Alvin C. York went out on a routine patrol an ordinary, unknown American doughboy of the First World War. He came back from no-man's-land a hero. In a brief encounter on October 8, 1918, during the Argonne offensive, York had killed 25 German soldiers and, almost singlehandedly, effected the capture of 132 others. Returning to the United States the following spring, he received a tumultuous public welcome and a flood of offers from businessmen eager...

Torn between religious pacifism and patriotism, farmboy Alvin York of Tennessee went on to become World War I's most acclaimed American hero, capturing 132 German soldiers during the Battle of Argonne.