e certainly doesn't look like a movie star!" said a fellow journalist when both of us were recently in a small French village called Chatel-Chehery. To be quite honest, I was also thinking the same thing when, later that day we found a book about American war heroes from WW1 and WW2, that gave us more information about Sergeant York. Well, you say to yourself, the name doesn't mean much to me either - the fact is, it probably only means something to those who are, well, let's say over 60, or are military or movie buffs. In 1941 Hollywood made a move entitled "Sgt York" and it featured one of tinsel town's biggest stars of the day, Gary Cooper in the title role and, like many others I'm sure, I grew up thinking that Sgt.York looked like Gary Cooper. Not true, by a long shot! The movie was made because Alvin C. York was America's most famous soldier of WW1, winning the nation's highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor. Many photographs of York show a rather serous looking individual, with a large moustache, and a face that was completely different from that of Hollywood movie star Gary Cooper. York was born in Tennessee, and although only a semi skilled laborer, he became a marksman - or crack shot - with a rifle in his early teens. Even though he tried to register as a conscientious objector when the World War One started, York at age 30, began his military training.

The largest part of America's military involvement in WW1 took place in the Meuse, the champagne region of France and, between June 1917 and November 1918, more than a million, two hundred thousand US troops participated in the battles in that region. The Meuse Argonne is what I can only describe as a tourist delight - regardless of whether you're a military aficionado exploring the many battlefield locations and fascinating museums, or whether you're there to sample the excellent champagne, or just enjoy the beautiful countryside, and the many B&B's, hotels and chateaus, that dot the entire area.

I was among a group of US journalists visiting battlefield sites connected to the actions of American troops in that conflict, and because Sgt.York is such a famous military name, we visited the site where he won his Medal of Honor. I'd done some research and knew that on October 8th, 1918 it was a cold, wet and foggy day, with visibility of only about 100 feet, and so (as a military buff) I was delighted to find that on our arrival at the village of Chatel-Chehery, the weather was exactly the same as when Sgt. York was there. On that October day in 1918, York - and at the time a Corporal - was sent with 16 other men, to capture an important hill behind the small village of Chatel Chehery. In the town's center, and on what I'm sure is the main street, there's a plaque commemorating what York did, but we wanted to see the actual site of the action, so we drove about half a mile further on to a deeply rutted, unpaved track into a low lying field. On either side of this sort of ravine, we noticed a forest on either side. Due to a misreading of their maps -- in French and not English -- the US troops found themselves behind German lines. In a savage battle that took place, a hidden machine gun opened up, and killed 9 US soldiers, including York's best friend. Thereupon one of the remaining soldiers, a wounded sergeant, decided to turn over the command of what remained of the unit to York, and told him to silence the machine guns and "take some prisoners."

Sgt. York Remembered. Located on what our tour group took to be the main street of a small French village called Chatel-Chehery, in the Lorraine are of France, stands a plaque noting the achievements of America's most famous WW1 soldier, Sergeant Alvin C. York.

York not only did that, but he and the few men under his command, captured an incredible 132 German soldiers! His skills with a rifle as a sharp shooter saved the day, and although in later years York never claimed he acted alone, the facts are that his marksmanship also silenced a German battalion of 35 (!) machine guns, and for his actions he was given the Medal of Honor. All this history came vividly to life for me, as I gazed out at the field where the action took place, and it seemed hard to try and reconcile the peace and tranquility of what I saw in front of me (and back in the forest where we were told the machine guns had been located) to that day in 1918 when whizzing bullets, and the rata tat of machine gun fire, and the general confusion of battle, were everywhere. Especially when one thought about there being such a tiny group of US soldiers in the midst of so many Germans. As a local tourism official told us, "York's fighting ability, his coolness under fire, elevated him to a category that went far beyond anything he could have contemplated for his life. He became famous, but remained the Tennessee woodsman that he really was."

"It's Just A Field!" That might very well be your comment looking at this photo and seeing this field near the village of Chatel-Chehery. Yes, it looks and is peaceful today, but back in October of 1918 it was the location where Sgt. York won his Medal of Honor - and everything was totally different. "It always amazes me," says travel journalist John Clayton, "to see how such places look today, and how everything has changed so dramatically from all those years ago. It is hard, if not imposable, to visualize the madness, mayhem and death, along with the rattatat of machine guns, and the loud explosions of battle that happened in this field on that cold October day in 1918, to the peace and quiet of today. This field, and the location of Sgt. York's place in history, is yet another striking example how different these historic locations look today - from what they were in WW1, and of course also in other locales connected to WW2."

Is it worth going to visit this village? Yes, if you're interested in seeing where heroic actions of US soldiers actually took place. But like so many battlefields the world over, how they look today is often totally different from how they were "back then." If you want a museum or statue, or even lots of Hollywood hoopla connected to the events in this serene village, that's not here. However, as a tourist and military buff, I'm glad I went to see it, because it IS fascinating and yes, although it seems like a hundred years ago, I did see the Gary Cooper movie.

For more information, go online and type in Sergeant York, Gary Cooper/Sgt.York - interestingly Cooper won an Academy Award for Best Actor. To see what a British (!) historian is publishing in a book about all this - go to www.sergeantyorkproject.com The nearest big city, Reims, is 70 miles away. Other excellent contacts are…

French Government Tourist Office
444 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022-6903
Katherine Johnstone - katherine.johnstone@franceguide.com
Ph: (212) 745-0967

Comite Depatemental du Tourisme de la Meuse
Email: contact@tourisme-meuse.com
www.tourisme-meuse.com