In memory of the valiant endeavors of the American Expeditionary Forces and particularly to commemorate the heroism of Sergeant Alvin York and his compatriots, it is hoped that the French authorities will consider the approval of a York Memorial Trail leading to the York Project Team area of discovery in the Argonne forest, and that any siting decision should be based upon the 'best evidence' rule. The Army Center of Military History will be publishing papers as submitted by D. Mastriano and Dr. T. Nolan in the Fall of 2008.
14th July 2008 STOP PRESS. A memorial tablet has been erected and a trail of commemoration has been laid. This has been orchestrated by Lt. Colonel Mastriano. We believe this action to be premature. We also feel strongly that during the course of this 'trail' being laid, considerable damage has been caused, albeit in our view, in an area not concerning York and his patrol. But in so doing, the base for any future archaeological investigation has been destroyed..
1st August 2008: It has been a long held view of the York Project team that any decision to which is the true site of York's action should be made in academic circles. We are of the opinion that we will present the best case for this having followed strict rules of both historical and geographical interpretation. Our investigations, unlike others, were conducted with full permission of the French department of archaeology in an area of the Meuse-Argonne which is subject of archaeological importance from a period long before the Great War. The most compelling piece of evidence, the 328th infantry Company G collar disc, (York's unit) was found in the area that we believe to be the 'fight area' and is not associated with any finds made by other teams.
Other pieces of equipment, e.g. the U.S. helmet that bore damage inflicted by a bullet, corroborate the historical documents. (When one of the American fatalities was recovered in 1919, he was found to have a fractured left scapula.) The location of the German machine-gun that we believe is the one that fired upon the patrol also substantiates our claim. Our area fits almost exactly with the maps annotated by Captain Danforth and Major Buxton in 1929. This was an important historical document overlooked by the other claimant. For those wishing to view a map of the project area, please click here to take you to the press release (PDF, opens in a new window) from MTSU.
We eagerly await the reaction from historians and scholars as a result of the CMH articles in the fall.
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| Above, the Sergeant York Project Team was careful to use professional metal detecting equipment and the latest Global Positioning Systems to pinpoint and carefully recover and map details of artefacts found on location. |
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