[KG_Panzerschreck]

Ap
Updated: 7:50 p.m. ET March 22, 2006


MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Researchers say they believe they have found the site where Sgt. Alvin C. York single-handedly captured more than 100 German soldiers during World War I in one of the U.S. military’s most storied exploits.
The precise location of the fight, immortalized in a 1941 Oscar-winning film starring Gary Cooper, has long been disputed, but two researchers from York’s home state of Tennessee say they unearthed spent shell casings they believe to be from York’s rifle this month from a site near Chatel-Chehery, France.
“They were buried 6 to 9 inches below the surface,” said Michael Birdwell, associate professor of history at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville. “We’re 80 percent certain that we have found the right location.”