Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-10-13
SCOTS TELL OF BATTLES
WITH DESPERATE TEUT0Ns
Both Highlanders and Lowlanders
Give Good Account OF Them
selves in Engagements.
BRAVE "GINGER" SHIELDS
Singie-Handed, Little Machine Gum
ncr Held Up Enemy Hortlc-Over-
looked in Retirement, Did Not
Know When to Retire.
international News Bureau.l

Know When to Retire.
international News Bureau.l
One of the first things that strikes an
onlooker in the wake OF the great battle
is the cheerful mien OF the men who
have been init, and the grim, deter
mined look on the faces of the men
going up THE line to go in it..
Men back from leave are unusually
punctual in reporting. and some are
even ahead of their time. simply be-
cause they feel that 1t would he dis
loyalty to their comrades up in the line
II they were enticed from duty by the
pleasures OF Blighty.
To-day l talked with man in the
Royal Scots. He had been fighting and
marching and starving by turns for
five days and five nights. yet his spirit
was good in spite of his three wounds
1t was just Il wee bit exciting. miss
he said to me. and WI II whcen mair
men the Germans might have made il
not Tor us when they drove against our
ilne Where we were they attacked
Win between 1000 and 5000 men.
Ihree com panies of our regiment were
IN the Lire. One was in reserve be-
hind, and was thrown back with other
troops when the Germans attacked our
flank and rear.
The three companies had to bear tho
Drunt OIL the lighting for as many days.
In that time we had thousands of the
enemy thrown against our line, but for
two whole days We never budged by as
much rs an inch. They attacked us
with the fury Of wild beasts and their
generals didn't care button what
losses the men endured
one whole battalion was wiped out
IN front OF our position, dead being
piied on dead. until there rose in front
a great wall OF corpses, behind which
the surviving infantry were sheltering
until they were assailed flank and ren
by our machine gunners and wiped out
am certain that not a may of that
battalion escaped death or wounds, and
other battalions also suffered severely
We could have held on indefinitely.
but with our line being forced back to
right and left aDd our rear being
menaced. 1t became necessary to with
draw: That we did on the third day
out we ala II at our leisure. Every
time Fritz tried TO hurry us. he found
mat Scots are not to be hurried on II
job like this.
"GINGER" SHIELDS, MACHINE
GUNNER, WAS OVERLOOKED
You know the story of little Ginger"
Shields, the baby" machine gunner OF
our our, loi. In the retirement he got over
looked Ginger" was too good a sol
der TO go back without orders, so he
Just took il into his head that it was
the coionels wish he should remain at
MS post to give the enemy lively
time Wnen they came tos%occupy the
position we had left.
AT last the Huns came rushing for
ward WI Ginger lay low until they were
In front or him, offering n nice target
and there was never better m:I\A Inc
gunner than Shields When he had got
me enemy near enough to his liking,
ne just got going with his two thumbs,
and after that II wasn't exactly thumbs
up for the Germans.
They went Keeling back faster than
, ,ines sane ne ard little Shields had the
re Kept II up for nearly three hours
and then his ammunition ran out
Hy that time his comrades were far
escape. for the enemy were swarminE
forward in the rear. to the right and
left; and from everywhere. Shields
fred his last rounds into the enemy in
front. then smashed his gun and flung
it at the heads of n bunch OF Germans
e Tsmnh r along so,i the eSmmunicaton
round OF machine-gun ire. and poor
little Ginger" went down.
He wasn't done with yet. however.
use II: He lay on the ground and fired
into the Huns. Some of them appeared
on the parapet. They must have seen
against thousands of the Kuiser's best
troops. but there were no bowels of
compassion In the swine. They sent a
stream OF liquid fire into the trench
where the lad lay. There was no escape
from it. He got it full over him. and
1t must have been agony to him, but he
and bayonetted the first German who
came near enough.
Then he stood up and shouted de-
hanye at the rest They fred volley
after ai,,h xolley at him, and he dropped
There was one white, GeHnan. who
buried the lad as he deserved to be
buried, and told us the story OF his
death when we captured him next day
How the tide OF battle rolled up to-
ward Arras is described by noncom-
misSioned officer of the Argylls who
was wounded in the second days fight
ing in that region.
Guns began to thunder in the early
morning, he explained. and the ground
IN w which zen we were imtrenched appeared
liner III Il rough sea- AT times it was
almost impossible to keep upright in
the dugouts. so great was the concus-
sion or the laundering shells. Nearly
two days the bombardment lasted
Then came the attack. and it also
was In Keeping with the grand scale OF
the bombardment, for the enemy
seemed to have more men than they
knew what to do with. They pushed
them on in droves up against our line,
over.
They were shot down by the hundred.
Il stood for two hours watching a Ger
tain point in front of our line against
rected. All the time German infantry
were being marched up to that point.
Not single one passed It, and their
losses must have been terrible, for our
fire was terribly accurate.
COUNTT;RATrACk IN THE
MOONLIGHT by IIlGlTLANDERS
Towards night the Huns succeeded In
entering section OF trehch next to Us.
where Welsh battalion had been
forced out. We got orders to counter
attack at II o'clock. and this we did,
another Highland battalion moving
into the line to hold our trenches willis
we were OF this job. We left our own
trenches and marched along towards
the point OF attack in<the full light of
the moon.
We did not encounter opposition until
we were within eighty yards or so OF
the parapet OF the captured trench We
were challenged then, and answered
with Il few inches Of bayonet in the
throat of the man who challenged, ana
then we were over the parapet like n
whirlwind.