Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1918-11-15
Memorable War Experience OF A
Montgomery County Boy.

For that matter there are hundreds of
men in the Blue and Gray Division who left
Alsace without ever having seen a German
soldier, dead or alive, captured or fighting,
though they spent weeks watching, day
and night. with very little sleep. have
written about the patrols and the raiding
parties that saw little groups of Germans.
sometimes engaging them (and defeating
them always sometimes when their own
parties we're very small, getting away safely
without being discovered and with valua-
bic information, But the men who actu-
ally came into close cantact with the
enemy in Alsace were few in number and
Of these who did. only one, young Mary
lander, had an experience that will prob
ably be as fresh in his memory when the
war ends with Its immortal victories as 1t
was the day after he had 1t. This man
was Private Lester Shields, of the little
village Of Boyds, Md.
For nearly SO hours Shields was as good
as dead or captured, so far as his company
or his regiment was concerned. He had
been out with a reconnaissance patrol the
night before, and when they checked up
after the return, Private Shields was miss
ing. All night they waited for him, and
sentries in the advanced posts strained
their ears to catch his whistle, but he
never came. The day passed and shortly
before midnight Shields came in.
have not written of Shields before be-
cause he brought back some information
so valuable that plans for a raid soon to
be made on the German lines were mate
rally changed, and the raid was a bigger
success than 1t would otherwise have been.
He had spent the whole night, the day and
half the following night in a shell-hole in
No Mans Land. so close to the German
! trenches that he could see their faces
plainly and hear them talking.
He had become separated from the patrol,
when German sentries heard it moving
and raked 1t with machine guns and auto
mates. There were no casualties, but the
men had to fairly spread themselves but
ter-thin on the ground, for the bullets
streamed through the grass just a few
inches above the turf. Crawling this way
and taking every bit Of cover he could,
Shields became separated from the main
body during the withdrawal, suddenly find
ing himself in shell-hole and two boche S
beside him, one on either side OF the hole
and both pumping away at his comrades
with automatic rifles
They had come out Of the trenches and
were trying to demoralize the withdrawal
OF the American patrol. They did not see
Shields. He could have reached out with
out moving his body and grabbed one Of
them by his black beard.
They were still waiting there beside him
when Shields heard his mates sending
over the peculiar whistle signal. On i'm
pulse. he said later, he puckered his lips
to answer. then remembering the boche
on either side Of him. he caught himself.
His pistol was ready in his hand and a
grenade was in his left, and he was pre-
pared to either kill them or die himself
rather than be captured.
Not until il began to grow light did the
boches crowd back to their lines, and then
Shields knew he was in for an all-day
siege. He dug himself some comfortable
dents in the dirt, and pulled himself up to
the edge Of the hole to take look at the
world.
The first thing he saw was German
sniper crawling down toward our trenches,
The Germans uniform was green like
the grass through which he crawled. When
he was motionless he was virtually in
visible Shields raised his pistol to kill
him, then remembered that he would give
away his position. get himself captured,
and the Germans would simply send out
another sniper. So Shields got ready to
capture the sniper when he crawled back.
The path the German had taken was
several yards away from Shields shelter,
so the lad from Boyds Md. got out Of the
hole and crawled over to the path. Here
he lay behind a small bush, got his pistol
ready and waited. When the sniper came
back from his sniping there would be
Shields in his way holding an American
automatic under his nose, whispering,
Turn around. you cockroach and crawl
ahead Of me, or III blow your head off,"
But this dramatic episode never took
place, for the sniper returned by another
route. Shields reward for his patience
and endurance Of hunger and thirst had
not much personal satisfaction In II for
Shields. consisting largely in having so
much to tell his company and regimental
commanders that they we're almost as
glad to see him back alive as though he
had been a colonel, They even rode him
back to brigade headquarters so the Gen
eral could talk to him, for plans for the