The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1919-01-09
FIRST yANk
TAKEN BY HUNS
TELLS STORY
tBy u.,tea rre...)


is the story of the first American sol
mans in the war. as he told 1t, sitting
in a comfy armchair in the American
Red Cross headquarters on Grosvenor
Gardens
His name is John P. Lester of Tut
water, Miss He was a platoon-me5-
senger in the Sixteenth United States
Infantry. He was captured the morn
ing of November 3, 1917. in company
with 10 other doughboys-all that was
left of the platoon of 16 sent into a
front line trench in the Toul sector
the night before to relieve a platoon
of tired poilus. Here is the story:
"A German aviator spotted US soon
after daylight. and began circling over
US, signaling back to his artillery. We
let go at him with our guns. but
couldn't hit him. Next we knew the
Germans put down a box barrage on
all sides of us. completely cutting our
salient on from the rest of the sys-
tenn and 300 field-grays came over the
top.
I'VE blazed away at 'em until our
ammunition was gone. Five OF us
were killed and all but two wounded.
/ was hit three times in the leg. And
then they were upon us.
"a German corporal and four men
jumped down into the trench beside
me and told me TO get a move on.
believe was the first to be taken.
They marched US across No Mans
Land and into one of their own front
bitches.
Il never will forget the trip through
that trench We had not gone far be-
fore our feet began striking against
bodies of German soldiers, lying there
twisted up on the floor of the trench.
As we reached a more active salient.
the number of corpses increased
remember how our shoes slipped over
the heads of the dead Germans. how
pressure OF our weight, how the skin
of their faces was bruised as we
tramped over them.
"The first time our party halted. I
leaned against the wall of the trench.
nauseated and exhausted My leg
had began to throb terribly.
But a was brought to my senses in
a minute or two by a fst-blow in the
face. In front of me stood two Ger
man officers The other. one struck
me on the back of the neck. shouting
In German Il understood Germany.
You will get q good deal worse than
this IL you can't stand ut attention
and salute when an officer passes
1--WE were then quizxed in a little
dugout just behind the front line
trench-each separately. OF course.
The odd part OF it was that although
We had had no previous understanding
we all happened to give exactly the
same answers-as We found out later
In comparing notes.
Later. l. myself was present at 500
other Quizzings of prisoners. (The
Germans used me as an interpreter).
The Germans always asked just three
qeestions--f hardly remember q sim
gle variation. First, how many Amer
Jeans are there in FranceL Second.
is there any American artillery.
Third. tell what you know about the
conveying of troops
nat oAy VIC all aAb y tttu tuht
there were 3.o00. 900 Americans in
France. but no American artillery so
far as we knew. Most OF us said the
troopships came in conveys of from 20
to 40 ships. told them had come
over on the Mauretania. unescorted.
"Then they forced us to march 80
kilometers to a village which I think
was Kamecke. II was pretty tough. I
can tell you. You see. all but two of
us were wounded. and some OF the
fellows had all they could do to hob
BILE along. All the attention we had
received was little first aid in that
dugout.
Il was in hospital at Kamecke a
month. They fed US on bread and
watery soup.
After had began to mend they
removed me to the Giessen prison
camp. Then l was taken to Darn
stadt and finally to Tuchel. where |
stayed until the armistice.
"The first thing they did was to take
of our shoes and give us wooden slip
pers. The next was to tell us to get
to work.
'Still all we had to eat was little
black bread and watery soup.
After four months OF hard manual
labor we were so weak we couldn't
walk.
"One day German general visited
the camp. accompanied by a man who
said he was an American newspaper
man. We refused to believe him. at
first. thinking 1t was another German
trick to put us on our guard. He