WORLD WAR II MEMORIAL - Tech 4 Sergeant Lester Frank Spangler

 

Tech 4 Sergeant Lester Frank Spangler

Lester F. Spangler registered for the draft on October 16, 1940, and was one of the earlier draftees in the county. The son of Henry Rudolph and Ruth E. (Donley) Spangler of Defiance, he was born on June 2, 1918, near Junction and attended school in both Deshler and Sherwood.

 Lester was 5'5" and 143 pounds when he enlisted. He was inducted on May 28, 1941, in Toledo, and the Army welcomed him into the 771st Tank Battalion. 

Before enlisting, Lester had worked at McConnell Truck Line in Defiance. For the Army, he was trained in tank operations and went overseas as a technical sergeant about five months before his death.

He was serving in Germany at the time of his death on December 2, 1944, in Kreis-Duren, Nordheim-Westfalen.

At article in the Crescent-News, describing the circumstances of Lester's death, appeared on January 17, 1945:

" LESTER SPANGLER FATALLY WOUNDED AS VOLUNTEER

Tech/4 Lester F. Spangler, 26, was fatally wounded December 2, on a volunteer mission behind enemy lines in Germany, according to a letter just received by his mother, Mrs. Ruth E. Spangler, route 6, from Captain Latvamaki.

T/4 Spangler's death was announced on December 14, but details were not learned until his captain's letter was received. Memorial services will be held at St. Paul Methodist Church here on a date to be announced.

Captain Latvamaki's letter said, in part:

'Your son volunteered to go on a mission behind enemy lines. With the success of this mission, many of his comrades' lives were spared. He had just accomplished this when he received his wounds. Your son had full knowledge of the danger of the mission, but did not at all hesitate to go ahead with it.

I have worked with your son for more than two years. In that time, I came to admire and respect him for his cool headedness, his willingness to cooperate in even the smallest tasks, and his ability to work and get along with other men.

He did not suffer from fear of pain. Services were conducted by a Protestant chaplain at his burial in Holland.'"

Lester F. Spangler was buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery, and is memorialized in Margraten, Eijsden-Margraten Municipality, Linburg, Netherlands.

Robert Carpenter, Researcher