28 MAY 17, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
The Lost Battalion & fate of Ridgewood
& Glendale Great War soldiers
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM /
RIDGEWOODTIMES
On Sept. 26, 1918, the 77th Division
— which included many
Ridgewood and Glendale soldiers
— participated in the Battle of
Argonne Forest. They were assigned
a front of 7 ½ kilometers, and in 19 days,
they managed to move 22 kilometers
against fi ve German divisions.
One of their units was the famous
“Lost Battalion,” which is where Lost
Battalion Hall in Rego Park got its name.
Elements from the 308th Infantry
Regiment and the 306th Machine
Gun Battalion, under the command of
Charles Whittlesey, were ordered to
push ahead in the Argonne Forest and
were told if they broke through to keep
going until they reached a certain position,
until those units on their fl anks
caught up with them.
They followed orders, but the units
on the fl anks had a great deal of diffi -
culty in moving ahead, so that Major
Whittlesey’s battalion was isolated.
The Germans, discovering this, laid
wire behind them and cut them off .
They were in a deep ravine, completely
surrounded. For six days and nights,
the German troops poured hand
grenades and shellfi re down on them.
Their food and ammunition ran low,
and the Germans called upon them to
surrender; they refused to do so.
Finally, American artillery fire
poured down in front of the ravine
Soldiers from the 308th Infantry Regiment (part of the 77th Division) are among the soldiers shown liberating
a French town in 1918.
and then skipped over it and poured
down on the far side. A short time later,
elements of the other brigades from
the 77th Division entered the ravine
and broke the trap. Of the 679 men that
went in, 252 came out.
The German Air Force commanded
the skies and bombed the Allied troops
day and night.
As the war was winding down and
the German armies were retreating,
the 77th Division advanced 37 kilometers;
when the war ended at 11 a.m. on
Nov. 11, 1918, they found themselves
on the east bank of the Meuse River,
only two kilometers from the historic
battlefi eld of Sedan. They were the
American Division closest to the German
border when the war ended.
They also had the distinction of being
the fi rst American National Army
division assigned to the line in France,
and the fi rst to be assigned in an active
sector. They suff ered 9,611 casualties;
when the war ended, they had 21,624
offi cers and men.
On May 6, 1919, the officers and
men of the 77th Division, “New York’s
Own,” were honored with a parade up
Fift h Avenue, with Mayor John Hylan
and Governor Al Smith greeting the
troops.
ALL GAVE SOME, AND
SOME GAVE ALL
In 1918, the local newspapers were
fi lled with lists of war casualties.
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Private Tobias Ammon of 765 Seneca
Ave. in Ridgewood, a member of
the 77th Division, was killed in action
in the Argonne Forest. He had left for
Camp Upton on Sept. 30, 1917.
Clarence T. Leonard died of wounds
he received in action on Sept. 15, 1918,
in France. His wife, a resident of Hanson
Place in Glendale, received the
dreaded telegram. He was inducted at
Camp Upton on Feb. 25, 1918, and left
for France on April 6 of that year.
Corporal Bernard Brandt, son of
Rebecca and Henry Brandt of 2527
Woodbine St. in Ridgewood, was convalescing
at a French hospital in October
1918 aft er being badly burned over
most of his body with mustard gas.
That August, he was guiding a squad
of men from a shellhole and had to
remove his mask. Upon returning to
headquarters, they had to cross a creek
that was apparently badly contaminated
with the poisonous gas. He was the
only member of the squad to survive
the trip.
Private Joseph Kuehn Jr., of 349
Grove St. in Ridgewood, was killed
in action on Sept. 29, 1918. He was inducted
into the Army in May 1918 and
assigned to Camp Upton; aft er a month,
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Lost Battalion Hall in Rego Park is named in honor of the World War I
unit that suff ered heavy casualties in the Battle of Argonne Forest.
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