WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES MAY 17, 2018 29
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
he had been sent to Camp Meade for
further training, then shipped overseas
aft er a week.
Sergeant William Wundersee’s father
had a butcher shop in Ridgewood,
and aft er his father died, he went to
work as a clerk in Jahrsdorfer’s butcher
shop on Woodward Avenue.
Wundersee died in the Argonne
Woods on Oct. 18, 1918. He had left
for Camp Upton on Sept. 30, 1917,
and because of his background was
assigned as a mess cook. He was then
sent to Camp Gordon in Georgia for six
weeks of training before being sent
back to Camp Upton, then assigned to
the front in France in April 1918.
One of the best local accounts of the
war front came from Private Edward
Kaiser, assigned to Company K of the
106th Regiment. He wrote a letter to his
brother, George, from France, and the
letter was published in the Nov. 8, 1918,
issue of the Ridgewood Times.
Private Kaiser mentioned that he
had some close shaves, one of which
occurring the fi rst time he went over
the top of the trench. He and another
fellow were in a shellhole when a shell
landed about three feet away from
them; it kicked up the dirt, but neither
of them were injured.
For two days and nights, his post
was a machine gun position in a shellhole
in front of their lines.
Everything was fine until they
were relieved and had to make their
way back to the lines. At that time,
the Germans opened up an artillery
barrage that lasted an hour and a half.
“We got out okay although the shells
were falling around us,” Private Kaiser
wrote. “We then went into the reserve
trenches for three days, and I think it
was worse than the front lines. When
you are in reserve, you have to take rations
to the front lines every night, and
it is a rather dangerous job. We took
about a thousand prisoners, mostly
very young or very old. They gave us
trouble with their machine gun nests.
We found some of them chained to
their guns.”
Some local troops received many
honors for their service.
First Sergeant Herman M. Sell, of 171
Decatur St. in Ridgewood, received the
Distinguished Service Cross for bravery.
He was in Company A of the 306th
Infantry Regiment of the 77th Division
on Sept. 6, 1918, at LeCendriere Woods.
Six runners had attempted to carry a
message to the battalion commander
and none had gotten through.
Sergeant Sell was assigned to the
task and was able to get through and
return with valuable information.
Sell was draft ed at Camp Upton on
Sept. 30, 1917, and left for France the
following April. Prior to his World
War I service, he previously served
eight years in the U.S. Navy.
In December 1918, Corporal Christopher
Spor returned home from France
on board the Leviathan. He lived at 472
Wyckoff Ave. in Ridgewood and had
been a member of the 71st Regiment before
being transferred to the Fighting
69th Regiment.
Spor was a regular Army man and
saw action along the Mexican border
when the U.S. Army was attempting to
capture Pancho Villa.
During World War I, Spor saw action
at the Battle of the Marne, Champagne,
Chateau-Thierry, St. Mihel and Argonne.
He was wounded at Argonne and had
to be carried nine miles back to a base
hospital. He wound up being blinded
four days from exposure to mustard gas.
At the Battle of the Marne, he received
the Legion of Honor Medal for
bayonetting and shooting nine enemy
troops.
From the Feb. 14, 1985 issue of the
Ridgewood Times
* * *
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Photo via Wikimedia Commons
A monument to the Lost Battalion of World War I in Argonne, France
Courtesy of the Queens Borough Public Library, Archives, Thomas R. Bayles Photographs
Military housing for offi cers at Camp Upton in Yaphank in 1919