18 OCTOBER 31, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
WW II stories: R’wood soldier survived land mine blast,
BY THE OLD TIMER
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Throughout World War II, the
Ridgewood Times proudly
featured pages upon pages
of stories of survival and heroism
focused on local men on the front
lines in Europe and the Pacific.
As Veterans Day approaches,
we’re proud to share with you some
of these stories that we’ve come
across in our research of Ridgewood
Times archives in the winter
of 1945 — as the Allied Forces were
advancing rapidly toward victory
over Nazi Germany in Europe, and
getting closer to triumph over Imperial
Japan.
One such story appeared in the
Feb. 16, 1945, issue of the Ridgewood
Times. The headline alone, “Ridgewood
GI saved his life by stepping
on land mine,” seems almost too
incredible to be true.
Yet the article written by Corporal
Nino LoBello — a longtime Ridgewood
Times columnist in service to
the Armed Forces at the time — tells
the remarkable tale of how one of
Ridgewood’s own survived a brush
with death on the battlefield in
France.
“Not very many American soldiers
can say that they had their lives
saved by stepping on an enemy
land mine, but Pfc. William Muller
of Ridgewood is home today — alive
and on furlough — merely because
Upon their return to Ridgewood from various parts of the world, a game of softball or stickball brought “the
gang” together for this July 1945 photo at the Menahan Street entrance to the P.S. 81 school yard. Nino
LoBello, who wrote for the Ridgewood Times, is pictured in the back row, second from right.
Ridgewood Times archives
he had the “good fortune” to step
on a German Teller Anti-Personnel
Mine in France.
Private Muller, an infantryman
with the 29th Division, lost his right
foot and ankle last summer near St.
Lo. He was evacuated to England and
eventually was shipped to Percy Jones
General Hospital in Battle Creek,
Mich., where he underwent final surgery
to prepare him for his artificial
leather foot. He is the son of Mr. and
Mrs. Peter Muller of 1870 Menahan
St.
What happened to him at the front
was described yesterday by the local
GI. A
ssigned with another mortarman
to guard the flank of his platoon,
which was preparing to withdraw
temporarily from the outskirts of St.
Lo, Muller found himself in No-Man’s
land with German and Yank artillery
overhead, pinning the two down.
“We decided to try and crawl back
to the general direction of the Yank
lines,” he described. “We crawled
about two hedgerows and then it
happened. The Jerries a nickname
the troops used for the German forces
were throwing a heavy barrage, so my
buddy and I figured we would take a
chance and run the rest of the way.
“We got about halfway when I heard
an 88 mm. Shell coming too close for
comfort. I yelled ‘duck’ to my buddy
and I dove for the side of the hedgerow,
and bang-o, I passed over a mine with
my body and hit it with my right foot.
“The blasted thing picked me up
and threw me about 20 feet through
the air into a ditch. But stepping on
that mine saved my life, because it
threw me away from the shell which
landed a few feet from where I fell on
the mine, and which killed my buddy
instantly.”
While in mid-air, the shell fragments
peppered Muller’s body; one
piece hit the bone behind his right
ear and bounced off and went clear
through his helmet.
Muller lay in a mined area for
several hours until intrepid medics
felt their way toward him and brought
him back to safety.
“My hat is off to those soldiers in
the medical outfits. I could kiss the
medic who crawled up to me, fed me
sulfur pills and bandaged me up. He
bellied up to me right in the middle
of the artillery barrage while I was
prostrate in a heavily mined area,
and then when shells landed nearby,
he shielded my body with his,” Muller
declared.
The Ridgewood soldier joined the
service in February 1943. He went
overseas in April of last year and was
wounded in mid-July. After his furlough,
he will return to Michigan for
a month’s observation, after which he
will be medically discharged.
His immediate plans following his
discharge are to attend a television
school in Michigan and to propose to
his sweetheart, Miss Vera McKinney,
a telephone operator from Michigan.
Muller, 21, attended Grover Cleveland
High School and was employed
in Manhattan before he was drafted.
He has a brother, Pvt. Alfred Muller,
who is in England working in a station
hospital.
* * *
Another proud story which the
Ridgewood Times ran on March 23,
1945, focused on another hero of the
war from Ridgewood, who received
honors for bravely delivering food to
American soldiers while under heavy
attack in Europe.
With the 39th Infantry Regiment
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