28 NOVEMBER 15, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Ridgewood woman shared stories
from World War I soldier
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
With the nation having just
commemorated the 100th
anniversary of the armistice
that ended World War I, we’re
looking back this week on some wartime
correspondence that a longtime
Ridgewood resident received from an
enlisted loved one.
In the Jan. 9, 1986 issue of the Ridgewood
Times, we published a number of
letters sent to the paper by Winifred
Beckett Seelig. The letters were written
by her cousin, Edward G. Kahrs,
during World War I.
He was a private in the U.S. Marine
Corps, enlisting in 1917 at the age of 16.
The Marine Corps furnished their
recruits with printed stationary on
which were printed various slogans
such as “two-in-one service land and
sea,” “broadening travel,” “out-of-door
life,” “good pay.” The stationary also
had printed scenes of Marines in China,
in action fi ring artillery on land,
and large guns on ships at sea, and in
battle on land.
His fi rst letter was written July 12,
1917 and was sent from the United
States Marine Corps Recruit Depot at
the Marine Barracks at the Navy Yard
in Portsmouth, Virginia. But the other
letter, dated June 17, 1918, was mailed
from France, where he was assigned to
the 84th Company in the 6th Regiment,
United States Marine Corp, American
Expeditionary Force.
Here’s what Eddie wrote to his
father from the front lines. It’s quite a
revealing look at what an American soldier
had to endure during World War I:
It sure has been a long time since
we have been allowed to write but this
aft ernoon though still within range
of the Boche artillery, we are resting
and getting lots of sleep and hot chow,
something we had not known for 20
days. Haven’t slept under a roof since
last month.
We have been out in the fi elds and
forests with a poncho and blanket,
cooking our own chow and it sure is
surprising what tasty dishes can be
made from bacon and its grease using
the hard tack.
I suppose you have read a great deal
of our drive. Well, here is the sum
and substance of it: The Boches were
driving the French very hard and
pushing them back. Well, they rushed
Ridgewood Times archives
us up on the line at the time when the
French were actually in retreat. Our
boys brought the Boche to a dead stop,
and one day we made up our combat
packs, and with two day’s ration of bacon
and hardtack and a quart of water,
we went forward to the line and at 5
o’clock went over the top. There were
no trenches, for this is open warfare.
We had just one wave of two lines,
the men 5 paces apart, and the second
line to the rear of the fi rst. Well we
pushed them back about 1 ½ miles in
our sector, taking a town with it. Pop,
it was something that will remain in
my memory forever.
Some of my best friends have fallen,
never to rise again, God bless them.
Some are wounded beyond recovery,
and others will be minus diff erent
members of their bodies.
This tribute to the World War I soldiers ran in a May 1918 issue of the Ridgewood Times
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