Raymond Dziadosz, was born on February 7, 1911 to Polish immigrants Frank and Sofie Dziadosz in Shamokin, PA. Ray grew up in Newark NJ and worked as a salesman for Mrs. Wagners Baking Company in that City. He was married to his wife Violet and the couple were living in South Hackensack NJ, when Raymond registered for the Selective Service on October 16, 1940. When his number came up in early 1944, Raymond and Violet had added a son, Robert and a daughter, Joan to their family and had purchased a small Craftsman style home at 32 Wingra Ave, Rutherford NJ.

Raymond was 33 years old when he was inducted into the U.S. Army on April 3, 1944 at Fort Dix. 8 months later, Private Dziadosz found himself "somewhere in Belgium" with the 92nd Replacement Battalion. In a letter to his wife - dated 4 December 1944 Ray talks about being a baker in the rear echelon - "We bake pies and cakes and sometimes make puddings. I'd like to stay here for the duration if I could." That was not to be. On December 12, he and 16 other replacements were assigned to C Company, 28th Infantry Regiment, 8th Infantry Division and were sent to the front near the German village of Vossenack. Vossenack in the Hurtgen Forest was the scene of very heavy fighting in November and December of 1944. Just 3 days later, on December 15, Raymond was severely wounded during an Artillery barrage. The Company Morning report and the initial telegram sent to his wife state that he had been “Lightly Wounded in Action”. The truth was blunt and brutal; “ he received severe high explosive shell wounds of the head, neck, right shoulder and right hip 15 December 1944 in the vicinity of South Vossenack, Germany. He was evacuated to a hospital (2nd Evacuation Hospital) where he received the very best medical care available but died the following day as a result of those wounds”. He was originally buried in Belgium at Henri Chapelle American Cemetery.

In 1948, his remains were returned to the US and were interred at Beverly National Cemetery in New Jersey. Raymond Dziadosz was one of over 3000 men from Rutherford (1940 Population of 15,466) who served during the war, and one of 95 who lost their lives.

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org/ ). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Raymond P Dziadosz