Louis Klebanow

Louis (Leo) Klebanow was born on 5 January 1896 in Babruysk, Belarus (then-known as Bobruisk, Bobruisk District, Minsk Province, Russian Empire; it remained within the Soviet Union until after World War II) to Minnie Garelick (1876-1941) and Nathan Klebanow (1868-1919). He was the first of three children of Nathan and Minnie; siblings Bessie (1898-1975) and Joseph (1914-1956), but had two half siblings, Isadore (1887-1946) and Rose (1889-?) from his father’s first marriage to Eva Shapiro (?-?).

The family arrived in the United States around 1910, settling in Boston, Massachusetts. Klebanow may have attended the Eliot School in Boston for an undetermined length of time. The family relocated to New York in the late 1910s (130 E. Broadway, New York, NY) where Klebanow worked as a printer at Gotham Press Club (225 W 39^th St., New York, NY)

Klebanow was drafted and entered the service on 6 December 1917 in New York; he was promoted to Private First Class on 1 February 1918, Corporal on 21 July. Klebanow was assigned to Company E, 307th Infantry Regiment, 77th Division; with them, he left New York on 7 April 1918 aboard the U.S. Army Transport Ship Justicia. Corporal Klebanow was cited for two actions that later became his Distinguished Service Cross and Oak Leaf Cluster, first, on 27 August 1918 near Fismes, France, the second on 4 September 1918 also at Fismes, France;

“The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Corporal Louis Klebanow (ASN: 1705544), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company E, 307th Infantry Regiment, 77th Division, A.E.F., at Chateau du Diable, near Fismes, France, 27 August 1918. During the attack, after several runners had failed to deliver an important message, Corporal Klebanow voluntarily carried the message from the battalion commander to a flank company through intense machine-gun and shell fire. Returning through the same bombardment with the reply, he then led reinforcements forward to the flank company which enabled the company to resist successfully a counterattack by superior forces. Earlier in the same day, under direct machine-gun fire, he voluntarily went to the aid of a wounded officer, bound up his wounds, and assisted him to shelter.”

“The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting a Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster in lieu of a Second Award of the Distinguished Service Cross to Corporal Louis Klebanow (ASN: 1705544), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company E, 307th Infantry Regiment, 77th Division, A.E.F., at Fismes, France, on the night of 4 September 1918. Although severely wounded by an exploding shell in a congested road which killed or wounded four officers and every enlisted man in the detachment, Corporal Klebanow directed the evacuation of the wounded and kept the road open for traffic.”

Neither citations that warranted awards were received until 21 December 1935. Klebanow was wounded in action in September of 1918,

“…at the Vesle Sector- by a fragment of a high explosive shell- the shell entered my right chest. American Red Cross Hospital Nos. 110, 111, Evacuation Hospital No. 4- Military Hospital No. 1, Sept. 19 till 23 November”. The extent of his injuries are currently unknown, but nonetheless resulted in a 25% disability rating at the time of his Discharge

According to Klebanow, he also was, “Cited once by the Adjutant of Battalion HQ Aug. 23, 1918- Lt. Carl Schug. Cited by my Major- J.K. Jay, (have copy of citation)- from a hospital in Paris after the Major was wounded in his right arm.” Cpl Klebanow returned to the United States on 20 December 1918, and was Honorably Discharged on 8 March 1919.

Upon his return home, Klebanow married Ella Danowitz (1898-1981) on 2 June 1919 in Manhattan, New York; the couple had three children, Norman (1919-1994), Isabelle (1922-1989), and Adeline (1925-2011). Klebanow worked as a printing salesman and settled his family at East 179^th St., Bronx, New York. By the 1930s, Klebanow and his wife were proprietors of their own printing shop, living at 6116 Tyndall Ave., Bronx, New York. It was there that Klebanow died of Coronary Thrombosis and Pulmonary Oedema on 1 January 1936,

“For seventeen years Leo Klebanow waited for recognition of his bravery in 1918 in No Man’s Land of France. It came on Dec. 21. Nine hundred offices and men paraded in their regimentals on the wind-swept grounds of Governors Island. Brig.-Gen. William E. Cole, commandant of the Second Coast Artillery District, pinned the Distinguished Service Cross with oak leaves on Klebanow.

Yesterday he died.

A heart ailment killed him in his home at 6116 Tyndall Ave., Bronx. He was 40. He was president of the 307^th Infantry Society. In France he won his citation when he wriggled across the entanglements to carry an important message to an officer near Fismes.”*

Klebanow is buried in Mount Lebanon Cemetery, Glendale, Queens, New York, next to his parents. His wife continued to maintain the printing business into the 1950s; she outlived him by 45 years and never remarried.

*“Hailed A Hero, Dies 10 Days After Award”. Daily News, New York, New York. 2 January 1936.