Dedication ceremony for the monument to World War I Airmen at the Memorial Park of the National Museum of the United States Air Force (NMUSAF) near Dayton, Ohio, September 21, 2018.

WWI Centennial Reflections: Robert Kasprzak, League of World War I Aviation Historians

"The monument is a lasting cultural testament to the early pioneers of military aviation"

By Robert Kasprzak
Special to the United States World War I Centennial Commission web site

After two years of intensive effort, the League of World War I Aviation Historians dedicated a monument to World War I Airmen at the Memorial Park of the National Museum of the United States Air Force (NMUSAF) near Dayton, Ohio on 21 September 2018.

The League initiated the project in 2016 after noting there was no monument at the Park to the U.S. Airmen who served at the Front during the Great War. As a result, the League wanted to establish a monument at the NMUSAF in memory of the Airmen who formed the foundation for today's United States Air Force. After crafting an initial design and functional concept, the monument design was approved by the Air Force Historical Research Agency and the NMUSAF in June 2017.

Upon Air Force approval, the League began fund-raising the $28,000 required for monument construction, installation, and perpetual maintenance by the Museum. Towards that end, the League reached out to various sponsors requesting grants (including the WWI Centennial Commission), personal donations, and donations from historical/military related organizations. After months of effort, the funds were raised and the monument was constructed and installed.

The 21 September 2018 dedication ceremony was a resounding success. The ceremony was designed to honor the Airmen of World War I while recognizing today's Airmen who carry on the legacy established a century ago. Ceremony participants included WWI re-enactors, an Honor Guard and Air Force Band of Flight from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, a local Post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and members of the Military Heritage Chapter (Dayton/Cincinnati/Columbus area) of the League.

Read more: WWI Centennial Reflections: Robert Kasprzak

Mike Hanlon (front row, second from left) with one of the many American tour groups he escorted to European battlefields during the World War I Centennial commemorative period. 

WWI Centennial Reflections: Mike Hanlon

"I'm very proud of what we produced."

By Mike Hanlon
Special to the United States World War I Centennial Commission web site

Editor's note: Historian Mike Hanlon has been a WW1CC volunteer since the Commission's earliest days. He has been a frequent contributor to the weekly Sync Call and Podcast, and social media postings. A noted Battlefield Tour Guide, Mike led dozens of tour groups and official staff rides through the major sites in France, Belgium, and Germany during the Centennial period. He is also a formidable publisher, with a number of web sites and magazines focused on World War I. Mike has been interviewed previously in these pages (see here and here). Now, with the Centennial of the Armistice passed, he takes a look back the five year WWI Centennial commemorative period, and reflects of the activities therein.

Mike HanlonFor over 30 years I've been fascinated by the First World War. I simply find it endlessly interesting and I never tire of learning about it. To share my enthusiasm, for most of that time I've been writing, speaking and publishing on the war, and additionally leading nearly three dozen tours of its battlefields, mostly to the Western Front, but also to Italy and Gallipoli.

As the Centennial approached, I could see that interest in the war would peak during the five-year period, that there would finally be a concerted effort to build a national First World War memorial in the nation's capital, and that there would be many commemorative projects around the country initiated by individuals, organizations, and agencies that would need support and visibility.

I wanted to encourage this nation-wide effort and to play a role myself, by sharing my own understanding of the war and information that I had gathered about it, especially concerning America's effort and sacrifices.

My Centennial work centered around three publications: a daily blog, Roads to the Great War; a monthly newsletter, The St. Mihiel Trip Wire, and subscription magazine, Over the Top. My unifying approach for these publications—and for my battlefield tour business—was to parallel the Great War as it unfolded 100 years ago, month-by-month, day-by-day.

My 2014 tours, for example, covered the opening Battles of the Frontier and the First Battle of the Marne on the anniversaries of the fighting.

In my publications, those events were also analyzed with in-depth articles and other important events the year, the run-up to the war, the assassination at Sarajevo, the July Crisis, the Race to the Sea, and the war on the Eastern Front were featured. This practice was repeated for every year of the Centennial.

Read more: Mike Hanlon-Experiencing the Centennial

 Kane Family 1917: John Kane Sr., John B. Kane, Mary Kane, James Kane, and younger siblings. Six of the twelve children had previously died. Picture taken Oct. 1917 prior to John B. and James leaving for France.

The Khaki Road of Yesterday: My grandfather's WWI book

By Gus and LaWanda Zimmerman
Special to the United States World War One Centennial Commission web site

My grandfather, John B. Kane-an architect who lived in the Philadelphia area, died when I was twelve years old. He never discussed his time in the service during WW1. When my mother was an adult, she discovered a book he wrote to her when she was ten years old. The "little story" was typed on fragile onion skin paper, written as though he were telling his young daughter stories about his military service.

My mother's name is Sara "Sashie" Kane Crawford. She became Sashie because her mother's name was also Sara, so my mother's nickname became Sashie from her dad.

We speculate he wrote the book because WW2 was just starting, and he couldn’t imagine how the leaders would allow such monumental sacrifice to occur again.

WWI was the first time Americans fought overseas, consequently resulting in the formation of the Graves Registration Service. His drafting experience was put to good use by designing and plotting the first of many American cemeteries in France.

Read more: The Khaki Road of Yesterday: My grandfather's WWI book

Podcast Interview with "They Shall Not Grow Old" Supervising Sound Editor Brent Burge 

"It was really about authenticity"

By Chris Isleib
Director of Public Affairs, United States World War One Centennial Commission

Rarely in our lifetime will we see a tribute to the veterans of World War I that is as unique, or as vivid, as the new documentary film, "They Shall Not Grow Old", directed by noted filmmaker Peter Jackson.

The film project, which is a WW1CC commemorative partner, was produced by the UK's special WWI public arts office, 1418NOW, and utilizes original 100-year old combat imagery that has been treated with 21st Century digital technology in restoration, colorization, visual-effects, editing -- and sound. The original footage was silent, so all aspects of sound were addressed in the film's overall sound design, be it combat sound effects, lip-readers to provide accurate dialogue, background audio elements, etc. The results have been extraordinary, and have been heralded as a true milestone in filmmaking by critics.

The film's sound achievements came from the remarkable talents of Brent Burge, the film's Supervising Sound Editor. Brent is a legend in the world of sound editing for film, and his credits are ones we are all familiar with -- THE LORD OF THE RINGS/THE HOBBIT film series, READY PLAYER ONE, THE PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST, etc.

Our Podcast Producer/Host Theo Mayer was able to talk to Brent about his work on the World War I documentary film, and about this film project's impact.

What follows is a transcript of the podcast interview, hosted by WW1CC's Theo Mayer, which can be listened to here.

[0:42:00]
Theo Mayer: Peter Jackson, one of the most innovative film directors working today had an idea. Using his craft and his genius, he wanted to create a time machine to transport those young men and boys from what we think of as a choppy, crude, black and white silent world from 100 years ago into the present. Of course, the world really wasn't black and white and silent. It was as three dimensional and vibrant as your world is right now. So Peter Jackson led a team of artists, technologists, creators, and they took the hundred year old clunky, silent film footage and brought it to life. The movie is called They Shall Not Grow Old, and you've never seen anything like it.

Read more: Podcast Interview with "They Shall Not Grow Old" Supervising Sound Editor Brent Burge

Four Questions for Steven Trout, The Center for the Study of War and Memory

"Many of the issues that surfaced because of the war have never gone away" 

By Lee Febos
Staff Writer

Dr. Steven Trout is a professor at the University of South Alabama, where he and his colleague Professor Susan McCready lead a unique organization -- The Center for the Study of War and Memory. The Center is an interdisciplinary team of scholars committed to advancing the study of war remembrance in all its forms -- including public memorials, civic rituals, works of literature and film, television programs, and web sites. The Center hosts speakers and conferences, offers online scholarly materials, and serves as a resource on all matters related to war commemoration. We were able to talk to Professor Trout about the Center, his work there, and his thoughts on World War I in America.

Whose insights helped you to bring out your interest in the subject of remembrance? Why do you feel this research in memory is useful?

Dr. Steven TroutI first saw the value of a memory-studies approach to the subject of war when I read Edward Tabor Linenthal’s amazing Sacred Ground: Americans and their Battlefields (1991), a foundational work in the field. Linenthal focused his book on several major battles in American history—the Alamo, Gettysburg, and Little Big Horn, among them—but unlike military historians he wasn’t interested in the specific reasons why one side won and the other lost. Instead, he looked at the way Americans have made sense of these battles over time, a messy process, as it turns out, invariably defined by controversy and conflict. Specifically, he studied what happened on each battlefield after the last shot was fired, tracing the erection (and, in some cases, the removal) of memorials by various and often competing constituencies, as well as the evolution of battlefield rituals, such as reunions and reenactments. Reading the book, you come to realize that remembrance is itself a kind of battlefield with warring forces and winners and losers. I’ve kept this metaphor in the back of my mind ever since reading Sacred Ground.

When it comes to the First World War, Jay Winter’s Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History (1995) made a big impression on me when I read it more than twenty years ago. The book is an interdisciplinary tour de force. Like Linenthal, Winter was interested in cultural remembrance, but his research leaned more in the direction of the arts. To understand how Europeans processed the memory of an unthinkable war, Winter looked at statues, paintings, films, and works of literature, moving effortlessly from one medium (and one nationality) to another. His book has influenced my own approach to memory studies a great deal.

Research on cultural memory matters because we need to think carefully about what we are doing when we participate in public remembrance. War memorials are often inscribed with the language of permanence. The dead will be remembered “forever.” Their deeds will be honored “eternally.” And so forth. But memory-studies scholarship tells us that nothing is permanent, that remembrance is, in fact, a fluid process. Many memorials are modified over time, their meanings altered. Others hide in plain sight, no longer holding any relevance for the people who pass them each day without ever really seeing them. This suggests that remembrance has less to do with the past than it does with the needs of the present. Scholarship in this field also demonstrates, again and again, that all memorials are political in some way. They may promote the shared memory of one group at the expense of another. Or the version of the past that they enshrine may involve as much forgetting as remembering. Being conscious of such dynamics may help us as a society to create more thoughtful and more inclusive representations of the past.

Read more: Four Questions for Steven Trout, Center for War and Memory

British nurse Edith Cavell was sentenced to death by a German military court and executed October 12, 1915. (Inset) The Google Doodle honoring heroic WWI nurse Edith Cavell on her 153rd birthday.

Google Doodle pays tribute to Edith Cavell, heroic WWI nurse 

By Lianne Kolirin
via the Cable News Network web site

A British nurse who risked -- and ultimately lost -- her life to help British and French soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium in World War I is remembered with a Google Doodle Tuesday.

Edith Cavell was born on December 4, 1865, in Norfolk, eastern England. Nursing wasn't an immediate vocation -- she turned to it at the age of 30, after caring for her sick father.

Following training at the Royal London Hospital with Matron Eva Lückes, a friend of Florence Nightingale, she went on to work in a number of UK hospitals before her life changed forever with a move to Belgium.

There she was appointed the first matron of the Berkendael Institute in Brussels, where she became a pioneer of modern nursing.

Cavell, who never married, was visiting family in 1914 when war broke out. She immediately returned to Brussels, where she pledged to treat casualties of all nationalities -- regardless of their allegiance.

She simultaneously became involved with an underground group that sheltered French and British soldiers. Together, they helped around 200 men to escape occupied Belgium.

But disaster struck in August 1915 when Cavell was caught, arrested and charged with treason. She confessed to a German military court and was executed on October 12, 1915, despite an international outcry.

Read more: Google Doodle pays tribute to Edith Cavell, heroic WWI nurse

Robert Knight (at center, right) accepts the Purple Heart award for his great uncle, William James Williams, Jr., who died in the tragic sinking to the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Tampa in World War I, presented by Capt. Joseph Buzzella, Jr., USCG, during ceremonies at San Diego Coast Guard headquarters.

Great uncle Willie gets his Purple Heart 100 years after his death in World War I 

By Diane Bell
via the San Diego Union Tribune newspaper web site

In his soon-to-be-released documentary, “They Shall Not Grow Old,” based on actual World War I film footage, “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson explained that his grandfather had actually fought in the war. He offered this explanation for why he had taken on the project.

“I think it’s great if we can just pause for a moment and think about them for a bit because they are part of our family, part of us. We still carry their DNA … let’s pause in our modern lives for a second and think about what they went through,” he told Britain’s Forces TV.

It’s a quote Poway CPA Robert Knight invokes to explain why he requested the Purple Heart award ceremony that took place Thursday for his great uncle William James Williams, Jr., 100 years after he died during a German U-boat attack in World War I.

Williams had been one of the lucky ones who, unlike his younger brothers, wasn’t drafted when the United States joined the war. But when a call came in early 1918 for machinists to enlist in the war effort of the Coast Guard — which had been placed under U.S. Navy jurisdiction the previous year — he and his best friend in Muskegon, Mich., signed up.

Less than seven months later, both he and his friend, Francis “Frank” Scott, had perished off the coast of Wales when their 190-foot Coast Guard cutter Tampa was torpedoed. It was on a mission of escorting supply convoys back and forth from Gibraltar to southern England and Wales. Only three bodies were ever recovered from the wreckage.

It wasn’t until President Harry S. Truman extended Purple Heart eligibility for members of the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard back to 1917 that the 115 Tampa crewmen, who died along with the Tampa’s 16 passengers, became eligible for Purple Hearts. The medal is reserved for those wounded or killed during war.

And it wasn’t until about six years ago, when Knight started researching his genealogy, that he stumbled across his great uncle’s background. “Willie died in World War I,” was all he had ever heard over the years from other family members, including his grandmother, Willie’s younger sister.

Read more: Great uncle Willie gets his Purple Heart 100 years after his death in World War I

Cast of the Hello Girls off-Broadway musical in New York performing an ensemble number.

The Hello Girls Off-Broadway musical runs until December 22

By Madison Menz
Staff Writer

The "Hello Girls" of World War I were a group of women recruited by General Pershing, and sworn into the United States Army to manage the manual telephone switchboards that connected communications across the entire American front lines.

Women were specifically recruited who were bilingual in both French and English. Some 7,000 stepped forward to volunteer, and 232 were chosen to participate in this special, high-importance war effort. These women literally paved the way for women in the workplace, and for women serving in the military -- yet, today, they are hardly remembered when we think about the history of World War I.

Cara Reichel, the musical's writer, and artistic director came across these women, and their incredible story, through a documentary called “Unsung Heroes” in 2014. After watching this, Reichel wrote up a grant to the National Education Association (NEA) to help develop the musical The Hello Girls with her co-writer Peter Mills.

In spring 2017, they commissioned the grant through the Prospect Theatre Company, using in-depth research to bring to life the story of the Hello Girls. Using sources such as “The Bell Telephone News” and “Stars and Stripes” both of which were wartime publications, they also read journals of Grace Banker, a chief operator among other sources they have found along the way. One of the most important sources was the recently-published book titled "The Hello Girls" by Elizabeth Cobb (also a WW1CC Commemorative Partner) in 2017.

Read more: The Hello Girls Off-Broadway musical runs until Dec. 22

U.S. Mint resources regarding 2018 WWI Commemorative Silver Dollar

Sales of collectible coin directly support the creation of the new National WWI Memorial in DC

By Chris Isleib
Director of Public Affairs, United States World War One Centennial Commission

Many of us know that, on December 27th, the U.S. Mint will close sales for their new 2018 World War I Centennial Silver Dollar, and for the companion silver medals representing each of the five military services.

But before they do -- Have you seen the great new resources that the U.S. Mint has provided, to help tell the story of the coins, and of their background?

The Mint's program webpage here has some great new features to check out. https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-medal-programs/commemorative-coins/world-war-i-centennial.

There is a great interview with the designer of the silver dollar, Leroy Transfield. Transfield is a native of New Zealand, and had several ancestors who served in World War I. Their experiences inspired him to create & submit a design for the coin, which won the Mint's open/international design competition.

Read more: U.S. Mint resources regarding 2018 WWI Commemorative Silver Dollar

From the World War I Centennial News Podcast

Historian Corner: Professor Joanna Bourk on WW1's Legacy of Pain and Fear

In December 7th's WW1 Centennial News Podcast, Episode 100, host Theo Mayer spoke with Professor Joanna Bourk about the steep impact of military wounds, both mental and physical, on both the men and women who carried them and society at large. The following is a transcript of the interview, edited for clarity: 

Theo Mayer: Because of the sheer number of individuals that served in the war effort, it's not surprising that the war had widespread and lingering effects of the psychological health of individuals and nations alike in the following years. Millions served in World War I, large segments of entire generations, and it's now evermore broadly accepted that nearly all combatants in war, even if they're not physically wounded, suffer trauma from the experience. To help us unpack the lasting marks of war, wounds, pain, and fear, we're joined by Joanna Bourke, Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London, and the author of several books including: Dismembering the Male: Men's Bodies, Britain, and the Great War, and also Deep Violence: Military Violence, War Play, and the Social History of Weapons. Joanna, welcome to the podcast.
Joanna Bourke: Hi, it's really great being here, Theo.Joanna Bourk is a Professor of History at Birkbeck College, the University of London, and a fellow of the British Academy

Theo Mayer: So Joanna, one of your books is titled, Dismembering the Male: Men's Bodies, Britain, and the Great War. That's pretty intriguing. Can you briefly outline that context for us?
Joanna Bourke: It is actually a book about literal dismemberment as well as figurative and psychological dismemberment. So what I wanted to do in that book was to actually ask: How did British and American men and women actually experience war? So I was interested in the effect of witnessing acts of extreme cruelty, which of course left deep scars, but also of inflicting cruelty on other people. Every day of the war, 5600 men were killed. In Britain, there's major problems with physical dismemberment. 41,000 men had their limbs amputated during the war, 272,000 had other injuries to their legs and arms, 61,000 ha wounds to their head or to their eyes. So it really changed the landscape of disabled people in Britain. But of course I'm also interested in psychological trauma. I know millions were driven insane, and the best estimate is about 20% of casualties were psychiatric casualties, so I was really interested in what happened when those people came back and the effect on women, their mothers, their sister, their daughters also had this sort of grenade lobbed into their life as a result of the war when their menfolk came home, and they had to provide that emotional labor in trying to help them, trying to provide sustenance for these people.

Theo Mayer: And heading to the psychological impact, and given that your focus is from a historian's perspective, not a medical practitioner, addressing what was called then shell shock and now known as PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, how was shell shock viewed socially in context, medically?

Read more: Podcast Article- Joanna Bourk Interview