Sync Call for Wednesday November 30, at 12pm EDT

News at a Glance

1. New York WWI Commission established by Gov. Cuomo

2. Paul LaRue  Ohio introduces a WWI Lesson Plan

3. Six-episode educational series from OSU Symposium - This week Episode I: The Military History of World War I, 1914-1918

4. 100 Cities / 100 Memorials - Ogden Utah submits grant

Read more below - Watch the video above

 

Sync Call Minutes
November 30, 2016

Update from the States

First, we have some updates from the States:

New York
We have some great news coming out of New York today!  Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed the official legislation to establish the New York State World War I 100th Anniversary Commemoration Commission!  As you may know, between 1914 and 1918, there were over 37 million casualties with over 13,000 New Yorkers losing  their lives. Among  the noteworthy New York regiments fighting in World War I include New York's 69th Infantry Regiment, referred to as  the  "Fighting  69th" and  New  York's 369th Infantry Regiment, popularly known as the "Harlem Hellfighters", the first African American regiment  to  serve  with  the American  Expeditionary  Forces  during  World  War I.
New York State World War I 100th Anniversary Commemoration Commission
http://nyassembly.gov/leg/?default_fld=&leg_video=&bn=S06856&term=2015&Summary=Y&Actions=Y&Floor%26nbspVotes=Y&Text=Y

Many thanks to all of our New York volunteers who have worked so hard to make this happen, including Commissioner Libby O’Connell, Ryan Hegg, Bert Cunningham, and many thanks to  Senator Jack Martins for his willingness to lead the way on drafting the legislation, getting a strong Assembly sponsor, and getting the bill through both chambers.
We look forward to hearing  more news from New York State-  congratulations.

Utah
Traveling west, let’s explore World War I and its connection to the state of Utah which will be featured on Access Utah Public Radio this week.  You can listen to the episode which discusses the Great War and how it affected the people of Utah.

Its featured guests are Allan Kent Powell, Editor of “Utah and the Great War: The Beehive State and the World War I Experience”,  and E.B. Wheeler & Jeff Bateman authors of a newly released historical fiction novel entitled, "No Peace with the Dawn: A Novel of the Great War" set in Logan, Utah.  We’ll be posting the link to this program in the chat section for your convenience.
Special thank you to Mike Hanlon for passing this link along to us!
Utah Access Link:

http://upr.org/post/utah-and-wwi-thusdays-access-utah


Ohio:
And now, we have a special update concerning the state of Ohio from a friend of the show, Paul LaRue.
Paul is a retired social studies teacher in Ohio who has been working with the Ohio WWI Commission.  He has won many awards for his work in history education and African American history with the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. He has a wonderful local focus and we’re lucky to have him on the call today to discuss his WWI lesson plan.
Good afternoon, Paul over to you!
Ohio Lesson Plan:
http://www.ohiohistoryhost.org/ohiomemory/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Searching-for-Homer-Lawson-Lesson-Plan.pdf

Interesting fun fact, I see in your lesson plan, that you ask the students to find their local VFW and American Legion posts and identify for whom they are named. Seems like a great way to get young people involved in WWI. Thanks so much for sharing, PAul.
That’s a great project with lots of possibilities. Thank you Paul.
Next, we have another special guest, Sara R. Cureton, Executive Director of the New Jersey Historical Commission and New Jersey Cultural Trust.

Coinciding with the centennial of the US entry into WWI, NJ launched a 2-minute video on Veteran’s Day narrated by Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno which spotlights NJ and the Great War. Sara, would you like to tell us a little bit more about it and the NJ WWI Centennial commemoration plans.
New Jersey Website:
www.visitnj.org.

Andrew, Speaking about states, please tell us about tomorrow’s Commission’s State Outreach Collaboration Call,

Register for the State Outreach Call here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5156713208829555970
Questions about State Outreach? Please email Andrew McGreal at andrew.mcgreal@worldwar1centennial.org
Andrew, Thank you!

News and Announcements

Now, on to our news and announcements.

In October, we webcasted Ohio State University’s, ‘The War to End All Wars: U.S. National World War I Centennial Symposium.” We have gathered more than 8 hours of presentations. Each of which is unique, interesting, and preceded by a Poetry Reading. We have broken it up into separate episodes that we will be rolling out weekly between now and January.
These include:

• The Military History of World War I, 1914-1918
  
  
• Financing the First World War
  
  
• War, Death, and Remembrance in 1914-1918
  
  
•  WWI and the Emerging Laws of War
  
  
•  Shell Shock: Core Insights of the Recent Historiography
  
  
• KEYNOTE: The Redefinition of Battle: Verdun and the Somme, 1916
  
  

Make sure that you that you visit the commission's website to see the first video in the lectures series, “The Military History of World War I”, by Professor Peter Mansoor.

Peter Mansoor is OSU’s Chair of Military History and a frequent commentator in the media on national security affairs. Peter himself will be a guest on next week’s Sync Call on Wednesday, December 7th. So please mark your calendars for that. The link to his episode will be posted in the chatroom.
OSU War to end all war symposium videos http://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/educate/history/the-war-to-end-all-wars.html

Shout Out
Lastly, we want to take a moment to give a shout out to Mike Hanlon’s  St. Mihiel Trip Wire. This is a monthly newsletter that you can find over at worldwar1.com. This newsletter features a variety of World War One related information including an online magazine called “Over the Top”. Check it out!
Mike Hanlon’s  St. Mihiel Trip Wire

http://www.worldwar1.com/tripwire/smtw.htm

100 Cities / 100 Memorials

Next we have 100 Cities, 100 memorials.

Terry Schow from the American Legion has put together an Ogden, Utah matching grant application that was officially submitted last week - We congratulate him and his team. Every one of these projects is amazing in it's own right. This one distinguished itself by the impressive coalition of organizations that have pulled together for the project. To find out more about Terry’s project, please visit our 100 cities, 100 memorials blog page. You’ll be able to find a link for it in the chatroom.
Sign up for our Blog Post

http://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/100-cities-100-memorials-blog.html

Now let go from WW1 TODAY to WW1 100 years ago

The Great War Channel www.youtube.com/TheGreatWar

Alright, as always, The Great War Channel on youtube has several great new videos up this week. Check them out at www.youtube.com/TheGreatWar. The new videos are:

“The Godfather of Modern Espionage - Sidney Reilly. Sidney Reilly is remembered as the Ace of Spies in popular fiction and Ian Flemming read his files as inspiration for James Bond. They also have another video entitled, “Night Combat - Tank Hunters - Airplane Detection.” We urge you to check out these fascinating videos when you have the time.

The War in the Sky: Theo Mayer - www.ww1cc.org/warinthesky

And now, it’s time for Theo Mayer our Chief Technologist to take you to The Great War In The Sky -  Good afternoon, Theo. What’s going on this week - one hundred years ago ?

11/30/16
The notes for this segment came from Today in World War 1 - a tumbler feed we recently came across. More on that for you soon.
As we talked about last week, the vast majority of aerial attacks on Britain were by Zeppelin. These were giant, slow, lumbering, machines that were really vulnerable to incendiary weapons, but... they could travel long distances and could carry a big payloads.  By late 1916, in the churning technology crucible of the war, airplane engines and design had advanced enough where fixed wing aircraft could potentially cross the channel to London.
And that is exactly what happened on November 28, 1916 - a two-man plane called an LVG C.IV crossed the Channel and just before noon, it dropped six 22-pound bombs on London, between Hyde Park and Victoria train Station. The attack wounded 10 civilians but frankly the real damage was that it freaked everybody out.  

This was the first attack on London by airplane, and the first air raid on London during the daytime.  British air defenses weren't ready for this, and aided by haze and the noise of London traffic, the plane was able to make it back across the Channel.
However, once across, they were hit by French anti-aircraft fire near Boulogne and were forced to land, and both airmen were taken prisoner.  
This was another turning point, NOW Germany began to plan for future bomber attacks on Britain 100 years ago this week in the Great War in the sky.

Thanks, Theo.  How about an update now from Mike Shuster with The Great War Project:

The Great War Project: Mike Shuster -  www.greatwarproject.org/

Thanks Mike and to all our guests - Paul LaRue and Sara R. Cureton.
So that’s all for today, remember to check out our minutes at ww1cc.org/sync-call. Follow us on twitter and be sure to like us on Facebook, and most importantly, subscribe to our weekly WW1 Centennial Dispatch. Have a great week and thanks for supporting our doughboys!

Thank you for attending today’s sync call. From everyone here at the WWICC, hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We’ll see you next week. Bye!

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