Perkins’s nephew James Barry (shook hands with Colonel Brett Conaway after the unveiling. Barry’s daughter Jackie looked on.
Natick armory dedicated to Medal of Honor recipient from South Boston
By Emily Sweeney
via the Boston Globe newspaper web site
NATICK, MA — One fateful October day a century ago during World War I, Private First Class Michael J. Perkins crawled up to a nest of enemy machine gunners that were throwing grenades at his platoon and waited for just the right moment. When the Germans opened the door, he tossed a bomb inside. Then forced his way in and attacked the machine gun crews, and single-handedly forced them to surrender.
The courage that the South Boston war hero displayed on the battlefield was recalled Friday morning, when the Massachusetts National Guard dedicated its armory on Speen Street in his honor.
Among those in attendance at Friday’s dedication ceremony were Gary W. Keefe, the adjutant general of the Massachusetts National Guard; state Representative David Linsky; Colonel Brett Conaway, the brigade commander for the 26th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade; as well as Perkins’s nephew and grand-niece.
“His story is the stuff of legends,” Conaway said.
Born in South Boston in 1892, Perkins was a member of the Company D, 101st Infantry Regiment, 26th Yankee Division when he was killed in action on Oct. 27, 1918.
Perkins’s nephew, James Barry, 84, said he grew up hearing about his uncle’s heroic acts on the battlefield, and was happy to see his uncle still remembered after all of these years.
“I kind of thought [his story] might have been” forgotten, Barry said. “But it wasn’t. Apparently it wasn’t.”
When Conaway spoke at the ceremony, he told the audience about the events that unfolded in France on that fateful day in October, and how Perkins bravely took on the machine gunners by himself.
Conaway said Perkins “voluntarily and alone” crawled up a hill to a German “pillbox” machine gun emplacement. After throwing the bomb inside the pillbox, he pulled out his trench knife and rushed inside, and fought off the machine gun crews. He killed or wounded several of them, and took about 25 of them as prisoners.
“He did what he had to do to silence those machine guns,” Conaway said. “He was as tough as nails.”
Read more: Natick armory dedicated to Medal of Honor recipient from South Boston
Honor Your WWI Ancestor with a Personalized Commemorative Coin Display
You can now purchase the limited edition US Mint World War I Commemorative Coin, in combination with our specially-designed display stand, personalized with information about your WWI ancestor.
This will make a great collectible gift for family members and descendants of those who served in World War I.
Personalization can include: rank, full name, enlisted date, deceased date, unit/decorations, battles, cemetery, etc. If you have already purchased the Commemorative Coin from the UIS Mint, you can also order just the personalized display. Both the combo set and display alone are available at https://shop.worldwar1centennial.org (click on US Mint Commemorative Coin at the top navigation bar). Supplies are limited.
Because this rare coin will continually increase in value (US Mint sales stop at the end of this December), this combination display will become a valuable heirloom that can be kept in your family for years to come, along with the memory of your family’s WWI veteran. The product comes with the US Mint Certificate of Authenticity for the coin.
Proceeds from the sale of this item go towards funding the building of the National World War One Memorial in Washington DC.
“WWI Through the Eyes of the Chicago Defender” brings history to life through virtual reality
Special to the United States World War One Centennial Commission web site
Imagine yourself standing on a street corner in the South Side of present day Chicago. There doesn’t seem to be anything extraordinary about this spot—there are buildings, cars driving by. Then suddenly, your surroundings change. You’re in the middle of the 1919 “Red Summer” when post-World War I social and racial tensions boiled over into violence. You’re witnessing a confrontation outside of an old lunch room and cigar shop.
You’re looking at an old photo of a black WWI veteran and a white militiaman. You’re looking at the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, by the end of which 38 would be dead, more than 500 injured and 1,000 black families left homeless.
Forgotten stories like these are being made available to students nationwide through immersive storytelling technology thanks to a collaborative partnership with Google Expeditions, the Friends of the Victory Memorial and the West Virginia University Reed College of Media Innovation Center.
This project, “WWI Through the Eyes of the Chicago Defender,” brings history to life through virtual reality. The VR project takes viewers on a tour of WWI-era United States as seen through the eyes of the nation’s most influential black weekly newspaper at that time.
The project has been commissioned for Google Expeditions, a product that allows teachers to take their classes on virtual field trips, immersing students in experiences that bring abstract concepts to life, brings virtual objects into the classroom, and gives students a deeper understanding of the world beyond the classroom. The “WWI Through the Eyes of the Chicago Defender” expedition became a “pioneer” beta partner in 2016.
On the Through the Eyes of the Defender expedition, students will follow stories encompassing broad themes from that era including Jim Crow laws, the Great Migration, women’s struggle for civil rights, the second rise of the KKK and the individual story of the 370th Infantry Regiment, formerly the "Old 8th" Illinois National Guard unit, the only entirely black combat unit during World War I commanded by black officers.
“For this project, we’re used new technology that really wasn’t intended for what we are doing,” explained Joel Beeson, an associate professor at the WVU Reed College of Media and expedition producer. “This technology was designed for gaming and entertainment, and we’re adapting it to engage communities that have been historically marginalized from authorship of stories.
Here's How You Can Ring 'Bells of Peace' on Your Smartphone for Veterans Day
By Richard Sisk
via the Military.com web site
The "Bells of Peace" will ring out nationwide from smartphones on the "11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" to mark the centennial of the end of World War I in November 1918, thanks to a new app created in honor of the anniversary.
About 10,000 have signed up so far for the free "Bells of Peace Participation App" which will work on either Apple or Android platforms, said Chris Isleib, a spokesman for the World War I Centennial Commission.
The App features a countdown timer to 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, and a selection of bell sounds that will go off 21 times, starting at 11 a.m.
"This is a great use for today's smartphone technology. People in states, cities, towns and communities, will pause and remember our veterans as these bells toll for peace," Daniel Dayton, the commission's executive director, said in a statement.
The ringing of the bells will be part of a series of commemorative events nationwide on Nov. 11 to honor the more than four million Americans who served in the "Great War" and remember the 116,516 who died, the commission said.
"Throughout history, church bells have been used to mark moments of great sadness and joy," Randolph 'Randy' Marshall Hollerith, dean of the Washington National Cathedral, said in a statement released by the commission. "As we make the centennial of the end of World War I, it is appropriate that we pause for a moment to honor those who gave their lives in defense of freedom."
The ringing of the bells was an initiative of the Society of the Honor Guard, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, at Arlington National Cemetery, and has been sponsored by the Commission and endorsed by the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Read more: Here's How You Can Ring 'Bells of Peace' on Your Smartphone for Veterans Day
A hundred years after the Armistice, we have yet to reckon with its true legacy.
A Hundred Years After the Armistice
If you think the First World War began senselessly, consider how it ended
By Adam Hochschild
via the newyorker.com web site
For millions of soldiers, the First World War meant unimaginable horror: artillery shells that could pulverize a human body into a thousand fragments; immense underground mine explosions that could do the same to hundreds of bodies; attacks by poison gas, tanks, flamethrowers. Shortly after 8 P.M. on November 7, 1918, however, French troops near the town of La Capelle saw something different. From the north, three large automobiles, with the black eagle of Imperial Germany on their sides, approached the front lines with their headlights on. Two German soldiers were perched on the running boards of the lead car, one waving a white flag, the other, with an unusually long silver bugle, blowing the call for ceasefire—a single high tone repeated in rapid succession four times, then four times again, with the last note lingering.
By prior agreement, the three German cars slowly made their way across the scarred and cratered no man’s land between the opposing armies. When they reached the French lines, they halted, the German bugler was replaced by a French one (his bugle is in a Paris museum today), and the German peace envoys continued their journey. At La Capelle, flashes lit up the night as the envoys were photographed by waiting press and newsreel cameramen, then transferred to French cars. Their route took them past houses, factories, barns, and churches reduced to charred rubble, fruit trees cut down and wells poisoned by retreating German troops. “It appeared to me that the drive was intentionally prolonged in order to carry us across devastated provinces and to prepare us for the hardest conditions which the feelings of hatred and revenge might demand,” one of the German passengers later wrote. The envoys next boarded a railway carriage that had once belonged to Napoleon III, who was forced to surrender most of Alsace and part of Lorraine to Germany in the Franco-Prussian War.
Finally, the train pulled into a clearing in the forest of Compiègne, near another train occupied by an Allied delegation headed by Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the Allied commander-in-chief, a diminutive Frenchman with an immense, shaggy mustache. The two groups met in Foch’s train, in what was formerly the dining car of a luxury sleeper service. The German delegation was headed by a civilian cabinet minister, but the high command was desperate to avoid blame for a humiliating end to the war, and the military representatives were relatively junior: a major general and a Navy captain.
From the World War I Centennial News Podcast
Remembering Veterans: Carolyn Timbie on Grace Banker and the Hello Girls
In October 26th's WW1 Centennial News Podcast, Episode 95, host Theo Mayer spoke with Carolyn Timbie, granddaughter of prominent Hello Girl Grace Banker. In the interview, Ms. Timbie answers questions about her grandmother's remarkable story, and her own personal journey discovering it. The following is a transcript:
Theo Mayer: For those of you who don't know the story, the Hello Girls were America's telephone operators in WW1. Recruited and signed up by the U.S. Army and sent to France to serve in harm's way, upon on returning to the U.S. they were told that they weren't actually in the Army- but only civilian contractors, because the Army didn't have women in it. And oh, by the way, that meant they didn't get any benefits. They fought for 60 years to get their benefits, and finally did.
During the centennial period, a book about them, from author Doctor Elizabeth Cobbs started to attract attention. Which then inspired a recent multi award-winning documentary, and also a bipartisan congressional bill to officially recognize the Hello Girls. It's one of those wonderful stories that's now firmly set as an important part of the cultural lore about World War I and women's rights. Now with that as a background, I want to introduce you to a very special guest. Carolyn Timbie is the granddaughter of the de facto leader and chief operator of the Hello Girls, Grace Banker. Caroline started to send us photos about her journey through France following her grandmother's footsteps. When she came back we asked her to join us on the show. Carolyn, welcome to the podcast.
Public WWI Centennial events in the Metro Washington, DC area Nov. 8-11
By Chris Isleib
Director of Public Affairs, United States World War One Centennial Commission
Washington DC will be the site of a number of remarkable World War I-themed events, exhibits, and activities during the days leading up to, and beyond, the Armistice Centennial.
The U.S. World War One Centennial Commission is honoring the more than 4 million Americans who served in during WWI, and the 116,525 men and women who sacrificed their lives, with a “First Look at the National World War l Memorial” program between November 8 and 12, 2018. The Memorial site will be open to the public each day beginning with a presentation of colors at 9 a.m. and concluding with “Taps” at sunset daily.
The “First Look Pavilion” will be open 11 am to 5 pm each day for guests to see the memorial model, learn how it will be constructed, and understand how to be part of the project. The First Look Pavilion provides an all day immersive multimedia presentation of the coming National World War I Memorial, at the location of its future home. The First Look Pavilion will be using large graphics, video, and physical display to provide you with "A First Look" at what the memorial will be, offer you some insight into how it has come about, and the Memorial's current status. You'll also learn how you can participate in its ultimate creation including video taping your reaction and thoughts after your "First Look". With your visit to the First Look Pavilion, you will leave with a clear concept and vision of this wonderful tribute to the men and women who, 100 years ago, helped shape the world we live in today.
“First Look Pavilion program highlights include:
- Giant graphics of the memorial design
- 3D animated fly-through of the park as it will be
- Maquette miniature (10 feet long) of the central memorial sculpture
- Hourly film presentation about how the project is being created
- Videotape your reaction to your "First Look" at the memorial for public archival record
“A First Look” includes the many Special Events in the park listed below which require free tickets to attend.
The following events, which include both Commission events and events presented by other organizations, are open to the public. Many of them are free.
Read more: Public WWI Centennial events in the Metro DC area Nov. 8-11
American Legion Post 43 in Los Angeles and the California World War I Task Force co-host WWI Armistice Centennial event
By Courtland Jindra
Special to the United States World War One Centennial Commission web site
The California World War I Centennial Task Force and the American Legion Post 43 in Los Angeles are teaming up for a special Armistice Centennial Event—and You’re Invited!
The California World War One Centennial Commemoration Event takes place on Monday, November 12th, 2018 1:30 p.m. at American Legion Hollywood Post 43
2035 N Highland Avenue, Los Angeles 90068. The Event is FREE! Refreshments will be provided!
The California World War One Centennial Task Force cordially invites you to commemorate the hundred-year anniversary of the Armistice ending the Great War. Presenters at the event will showcase period newspaper articles and text from those engaged in the war effort. Music from the era will also be performed! Please help us in honoring our WWI Veterans’ memory – we shall never forget their bravery and sacrifices for our nation.
The California World War One Centennial Task Force is a completely volunteer-led effort of scholars, historians, and citizens who feel it’s important to remember the Forgotten Generation of WWI and to remember the lessons that we can learn from a century ago.
Courtland Jindra is a volunteer with the U.S. World War One Centennial Commission.
Sabin Howard at work on the Memorial (photo courtesy of the author)
Art, Commerce, and Vision
By Traci L. Slatton
via the Quillette web site
I’m a novelist and my husband Sabin Howard is a classical figurative sculptor. Currently he’s the sculptor for the National World War I Memorial, which will be a 56 foot long bronze relief set in Pershing Park, Washington D.C.
Before Sabin forayed into public art, he sculpted from life models. Over the course of designing soldiers in combat and nurses tending the wounded for the WWI Memorial, he has evolved into an expressive humanist. But for decades he put clay over a steel armature while looking at a flesh-and-bones body in space, hiring models the way Canova or Rodin did. The model in Sabin’s studio was a vehicle both for an individual figure with psychological expression, and for an allegorical one that embodies a higher ideal.
Sabin has always been of the view that art elevates us. His body of work includes heroic scale sculptures, including the Aphrodite. Eight women posed for her: a flamenco dancer for the legs, a yoga teacher for the core. I can relate funny anecdotes about the responses from Craig’s List to his ad for a boob model. Sabin worked on Aphrodite for about a year. His work is slow art. Clay is painstakingly accreted to the high points of muscles spiraling over bone. One day he phoned from his studio. He said, “I have a chainsaw. Her gesture is wrong. I’m cutting off her left arm.”
It was months of work. Amputated.
When I tell this story, people smile and nod. This is the tale of an artist with an uncompromising vision of his art. It’s an archetype. They understand. But there’s another implication that they tend to miss. That is, Sabin had paid a dancer to stand and bear her arms aloft while he sculpted. When Sabin lopped off the goddess’s arm, we took a financial hit.
Art isn’t free to produce. Especially the kind of art Sabin makes. He buys steel and foam to make an armature; he lays out cash for clay and sculpting tools; he employs models, a photographer for reference images, a mold-maker, a foundry to pour bronze, and a finisher to weld the cast pieces together. He writes a check every month for his studio.
This is a business. A business driven by passion, but a business nevertheless. For nearly two decades, I’ve helped my husband run it. He moved away from the gallery system because galleries take a hefty 50 percent commission. My various literary agents take 15 percent for U.S. sales and 20 percent for international, so half the price for a sculpture strikes me as gouging the artist.
Deadly Battle’s Final Casualty
By Chris Gibbons
Special to the United States World War One Centennial Commission web site
Charles Whittlesey stood along the rails of the large steamship in the late autumn of 1921, and stared vacantly at the Atlantic Ocean below. Haunted by his experiences during World War I, Whittlesey was consumed by guilt, and his terrible memories of the great Meuse-Argonne offensive had left him with a broken spirit. He probably gazed down at the churning water with a macabre sense of relief as he realized that soon he would no longer have to endure the dreaded nightmares that slowly chipped away at his soul.
Charles W Whittlesey WWI Medal of Honor recipientThe autumn of 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the deadliest battle every fought by U.S. soldiers: the great Meuse-Argonne Offensive of World War I. More Americans were killed during this battle than in any other in U.S. history, as 26,277 Doughboys lost their lives and another 95,786 were wounded. Over 1.2 million American soldiers took part in the 47 day battle in 1918, and it eventually resulted in forcing an end to World War I.
Major Charles Whittlesey commanded 9 units of the U.S. 77th division. His battalion consisted of 554 men, most of whom were ethnic Irish, Italian, Jewish, and Polish street toughs from New York City, as well as Midwestern farm boys. Whittlesey himself was a Harvard Law School graduate. Because of his social status, one might assume that Whittlesey held himself above these men, but this wasn’t the case. He had the utmost respect and concern for the men he commanded.
On the morning of October 2nd, the battalion advanced deeply into the Argonne forest of eastern France, but unbeknownst to them, the Allied divisions supporting their right and left flanks had stalled, and they were soon cut-off and surrounded. For the next 5 days the Germans relentlessly attacked the small American force and inflicted heavy casualties. The Americans fought back fiercely and refused to yield. Food, water, and ammunition began to run out as the number of dead and wounded piled up. At one point, the men were mistakenly shelled by their own artillery forces. Newspaper reporters picked up on the story, and dubbed them “The Lost Battalion.”
On October 7th, a captured American soldier was released with a note for Whittlesey from the German commander. It read in part: “The suffering of your wounded men can be heard over here in the German lines, and we are appealing to your humane sentiments to stop. A white flag shown by one of your men will tell us that you agree with these conditions.” Whittlesey and his second in command, Captain George McMurtry, smiled when they read it because they viewed it as a sign of German desperation. Whittlesey ordered two white panels used to signal Allied planes to be removed lest they be mistaken for white flags. There would be no surrender. Word of the note spread among the men, and some of them yelled, “You Dutch bast****, come and get us!”
Once again German Sturmtruppen (Storm Troopers), some equipped with flame-throwers, attacked the defiant Americans. The battalion was enraged as they viewed these weapons as immoral, and they tore into the attacking Germans, some with only their bare hands. The Germans retreated, but Whittlesey’s men were barely hanging on. Finally, on October 8th, the battalion was rescued by advancing U.S. troops. The relieving soldiers watched in silence as the battered survivors emerged from the forest. “There was nothing to say,” one of them said. “It made your heart lump up in your throat just to look at them.” Of the 554 men who entered the Argonne, only 194 were rescued. The rest were either killed or missing in action. Whittlesey, McMurtry, and 3 others received the Medal of Honor.
National WWI Museum and Memorial Commemorates the Centennial of the World War I Armistice Nov. 1-11, 2018
By Mike Vietti
Director of Marketing, Communications and Guest Services, National World War I Museum and Memorial
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Firing on the First World War’s Western Front ended on Nov. 11, 1918. This year marks 100 years since the stillness fell across the battlefields of Europe on the “the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month.” To commemorate the end of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson officially recognized Nov. 11 as Armistice Day – a day of somber remembrance recognized around the world, with many stopping for a moment of silence at the 11th hour of this day to honor those who brought about the end of the “Great War.”
National World War I Museum and Memorial
The National WWI Museum and Memorial will capture the world’s attention with activities for all ages to commemorate the end of the war, beginning Nov. 1 through the centennial of the World War I Armistice on Nov. 11.
Highlights will include Peace and Remembrance, a spectacular illumination of America’s official World War I Memorial beginning at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 2. The lighting display will continue for nine consecutive evenings leading up to Armistice Day on Nov. 11 to recognize the 9 million soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice during the Great War. Comprised of nearly 55 million pixels to cover the Memorial with red poppies – a traditional symbol for commemorating military personnel who died inspired by the World War I poem “In Flanders Field” — the display will be created by DWP Live, a stage and special effects producer for major artists including Adele and Beyonce as well as Super Bowl halftime shows.
From Friday, Nov. 9 through Sunday, Nov. 11, admission to the Museum and Memorial is free for veterans and active-duty military personnel; general admission for the public is half-price.
The New Orchestra of Washington in concert (Photo by Michael Key)
New Orchestra of Washington hosts Armistice Concert "End of the War to End All Wars"
By Grace Cho
Executive Director, New Orchestra of Washington
One Saturday, November 10, 2018, the New Orchestra of Washington will host a concert dedicated to the Armistice Day on November 10 at 5PM at the Church of the Epiphany, 1317 G Street Northwest Washington, DC,
At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, World War I – the Great War – ended. The New Orchestra of Washington, Washington Master Chorale, and Musica Viva NY commemorate this solemn occasion one hundred years later with a co-commission from acclaimed American composer Joseph Turrin, based on texts by war poets. The program also features works by Holst and and Ravel, both composers directly affected by World War I.
Read more: New Orchestra of Washington hosts Armistice Concert "End of the War to End All Wars"
Visitors to Independence Park can view the Liberty Bell through a magnificent glass chamber from outside, or inside the Liberty Bell Center from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 pm daily on a first-come, first-served basis.
Bells of Peace Update
The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia is onboard as the Honorary Bell of Peace
By Betsy Anderson
Program Coordinator, Bells of Peace, United States World War One Centennial Commission
The World War I Centennial Commission and the National Park Service have designated the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia as the Honorary Bell of Peace to commemorate the Centennial of the Armistice on November 11, as part of the Commission's nationwide Bells of Peace project.
The Liberty Bell, the most prominent and revered bell in the nation, is on display in Philadelphia at the National Park Service’s Independence Park. According to the Independence Historical Trust, on July 8, 1776, the day that the Declaration was read aloud behind the State House (now Independence Hall), “all the bells in the city rang throughout the day and it is assumed that the State House bell (now the Liberty Bell) was among them.”
After an attempt to repair a crack that had begun some time before, the Liberty Bell rang for the last time in February 1846 to celebrate George Washington’s birthday. The ringing lengthened the crack to its now-familiar appearance.
National Park Service Interpretive Specialist Bill Caughlin explained that history of the Liberty Bell is closely entwined with American involvement in World War I. Philadelphia Mayor Thomas Smith tapped it to announce the first war bond drive in June 1917, and the bell’s image appeared in countless posters advertising Liberty Bonds, which citizens were encouraged to buy to help pay for the war. Songwriters Joe Goodwin and Halsey K. Moore composed “Liberty Bell - It’s Time to Ring Again” and their song reached the Top Five in 1918.
After the war, Allied leaders visited the bell, including the King and Queen of Belgium and Field Marshal Joseph Joffre of France, who said little, but kissed the bell, according to the National Park Service. General John J. Pershing visited the bell on September 12, 1919, and was presented with a small golden Liberty Bell in recognition of his leadership of American armies in the World War.
Read more: Bells of Peace Update -- The Liberty Bell is Onboard