TRENCH REPORT...Lot's of tips and "heads-ups" coming in from our far-flung network of correspondents: For anyone heading to the Big Apple, Andy Melomet recommends attending the free Friday night lectures held by the New York Military Affairs Symposium in midtown Manhattan. Their weekly programs frequently feature Great War topics. (Website). . .VERY HOT new War Poets Exhibit at the Imperial War Museum:
Anthem for Doomed Youth (Website). . .Great On-Line Anthology of War Poetry by James Robbins (Website). . .Movie Critic Joe Bob Briggs wrote one terrific Veterans Day piece on Irving Berlin and the WWI Origins of God Bless America. (Article). . .For those of you who are going to take in The Two Towers, the second film in the Lord of the Rings cycle, recall that J.R.R. Tolkien served in the Battle of the Somme. His Hobbit writings are infused with images of the Great War . . . The History.net and About.com have declared that our Doughboy Center website is "Possibly the ultimate Doughboy site!" Thanks folks.
Typical Supply Vehicle on Italian Front
New at the Websites of the Great War Society and Our Friends
Click on Title to Access
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Doughboy Center
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Great War Society Members
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The WFA-USA Website
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World War I Laffs.
Compiled from his students' writings over the years by University of California at Santa Barbara History Professor Alfred Lindemann. His supplementary comments are in parentheses.
- World War I turned many into passivists. [They just stayed in their trenches and played cards.]
- When war reached the Italian boarders, the Italian socialists revealed their true position. [The sanctity of the pensione was being violated!]
- Lenin won over the populus with the call for Peace, land, and fruit! [To be more precise, Peace, land, and cantaloupes.]
- By reading the diaries of the soldiers at the front, it made me more able to emphasize with them. [One, two, three, column left!]
- President Wilson arrived in Paris with fourteen pointers. [There was such a scene when they met up with the Alsatians and Dalmatians.]
- After Lenin's death, Stalin spread his testacles over Russia. [And I thought Rasputin had kinky tastes!]
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This Month's
Special Feature
Relevance of World War I to the Current Crisis |
Preparedness Day Parade
San Francisco - July 22, 1916
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San Francisco Preparedness Day Bombing: July 22, 1916
(article)
- The Black Tom Explosion: July 29, 1916
(article)
- Truths of Civic Life by Wm. Galston
(article)
- George Will on Post WWI Arms Inspections
(article)
- David Warren of the Ottawa Citizen on Wrestling with Islam [Then and Now]
(article)
How to Develop Trenchfoot
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Windows Media or Real One Player Required |
Goodbye-ee
Courtesy of Melodylane.net
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Memorable January Dates:
- 01/01/17 British C-in-C Sir Douglas Haig named Field Marshal
- 01/03/15 Russian Victory at Sarikamish;
- 01/08/16 AH Conquers Montenegro;
- 01/08/18 Wilson States 14 Points;
- 01/09/17 ANZACs Defeat Turks at Rafah in the Sinai
- 01/11/17 Frech Forces Occupy Island of Corfu
- 01/18/19 Start of Paris Peace Conference;
- 01/19/15 Zeppelins Bomb London;
- 01/19/17 Zimmerman Note Sent and Intercepted;
- 01/20/18 German Cruiser Breslau sunk in Mediterranean by Mine
- 01/22/17 Wilson Peace Declaration;
- 01/24/15 Battle of Dogger Bank;
- 01/28/21 French Unknown Soldier Buried;
- 01/30/18 Four German Air Squadrons Bomb Paris
- 01/31/17 Germany Resumes Unrestricted Submarine Warfare.
Barbara Tuchman
The Guns of August
Funeral of Edward VII
So gorgeous was the spectacle on the May morning of 1910 when nine kings rode in the funeral of Edward VII that the crowd, waiting in hushed and black-clad awe, could not keep back gasps of admiration." [Opening Line]
VETERAN OF THE MONTH
American Author and Adventurer
Click on Image for More Information
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Alice McGuire Hoppes, 109, died November 26, 2002 in Louisville, Kentucky. A registered nurse she served two tours in the US Navy with her first enlistment in 1919 prior to the Versailles Treaty. Her service is thus considered WW1 service for some purposes. A native of Connecticut, born March 14, 1893 to Irish American parents who had six other children. She also lived in Annapolis, Maryland during her second stint and met and married her husband there. The courtship was surreptitious since he was an enlisted man. After their discharges they
lived in Brooklyn, Indiana and after he died in 1974, she lived in Louisville, with a daughter in Connecticut and in Louisville again. Her two sons served in the Navy and Marines in WW2. She loved to read and hated having to turn in her library card at 100 . . . Remember the list we provided last month on the 16 surviving Canadian veterans? Well, Peter Preet, survivor of the capture of Vimy Ridge and James Fraser, formerly of the 52nd (Lowland) Division have since passed on reports the Toronto Globe and Mail.
GREAT WAR 2002/03 EVENT CALENDAR
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WFA-USA 2003 Ypres Salient
Tour and Seminar
Tuesday 8 April - 16 April 2003
A Few Seats are left!
Details at: (link)
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Great War Society Seminar 2003
The French Army, 1914-1918
April 11-13, 2003;
San Francisco, California;
Cathedral Hill Hotel
Complete Program Now Available: (link)
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WFA-USA East Coast Chapter Spring Seminar
War Memorial Building, Baltimore, Maryland, Saturday April 26, 2003
Watch for details: (link)
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WFA-USA 2003 National Seminar
Quantico, Virginia,
US Marine Corps University,
September 19-21, 2003
Details: (link)
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Send additions/corrections:
Email Response
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The British Army fought its first and last actions of the First World War at the same place: Mons, Belgium.
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