It’s June 1918. Four years have passed since Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, triggering the most destructive war the world has ever seen. This month, United States Marine Corps and Army units expel the Germans from Belleau Wood. The German Army’s spring offensive continues with an attack at the River Matz. Addressing the Reichstag in Berlin, Foreign Minister von Kuhlmann tells the deputies they should not expect a victory by military effort alone, advice that angers the German military. In Italy, a two-pronged offensive by Austria-Hungary is turned back by Allied forces led by the new Italian commander, General Armando Diaz. In the United States, Eugene V. Debs, the leader and three-time presidential nominee of the Socialist Party, delivers a speech criticizing the war and the draft; a speech that leads to his arrest two weeks later for violating the Espionage and Sedition Acts. The Supreme Court strikes down a federal law banning interstate shipment of the products of child labor. Former Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks dies at his home in Indianapolis.
Month: June 2018 (Page 1 of 3)
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Le Touret Memorial to the Missing is located in the cemetery of the same name near Richebourg, Pas-de-Calais, France. The memorial is a loggia surrounding an open rectangular court that dominates the eastern side of the site. 
The names of those commemorated are listed on panels set into the walls of the court and the gallery, arranged by regiment, rank and alphabetically by surname within the rank. 
The memorial was dedicated in 1930 and was designed by John Reginald Truelove (1886 – 1942), a protégé of Sir Edwin Lutyens, who had served as an officer with the 1st Battalion 24th County of London Regiment (The Queen’s). He also created the Vis-en-Artois Memorial to the Missing for the CWGC.
“Wait” you say, “the Department of Homeland Security is only 16 years old”. And you’re right, but some of the services, offices and agencies now under the DHS umbrella were around a hundred years ago. Click here to learn more, from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.
The thirteenth Educator’s Newsletter, Understanding the Great War, has recently been issued. This is done by the National World War I Museum and Memorial in partnership with many others. The latest issue addresses Art and Music.
Sunday at 7:00 p.m. at the Unity Temple in Kansas City, Wings takes off once again: https://my.theworldwar.org/697
Come for the film, come for the organ music!
This is the new special exhibit opening tomorrow at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City. It will be there until November 11.
Ramping up for Independence Day, lots of World War I programming coming up, and repeated frequently. All times are Central.
–American Artifacts, Great War Exhibit, Part I. From the Library of Congress. Saturday, June 30th at 9:00 a.m.
–Dwight Eisenhower & World War I. Keith Dickson at the MacArthur Memorial. Saturday, June 30th at 9:50 a.m. Repeats Monday, July 2nd at 7:00 a.m.; Tuesday, July 3rd, at 10:32 a.m. Tuesday, July 3rd at 2:05 p.m.; Tuesday, July 3rd at 7:00 p.m.; Tuesday, July 3rd at 10:32 p.m.; Wednesady, July 4th at 2:05 a.m.
100 years ago in Kansas, July 1918:
July 1, 1918
This is one of the most enduring stories of German atrocity in WW1. Ever since it first surfaced in the Times of London in May 1915, the credulity meter needle has swung back and forth between ‘truth/fact’ and ‘myth/propaganda’. In 1919 the new German government even laid out a ‘put up or shut up’ demand: produce real evidence or disclaim the story.
Extracted from History of the 353rd Infantry Regiment 89th Division, National Army September 1917 – June 1919, by Capt. Charles F. Dienst and associates, published by the 353rd Infantry Society in 1921.
‘By the spring of 1918 the 353rd Infantry began to feel quite at home in Camp Funston. The men were now well acquainted… Every Company had its victorola, and most … a small collection of books. Organizations vied … in their efforts to beautify the Camp. Trees were being planted; sidewalks were in the process of construction… Everybody was feeling fit and enjoying life.