Commemorating the First World War Centennial in Kansas
James (“Jim”) Patton BS BA MPA is a retired state official from Shawnee, Kansas and a frequent contributor to several WW1 e-publications, including "Roads to the Great War," "St. Mihiel Tripwire," "Over the Top" and "Medicine in the First World War." He has spent many hours walking the WW1 battlefields, and is also an authority on British regiments and a collector of their badges.
An Army Engineer during the Vietnam War, he does work for the US World War 1 Centennial Commission and has memberships in the WW1 Historical Association, the Western Front Association, the Indian Military Historical Society and the Salonika Campaign Society.
Clive Staples “C.S.” Lewis (1898-1963) was a professor of English Literature, first at Oxford from 1926 -54 and then at Cambridge until shortly before his death. He was also a writer of novels, fantasy, Sci-fi, children’s books, poetry and Christian apologetics. Lewis shunned publicity and declined a CBE in 1951. He was a colleague and close friend of the “Lord of the Rings” author J.R.R. Tolkien and both were also veterans of the Western Front.
Wed. 10/14 7:00 PM CDT Economics of WW1. Click here to register.
Wed. 10/21 7:00 PM CDT Scientific Racism and Black Military Workers. Click here to register.
Wed. 10/28 7:00 PM CDT The Causes of WW1. Click here to register.
There will be a free Zoom lecture on Friday, October 9, 2020 at 1:00 pm EDT called: “Poppyganda: The Historical & Social Impact of a Flower.” The Poppy is an enduring symbol of WWI; however, the poppy’s association with warfare predates 1914, and its legacy is still evolving. Dr. Mathew Leonard is a modern conflict archeologist at the University of Bristol in the UK. In 2015 he published his book entitled Poppyganda, in which he tells the story of the ‘flower of remembrance’ up to the present day. To register for this free event, click here. Be sure to blank out my registration details and enter your own instead.
Next week there will be two of these. You can register for attendance by clicking on the links following :
Tues. 10/6 6:30 PM CDT WW1 and the Birth of Communist China. CLICK HERE to register.
Wed. 10/7 7:00 PM CDT The Bonus March. CLICK HERE to register.
In March 2017 I announced the release of this motion picture. You can read that post by clicking here. It is now available for streaming from either Prime or Netflix.
Awhile back we reported on a chemical weapons dump from WW1 located in toney Northwest DC. This site is now considered safe (click here for the whole story) but another site has been unearthed a few miles away. Click here for this story.
The Bleckley Airport Memorial Foundation has acquired an authentic Airco DH-4 aircraft and plans to restore it for inclusion in the collections they will have at their proposed memorial to 2nd Lieut. Erwin Bleckley, a Wichita native who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his deeds on October 6th, 1918. Bleckley has been the subject of several previous posts here. You can read two of them by clicking here or here. You can also read more about the Lost Battalion here.
At the north end of ANZAC Cove on the Gallipoli peninsula is a large free-standing tablet which bears this text:
‘Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives! You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.’
In the midst of the current pandemic, I found this scholarly article from the journal Public Health Reports about the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic/ Published in 2010, it’s chock full of data, more about this subject than I’ve ever seen in one place. Give it a glance by clicking here.
I realize that few of you are going to be able to visit Gloucestershire in England, but please read this story about an artist named Jackie Lantelli who makes sculptures out of chicken wire and has created this unique World War One memorial. Click here for the story.
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