Commemorating the First World War Centennial in Kansas
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 October the National Capitol Planning Commission gave its approval to the design for the memorial at Pershing Park in Washington, DC. Subsequently the National Park Service issued a Building Permit and just over a week ago the site work began. You can read more about this in the DC press by clicking here or from The American Legion by clicking here.
A superb documentary film about the Lafayette Escadrille premiered on November 9th at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Ohio. Read the whole story by clicking here.
Also well worth a read is the 2007 monograph entitled Like a Thunderbolt, produced by the Air Force Historical Studies Office. You can download it here, courtesy of The Doughboy Center.
Recently I was called into the Shawnee County District Court for jury duty. Initially there’s always a bit of waiting before you discover your fate as a juror or a free man. While waiting I took a look at the photos and other items that graced the hallway of the court house, telling something about the County’s legal history.
Regular readers may recall that I posted about Metcalfe’s project to find and properly mark all burials in the U.S. of persons who served in the British Imperial Forces in World War 1, and in August of 2017 I reported that his project had located two such burials in Kansas, You can read about this by clicking here.
Only the British and the Americans attempted to keep track of the number of their missing, and the official counts are still changing as the remains of fallen soldiers are regularly found in the areas of France and Belgium that were the battle grounds of the Western Front. Every now and then an American soldier is found, particularly in the Meuse Argonne.
On September 9th the District of Columbia Commission for Fine Arts signed off on the Pershing Park project. The next step is to get approval from the National Capitol Planning Commission. It is still hoped that the project can be completed by November 11th, 2020. If you’re interested in reading through the final version of the design click here.
After the Armistice, the German High Seas Fleet was assembled under British control at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands pending disposition of the ships as war prizes. One hundred years ago today, by secret order from the ranking German officer on the scene, Konteradmiral Ludwig von Reuter (1869-1943), seventy-four of them were scuttled. Read the full story here.
In August, 2017 I posted that the U.S. World War 1 Centennial Commission was seeking ideas for suitable inscriptions on the reverse side of the proposed memorial in Pershing Park. You can read that article by clicking here.
My personal favorite quote is “Retreat? Hell, we just got here.” – Capt. Lloyd Williams, 51st Co. 5th Marines, on June 2nd 1918 at Belleau Wood. Nine days later Williams was killed in the same action. You can read all about Capt. Williams here.
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