The Belgium people honored both Sgt.Smithheisler and Corporal Frank Burke in Oudennarde Belgium in 2014. Both men's photos are memorialized in a plaque at the Ohio Bridge in Oudennarde. They plan to do another commemoration in May of 2018 at the close of their WWI Commemoration. It would be fitting to give Frank Burke a listing on the "Roads to the Great War" site for his heroic actions that almost certainly ended his short life. His exposure to straight chloride gas the night of his mission almost certainly weakened his ability to fight off influenza and he died a month later. He was never officially recognized for his part in the mission-much to his Sergeant's dismay. For more information:
Seems to me Private Burke deserved a medal too--he sacrifice himself for his sergeant.
ReplyDeleteThe Belgium people honored both Sgt.Smithheisler and Corporal Frank Burke in Oudennarde Belgium in 2014. Both men's photos are memorialized in a plaque at the Ohio Bridge in Oudennarde. They plan to do another commemoration in May of 2018 at the close of their WWI Commemoration.
ReplyDeleteIt would be fitting to give Frank Burke a listing on the "Roads to the Great War" site for his heroic actions that almost certainly ended his short life. His exposure to straight chloride gas the night of his mission almost certainly weakened his ability to fight off influenza and he died a month later. He was never officially recognized for his part in the mission-much to his Sergeant's dismay.
For more information:
http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/psmithhisler.htm
http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/great-war-people/diaries/1763-flanders-belgium-1918-battlefields-then-and-now-sgt-paul-a-smithhisler-a-photo-journal.html#sthash.xo8i78pU.dpuf
https://www.facebook.com/usembassybelgium/posts/10152521416988110
https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-11-11/world-war-i-heros-family-found-his-story-alive-and-well-belgium