Did You Know These Facts About Lawrence of Arabia?

1.  As a teenager, Lawrence ran away from home and served more several months with the Royal Garrison Artillery as a boy soldier. This was his only formal military training.

2.  Lawrence first visited Aqaba, which would be a key to his desert strategy, in early 1914, providing "cover" for a military survey of Turkish controlled areas.

3.  Brothers Will and Frank were killed on the Western Front in 1915.

4.  Lawrence was awarded the Légion d'Honneur for his pre-Arab Revolt work in the Cairo Intelligence office.

5.  In October 1918 Lawrence declined a knighthood.

Lawrence with the Man Who Made Him Famous, Lowell Thomas

6.  Lawrence began writing Seven Pillars of Wisdom while advocating the Arab position at the Paris Peace Conference

7.  On 17 May 1919 en route to Egypt, Lawrence was involved in an air crash in Rome in which two other passengers were killed.

8.  He was possibly the most "high profile" enlisted man in military history. Under official sanction Lawrence enlisted in the RAF under the pseudonym John Hume Ross. Press publicity, however, made it impossible for the RAF to retain "Aircraftman Ross." He subsequently enlisted in the tank corps as T.E. Shaw. Returning Lawrence to the RAF was a major project requiring support from John Buchan, George Bernard Shaw, and General Hugh Trenchard. Continuing press attention would plague his days as an enlisted man.

9.  While deployed to Karachi with the RAF, he decided he loathed India and tried never to leave camp.

10.  A destitute Robert Graves was commissioned to write a biography of Lawrence in 1927. 

Sources: The T.E. Lawrence File; The T.E. Lawrence Society Website

Armistice Day 1918: A Photo Album

Negotiations at Compiègne Last Until the Early Morning

An Armistice Is Agreed Upon

Announcement at 10 Downing Street

 News Spreads in Paris

British Troops Hear About the Armistice

 Excitement Builds in Paris

 American Soldiers Get the News

 Word Spreads – Winchester, England

 London Explodes

America Wakes Up to the News – Philadelphia

 At the White House

Germans Respond Quite Differently: Abandoning Spa, Belgium

Remembering a Veteran: Bernard Cyril Freyberg

Freyberg: Champion Swimmer

Unlike many of the historic figures of 1914–1918, Bernard Cyril Freyberg had a fascinating pre-WWI career. He was born in London in 1889, his family immigrating to New Zealand when he was two. A championship swimmer as a youth, he left school early but qualified as a dentist after serving an apprenticeship. Not enthused by his new profession, Freyberg worked on the Wellington docks as a strikebreaker and then "hit the road" for San Francisco looking for some sort of adventure. He eventually made his way to Mexico, where he is thought to have had some participation in their civil war. But in the midst of his North American enterprises, a certain archduke was assassinated, and Freyberg's life, like the history of the world, took a different turn. Hearing of the outbreak of the First World War in August, he immediately left for England to volunteer. He secured a commission in the Royal Naval Division's Hood Brigade. By September 1914 he was on the Belgian front.

Freyberg was awarded numerous honors for his actions during the First World War. Early in the Gallipoli campaign he won a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for swimming ashore and setting flares at Bulair. It was the evening of 24 April 1915, and the intention was to divert Turkish attention from the main landing. By 1918 he had added two bars to his DSO and also received the Victoria Cross through "splendid personal gallantry," during the fighting along the Ancre in the last week of the Battle of the Somme.

Freyberg: Seasoned Veteran

He ended the war as a temporary brigadier with the 29th Division but soon "settled into peacetime soldiering."  By 1934 he was a major general.  Freyberg "seemed headed for the highest echelons of the army" but was obliged to retire in October 1937 after medical exams revealed a heart problem. However, when the Second World War came such problems could be overlooked; he offered his services to the New Zealand government and was appointed to command the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force and its fighting arm, the 2nd New Zealand Division. He led their campaigns in Greece, North Africa, and Italy.

Freyberg: After Two World Wars

Freyberg was criticized, particularly for his role in the fall of Crete in May 1941, and for the destruction of the Benedictine Monastery above Cassino in 1944. But he was also an admired figure at home and abroad, credited by his men for his concern for their welfare and readiness to be at the forefront of any enemy action, most notably, during the decisive second battle at El Alamein, which marked a major turning point in favor of the allied forces.

Following the war Freyberg was invited to be New Zealand's Governor-General. A popular choice for the post, he was our first Governor-General with a New Zealand upbringing. He left London on 3 May 1946, bringing with him material to assist in New Zealand government in its compilation of an official war history. On his return to England Freyberg frequently sat in the House of Lords, having been raised to the peerage in 1951. From 1953 until his death he acted as deputy constable and lieutenant governor in charge of Windsor Castle. He died at Windsor on 4 July 1963 following the rupture of one of his war wounds.

Adapted from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography 

The First Mines of the War Were On the Western Front.

Mine Explosion in the Champagne

The practice of setting off mines underneath enemy lines in hope of breaking through their position preceded the Great War. The Petersburg Mine in the American Civil War is an example that most of our readers will be familiar with, but attacking fortified positions by driving tunnels was frequently practiced in antiquity. In olden days the collapse was triggered by setting fire to supporting timbers. When they collapsed, so did the tunnel. The tactic was "modernized" in the 15th century, when exploding gunpowder replaced the burning of the supports to bring down the tunnel and the position above ground. In late 1914, the Western Front stabilized, and it became the location of the war's earliest mines.

Simon Jones, in his 2010 work Underground Warfare, 1914–1918, points out that even as the Race to the Sea was proceeding, commanders on both sides were ordering their engineers to dig saps and place explosives under enemy positions. He includes two noteworthy examples by the German Army that led to a local success in the first case and a substantial breakthrough in the second. Both also triggered responses by the Allies.

On 13 November. in the Argonne Forest, the 30th Rhineland pioneers blew a 20-foot-wide crater in the French line and followed up with a successful attack by infantry and engineers. The attack penetrated the French line several hundred meters, driving off the defenders and allowing the attackers time to dig in against counterattacks. The French, who had already started their own digging in the sector, soon responded in kind, and the Argonne became an extremely active mining sector through the 1916 Battle of Verdun.

Another Argonne Mining Site Near Haute Chevauchée Road

The Germans fired ten mines on 20 December 1914 at Festubert in the Artois. Exploded along a 1,000-yard front under an area held by the Indian Corps of the BEF, they were collectively devastating. The Germans captured the first two lines of trenches before being being halted by machine gun fire from the flanks. The new occupants repulsed a series of counterattacks. Mining had "moved the line." German claims of having taken over 800 prisoners and killing thousands of the defenders are thought to be exaggerated, but no other statistics are available from British sources. However, the attack definitely had caught the defenders flat-footed to the degree it thoroughly alarmed General French and his staff. They became much more serious about mine warfare thereafter.

Source: Underground Warfare, 1914–1918 

Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War reviewed by David F. Beer

Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War

by David M. Lubin

Oxford University Press, 2016

Horace Pippin, "The End of the War: Starting Home", 1930–33;
Childe Hassam, "Flags, Fifth Avenue", 1918 (Detail)

On its back cover Alexander Nemerov states that Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War is "the most thoughtful and imaginative book ever written about the art of the First World War." In my opinion, Nemerov is right on. In fact, this book took me to places I'd never dreamed of. Who knew, for example, that some of the best known WWI recruiting posters evolved from earlier artistic depictions and traditions, that Alfred Stieglitz's famous 1917 photograph of a urinal would be seen as an artistic "rejoinder against the appalling naïveté of Americans who were ecstatic about sending their young kinsmen to war" (p. 122), or that Horace Pippin, an artist and veteran of the famous Harlem Hellfighters, tellingly painted his black soldiers as almost invisible on a dark foreground as they overcome a group of Germans in his "The End of the War"?

David Lubin has produced an encyclopedic work which involves not only paintings but also posters, film, photography, sculpture, architecture, and to a certain extent, literature. In the course of ten richly illustrated chapters the author offers interpretations and connections that make this a truly interdisciplinary work. He shows how in their craft artists of all kinds strove — sometimes blatantly and sometimes more indirectly — to debunk many of the illusions held by Americans about the war. He also shows us how artistic response to the war was not only varied but also widespread and long lasting.

Harry R. Hopps, Enlistment Poster, 1917; John Singer Sargent, "Gassed", 1919 (Detail)

So much of this book was enlightening and revelatory for me. John Singer Sargent's famous 1919 painting "Gassed" is an example. Preceded by a detailed account of the Anglo-American artist's background, we're introduced to how this painting came to be. Then the painting itself: the significance of the sky's color and tone, the ten blinded men with their bandaged eyes (one tumbling out of line to presumably vomit, another raising his leg needlessly high to move onto a duckboard), other suffering men around them, the setting sun, and, perhaps most pathetic but easily missed, the game of football being played in the faint background. Allusion to Bruegel's 1565 painting of the blind leading the blind is inevitable, but Sargent was to make this point more subtly three years later in his group portrait of 22 generals entitled "Some General Officers of the Great War."

Less subtle is John Steuart Curry’s “Parade to War, An Allegory,” where a familiar street scene of soldiers marching, crowds watching, bayonets gleaming, flags and ribbons flowing, seems at first glance energized and patriotic—until we notice that the soldiers’ faces are “cadaverous, skull-faced figures of death” (p. 253). Countering such art, and illustrating how severely the nation was divided on getting involved in the European war, are the paintings of Childe Hassam and others (including the poster artists). A member of the Preparedness movement and an Anglophile from New England, Hassam was well known for his 30 patriotic flag paintings. Two are shown and discussed by the author, one a mass of various flags fluttering over Fifth Avenue and the other, "Allies Day, May 1917", a similar scene from a quite different angle.

With numerous examples, Professor Lubin shows how the various fine arts of the time reflect the familiar WWI themes of trench fighting, death, hideous wounds, shell shock, fear, conscientious objection, German atrocities, the plight of returning soldiers, and, not least, American dissension about the war. Few aspects of the conflict failed to become a subject of art in one form or another, and often the connections were complex and surprising. Some, like King Kong, are still with us today. Thus Grand Illusions is an impressively rich and rewarding read for anyone interested in the Great War and how it manifested in the rich world of art. A splendid book, indeed!

David F. Beer

Editor's Notes:

1. The author of Grand Illusions, Professor Lubin, is the principal advisor for the new exhibition World War I and American Art, which opened on 4 November at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. After it closes next April, the exhibit will move to the New York Historical Society and then Nashville's Frist Center for the Visual Arts for the remainder of 2017. The exhibition presents approximately 160 works, most of which are discussed in Grand Illusions.

2. Grand Illusions would make a great Christmas gift for anyone interested in the cultural dimensions of the Great War and 20th-century America.

A Roads Classic: The German Experience at the Somme

The first day on the Somme was a disaster for the British Army. Yet, the full battle turned, like Verdun, into another battle of attrition. The casualties of the German Army would approach—some argue exceed—those of the British. Here is what the battle looked like to the German participants.

German Defenders on the Somme

On 24 June thousands of guns opened fire on our trenches, dugouts, communication trenches, artillery positions and roads. We could not get any supplies from behind, no ammunition, no food, no water. The bearers of such things had to carry them three to five kilometers and had to jump from shell hole to shell hole.

Unteroffizier Felix Kircher, forward observer, 26th Reserve Field Artillery Regiment

The seven-day bombardment by the English did not cause us any losses. Our battalion occupied a three-line trench system and had built very strong and deep shelters. Our dugouts were eight to ten meters deep and had been strengthened with heavy wooden beams and railroad ties. Lucky for us this provided quite adequate shelter. But several days before 1 July we had heard underground digging and knew a mine was being dug and prepared. 

Grenadier Walter, 119th Reserve Infantry Rgt.,

at Beaumont Hamel, 1 July 1916

German Home Front Depiction of Fighting at Mametz Wood, Somme

The principal work of the doctors and other medical personnel began the morning of 1 July, soon after the English infantry's great frontal attack. At 8:30 the first lightly wounded streamed in. Not until the afternoon and evening were the stretcher bearers able to bring in the badly wounded, some of them with horrible head, lung and abdomen injuries, in addition to smashed bones of every conceivable type. 

Oberarzt Richard Schwarz, 121st Reserve Infantry Regiment,

1 July 1916

From battalion I received the order: "The position will be held to the last man!" To my inquiry and request for reinforcements came the answer: "Reinforcements and relief underway, perhaps tonight." The night, however, passed slowly under artillery fire with nothing to eat and only a little soda water to drink. I began to think we would not live to see morning. 

Feldwebel Robert Hauschild, 111th Reserve Infantry Regiment,

3 July 1916

German Prisoner Column, Somme

After being searched for weapons and documents we were led away. Passing through the enemy's lines we saw an enormous number of artillery pieces, collected and lined up in unending rows.  But at the same time we saw evidence of the work of our own guns - dead Englishmen were lying everywhere. So marched into captivity all that was left of the 2nd Company of the 165th Infanterie Regiment: two officers and twelve men.

Gefreiter Fritz Heinemann, 165th Infanterie Regiment,

26 September 1916

Quotes from: This Carnival of Hell, published by Blue Acorn Press, 2010.

We recommend This Carnival of Hell to better appreciate the German experience at the Somme. Author Rich Baumgartner spent 20 years gathering German accounts of the Battle of the Somme for this excellent collection.

Do Something Locally for Veterans (Armistice) Day

Around 11 November each year the best way you can honor the memory of all Americans who have served our country, including the World War I generation, is to attend an event in their honor. TV or the Internet just doesn't do it. You need to interact with their history to honor someone. We can't list events scheduled for every community in the nation on Roads to the Great War, of course, but we can ask you to check your local news, websites, and so forth. You will, I'm sure, be able to find a parade, an event at the local war memorial, veteran's hall, or cemetery, or some educational event at your local library that you can attend. And you might just make a surprise connection with a new friend or discover something you'll always cherish. Here's a sampling of what communities all over America are planning for next weekend. I'll bet there is something like this going on in your area as well.

Pittsgrove, New Jersey

Fallbrook, California

Springfield, Illinois

Tooele, Utah

Highlands Ranch, Colorado

Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Genealogical Disaster: Part — 2. Working Around the 1973 Fire at the U.S. National Personal Records Center

Pershing's Future Warriors Reporting for Duty

If you haven't done so yet, I would suggest reading our previous posting, Part 1 on the 1973 fire that destroyed the military records of so many American veterans. Here in Part 2 I'm going to share a dozen workarounds  to that disaster I've discovered over the years to help genealogical researchers.  

Since I started our website on the AEF, the Doughboy Center, nearly 20 years ago,  I have had several thousand genealogical inquiries. Many of them were from discouraged families who were frustrated due to this fire. Almost without exception, though, their interests were way beyond filling in their family trees. They wanted to know what their relative had actually DONE in the war. So, these suggestions I'm listing below are for people interested in the details of military service, which is part of the history of the war.  One thing I won't be getting into here are draft registration cards. These are vital and incredibly valuable for you family histories, but they tell nothing about the individual's service after he was called up. One thing you will need to do if you intend to pursue this seriously, however, is to learn about the American military effort in the war, even if your relative was in a non-combat role such as with the YMCA or one of the many hospitals. The most valuable resource book is available free online as a PDF download here:

American Armies and Battlefields in Europe

New Marines in Training

A Dozen Workarounds for the AEF Genealogical Researcher

1. If you are interested in what your relative did in the war, the most important piece of information is what unit he served in.  If you know that, you can determine or access:

a. If the unit went overseas

b. Where it served

c. Official histories of the unit, memoirs of its members, holdings in local libraries, history societies, and so forth

d. If your relative was a casualty or received a decoration

e. What the battles were like or what his duties involved

 f. If he was killed in action and the family is eligible to receive his Purple Heart.

2. Despite the fact that 80 percent of the World War I personnel records were lost in 1973, this, of course, means 20 percent were not lost. Therefore, you should request a search of personnel records in the National Personnel Records Center. To do so, you will need a Standard Form 180, "Request Pertaining to Military Records." Copies of the form are available from the center at 8600 Page Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63132, or from their website:

National Personnel Records Center Website

3.  In parallel with this effort, which is time-consuming, there are a number of indirect ways to track down the individual's service information.  There are clues you might not recognize in the family archives or planted in the memories of the living memories.  You might not recognize these as relevant, but you should talk to everyone and ask them if they remember anything they were told about serving in the war.  Ask to see personal items like letters from overseas and diaries, can seem invasive and privacy must always be respected.  My suggestion is that you ask the holder of the material to become your ally in the investigation and review what they have to look for specific WWI references.

4. Who disposed of the veteran's personal effects when he died. A relative? An executor? Find them and see what happened to his personal effects and check to see if there were any military papers, medals, a  list of where he went to training camp,  movements overseas, places visited, and so forth.

5. What was his home state at the time of the war? Many states published summary volumes listing the military service of every citizen during the war. Check at his state governmental library and archives.

Wounded and Gassed at the Marne

6. When and where did he die? Was there an obituary? Is there any one left who knew him after the war that he might have spoken to about his military experience?

7. Where is he buried? Check the records at the cemetery. If you are not sure, the VA has an online listing of burials in their stateside cemeteries, and the American Battle Monuments Commission has a similar resource covering overseas cemeteries.

8. Did he belong to any veterans organizations? They usually keep information on the affiliations and military service of members.

9. Photos in uniform are gold.  They usually allow you to determine the service, and the branch like artillery or engineers.  And, depending on when it was taken, you might find unit insignia, wound or service stripes, and decorations.  Check all the family photo albums you can track down. 

10. This sounds like a long shot, but just type the veteran's name into your search engine with any detail you might remember about his service, such as artillery.  I have actually found the first clue for families, who have run into a dead end this way.

11.  Of course, there are many online sources today to help you. They have proliferated with the coming of the Centennial. The World War I Centennial Commission has a great compilation site, and they were kind enough to include our work at Worldwar1.com:

Online Genealogical Resources

Welcome Home

12.  Sleuthing 101: Sooner or later, you are going to start getting some clues. Now, you need to put on your deerstalker hat, connect the dots, construct some working theories to test, and start tracking down some possibilities.

For instance, you might learn that your grandfather was from Pennsylvania and a member of the National Guard.  That makes it probable (not certain by any means, but this is a good indicator) that he was with the 28th Pennsylvania National Guard Division. Since the National Guard is organized by states you might be able to confirm this with the Pennsylvania Adjutant General.

Or, you might piece together some details about your great aunt. Say you learned from talking to the family that she was a nurse in France in the Loire Valley at town called Allerey and that all the doctors came from the university in her home state, Minnesota. Well, with minimal further checking online, you will discover that she probably worked at AEF Base Hospital #26 that was organized by the University of Minnesota. In that case you next inquiries would be to that university's library and archives. Surely, they have information on Base Hospital #26. 

With your diligence and a little luck, you will be able to determine that your relative served, say, in the 363rd Infantry of the 91st Wild West Division. With minimal work online you will be able to tell that this was the draftee division from the West Coast and the 363rd had men from Northern California,  that they went over the top the first day of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, and after consulting the divisional history that your relative was wounded on 29 September 1918. Now you can really start to dig on what happened to him a century ago by reading accounts of the fighting in the sector that day.

A last bit of advice:  throughout your researching effort, think like a journalist writing a mini-biography and keep asking : who, how, what, when, where, and why, about your subject.  That way you will come to a fuller understanding of your family's World War One Doughboy, Marine,  Nurse, Volunteer, Flyer, Sailor.

Best of luck to you.

Genealogical Disaster: Part — 1. The 1973 Fire at the U.S. National Personal Records Center

By Constance Potter, NARA

In terms of size and impact — the number of records destroyed and the number of persons affected — none of the earlier fires equaled the disaster of July 12, 1973, at the National Personnel Records Center.

Walter W. Stender and Evans Walker, writing in 

The American Archivist

On 12 July 12 1973 the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, MO, suffered a massive fire that destroyed approximately 16–18 million official military personnel records, one third of the records. Among the records destroyed were 80 percent of U.S. Army personnel discharged 1 November 1912 to 1 January 1960, which includes those for World War I.

None of the records destroyed in the fire had duplicate copies nor had they been microfilmed. Neither had they been indexed. To add to the confusion, a very small number of U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps records were out of their normal file area being worked on as active requests. When the fire began, these records were in the section of the building damaged by the fire.

The fire damage was extensive because of the poor design of the NPRC facility. Each floor consisted of large spaces for records storage, stretching hundreds of feet with no fire walls or other fire stopping barriers to limit the spread of the fire. The entire facility lacked heat or smoke detectors or a fire sprinkler system.

Damaged Records from the Fire

Despite an extensive effort to restore service records burned in the fire begun in 1974, the damage to files still poses a problem. Some of the information in NPRC files that was lost may be gleaned in other sources. This series will describe some of the sources useful to finding World War I service records.

In Part 2 tomorrow, Editor Mike Hanlon will share some of the workarounds he has discovered to assist genealogical researchers who have been frustrated due to this fire in 1973.

Source:  Website of the U.S. World War One Centennial Commission

USS Leviathan: A Most Valuable Spoil of War

Official Navy Painting: "A Fast Convoy USS Allen Escorting USS Leviathan

The first large American troopship to make the Atlantic crossing with troops was the 54,000 ton USS Leviathan, formerly the German liner Vaterland, owned by the Hamburg America Line. Launched at Hamburg in 1914, she could sustain a speed of 20 knots across the Atlantic regardless of weather. She had 14 watertight compartments, 46 Yarrow coal-burning boilers, and eight Parson turbines driving four 4-bladed propellers measuring 14 feet from tip to tip. Having arrived in New York in July 1914, she was trapped in harbor when war broke out. Three years later she was seized as soon as America declared war on Germany. Outfitted as a troopship and given its new name and a "dazzle" style camouflage, Leviathan took a test run to Cuba in November. She was deemed fit for service on the Atlantic convoy run. On 15 December 1917 she left her pier in Hoboken in a heavy snowstorm for the crossing, bound for Liverpool. It is reported in the history of this ship that Leviathan had 7,254 troops of the 41st Division plus 2,000 crew on board for this initial trip.

Vaterland in Her Prewar Glory

The escorting destroyers and their personnel had a punishing trip. Some of the escorts lost their forecastle lifelines, had the bridge forward bulkheads buckled and the windows smashed. The navigator of the destroyer with the pilot on board mentions finding the designated pilot for docking the Leviathan standing in the passageway from the wardroom to the outside deck, where he was going to the bridge for his 4-8 a.m. watch. The pilot, with his spread feet and arms against the bulkheads, was a depressed-looking person. The navigator, trying to make conversation said, "How goes it, pilot?" and he could not be mistaken about the pilot's feeling when after some expressive words he concluded with "Every bone in my bloody body aches from 'olding on in the %#*$@ ship." The ship missed the tide and had to wait outside the port while the escorting destroyer ran antisubmarine circles around her. The Leviathan entered port on the morning of 24 December, and the escorts lighted off all boilers to get back to Queenstown for Christmas.

The Deck of Leviathan with Sailors and Doughboy Passengers
(Probably Postwar Voyage Home)

Leviathan would transport 120,000 Doughboys to the front by the Armistice. Its most famous crewman was none other than future movie star Humphrey Bogart, who served on the ship's security detail and reportedly once shot an escaping prisoner while transporting him to Portsmouth Naval Prison. After the war the ship was returned to service as an ocean liner, but as a spoil of war, for the United States Line.

Adapted From the Naval Historical Foundation's Article "Bayly's Navy"

Selling the War to Children

By Tony Langley

[Editor's note: Tony is a regular contributor to all our publications at Worldwar1.com. He is an authority on the children's wartime literature. His book on the subject titled De grote oorlog voor kleine kinderen: heldenmoed in beeld, which he wrote with  his sister Nicky, never found a publisher who was willing to translate the work to English. However, the collection of wartime illustrations (some of which are shown here) are tremendous, and the work is still available from the Dutch publisher at: 

http://www.davidsfonds.be/publisher/edition/detail.phtml?id=2956 ]

When the Great War started in 1914, magazine publishers held a preeminent position when it came to disseminating news. Due to a growing population of literate and news-hungry readers of all ages, there was an enormous market for all kinds of printed material. With the advent of paid advertising in magazines and the means of rapid distribution and cheap printing, by 1914 virtually every niche market segment had publications catering to that particular group.

"Zizi" Is a Boy's Adventure Magazine Recounting the Exploits of a Brave and Patriotic French Boy; A Belgian School Reader During the Occupation; A Boy's Adventure Novel from Germany

Children and youngsters too had many kinds of weekly or monthly magazines to read. There were inexpensive and cheaply printed comic book-like weeklies, as well as upper-class literary inspired magazines. Most were more or less profusely illustrated, partially in color, often by talented but unknown commercial artists. These illustrations were striking and eye-catching, certainly when used as cover art.

Postwar History for Children

Seen now, almost 100 years later, they can seem very bold and show quite violent or often jarring scenes of, for instance, youngsters toting rifles or wielding bayonets, killing enemy soldiers in battle or behind the lines or about to be executed themselves, often in very horrid circumstances.French children's magazines most notably were patriotic to a fault and encouraged the military virtues. Since the war was seen by the French as a struggle for national survival, every member of society was obligated to do their bit. At least so it was seen and portrayed by magazine editors. "Il n'y a plus d'enfants!" (There are no more children!) was a hallmark characteristic of much French publishing for children. Even more or less officially sanctioned schoolbooks or readers brought across this idea to young readers.

In contrast to the militant encouragement of youngsters taking up arms to defend their country, German children's magazines tended to reinforce the idea that war was far too serious a business for children to participate in. Their task was to remain at home and study diligently, help out with chores, and relieve mothers of any anxiety about their absent spouses by being well behaved and studious. Great care was also taken to explain the technical aspects of warfare, how trenches were built and set up, how ammunition was manufactured, and the symbolism of medals and uniforms.

From an Illustrated French History of the War for Young Readers Showing Two Instances of German Barbarity Against Young Children: A Recurring Story of the Execution of a Child for Brandishing a Wooden Gun and the Mistreatment of an Even Younger Child for Having "France" Sewn onto His Cap.

British children's magazines tended to treat the war as a boy's adventure story, with young, plucky, persevering children having the time of their lives and saving the day in some minor way at the end of the day, say, by uncovering a dastardly spy or delivering an important message to the front in time. But whatever the national characteristics may be, one thing is quite certain. The contents and especially the wartime imagery contained in children's magazines during the Great War would be unpublishable in our present day.

Eyes All Over the Sky: Aerial Reconnaissance in the First World War reviewed by Terrence J. Finnegan

Eyes All Over the Sky: Aerial Reconnaissance in the First World War

by James Streckfuss

Casemate, 2016

The basic element of war is uncertainty. The man who developed an organization to make a business of getting the latest information of the inevitable changes, and who then would act, was the man who created and conducted a successful war organization.

H.A. Toulmain, Jr., Air Service, AEF, 1918 

(Quoted in Eyes All Over the Sky)

Camera Mounted on
French MF-11 Aircraft

Dr. James Streckfuss believes that the real value of aviation in the Great War has only been acknowledged within the past decade, and his Eyes All Over the Sky makes a convincing argument that aerial reconnaissance well merits this belated recognition. The book is a very welcome addition to the growing library of aviation history, providing a broad view of how aviation contributed to the industrial production of information and intelligence that governed the way 20th-century battles were fought and evolved up to the present day. Also, the author provides a comprehensive overview of aviation's growth, culling from a vast array of sources that allow the reader to appreciate why aviation meant more to military leadership and the combatants as they acquired vital information that was successfully processed and disseminated.

Eyes All Over the Sky's primary sources are chiefly drawn from British and American archives. French and German insights are also introduced, however, which further reinforce the arguments made that aviation's evolution goes well beyond the ability to shoot down an enemy airplane. What the reader learns from Eyes All Over the Sky is that all combatants furthered aerodynamics, flying capabilities, techniques of information acquisition, and processes for getting the word out faster and more effectively.

Aviation's ability to conduct aerial reconnaissance greatly exceeded anyone's expectations prior to the war. Streckfuss's subject goes beyond the traditional review of aeroplanes at the front and provides an in-depth review of the important role played by airships and captive balloons. Additional insight on the role of maritime reconnaissance further complements the argument of how aviation benefited all facets of combat in the war.

Photographic Mosaic of No Man's Land, Early War Period

Eyes All Over the Sky reminds the reader that aviation's legacy from the First World War underwent realignment in the inter-war period. It is amazing to think that almost a century passed before proper attention was given to aerial reconnaissance from this most important of conflicts. This book is a must for any aviation enthusiast to further complement work on aerial reconnaissance in modern warfare!

Terrence J. Finnegan

Announcing Our Comprehensive American Expeditionary Force — Pershing's Doughboys Battlefield Tour

More than any other trip I have planned for Valor Tours, we are working to include all the sites of personal interest for the participants in our 2018 Pershing's Doughboys Tour. Our journey together, of course, will include a comprehensive study of all the major American battlefields on the Western Front. You will see step-by-step how the battles unfolded, where the toughest fighting was, where legends like the Lost Battalion and the Devil Dogs at Belleau Wood were born, and all the magnificent monuments and memorials to our nation's sacrifices that are beautifully maintained to this day.

On top of that, however, this trip is a chance for families to remember and honor their heritage. If your loved one went over the top, we will take you to that very spot and let you walk in their footsteps. If you have someone buried overseas we will help you with a wreath laying or personal commemoration.

My 2010 Group at the Corporal Alvin York Memorial Trail, Argonne Forest

The key to fitting all these special stops into our itinerary is to give me all the information you have on your relative as early as you can. I've been researching the AEF for a quarter century and I've helped dozens of travelers like yourself find the place that are meaningful to the. Please take a look at our general program below. As I learn the specific interests of our group, it will be adjusted a bit, but I've allowed enough flexibility and time to visit just about any place an American fought in France and Flanders.

My 2015 Group at Croix Rouge Farm Rainbow Division Memorial

A few details:

When: 7–17 August 2018
Start/Finish: Paris
Price: $3750.00 per person, twin share. Single supplement $600.00.
(Land costs only, 2016 estimate; 10% discount for early payment, 5% for early deposit)
Download Flyer at: http://www.worldwar1.com/pdf/WWI_2018_AEF.pdf

I hope you will be able to join us. Contact me for a consultation about your relative's service at: greatwar@earthlink.net

Remembering a Veteran: Lt. Sir Edward Beddington-Behrens, MC with Bar

An aristocrat, who was both brilliant and a brave officer, Sir Edward Beddington-Behrens (1897–1968) served in both World Wars. In 1915, he was commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery, subsequently receiving the Military Cross in 1917, with bar added in 1918. 

His twin brother, 2nd Lt. Walter Louis Behrens, Royal Field Artillery, was killed in action in 1917. After the war, Sir Edward studied at Christ Church, Oxford, and took a PhD in economics at the University of London, before becoming one of the British representatives at the League of Nations. In 1932 he published "A Practical Monetary Policy" for the Ottawa Conference. He became an early advocate for European unification.  In his spare time he was a notable patron of the arts.

When World War II broke out, Beddington-Behrens was called up from the Territorial Army, serving in Belgium prior to Dunkirk and later as a staff officer at Coleshill House, where British resistance fighters were prepared in case the nation was invaded.

In the Great War — like so many of his generation — he saw his first service in the Battle of the Somme. Late in his life the debate started up as to whether the Somme was a disaster or part of the necessary learning curve by which the BEF weakened the Germany Army. Beddington-Behrens would have none of it. He wrote this letter to the Times in response to some article that had caught his attention. 

Source:s  BBC and the British Resistance Archive