New Year’s Eve in the Trenches, 1915, by "AF"

This mournful piece of doggerel, with its eloquent illustration, is preserved in the World War One diary of Major General Sir William Douglas Smith (ref: SMITH, WD 2/2).  "AF" may be Smith’s fellow officer, Major Athel (or Athol) Murray Hay Forbes. 

The poem’s sardonic final couplet, "Although wet through, I still keep bright and cheery/ Warmed by the pipe I got from Princess Mary," is a reference to the tobacco tin sent to all service personnel on the Western Front and in the Royal Navy from December 1914 (some took many months to arrive), under a scheme devised by Princess Mary, daughter of King George V and Queen Mary.  

Source: King’s College London Archives

Tommy's Fact Sheet

Unlike France, Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, Great Britain entered the First World War with a small, volunteer force. It believed it could rely on the Royal Navy for most of its contribution should general war come, but the war that came in 1914 seemed to be a land war on the European continent. 

War Minister Gen. Horatio Kitchener quickly apprehended that major increases in the British Army were needed. A mass volunteer army was recruited at his recommendation. They became known as "Kitchener's New Armies." As the professional British Army was devoured in 1914 and 1915's futile campaigns, the new units trained, fated to have their main entrance onto the stage of war on 1 July 1916 at the Somme. 

Alas, even the mighty recruiting effort of Kitchener proved insufficient to the demands of total war. Eventually, the nation turned to conscription to bring the war to its conclusion.

Tommy's Rifle: The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield

Tommy's Facts

● "Tommy" as a name for British soldiers came from the name in the sample paybook given to new recruits in Wellington's time: Thomas Atkins. 

● The original 1914 British Expeditionary Force was composed of six infantry and one cavalry division totaling 150,000 men. 

● 5,704,416 Tommies from the United Kingdom (Great Britain & Ireland) eventually served in the war. 

● About 2,670,000 volunteered, of which 1,186,000 had enlisted by 31 December 1914. 

● About 2,770,000 were conscripted. 

● 724,000 Tommies were killed; 2,000,000 were wounded; and 270,000 were POWs.

● Besides the regulars, the British Army overseas was supplemented by "Territorials," volunteer reserves, originally intended for home defense but who could opt for "Imperial Service" overseas. 

● "Pals" battalions were special units of the British Army composed of men who enlisted together in local recruiting drives, with the promise that they would be able to serve alongside their friends, neighbors, and work colleagues ("pals"). By one count, there were 643 Pals battalions.

New Recruits—Oxford, 1915

● Some of Tommy's Lingo

Billet. Sometimes a regular house but generally a stable where Tommy sleeps while behind the lines. It is generally located near a large manure pile. Most billets have numerous entrances—one for Tommy and the rest for rain, rats, wind, and shells. 

Blighty. An East Indian term meaning "over the seas". Tommy has adopted it as a synonym for home. 

Estaminet. A French public house, or saloon, where muddy water is sold for beer. 

Funk Hole. When you just have to get away from the turmoil of the social whirl, find yourself a little storage niche in the parapet  to grab a snooze and psychologically withdraw for a bit.

Iron Rations. A tin of bully beef, two biscuits, and a tin containing tea, sugar, and Oxo cubes. These are not supposed to be eaten until you die of starvation. 

Maconochie . A canned meat stew or a thin soup of sliced turnips and carrots made by Maconochie Brothers in Aberdeen for the British Army. Most soldiers hated it unless they were nearly starving.

Minnenwerfer. A high-power trench mortar shell of the Germans, which makes no noise coming through the air. It was invented by Professor Kultur. Tommy does not know what is near until it bites him; after that, nothing worries him. Tommy nicknames them "Minnies."

Pip, Squeak, and Wilfred. The  nicknames for the three main campaign medals awarded to British servicemen in World War I: Pip: The 1914 (Mons) or 1914–15 Stars, Squeak: The British War Medal, Wilfred: The Victory Medal.

Tickler.  Slang for jam but also for handmade grenades made from old jam tins and packed with nails, glass, and explosives.

V.C.  The Victoria Cross, or "Very careless" as Tommy calls it. It is a bronze medal won by Tommy for being very careless with his life. 

Woodbine. A cigarette made of paper and old hay. Tommy swears by a Woodbine.

Harry Patch's Funeral

● The last surviving Tommy of the Great War was Henry John (Harry) Patch (1898–2009), who fought as a Lewis gunner with the 7th battalion of the Duke of York's Light Infantry.

Sources:  Over the Top magazine, April 2011; "Tommy's Dictionary of the Trenches"  in Over the Top, by Arthur Guy Empey, 1917

Lenin and the Sealed Train

There will be no recovery of any kind in Russia or in eastern Europe

while these wicked men, this vile group of cosmopolitan fanatics, hold the Russian nation by the hair of its head and tyrannizes over its great population. The policy I will always advocate is the overthrow and destruction of that criminal regime.

  Winston Churchill, 1920

Centennial Reenactment of Lenin's Departure from Zurich

Lenin's return to Russia made the October Revolution possible For three long years he had been trapped in Switzerland, as much a prisoner of war as the hundreds of thousands of Russian troops languishing in German, Austrian, and Turkish prison camps. Exiled from Russia prior to the start of World War I, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin had found a safe refuge in Switzerland, where he continued to coordinate the underground activities of his small Bolshevik Party. 

The governments of France and Italy, to the west and south of Switzerland, had arrest warrants waiting for Lenin as an enemy of the Allied cause if he should dare to try and set foot across the border. Contact was reduced to occasional courier messages and coded telegrams. So he was stuck, seething with frustration as the hated Czarist government collapsed in March 1917 and was replaced with a republic headed by Alexander Kerensky.

Sealed Train Route

Lenin felt trapped by his circumstances, unable to participate in the opportunity he had plotted more than thirty years for, the establishment of a communist state in Russia. He briefly considered donning a disguise, attempting a crossing of France with forged papers, and trying to take a boat to Russia from there. An absurd plan since it was assumed that Allied intelligence agents were keeping a close watch on him.

Finally, he struck on a plan that had a certain surreal quality to it…. Meeting with the German minister in Bern, Lenin laid out his proposal…that Germany would provide transport across their country and help to smuggle him into Finland. From there he would go into Russia, raise a revolution, seize control of the government, and then pull Russia out of the war, freeing Germany to turn its full power to the Western Front.

Lenin (x) and His Group on a Stopover in Stockholm

The German minister in Bern, along with his intelligence advisors, must have had a difficult time concealing his grin of amusement over this mad, wild-eyed scheme…. Nevertheless the decision was made to approve it. At the very least it would provide a bit of consternation for the Western Allies, who were terrified that Russia might bail out of the war and it might even help to trigger further revolts in the Russian army, which was already disintegrating in the confusion resulting from the overthrow of the Czar.

The plan was authorized by German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg. In a sealed railway car, Lenin and eighteen cohorts traveled over German-occupied or neutral territory to Helsinki. From Vyborg, then on the Finnish side of the border, they entered Russia. Lenin arrived in Petrograd on 16 April 1917. Read about Lenin's arrival at the Finland Station HERE.

Finland Station

History records what ensued.  Germany gained nothing, and for the rest of the century most of the world paid a high price for what they unleashed. Without their decision there would likely have been no Communist revolution, probably no Nazi Party, and no Cold War to bankrupt half the globe. 

Sources:  Churchill and the Soviet Union, David Charlton; "Lenin as Plague Bacillus Churchill as Munitions Minister," the Churchill Project, Hillsdale College; Photos and Map from Railway Magazine and SwissInfo.com

Case Study: Australian Prisoners of War in the First World War

Australian Prisoners on the Western Front, July 1916

The Great War was to be a terrible experience for the newly federated nation of Australia. A war that became a baptism of fire, killing tens of thousands of young men, also creating the foundation for new traditions of patriotism and an increasingly distinct national identity apart from Britain. 

Some 60,000 Australian military personnel were killed during the Great War, and about 160,000 were wounded. More than 4,070 Australians spent the war as prisoners. The Gallipoli campaign saw the first of 232 Australians captured by Ottoman [Turkish] forces. The AE2, Australia’s second war submarine, was sunk in the Sea of Marmara on 30 April 1915. Torpedoed by the Turkish boat Sultan Hissar, the 32-man crew was forced to abandon ship, and all were taken prisoner. The crew of the AE2 were put to work on building a railway in southern Turkey. Suffering from disease and starvation, four died in captivity.

Other Australians were captured during the Gallipoli and Middle Eastern ground campaigns, and Australian airmen were also captured in what is now Iraq. One-quarter of Australian POWs died in Turkish captivity due to poor food and disease.

Four Australian Officers Held Prisoner in Turkey

On the Western Front battlefields, from 1916 to 1918, 3,853 Australian troops were taken prisoner by German forces, most of them held in Germany. A third of these Australian prisoners were captured on 11 April 1917 at the First Battle of Bullecourt in northern France. A number of Australian airmen were also shot down and captured by the Germans. 

Although these Australian prisoners survived in proportionally higher numbers than their comrades in Ottoman camps, their experience was a difficult one, and their captors were generally harsh. Conditions were crowded (the Germans held over five million Allied POWs during the war), and food supplies were often disrupted, particularly during the Allied blockade of 1917–1918. Many non-officer POWs were made to work for the Germans in war-related capacities—a direct breach of the Hague Conventions.

Sources: The History of Australian Prisoners of War by Rosalind Hearder; Australian War Memorials

Where is Sir Douglas Haig’s Grave?

Haig Family Burial Plot, Dryburgh Abbey

By James Patton

Some, including Haig himself, regarded him as the leading British general of the First World War. “The Man Who Won the War,” some have said, even reportedly including Gen. John Pershing. Although in the postwar period Haig was increasingly criticized for issuing orders which led to very heavy casualties, especially during the Somme, Third Ypres (Passchendaele) and the Hundred Days offensives. 

After the Armistice, Haig became Commander of Home Forces until his retirement in 1920. Subsequently he devoted his attention to the welfare of ex-servicemen. He was a founder of the British Legion and set up both the Haig Fund and Haig Homes charities. He also attended numerous ceremonies and memorial dedications, including some in Canada, Newfoundland, and South Africa.

Bemersyde House (ca. 1585), today in Roxburghshire, was the ancient seat of the clan Haig, but the Haigs became wealthy  making whiskey and in 1849 the family seat was shifted to the newly built Haig House in Fife, which was less rustic and more convenient to Edinburgh. As Douglas Haig was a professional soldier, he was seldom in residence at Haig House, and the estate was converted into a hospital in 1912. So, in 1921, with Haig needing a residence suited to his station, the Crown purchased Bemersyde and bestowed it upon him. It remains in the Haig family today and is located less than two miles from the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey.

The Abbey's Ruins Today

Haig was in London when he died of a heart attack on 29 January 1928. He was only 66 years old. As was befitting his fame and rank, he was given an elaborate state funeral. 

On  3 February, "Great crowds lined the streets ... come to do honour to the chief who had sent thousands to the last sacrifice when duty called for it, but whom his war-worn soldiers loved as their truest advocate and friend," wrote the London Times. 

Funeral Procession, February 1928

They didn’t stint themselves. As a Scot, he first lay in state for three days at St. Columba’s (Church of Scotland) in Knightsbridge (later destroyed in the Blitz on 10 May 1941). The gun-carriage that had carried the Unknown Warrior in 1920 was retrieved to carry Haig's body to Westminster Abbey. Representing the Crown were three royal princes, the Dukes of York, Gloucester, and Kent, following first behind the gun-carriage. Then came Haig’s favorite horse and his man-servant Mr. Secrett, followed by the  pall bearers, who  were Marshal of France Philippe Pétain, General Lord Cavan, General Lord Horne, General Sir Ian Hamilton, Field Marshal Sir Claud Jacob, Admiral Lord Beatty, Field Marshal Lord Methuen, Lieutenant General Baron de Ceuninck of Belgium, General Sir Hubert Gough, General Sir Herbert Lawrence, General the Viscount Byng, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Hugh Trenchard, Marshal of France Ferdinand Foch, and Admiral Lord Jellicoe.

The cortege was accompanied by five honor guards, each from the Royal Navy, the Irish Guards, the Royal Air Force, the 1st French Army Corps, and the Belgian Regiment of Grenadiers. After the service at the Abbey, the procession was re-formed to escort the body to Waterloo station for the rail journey to Edinburgh, where it lay in state for another three days at St Giles's Cathedral (Church of Scotland), the High Kirk of Edinburgh. 

Artist's Concept of the Original Abbey

After all of this pomp it is surprising that Haig wasn’t buried in a cathedral or a massive crypt, preferably in a public place, but at the Dryburgh Abbey, and not even in the cemetery (which contains the tomb of the author and poet Sir Walter Scott), but in what had been a side chapel of the Abbey before being razed to the foundation stones. 

Haig’s grave itself is marked with a stone tablet of the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC) standard used in all of their cemeteries except those at Gallipoli and Salonika, although Haig’s is made of granite (while the similar IWGC headstones are Portland stone) and is inscribed on both sides. The front bears the supplemental inscription "He Trusted in God and Tried To Do the Right," the rear, the insignias of personal guard regiment as commander in chief and those of three regiments he had commanded earlier in his career.  Nearby, on the grounds of the abbey, there is an IWGC Cross of Sacrifice. 

Rear View of Haig's Gravestone

The Countess Haig, The Hon.  Dorothy Maude Vivian Haig (1879–1939) was subsequently buried next to her husband, and their only son, George A E D Haig, OBE, KStJ, DL, FRSA, the 2nd Earl (1918–2009), is also buried there, so it has become a sort of family plot.

I came across Haig’s grave entirely by accident. In September, I spent a day in the Scottish  Borders seeking out sites of significance to my ancestors, including Sgt. John Laurie of the Royal Scots Greys.  I had a local guide named Stewart to drive me around and in conversation we got onto the subject of the First World War. Then Stewart said to me ”Would you like to visit Haig’s grave”? Of course I would! Then I discovered that it might be the only CWGC site in the world that isn’t free. As a senior, it cost me £6. 

Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, KT, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCIE (1861–1928)
1922 Portrait, Braesnose College, Oxford

A Virtual Tour of the Italian Front — Video from the Western Front Association

Witness to the Christmas Truce: Henry Williamson—Soldier, Author, Naturalist

Henry Williamson in Uniform

As Christmas Day dawned on the Western Front in 1914, British and German soldiers put down their rifles, climbed out of their trenches and met in no-man's-land, that narrow strip of land between their lines, where they chatted, exchanged gifts, took photographs, and even kicked a football around together. This astonishing and totally unofficial truce, which has become legendary, lasted in some cases for several days. To the young Henry Williamson, who was then a private in the London Rifle Brigade, a Territorial battalion in the frontline trenches at Ploegsteert (popularly known as "Plugstreet") Wood, and who was present at the truce, the experience came as a revelation that changed his life. 

Henry Williamson wrote about the truce several times over the course of his life. Below is a transcript  of a letter that he wrote to his mother immediately after the event, giving an eyewitness account. It so moved his family that they sent it to the Daily Express newspaper which  published selections from it on 5 January 1915.

26 Dec. 1914

Trenches

Dear Mother

I am writing from the trenches. It is 11 o'clock in the morning. Beside me is a coke fire, opposite me a 'dug-out' (wet) with straw in it. The ground is sloppy in the actual trench, but frozen elsewhere. In my mouth is a pipe presented by the Princess Mary. In the pipe is tobacco. Of course, you say. 

But wait. In the pipe is German tobacco. Haha, you say, from a prisoner or found in a captured trench. 

Oh dear, no!

 From a German soldier. Yes a live German soldier from his own trench. Yesterday the British & Germans met & shook hands in the Ground between the trenches, & exchanged souvenirs, & shook hands. Yes, all day Xmas day, & as I write. Marvelous, isn't it? Yes.

This is only for about a mile or two on either side of us (so far as we know). It happened thus wise.

On Xmas eve both armies sang carols and cheered & there was very little firing. The Germans (in some places 80 yds away) called to our men to come and fetch a cigar & our men told them to come to us. This went on for some time, neither fully trusting the other, until, after much promising to 'play the game' a bold Tommy crept out & stood between the trenches, & immediately a Saxon came to meet him. They shook hands & laughed & then 16 Germans came out.

Thus the ice was broken. Our men are speaking to them now.

They are landsturmers or landwehr, I think, & Saxons & Bavarians (no Prussians). Many are gentle looking men in goatee beards & spectacles, and some are very big and arrogant looking. I have some cigarettes which I shall keep, & a cigar I have smoked.

We had a burial service in the afternoon, over the dead Germans who perished in the 'last attack that was repulsed' against us. The Germans put 'For Fatherland & Freedom' on the cross.

They obviously think their cause is a just one.

If you get a Daily Mail of Dec 23 & turn to the letter page you will see an article entitled 'Snapshots from the Front' & in the second snapshot an account is given of what we, with others, have done, and the identical apparatus is mentioned. 

When you find a sentence or word 'blacked out' & not initialed by me, it is the work of the censor.

 Many of the Germans here are, or were, waiters. [i.e. in England before the war.] Thank Efford for his chocolate. Auntie Belle for the cigarettes. I have had an awful time with swollen feet and my toes are frostbitten now.

But it is all in the days work, as is working all night at digging or etc & sleeping in wet and mud. Where we are billeted (8 of us in a cottage in a town which is shelled now and again) we have a good time. There is a family of Belgians here whose house has been destroyed, and the old mother, about 56 yrs old, is very jolly and resourceful, as well as comical. [Any further pages are missing.]

 

Twenty-three years later, an older and more pacifistic Williamson submitted a more detailed and reflective account of the Christmas Truce to the same Daily Express that was published on Christmas Eve 1937. I think I'll save that for another Christmas season, though. 

Merry Christmas. MH

Source: The Henry Williamson Society

Wartime Christmas Cards and Illustrations

Click on Images to Enlarge

Carriage 2419D: History's Most Momentous Railway Car

The Original Carriage, 1918

4 JUNE 1914: Carriage 2419D is brought into service

Twenty-two identical restaurant carriages are put into service by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. Carriage 2419D is sent to the Gare Montparnasse station serving the western lines.

28 OCTOBER 1918: Carriage 2419D is requisitioned

Carriage 2419D joins the command train placed at the disposal of Marshal Foch.

At the Compiègne Forest during Armistice Discussion
2419D on Left, German Quarters on Right

Allied Representatives with Signed Armistice Instrument

11 NOVEMBER 1918: Carriage 2419D becomes the “Armistice Carriage”

On 11 November 1918, Marshal Foch and Admiral Wemyss, representing the Allies, and Minister of State Erzberger, representing Germany, sign the armistice at 5:15 a.m. It would take effect at 11 a.m.

11 NOVEMBER 1922: Inauguration of the Armistice Clearing

At the entrance to an avenue stretching 250 meters is erected the Alsace-Lorraine Monument in pink sandstone from the Vosges. Within the clearing, a granite slab reads: “Here, on 11 November 1918, the criminal pride of the German empire was vanquished by the free peoples it had sought to enslave.”

1922 at Les Invalides

1922: Exhibition of the carriage at Les Invalides

Symbolizing France’s victory over Germany, the carriage is exhibited in the main courtyard at Les Invalides, capturing the public’s attention

NOVEMBER 1922:  The carriage is restored

During six years sitting outside at Les Invalides, the carriage must brave the bad weather. Newspapers finally cry out. Arthur Henry Fleming, an American millionaire, offers 10,000 gold francs for the carriage’s restoration and relocation to the clearing.

10 MAY-22 JUNE 1940: The Battle of France

In the space of 40 days, the German army occupies Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and a portion of France.

21 JUNE 1940: Reading of the Armistice conditions

On 21 June, Hitler, surrounded by his general staff, welcomes within the carriage (reinstalled in the clearing) the French delegation led by General Huntzinger. After the reading of the Armistice conditions, Hitler leaves the clearing.

Adolf Hitler and Entourage at the Carriage

22 JUNE 1940: The Signature of the Armistice

On 22 June, the Armistice is signed by Generalfeldmarschall Keitel and General Huntzinger.

JULY 1940: The carriage and monuments are taken to Germany

On Hitler’s order, the carriage is transported to Germany, as are the Sacred Slab and the Alsace-Lorraine Monument. The Marshal Foch statue is spared and protected during the clearing’s complete destruction.

1940 - 1945: The carriage in Germany

The carriage is initially exhibited in Berlin. It is then transferred to the Ohrdruf prison camp to protect it from the Berlin bombings.

The Carriage in Berlin

1945: End of the Second World War

The carriage is destroyed in the accidental burning of the Crawinkel railway station next to the Ohrdruf prison camp.

11 NOVEMBER 1946: The monuments recovered

Recovered in Germany, the monuments are brought back to France in July 1946. They are reinstalled in the Armistice Clearing in time to commemorate 11 November 1946.

16 SEPTEMBER 1950: The carriage’s installation

A carriage from the same series is presented by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. It is identically furnished and fitted out and installed within a new shelter attached to a rotunda built to house 800 stereoscopic views.

The Identical Carriage at the Armistice Glade Today

(Notes:  The museum was enlarged in 1992 and further enhanced for the Centennial of the Great War in 2018)

Source:  Le Mémorial de L'Armistice Website

 

What Happened at Bois des Nonne Bosschen During the First Battle of Ypres?

Fighting at  Nonne Bosschen, 11 November 1914

On three days during the Fall of 1914's First Battle of Ypres,  the tide of victory turned on actions at three locations near where the extreme eastern boundary of the salient crossed the Menin Road: Polygon Wood, Gheluvelt Chateau, and Nonne Bosschen. The action at Nonne Bosschen—fought on 11 November—was the final significant action of the last major battle in the west of the war's first year. Afterward, it was evident that any decisive movement would necessitate a new approach for breaking through the massive and deep trench system that had ended the war of maneuver.

At the dawn of 11 November 1914, the German Army, though, had not quite given up on breaking through at Ypres. The Fourth Army was ordered to prepare another assault over a broad front. After an intense bombardment, their best advance was just north of the Menin Road. A force estimated at 13 German Guards battalions captured Gheluvelt Chateau and they pushed almost a mile farther to Bois de Nonne Bosschen, a small wooded area just northwest of Polygon Wood. The defending British troops in the sector were from the 1st Guards Brigade under the command of Brigadier General Charles FitzClarence, who would later be killed in the action.

Key  Locations During the First Battle of Ypres

After they captured a British Guards' trench, counterattacks—enabled by reinforcements and artillery fire that prevented the attackers being reinforced—drove the German Guards back. The most famous of these is commemorated with the painting shown at the very top of this page. At 1400 hours, the 2nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, accompanied by a company of the Northamptonshire Regiment and the 5th Field Company, Royal Engineers who did not want to be left out of the action, moved forward to clear Nonne Boschen of the 1st Prussian Foot Guard.  The official history of the British Second Division, described the decisive action:

A combined charge was then made on the enemy, who, though standing bravely to meet the attack, again lost heavily in killed and wounded, besides many prisoners. The Prussians thereupon fell back to the trench they had captured earlier in the day from the Black Watch and Camerons. . . When night fell, the stretch of ground won by the Prussians was only 500 yards in length. Their losses were very heavy, for although they advanced with great gallantry in close formation they were decimated by the accurate and rapid rifle-fire of Sir John French's infantry, combined with the splendid practice made by the Divisional Artillery. When the Prussians broke through the northern exits of the Nonne Bosschen Wood they came within a hundred yards of the 9th, 16th, and I7th Batteries of the XLIst Brigade R.F.A., and within rifle fire of the gunners of the 35th (Heavy) Battery. Here again they suffered considerably from rifle fire, the gunners of the four batteries using their rifles with excellent effect.

General Fitzclarence made an effort to organize a counterattack the following morning, but the opportunity was lost when he was fatally wounded. After a last effort, on 17 November, German forces moved into a defensive mode in the west and sent available troops to the Russian Front. Sporadic fighting continued until 22 November, when the arrival of winter forced an end to the battle. The Allies claimed a victory.  A month later, the Ypres battlefield would be the site of the famous episode, the 1914 Christmas Truce.

Photos from the Families of the Yanks Who Served in the Great War

I seem to have lost my master list of contributors, but these are photos people have sent me over the years. I've included the names of the individuals that I'm sure about.  MH

Diving Crew of USS Aroostook, North Sea Mine Barrage
Contributed by Shawnee Brown, Granddaughter of the Diver, Larkin Brown

Men of Company K of the 144th Infantry, 36th "Lone Star" Division Contributed by Rebecca Hornyak, Granddaughter of Richard Henry Immel on the Left

Machine Gun Company, 317th Inf., 80th "Blue Mountain" Division at Camp Lee

Three Notable Pilots of the 94th "Hat in the Ring" Squadron
Alan Winslow, Douglas Campbell, John Huffer

KP Detail, Trainees of 78th "Lightning" Division
Left Front Is PFC Louis Marcocci, Whose Great-nephew Steve Contributed the Photo

Officers 308th Field Artillery, 78th Division
Contributed by Tom D'Amario Whose Grandfather Kenneth Haddow Chalmers is Somewhere Above

Kitchen Crew 337th Field Hospital

Members Company 79, 6th Marines

Members of H Company, 106th Infantry in New York City

Marine Detachment Unidentified Battleship

Polar Bears of the AEF, Northern Russia

US Navy Yeomanettes Sworn In

US 2nd Cavalry Somewhere in France

Crew Members of U.S.S. Olympia
AEF, Northern Russia

363 Infantry & 347 Field Artillery Welcome Home
Market St., San Francisco, 23 April 1919

Members 369th "Harlem Hellfighters" Inf., Returning Home

Fathers of Jack Savage Wildman and Barbara Albertson Wildman

John Rudolph Webb [l.] and Crew
301st Tank Battalion (from Bob Rudolph)

Members 124th MG Battalion, 33rd Div.with Citizens of Christnach. Luxembourg (from Steve Collins)

Gun Crew, 148th Field Artillery (From Mary Schaefer)