History & Lore of the Old World War

artifacts & odd bits from 1914-1918

• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
  

• Voices from the trenches, a hundred years ago . . .

  
  
  From Wm Yorke Stevenson’s AT THE FRONT IN A FLIVVER: The diary of an American Ambulance driver in France in 1916.
  
  March 14, 1916: "...At Poitiers we saw the first train-load of German prisoners; most of them were thoroughly satisfied to be out of the war. . . . We also saw a train of Red Cross cars carrying wounded to the south for recuperation. Only the slightly injured, however. It seemed almost like returning to one's home to see the familiar towns again, Tours, Blois, & the rest. The curious, hazy atmosphere of France, the tiny villages nestling about their castles like chickens around the mother hen, & above all, the familiar poplars. Paris is very quiet & dark; but there are plenty of cabs & taxis, & food is as good as ever..."
  
  Paris, March 16. "...To-day I met A. Piatt Andrew-- bully fellow-- much younger than I expected. He 's the whole show out at Neuilly. Other fellows are very nice too. Several start for the Front to-morrow, so the Equipment Dept is very busy. I had to see half a dozen officials, French & American, to get vised. We are to take our driver's exams, to-morrow, & I ordered clothes..."
  
  "...Just now the Neuilly Hospital is being cleared of its wounded as much as possible. It looks as if they expect a big Ally offensive as soon as the Verdun battle is over. There are very few wounded in Paris at present. Most of the Ambulance men are at the Front. They have organized a special 15-day corps for emergencies. It is now at Verdun. I hope I get a chance, although, of course, the turns go more or less by seniority. The food is fair at the hospital — all eat at long tables. There is an immense staff of nurses, doctors, and orderlies, and the place is much larger than I expected..."
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
• 
  

• Recent Posts

  • From the Log of a Battalion Surgeon attached to the Marine Brigade at Belleau Wood
  • Two brothers
  • Four new (old) books about Belleau Wood
  • Christmas on the Old Front Line, one hundred years ago . . .
  • One hundredth anniversary of the final day of the Battle of the Somme.
  • 11, 11, 11.
  • Poets Killed on the First Day of the Somme, July 1, 1916
  • Final days of a young Marine wounded at Belleau Wood
  • More Christmas greetings from the old front line
  • “The stillness was oppressive.” ~~~ An American surgeon on the Meuse records his impressions of the Armistice
  • Memorial Day, sometime in the 1920s, in a cemetery outside a small midwestern town
  • One hundred years ago, April 25, 1915: the Gallipoli landings
  • One hundred years ago, 24 April 1915: Armenian genocide begins
  • The Scrapbook of an American Army Nurse in WWI: Part Two
  • First to Fall: the American Volunteers who Gave their Lives for France
  • The Poilu in postcards
  • Christmas greetings from the old front line
  • One Doughboy’s bitter reminiscence of the Armistice on the Western Front, November 11, 1918
  • Paris in the early days of the war: August 16, 1914 — (Charles Inman Barnard)
  • Paris in the early days of the war: August 15, 1914 — (Charles Inman Barnard)
  • Paris in the early days of the war: August 14, 1914 — (Charles Inman Barnard)
  • Paris in the early days of the war: August 13, 1914 — (Charles Inman Barnard)
  • Paris in the early days of the war: August 12, 1914 — (Charles Inman Barnard)
  • Paris in the early days of the war: August 12, 1914 — (M.E. Clarke)
  • Paris in the early days of the war: August 11, 1914 — (Charles Inman Barnard)
  • Paris in the early days of the war: August 10, 1914 — Charles Inman Barnard
  • Paris in the early days of the war: August 9, 1914 — (Charles Inman Barnard)
  • Paris in the early days of the war: August 8, 1914 — (Charles Inman Barnard)
  • Paris in the early days of the war: August 8, 1914 — (M.E. Clarke)
  • Paris in the early days of the war: August 7, 1914 — (Charles Inman Barnard)
  • Paris in the early days of the war, August 6, 1914 — (Charles Inman Barnard)
  • Paris in the early days of the war, August 5, 1914 — (Charles Inman Barnard)
  • Paris in the early days of the war: August 4, 1914 — (Charles Inman Barnard)
  • Paris in the early days of the war: August 3, 1914 — (Charles Inman Barnard)
  • Paris in the early days of the war: August 2, 1914 — (Charles Inman Barnard)
  • Paris in the early days of the war: August 1, 1914 — (Charles Inman Barnard)
  • The Scrapbook of an American Army Nurse in the First World War
  • Join the effort to save the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial outside of Paris
  • “Silent Night” opera recreates 1914 Christmas Truce
  • Armistice Day, 2013
  • A Small Circle of Chums~~ some Marines of 15th Company, 6th Machine Gun Battalion at Belleau Wood: how each of them came to be there, and what followed after . . .
  • Armistice Day, 2012
  • Announcing a new blog about WWI poet John Allan Wyeth
  • An artist’s memoir of Belleau Wood, Soissons and St Mihiel
  • Armistice Day, 2011
  • Some unusual documents awarded to a Marine officer of the Second Division, AEF
  • Burial detail, Belleau Wood: an old-timer is laid to rest
  • The spirit of Lt. G.E.M. Thornycroft, 4th King’s African Rifles, seen standing outside Scaleby Parish Church in Cumbria, England, the day after he is killed in Kenya
  • Spiritualism in the Great War
  • 1st Engineers clearing & repairing roads near Soissons during the fighting of 19-23 July 1918
• 
  
• 
• 
  

• Email Subscription

  Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

  Join 41 other followers

• 
  
• 
• 
  

• Most-viewed posts recently

  • 
    Marching through Belgium & France: an unpublished German soldier's diary, 25th Mixed Landwehr Brigade, Aug-Sept 1914
  • 
    One Doughboy's bitter reminiscence of the Armistice on the Western Front, November 11, 1918
  • 
    The Scrapbook of an American Army Nurse in WWI: Part Two
  • 
    Poets Killed on the First Day of the Somme, July 1, 1916
• 
  
• 
• 
  

• Recent Comments

  • Kate Kerr on “The stillness was oppressive.” ~~~ An American surgeon on the Meuse records his impressions of the Armistice
  • GP Cox on First to Fall: the American Volunteers who Gave their Lives for France
  • Bruce on First to Fall: the American Volunteers who Gave their Lives for France
  • awriterofhistory on Poets Killed on the First Day of the Somme, July 1, 1916
  • Therry Schwartz on Final days of a young Marine wounded at Belleau Wood
  • awriterofhistory on One hundred years ago, 24 April 1915: Armenian genocide begins
  • bj omanson on The Poilu in postcards
  • awriterofhistory on The Poilu in postcards
  • Madeleine Johnson on The Poilu in postcards
  • Fred Waiss on Captain Charley Dunbeck’s farewell to the men of 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, on the eve of their demobilization, with particular attention paid to the final days of the war, and the crossing of the Meuse
  • awriterofhistory on Christmas greetings from the old front line
  • Halra on Join the effort to save the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial outside of Paris
  • Soldiers' Mail on Armistice Day, 2013
  • bj omanson on A Small Circle of Chums~~ some Marines of 15th Company, 6th Machine Gun Battalion at Belleau Wood: how each of them came to be there, and what followed after . . .
  • Jack on A Small Circle of Chums~~ some Marines of 15th Company, 6th Machine Gun Battalion at Belleau Wood: how each of them came to be there, and what followed after . . .
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  

• 1st Battalion / 5th Marines 1st Engineers / 1st Division AEF 1st King's Shropshire 1st Sgt Daniel A "Pop" Hunter 2d Division (Regular) AEF 2nd Battalion / 5th Marines 4th King's African Rifles 5th Machine Gun Company 5th Marines 6th Machine Gun Battalion 7th Division BEF 9th Infantry 12th FA Regiment 33rd Division AEF 67th Company 1st Battalion 5th Marines 89th Division absinthe Aisne-Marne Cemetery Alpheus Appenheimer Amblimont American Battle Monuments Commission American bridgehead American Field Service American Volunteers Amiens Anzacs Armenian genocide Armistice Armistice Day Army of Occupation Autreville Avesnes Base Hospital 1 Base Hospital 19 Base Hospital 115 Baumon Beaumont Belgium Belleau Wood Belle Fontaine Farm Belval Woods Bersee Bertrix Bloomsbury Group Bois de l'Hospice Bois de Limon Bois de Murets Bouresches Braine BrigGen Neville USMC Bussiares Cameron Highlanders Captain Charley Dunbeck Captain J.R. Foster Captain N.H.Massie Captain S.C. Cumming Cassis-sur-Mer Charleroy Chateau-Thierry Christmas in the trenches Christmas Truce Clive Bell Coblenz Coeuvres Cpl Frank W Dunham crossing of the Meuse Dana Gioia Daniel Ross Dardanelles demobilization Devonshire Regiment Duncan Grant E. Ray Goetz Ethe Ezra Pound Fifth Army Corps Frances Wilson Huard French Foreign Legion French Fourth Army Frith Hill Compound Gallipoli Gefr. Karl Schoning Gembloux Geoffrey Miller German Army Gilles Lagin Haiti Harvey Dunn Henry Eglinton Montgomery Suckley II Hereward Carrington Heron Hill 142 Hotel de l'Elephant In Flanders Fields Irene Bordoni Jay Winter Jean Jaurès Jean Marchand Jim Broshot John Allan Wyeth John McCrae John W Thomason Kiffen Rockwell King's Own Royal Regiment Museum La Belle Tour Farm Lady Lilith Savile Lafayette Escadrille La Frobourg la Tuileire Farm Le Basace Le Champy Haut Letanne Lieutenant Gitz Rice Loos Lt. C.D. Baylis Lt. G.E.M. Thornycroft Lt. George R. Strott USN Luxembourg Maj RS Keyser USMC Mar-a-Lago March to the Rhine Marian Hollinger Matthew Bruccoli Melville Gideon Meredith Loveland Dowd Mobilization Moulins Mouzon Mt Kemmel muleskinner Nouart Paris Perwez Peter Donnelly Peter Farrell-Vinay Phil Tomaselli Pioneer Corps Poilu poppies postcards Pouilly Princess Mary's Christmas Box Quantico Raoul Villain Rapallo Reserve Infanterie Regiment 32 river Aisne river Marne river Meuse river Rhine river Sauer river Vesle Royal Engineers Sartelle Ferme Service Aeronautique Soissons spiritualism Stalhelm helmets Steven Parker St Mihiel Thinaudine Ferme Tim Kendall Uncategorized Vanessa Bell Vera Cruz Verdun Vichy Victoria Cross Villemontry W.J. Aylward Wallace Morgan Yoncq
• 
  
• 
• 
  

• Great War links

  • Alan Seeger … original documents & photographs
  • American music goes to war … World War I as illustrated on sheet music
  • American volunteers in the French Foreign Legion, 1914-1918 … biographies, units, uniforms, etc …
  • Army Art of World War I … US Army Center of Military History
  • Art of the First World War … one hundred paintings to commemorate the end of WWI
  • Behind Their Lines: Poetry of the Great War
  • Edmund Blunden at war
  • Experiences of an English soldier … Harry Lamin’s letters from the First World War
  • Forgotten Heroes: North Africans & the Great War, 1918-1919
  • Francis Ledwidge Museum … dedicated to the Irish poet killed in the 3rd Battle of Ypres
  • Friends of the Dymock Poets
  • Ghosts in the Trenches: Soldier Apparitions of World War I
  • History & Lore of the Sixth Machine Gun Battalion … 4th Brigade of Marines, 2nd Division (Regular), A.E.F.
  • Ivor Gurney … A web journal of Philip Lancaster’s work on the Gloucester composer-poet
  • Jeanne d'Arc in the First World War … images, pilgrims, memorials
  • King’s Own Royal Regiment Museum located in Lancaster, England
  • Kriegstagebuch: the war diary of Dieter Finzen
  • Poetry of the First World War … information on war poets from 13 nations
  • Society of the Military Horse
  • St Mihiel Tripwire … online newsletter of the Great War Society
  • The Chipilly Ridge Sonnets of John Allan Wyeth … six sonnets from the Battle of Amiens, on the Somme, August 8-9, 1918
  • The Doughboy Center … The Story of the American Expeditionary Forces
  • The Effects of War: how one Illinois farm couple’s experience of the First World War inspired a cycle of regionalist poems
  • The First World War Poetry Digital Archive
  • The Gallipoli Association
  • The Great War Society
  • The War Poetry of John Allan Wyeth … changes forever the landscape of First World War literature
  • The Western Front Association
  • The Wilfred Owen Association
  • Tom Morgan's Hellfire Corner
• 
• 
  

• Related Articles

  Ghosts in the Trenches: Soldier Apparitions of World War I
  
  In 1919, Villagers and Soldiers Helped Rebuild Chateau-Thierry
  
  John Allan Wyeth: Lost Poet of the Lost Generation
• 
  
• 

  bj omanson at home

• 
  about bj omanson
  
  
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
• 
  
• 

• .

  
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  
• 
• 
  

• • 42,272 visitors to date

Blog at WordPress.com.RSS 2.0Comments RSS 2.0