Tuesday,
26 June 2018
This blog should be more like
a blog than report, but I have just started reading American Armies and Battlefields
in Europe, A History, Guide, and Reference Work, published by the American
Battle Monuments Commission in 1938. It is a total treasure and I am grateful
to Mike Hanlon for making it “required reading” for our tour in August. I
ordered the hard cover book from Amazon/vintage-books for $54 and it arrived in
pristine condition, complete with separate maps. The book is now unavailable, so
I am glad that I ordered it in February!
The book is thorough, but
succinct. I have several other books about the 90th, the 28th,
and the 80th Divisions for information specific to their engagements
in France. Family members were in each of these divisions plus the 37th
Engineers—I have yet to find out which division this unit was with. My World
War I library would rival many amateur historians and I have read and made
notes in every book. I am certainly not an expert though.
Last night when I typed up
the updated itinerary (subject to change), I was very happy to see that we are
revisiting some places we saw before. For example, the Douaumont
Ossuary near Verdun was
such a moving site. One cannot take photos inside the chapel and perhaps this
year there will be a portfolio of photos for sale. As mentioned in 2015, the tower of the structure is shaped like
an artillery shell but is cathedral-like with Christian images on the exterior.
When we stepped inside the building, the silence was remarkable. It was cool on
a sweltering day. Thousands of names are engraved on the walls. Inside the
chapel the stained-glass windows depicted stunning images of battlefields with
crosses. One window depicted two angels holding a nurse (red cross on her veil)
who was wounded in the war when a hospital was bombarded. Another image is of
Christ cradling a soldier. The Crucifix at the Altar is Mary holding Christ
upright, both have arms outstretched to form a cross, an image I have never
seen. I see these images in my mind, but they are difficult to share
with others—the impact is not the same.
Other
places that I want to see again include the American cemeteries, Seicheprey, and
the Pennsylvania bridge at Fismes. Only after the 2015 trip did I realize that my
Uncle Roy W. Hall was in the 28th
Division—I knew that he was in the 112th Infantry. In 2017 my
brother gave me Uncle Roy’s doughboy helmet, with a red keystone stenciled on
it. The 28th Division was
known as the Keystone Division, mostly Pennsylvania men.
I
will continue my research on my great uncle, Russell Archie Harvey—I hope to honor him in a special
way on this trip, especially if we get back to Baalon, Mouzay, and Stenay,
France. Another purpose of this trip is to honor not only my dear family members but all service members who served during the Great War.
