THE DOUGHBOYS: AMERICA AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR

Erie, Pennsylvania

July 25, 2018

Michael Hanlon, Our Guide in France and Belgium

http://www.worldwar1.com/

Tim and I truly value the experience of our tour leader, Michael Hanlon who is a former U.S. Air Force Weather and Operations Officer and a manager of large projects for both corporate and governmental clients. He is the author of About the Great War: An Introduction to the Most Momentous Event of the 20th Century and has appeared on the History Channel as a commentator on the First World War's events and secrets. He is also the editor of the award winning “Doughboy Center” website and produces a number of publications, including "Over the Top" Magazine, the online newsletter, the "St. Mihiel Trip-Wire," and the daily blog "Roads to the Great War. He is a partner with the United States World War I Centennial Commemoration Commission.

If you are interested in The Great War, or military history in general, I totally recommend subscribing to his daily blog, “Roads to the Great War,” as well as his other publications. I do not know how he and his wonderful team have time to research and write the blogs on a daily basis.

The first time I talked to Mike in 2015, he was so accessible and knowledgeable. When I briefly told him of my great uncle’s story, he knew the division immediately and continued to research until he could take us to locations the 90th Division saw action. This year we have narrowed down the site of Archie’s particular heroic action and if everything falls into place we will be there. But Mike did not stop there.  He has been working to make certain that we see some of the places that my other three family members were at-- 112th/28th Division (Uncle Roy Hall) ---313th Machine Gun Battalion/80th Division (Cousin Lynn C. Parker) ---and 37th Engineers (Great Uncle Earl Beardsley), all time permitting, of course. Mike is repeating this process for the other participants in the tour who had family members in the war.

Mike sends all participants a list of books to read before taking the tour.  I already posted about American Armies and Battlefields in Europe, prepared by the American Battle Commission in 1938. Today I just finished The Doughboys, America and The First World War, written by Gary Mead and published in 2000. The book is very concise and covers the American involvement from beginning to end. Mead tackled the great scope of American involvement and offered the history in such a way as not to be tedious. In his last chapter, “Aftermath,” Mead asks, “Was the AEF responsible for bringing Germany to its knees?” He answers, “In purely battlefield terms its presence was necessary but not sufficient. It is in any case the wrong question. The important question, in assessing the part the United States played in the First World War, has a much broader focus: could the Allies have defeated Germany without the financial, economic, military and psychological backing of the United States” Unquestionably not. Yet the AEF has been ignored, and overlooked, even by American historians. The Doughboys, p. 416.

Several chapters were uncomfortable, like “The Cost.” The cost of The Great War in terms of human life and injury was unimaginable, but there were other costs that resonate around the world still today. 

The Doughboys, America and The First World War. Mead, Gary. Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press, 2000.

When I think of the costs of that war, I think of Archie and his letters. He omits any information that would worry his mother, he references “Mothers day,” the weather, “I have stood quite a bit of exposure but outside a few cootie bites no damage was done me, “the Supreme Hand protected me,” “I have been taught a great lesson,” and his desire to be home. Twenty-one letters from July 10, 1917 to October 16, 1921. There is an innocence in his letters that belies his experience.