​A recent Public Broadcasting Service telecast, Letters from Bagdad, reminds us of another woman who had a great influence during World War (WWI), Gertrude Bell. Her sphere of influence was in the Eastern Front. Her path often crossed with Englishmen T.E. Lawrence, better know as Lawrence of Arabia, and Winston Churchill.  

​Beginnings
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell was born in1868, and by the time of her death in 1926, she would be known among other things as an English writer, scholar, historian, archeologist, linguist, and political officer. 
Her mother died when she was two years old, and her father remarried six years later. In 1892 she went to live and study with a diplomatic family friend in Teheran. She loved the Arabic language, had taken up photography, and published her first book, Syria: The Desert and the Sown, in 1907.  By then she was determined to remain in the East.

The Bell Map
At the start of the war, the Arabs held her as a spy for a short period in Hayyil. They refused to let her travel, took her money, and placed her in solitary confinement. She was in the middle of a raging war zone, and many historians are still of the opinion that she was a British spy.
Bell’s contributions in the Middle East during WWI are considered unmatched by many. The British in Cairo knew that the Arabs would be influential to success in the Eastern Theater. Her job became gathering and sorting of information. Her cartography skills and extensive travels from 1900-1913 among the various tribes using her linguistic skills enabled her to develop the “Bell Map” used by the military throughout and after the war. She knew where certain sheiks were located, their language, and their culture. This made her highly influential to British imperial policy-making throughout Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia. Along with T. E. Lawrence, she helped support the political and hereditary leaderships in what are today Jordan and Iraq. 

​Post-War Challenges
We can see that Bell played an important role in negotiations regarding the Ottoman Empire after the war by her positioning in famous photos, always front and center. In one, she is on a camel in front of the Egyptian Sphinx between Lawrence and Churchill, also on camels. In another at the Cairo Conference in 1921, along with an entourage of military and diplomatic types. At the 1924 High Commission meeting in Baghdad, she’s seated with colleagues and Arab ministers. Always the only woman.
She and Lawrence began to see that the British, who had promised the Arabs an independent state if they worked with the British, might not keep their promise after the war. They fought for the Arabs during the 1919 Peace Accords.
She played a major role in establishing and helping administer the modern state of Iraq, by attempting to draw new boundary lines around the country. In 1921 she was pleased when Faisal ibn Hussain was named King of Iraq, but was later disillusioned when she was no longer sought in a policy-making role.
In the mid-1920s Bell became Director of Antiquities in Baghdad, specifically to oversee the building of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. She eventually suffered a breakdown, and her family convinced her to come home. But England was no longer home, and she returned quickly to Iraq, intent on finishing the museum. A final depression soon set in, and she died in Baghdad in 1926. But she finished her work. Her last letter home described the opening of the new Iraq Museum.
During her lifetime she was highly esteemed and trusted by British officials and exerted an immense amount of power. She has been described as "one of the few representatives of His Majesty's Government remembered by the Arabs with anything resembling affection.”
If you’d like to learn more about this intriguing historical woman, Georgina Howell’s book is a good source.
​
Sources: Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations, Georgina Howell, 2006 and the links highlighted in the above text.

​Most of us know Jane Addams as the reformer who fought poverty, crime, alcoholism, and inequality from Hull House in Chicago, founded in 1889. She was also a suffragette. She and Carrie Chapman Catt, along with three-thousand others, attended a meeting in Washington D.C. in January 1915 where the Women’s Peace Party was formed. Addams was selected to chair the new party. This led to her international leadership in attempts to end the carnage of World War I (WWI). Her history of that period was reported at the time in a social reform journal, The Survey, which is included in A. Scott Berg’s World War I and America. Some of her reports follow.

​To Europe
By mid-1915, women around the world were increasingly worried about a brutal war that seemed without end. European women delegates from twelve countries, both neutral and some involved in the conflict, desired a negotiated end to the war. The newly formed International Congress of Women in the Hague set a meeting for April 1915. They needed a spokesperson for their president, and Addams, being the farthest away and from a neutral country, was the best choice.
She was charged with meeting with heads of states in Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungry, France, and Italy and some neutral countries—nine governments in five weeks. Those meetings and her reflections were included in a lecture at Carnegie Hall in New York when she returned in July. 

​
​A Proposition
The situation, she decided, is confused. She feared generalizing. But she could report that she saw “genuine emotion and patriotism in all European countries.”
One problem was that leaders needed a more careful understanding that could only be obtained through first-hand impressions and experience, not from emotional “tall talk.”  She heard the same causes and reasons for war. All reported that they were acting in self-defense. Any sign of willingness to negotiate had the potential of the enemy viewing them as weak. When meeting with heads of state, Addams asked directly, “If a proposition were presented to you, which seemed to you feasible…would you decline such a proposition? Would you feel justified to go on sacrificing the young men of your country…?” Not one was willing to commit.
Addams also met with pacifists in her travels. They convinced her that the war was breaking down civil life that would be difficult to re-establish later, and that it was an old man’s war. Many young fighting men did not want the war, and she was told that many on both sides refused to shoot to kill. Some in England pointed to the Victorian influences of hate, intolerance, and revenge, and were saddened that the younger generation had just started to overcome this negative culture prior to the war. 

​An International Body
Why, she asked, don’t the Europeans quit the current claims and counter-claims of what has occurred before and during the war and instead “embrace the point of view of ‘what does Europe need?’” In other words, stop the “He did that to me, so I did that to him.” She suggested that, like a mother, someone should step in and say, “This can’t go on, it only leads to quarreling.” She didn’t mention ‘peace’ as she met with them, merely “can’t we see what can be done to come together and try to resolve issues in other than military ways?”
Why, she wondered, are there international bodies for science and commerce, but none for international law? She denied newspaper reports that she was advising President Woodrow Wilson. But it’s possible as his later ideas regarding a league of nations reflect her comments. 

Epilogue
The United States entered the conflict on April 6, 1917. It is ironic that President Wilson and others could not heed the advice and experience that Addams and the International Congress of Women in The Hague provided. In retrospect, maybe their work was not in vain. Perhaps they provided a model for the future.
​
Sources:
The Survey, July 17, 1915
World War I and America: Told by the Americans Who Lived It, A. Scott Berg, ed., 2017, pages 170-186
Next time: Women in WWI continues: Gertrude Bell, Nation Builder

​One of Edith Wharton’s best-known quotes is “Life is always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope.” Her activities leading up to World War I certainly reflected that philosophy. Born in 1862, she was best known as a novelist and playwright who used her life experiences as part of the wealthy upper-class New York aristocracy to realistically portray the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. She’d later, in 1921, be the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. 
In June 1915, Wharton visited the battlefields of the Western Front. The previous fall, the Flemish city of Ypres survived a heavy battle when French, Indian, and British troops defended the town against several German offensives threatening the French ports of Dunkirk and Calais. She reported her experiences in Scribner’s Magazine and in Fighting France, from Dunkerque to Belfort. Excerpts of some, below, are edited in World War I and America: Told by the Americans Who Lived It by A. Scott Berg.

​Arriving at the Front
In June 1915, Wharton’s motor car could barely make it through a steady stream of soldiers of all types—cavalry, mechanics, munitions workers, and others. She could hardly see them for the heavy dust being raised by their movement. Her gift for descriptive writing is evident as she describes the sun creating a “flash of lances” and a small touch of gold on faded uniforms.
She next describes the beauty of the environment in an area untouched by the war—farmhouses, duck ponds, beautiful flowers—everything sweet and secluded, including an ancient abbey church. Except for the French architecture, many of the villages reminded her of England.
A day later they arrived at an aviation camp spread across a green plateau. The English had hastily made an English town in nearby St. Omer, where the British Red Cross and the ambulance corps were stationed. 

​Battle Views
Soon she was in Cassel, a Renaissance town with the most extensive view of any town in Europe. The square was filled with English army motors and horses. On top of the ‘rock of Cassel’ they could see Dunkerque, Ypres, and other towns, many ruined, through the mist. Later that night, while the town below them slept, Wharton and a small band returned to the rock and could see red flashes and white flares along the fighting lines far away.
The next day they rode through territory that was often questionably behind the imaginary German boundary lines. In improvised camps, tents were made from wagon covers, shirts were laid out to dry on elder bushes, and soldiers played with local children or talked to citizens. They came to an empty town with only shells of buildings remaining. Odd, a town with no people.
They continued through several similar villages that day. She was disheartened. Had these towns been under an evil shadow, that Germany had willed that these places should die?  More than once the next few days, she was unprepared for a bombardment by “big guns” that caused their entourage to change their travel route.
They arrived near the Northern Ocean. The contrasts of a standing Gothic church and houses with fronts torn off made a deep impression on her. She felt that the painful sights of human wounds—dangling bedsteads, trashed chairs and stoves—were greater than those of the wounded church. But she was also relieved that the human spirit was still alive. Curious children played at a bomb crater; women bartered for kitchen utensils. In a nearby field, a colonel was holding a medal ceremony.
On leaving the battle zones, she again waited for an hour as fresh troops marched past, raising dust, toward the front.

​Literary Storytelling
The difference in writing styles between author Wharton and journalist Nellie Bly, the subject of the last blog post, or reformer Jane Adams (next post) is interesting. Bly’s and Adams’s reports are factual. Wharton brings a literary style to her reports, making her descriptions more vivid and interesting.
 

Next time: Women and World War I Continues: Jane Adams, Reformer

​Ann Otto writes fiction based on factual as well as oral history. Her debut novel, Yours in a Hurry, about Ohio siblings relocating to California in the 1910’s, is available on-line at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, and at locations listed on her website at www.ann-otto.com. Ann’s academic background is in history, English, and behavioral science, and she has published in academic and professional journals.  She enjoys speaking with groups about all things history, writing, and the events, locations, and characters from Yours in a Hurry. She is currently working on her next novel about Ohio’s Appalachia in the 1920’s, and prepared for future works by blogging about a recent World War 2 European tour. She can be reached through the website, or on Facebook @Annottoauthor or www.Goodreads.com

Researching more on World War I (WWI) the bibliography continues to expand. I just finished A. Scott Berg’s World War I and America: told by the American’s Who Lived It which includes letters, news articles and other written material from the time important to understanding the American culture and mind set concerning the war in Europe beginning in 1914. In the early years, we were still divided over whether to engage in the war. By the end of the book in 1921, President Warren G. Harding is commenting during the burial ceremony for the grave of the Unknown American Soldier.
​
Although the books accounts include few women, those present are impressive. Among them are Nellie Bly, Edith Wharton, Jane Addams and Willa Cather. All had experiences or opinions on The Great War.

Nellie Bly

Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman worked as a reporter for the New York World in the 1880’s using the pseudonym Nellie Bly. She famously traveled the world in seventy-two days and exposed the Blackwell Island Asylum by posing as a patient.

In spring 1914 she was traveling in Austria to raise funds for a business inherited from her husband. For a reporter, it was a case of being unexpectedly in the right place at the right time. On June 28, 1914 Austrian archduke, Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated by Bosnian revolutionary, Gavrilo Princip.  

 From fall 1914 until early 1915 Bly would deliver twenty-one dispatches as a Special Correspondent for the New York Evening Journal from Przemysl, Austrian Galicia, in what is now Poland, and from field hospitals in Budapest. Like others reporting at the time, what she saw led her to question the sacrifices made in wartime. Many read these accounts which led to anti-war sentiment in the states which probably helped President Wilson delay his decision to engage in the war. 

Bly Reports from the Front

She traveled with a diverse group of individuals—military, artists, writers, photographers, and editors. Readers followed the continuing headlines about Bly’s experiences:
“Hides in Trenches as Russian Shells Rain About Her”
“Nowhere to Hide and as Slippery as Ice!”
“Under Fire for Weeks in the Rain and Cold”

Field Hospitals

Bly reported from a field hospital that she saw one man with jaws broken in thirty-two pieces by a shrapnel, hanging shapeless on his chest. He’d been in a trench in pouring rain for six days after being wounded with no food or aid. All they could do was try to attach the jaw to his face with a silver wire.

When she reached a military hospital in Budapest, she found ten languages being spoken and nurses from five countries. Patients near death were moved to soundproof rooms to ease the anxiety of fellow patients.

One day a doctor called her to the hospital. He wanted her to see the “worst case I have ever seen.” The man had lost one foot at the ankle and the other half way to the knee. The Russian had been wounded by a shot through his body. After eight days in a trench, his feet had frozen. His feet dropped off while he was being transported on a freight train and he was bleeding from open veins when he reached the hospital.

When Nellie arrived, he was still alive, moaning and mumbling. He looked at her with hollow black eyes. “What’s he saying?” she asked. The translator replied, “He’s asking for his children.” Nellie turned, moved quickly toward the door, and started down the hallway. She heard the doctor call after her “the poor fellow just died.”

"How could Emperors, Czars and Kings look on this slaughter and ever sleep again?", she asked.  The doctor replied that they do not look. It’s clear that her closing remarks in this article would tear at the heart strings of many Americans:

“This is only one case. Travel the roads from the scene of battle; search the trains; wounded, frozen, starved thousands are dying by agonizing torture—not hundreds, but thousands. And as they die thousands are being rushed into their pest-filled trenches to be slaughtered in the same way. Oh, we Christians!”
Note: This account is taken from the New York Evening Journal, January 19, 1915, (Included in World War I and America, A. Scott Berg, ed., 2017, Penguin Random House Inc. (Final quote, page 57)

Next time: Women and World War I Continues
Ann Otto writes fiction based on factual as well as oral history. Her debut novel, Yours in a Hurry, about Ohio siblings relocating to California in the 1910’s, is available on-line at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, and at locations listed on her website at www.ann-otto.com. Ann’s academic background is in history, English, and behavioral science, and she has published in academic and professional journals.  She enjoys speaking with groups about all things history, writing, and the events, locations, and characters from Yours in a Hurry. She is currently working on her next novel about Ohio’s Appalachia in the 1920’s, and preparing for future works by blogging about a recent World War 2 European tour. She can be reached through the website, or on Facebook @Annottoauthor or www.Goodreads.com. 

​We wake to a gray downpour, but as our bus nears Germany and the Rhine Valley, the moisture turns to mist. It’s the last day of the World War 2 Memorial Tour.  David and I were previously in this area on a German River Cruise, and we are glad to revisit some of our favorite places. 

​Following the Rhine River
Driving through the Rhine River Valley we stop often for views. Wide expanses of river are bordered by green hillsides, vineyards, and castle ruins. Last year we traveled this part of the river at night, so seeing the ruins so well is a treat. We see more of these on a leisurely afternoon river cruise, a perfect ending for our trip.

​Remagen Bridge
David’s father often mentioned Remagen Bridge. Visiting it on shore is  interesting. The bridge is gone, but the black structure, looking like an old castle, stands—a reminder of what our troops saw. Cargo ships pass by.
The surprise capture of a bridge across the Rhine on March 7, 1945 was front-page news in American newspapers. The battle for control of the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen caused both sides to employ new weapons and tactics. The Germans used virtually every weapon at their disposal to try to destroy the bridge, including infantry and armor, howitzers, mortars, floating mines, mined boats, a railroad gun, and giant super-heavy mortars. To protect the bridge against aircraft, the Americans positioned the largest concentration of anti-aircraft weapons during World War II, leading to "the greatest antiaircraft artillery battles in American history." The German offensive failed.

Rüdesheim
Our last night is in Rudesheim, a favorite stop our previous trip. This time, instead of a short afternoon visit off the boat, we have an entire afternoon and evening at our hotel in the center of the village. The many side alleys lead to restaurants, cafes, and a variety of shopping. We find excellent German products, and buy unique beer steins and a regional Baden-Wuerttemberg flag for home. David and I both have roots in that region. Our ancestors, that of his paternal grandfather and my maternal grandfather, came to America at the same time during the Palatine troubles in the eighteenth century.

​The farewell dinner is bittersweet. We are all ready to return home, but it has been an unforgettable experience. Franz and Gloria, the German immigrant and his spouse from New York are extending their trip to Northern Germany to visit relatives they haven’t seen for years. We wish them well. 

​Reflections
Many of us from the tour wait for the same 11:15 a.m. flight at the Frankfurt airport. Some converse, others quietly look around the terminal, read, talk on the phone or nap. David and I begin discussing what needs to be done when we get home. Re-entry into everyday life is always interesting.

On the flight home, I started thinking about what we learned from this experience. First, that thirty individuals from diverse sections of the United States of different cultures, beliefs and politics can co-exist well over seventeen days given common interests. This was accomplished in a time of severe political disagreement in our country. Our common interest and respect for history was more important.

Most were able to use these experiences to connect with their ancestors in the closest way possible give the distance of time. Also, it was easy for us to be visually overwhelmed by the photos, documentaries, films, museums and architecture of cities little changed since the early and mid-20th century, and many cases, centuries before. All of this speaks to a passion and need for preservation that Europeans appreciate.
​
I hope you all can make such a trip in your lifetime, regardless of what heritage or history you are searching for.

​Next time: World War 1
​
Ann Otto writes fiction based on factual as well as oral history. Her debut novel, Yours in a Hurry, about Ohio siblings relocating to California in the 1910’s, is available on-line at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, and at locations listed on her website at www.ann-otto.com. Ann’s academic background is in history, English, and behavioral science, and she has published in academic and professional journals.  She enjoys speaking with groups about all things history, writing, and the events, locations, and characters from Yours in a Hurry. She is currently working on her next novel about Ohio’s Appalachia in the 1920’s, and preparing for future works by blogging about a recent World War 2 European tour. She can be reached through the website, or on Facebook @Annottoauthor or www.Goodreads.com. 

​Day fifteen of the World War 2 Memorial Tour takes us to Amsterdam. The city and its canals are beautiful, but for our tour, the Anne Frank House is an important stop. The weather has cooperated the entire trip with just occasional mist during this usually rainy period.

​The City
This is my third time cruising the Amsterdam canals, once before with David during an earlier Rhine and Danube River Cruise and years ago with my daughter on a Netherlands tour. I still love the feel of going back in time that the local architecture provides. Looking at my Flemish and Netherlandish prints at home, time stands still. Artist Johannes Vermeer is a favorite.

​After the cruise we are dropped off at the Town Square. We have time to shop today and the Delft shop is one I can’t resist, especially the jewelry. The local restaurants are full on this busy noon, so we opt for the quick and familiar KFC and meet others from our group with the same idea. Marijuana smells permeate the air around us. Supposedly it’s only legal to smoke it outside the store where purchased or in public spaces, but the law doesn’t seem to be enforced.

​The Anne Frank House
The house is a fitting Holocaust-related visit near the end of our travels. The line to enter stretches around the corner. It’s always that way. The house is small. The instructions in our itinerary say “not recommended for those who may have difficulty climbing steep staircases or who are bothered by crowds or close quarters.” No one speaks as we walk through the house. There’s no rule. It just doesn’t seem appropriate. The history of the Holocaust seems to continue to speak most effectively to the world through the diary of one young girl. 

We all relate to her in our own way. I have a framed copy of one of her poignant quotes from the diary in my writing room:
​
“As long as this exists,” I thought, “and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this lasts, I cannot be unhappy. The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and god. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and the God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.”

Traditions
On the way out of town, we make two stops to learn about three important traditions. The first is to a small manufacturing building where cheeses and wooden shoes are made. 



We also stop at a lovely old windmill, one of few remaining working ones in the area. ​

​​ 

​A busy day on the World War 2 Memorial Tour. Mostly bus travel again as we follow bridges around Arnhem, Netherlands, which were involved in Operation Market Garden, a complex series of incidents that few of us knew much about. 

National Liberation Museum
By fall of 1944 the allies decided they needed a quick road to Berlin that didn’t involve mountainous terrain or forests. The 82nd US Airborne Division, 101st, 1st British Airborne, and one Polish Independent Parachute Brigade were involved in Operation Market Garden, which involved a large geographical area, primarily Arnhem, Groesbeek, and Nijmegen.

Our guide at the National Liberation Museum 1944-45 in Grosbeek was eight years old when the town was liberated and remembers the day well—dancing in the streets, jazz records playing, and being introduced to American bubble gum. The museum leads you through the period preceding the war, experiences of the occupation, and liberation and rebuilding after the war.
A sad side note of the museum documents the Allies’ mistake when a misplaced bomb killed hundreds of citizens and ruined the town. The guides eloquently emphasize their loss. Maybe they are disappointed that the story of the Netherlands campaign seems to have been lost in the larger impressions of the war.
​
These towns were under Nazi control from 1940 to September 1944. They  hid Jews in their midst and had little food. In the early years the Nazis ran things under lax rules, but their methods changed as the war became increasingly worse for Germany, and the SS took control. 

Netherland Bridges: 
On to Arnhem where a large bridge was involved in Operation Market Garden. The title of the popular film about the incident, A Bridge Too Far,  is from an unconfirmed warning comment attributed to British Lieutenant-General Frederick Browning, deputy commander of the First Allied Army, who told Field Marshall Montgomery that they “…may be going a bridge too far," referring to the intention of seizing the Arnhem bridgehead over the Rhine River.

Random Memories
​Food: In Nijmegen, we have a scrumptious lunch on a veranda. The tomato soup is accompanied by a “small apple pancake” the size of a medium pizza.
Along the way…We wonder if the many miniature horses we see in pastures are farm animals or pets. 

​Today our World War 2 Memorial Tour takes us through little villages near Verdun, France, a famous battle site of the Great War, World War 1. Later, we enter the Ardennes Forest.

Verdun Environs
This eastern region of France is beautiful and hilly, not mountainous, and the roads are bumpy. We are surprised at the extent of logging here in the Ardennes forest.

Much of the architecture is unchanged since 1918, and memorials to battles and lost men pop up unexpectedly along the narrow roadways. The views remind me of vintage black and white films like All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). Outside the villages are farmland and cattle as far as the eye can see.

​​The battle of Verdun was the longest battle of the war, lasting from February to December 1916. Verdun is situated on the River Meuse, approximately 140 miles from Paris and 62 miles from Reims. Excellent accounts of the battle can be found in many sources, including Great Battles of World War 1 by Anthony Livesey (1989). Recollections of this period are best from the English and French perspective given that the Americans were many months away from engaging in the war.

​The Meuse Argonne Offensive
​The World War 1 American Cemetery is our first stop and highlights the fighting in France during the fall of 1918 and the role of Major John Pershing.

​The monument to the Meuse-Ardennes battle is lovely, but the church ruins of Montfaucon village atop the hill, which was strongly fortified by the Germans, are all that remain. Our guide reminds us that this location is also famous as the place where Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette were captured while fleeing Paris.
​
The Meuse Argonne campaign tested Americans from September until the end of the war in November 1918. Twenty German divisions faced thirty-one French and thirteen American divisions. The French and Germans had lost significant numbers, but the newly arrived American divisions were each at 27,000.
​
The goal of the campaign was to sever Germany’s front lines, cutting communications and supply lines.  Although their numbers were dwindling, the Germans had four years’ experience at the front while most of the two million Americans were young men with little knowledge of warfare. But their daring and tenacity would eventually overcome the Germans. 

​The Lost Battalion
I’d never heard of “The Lost Battalion,” an important and well publicized engagement in the Meuse Argonne that occurred October 3 to 7. With miles of bus travel one afternoon, we watched an excellent made-for-TV film, The Lost Battalion (2001), a true account of over five hundred Americans who were surrounded by Germans in the Argonne Forest from October 3 to 7. They were part of the 308th infantry, mostly New York City area draftees and were led by a thin, bespectacled New York lawyer, Major Charles W. Whittlesey. He later became a national hero and was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Under constant rain and shelling, and cut off from allies and rations, they lived on brush, leaves, and roots. In desperation, Whittlesey sent patrols for help, but they either came back bleeding or never returned. Many were injured by the shelling, and there were no medical supplies. According to one of the 252 survivors, the Germans were so close that the Americans could hear them talking. Worse yet, from their position they could see the Americans attacking south of them, trying to break through. (Doughboy War: The American Expeditionary Force in WW1, edited by James H. Hallas, 2009)

​One sad historical postscript of The Lost Battalion has to do with Charles Whittlesey. In November 1921, after attending a WW1 memorial ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery with Alvin York and others, Whittlesey left on a cruise ship from New York to Havana. He jumped ship to his death. It is surmised that he could never forget the conditions they had been under and the many men under his command who died or were disabled those five days in October 1918.

We pass through a beautiful French WW1 Cemetery. A statue of an angel, eyes closed and arms in an embrace, welcomes us.  I like this cemetery. It has a more spiritual feel than the stark German ones with dark crosses or the large American cemeteries with endless rows. 

Reims
I’ve wanted to see Reims since sending the characters in my historical novel Yours in a Hurry to the first international air exhibition, which took place there in 1909. It made American flyer Glenn Curtiss famous and made for a delightful story. I also wanted to see the grand Reims cathedral.
​
Reims is the unofficial capitol of the Champagne area. Wine makers are challenged to produce enough wines for the global market, a fact attributed to the increasing markets of China and India. We see evidence of this by the large champagne houses, as the factories are called, as we approach Reims. The cathedral, although under exterior renovation, is as impressive as we anticipated.

Before leaving we visit a museum showing a film on the 1945 signing of the World War 2 peace treaty, including Eisenhower’s role and General George Patton receiving the key to the city. ​

Post script: Fortunately, we’ve seen more World War 1 history than expected on the trip. I know it will be useful as my next book, involving returning World War 1 service men in the 1920s, progresses.
​

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Next time: World War 2: Belgium and the Netherlands

Ann Otto writes fiction based on factual as well as oral history. Her debut novel, Yours in a Hurry, about Ohio siblings relocating to California in the 1910’s, is available on-line at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, and at locations listed on her website at www.ann-otto.com. Ann’s academic background is in history, English, and behavioral science, and she has published in academic and professional journals.  She loves speaking with groups about all things history, writing, and the events, locations, and characters from Yours in a Hurry. She is currently working on her next novel about Ohio’s Appalachia in the 1920s and preparing for future works by blogging about a recent World War 2 European tour. She can be reached through the website, on Facebook @Annottoauthor or www.Goodreads.com. ​

Next stop on the World War 2 (WW2) tour is Paris—my third trip, David’s first. We only have the day, so we decide to see what we can on foot and the Seine River cruise while planning a longer future trip.
​
Paris Modern
The bus drops us off at 9:30 am on the Avenue Des Champs-Elysees for a day on our own.  We all look down the avenue to the Arc d’ Triumph and contemplate how different this monumental, vibrant city compares to the small French and German villages we have experienced so far on the trip. Paris doesn’t promote its WW2 history, but we immediately recall the June 1940 photos of German soldiers passing under the Arc in symbolic retaliation for losses in World War 1, and those of the Parisians celebrating in the streets several years later when Charles de Gaulle returned in triumph.

​We walk in the direction of the Louvre until the shops on the Avenue Des Champs-Elysees open around 11 am. David is an auto aficionado, so the chic Citroën, Toyota, Peugeot, and Renault showrooms are a must visit. The crowds near the Louvre are large and the lines too long, so given our schedule, we list that for the next trip and meet another couple from our group for lunch at an outdoor café near the Jarden des Tuileries.

​The rest of the afternoon is shopping for gifts and then the Seine river cruise. Key sites on the cruise include many Parisian neighborhoods. Paris history, mostly pre-19th century, is pointed out along the way, especially the Ile de la Cite´ where the city was established in the 3rd century BCE. As the boat changes course, we have the opportunity to view Notre Dame Cathedral from several perspectives.

The French Food Of Course!

​That evening we experience French cuisine at Les Noces de Jeannette, a favorite of our tour guide, on a small street, Rue Favart. It is very Belle ´Époque. For appetizer most of us choose the Quiche Lorraine or terrine de saumon over the Escargots. Leg of duck in orange sauce isn’t as popular as the Boeuf Bourguignon or the filet de cabillaud au beurre blanc (cod in butter cream sauce). Fromage and pastries are the finishing touch. Of course, red and white wine flow throughout the evening.

Our city of lights bus tour arrives at the Eiffel Tower on the hour as the illumination show begins. Beautiful dancing lights. Daily since 1985 for five minutes on the hour from sundown to 1 am, the tower sparkles. I wonder what Gustav Eiffel would think. Would he be surprised that his artistry remains the symbol of Paris?  Built as a monument for the World Exhibition in 1889, the tower wasn’t supposed to be permanent and was threatened several times. But technology saved it. It was a perfect platform for antennas.

Our next trip to Paris will include favorite places we didn’t have time for: Montmartre; Musee d´ Orsay; the Louvre; a tour of Notre Dame Cathedral; a visit to Shakespeare and Company bookstore for David the book collector; and a search for more World War 1 and 2 histories.
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Next time:  WW1 Battlefields: Verdun and the Lost Battalion

Ann Otto writes fiction based on factual as well as oral history. Her debut novel, Yours in a Hurry, about Ohio siblings relocating to California in the 1910’s, is available on-line at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kindle, and at locations listed on her website at www.ann-otto.com. Ann’s academic background is in history, English, and behavioral science, and she has published in academic and professional journals.  She loves speaking with groups about all things history, writing, and the events, locations, and characters from Yours in a Hurry. She is currently working on her next novel, Little Diamonds, about Ohio’s Appalachia in the 1920’s, and preparing for future works by blogging about a recent World War 2 European tour. She can be reached through the website, or on Facebook @Annottoauthor or www.Goodreads.com. ​

​Many in our group joined the World War 2 tour specifically for this day. Like my spouse David, some had relatives who landed on June 6, 1944 and have waited a lifetime to get here. It’s difficult to describe all that we saw today; but no one left disappointed.

Maps provided indicate American locations of Utah and Omaha beaches. The British landed at Gold and Sword beaches, Canadians at Juno, and the French assisted at Sword.
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The Normandy countryside is beautiful, its architecture unchanged since the war. Churches are narrow and rectangular. Very old cemeteries are surrounded by stone walls.

Beginning at the East
We begin at Pointe du Hoc, east of the main Omaha Beach landing, to view the well-preserved German fortifications—batteries, bunkers, dugouts and craters. It’s our first view of the channel coast. Then on to Utah Beach where many of the British 82nd Airborne glider paratroopers landed. These landings are described in a former post

​St. Mere-Eglise

St. Mere-Eglise is the quaint, well-preserved town that David’s father, Dick, visited after the landing. The battle near here lasted several weeks as the Germans remained active. We buy gifts at the many shops and eat on benches in the town square. Our sandwiches are from a bakery which you can still see in WW2 films and photographs of the street at the time of the landing.

​We visit the Airborne Museum. A replica paratrooper still hangs from the church. (Remember Red Buttons in The Longest Day, stuck hanging there, watching the carnage of his comrades below?)

​Omaha Beach

David finally makes it to the Omaha Beach landing site. The beautiful American Cemetery of Normandie, above the site where his father’s 29th Easy Company landed, has a small museum and visitor center.

​We file out to the expansive coast at low tide. Most group members take the customary handful of sand from the beach for gifts back home. The sand is placed either in plastic reseal-able bags or the Omaha Beach-labeled glass vials purchased in St. Mere-Eglise shops. We use a bag as David plans to use his woodworking skills to craft gifts holding the sand for our children.

​Our walk through the cemetery brings us to a grave site where Quentin and Theodore Roosevelt II rest together, although they perished in different wars, Quentin earlier in The Great War. Graves of the Ryan boys, remembered in the film Saving Private Ryan, are nearby.

​Dick had three pals in his company, and none of the three made it past the beach. They were all Ivy-league graduates. Dick graduated high school from a small town in Ohio. We guess he made it into officer training school because of his excellent athletic record. He was playing baseball in the minors when the war started. He never got over the irony that he made it and they didn't or the events of that day.

​After stopping along the road to see more German batteries facing the shore, we stop for dinner and more shopping at the small seaside village of Arromanches. Ruins of the German -built Atlantic Wall and artificial harbors are now more of a resort area with lots of shops and small restaurants. As it is Sunday and late fall, many close at 7 pm. We eat at a fast food café of sorts, but with good service, where we enjoy chardonnay wine, and the apple cider that the area is famous for. It’s a short bus trip back to our hotel.

Next time: Paris

Ann Otto writes fiction based on factual as well as oral history. Her debut novel, Yours in a Hurry, about Ohio siblings relocating to California in the 1910’s, is available on-line at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kindle, and at locations listed on her website at www.ann-otto.com. Ann’s academic background is in history, English, and behavioral science, and she has published in academic and professional journals.  She loves speaking with groups about all things history, writing, and the events, locations, and characters from Yours in a Hurry. She is currently working on her next novel, Little Diamonds, about Ohio’s Appalachia in the 1920’s, and preparing for future works by blogging about a recent World War 2 European tour. She can be reached through the website, or on Facebook @Annottoauthor or www.Goodreads.com. ​