On Saturday, October 6, 2018, VFW Post 112 of Wichita will remember Medal of Honor recipient Lieutenant Erwin Bleckley. The Wichita native lost his life on that day 100 years earlier, attempting to drop supplies to “The Lost Battalion.” The remembrance will be held at the VA Auditorium at the Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center in Wichita.
Kansas WW1
Commemorating the First World War Centennial in Kansas
The Kansas Museum of History is proud to participate in The World Remembers 2018, which honors WWI soldiers. This electronic Honor Wall will display the names of more than 1 million servicemen beginning September 12 and runs 61 days through November 11, the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI.
WWI viewing continues this weekend on C-SPAN3. All times are Central, and as usual, we are not responsible for schedule changes. Up this weekend:
–Reel America: The Pershing Story – 1963. Airs at 7:00 a.m. Saturday, September 15th.
–American Artifacts: WWI Centennial, Chateau – Theirry & Belleau Wood. Airs at 9:00 a.m. Saturday, September 15th.
Topeka High School will have flag raising ceremony at 7:00 a.m., Friday, November 9th to honor the alumni who lost their lives in World War I. For more information, here is the post from the THS Historical Society Facebook page:
“November 11, 1918 marked the end of fighting in World War I and the beginning of the Armistice. From that date we now have Veteran’s Day. Eight Topeka High graduates died in WW I. The names of 7 men are remembered on a boulder outside the THS auditorium entrance. Topeka High will have a flag raising ceremony on Friday, November 9th, at 7 am, to honor our graduates who lost their lives in WWI. If you are related to any of the people being honored, please contact Joan at 785-295-3200, thshs2001@yahoo.com. Names on the THS memorial boulder are: Victor Blakely (THS 1912), William Bolinger (freshman when enlisted), Crosby Deacon (THS 1913), Robert Melton (THS 1915), Harold Olson (THS 1917), Lyman Rice (THS 1913), Kenneth Sutherland (THS 1917). Miss Faye Friedburg, (THS 1914) also gave her life, but is not included on the rock.
See Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Marie Dressler and Sessue Hayakawa promoting Liberty Bonds. Click here.
Slipping through almost unnoticed is an exhibit at the Wichita Art Museum, Over There, Over Here: American Print Makers Go to War, 1914-1918. It opened July 28 and runs until February 17, 2019. We’ll rely on text from the Museum’s web site to describe it:
The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library has scheduled talks and exhibits in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the Armistice ending the fighting in World War I. These are scheduled for October through January 2019.
–Modern Weapons in World War I. Dr. Mark Hull of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College will talk on the subject of weapons introduced in World War I. The talk is in Marvin Auditorium 101A at the Library at 7:00 p.m., Monday, November 5th.
The St. Mihiel Cemetery of the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) is situated at Thiaucourt, France. Mihiel is a dialectual variant of the masculine name Michel. The name is derived from the 1918 Battle of the St. Mihiel Salient, which was fought over ground that includes the cemetery site, from September 12th through September 16th, 1918 and was a resounding victory for American arms.
The time is coming for the annual WWI Symposium at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri. It is scheduled for November 1 – 3, and we give notice of it now because the early bird deadline for registering is coming up — September 24.
Last week on the PBS News Hour a story was run about how the dry summer in Europe was revealing images of long gone structures in the United Kingdom. Among these is a brief mention of the Stobs Prisoner of War Camp near Hawick, Scotland. While the entire story is worth looking at, the entry about the camp is seen about 2:32 into the clip below:
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