British World War I POWs honored in Poland

From Grand Island Independent: http://www.theindependent.com/news/world/british-world-war-i-pows-honored-in-poland/article_12402436-da53-5c32-929d-ec7467f92bab.html


LIDZBARK WARMINSKI, Poland (AP) — Nearly a century after they died in Germany captivity during World War I, relatives and officials honored 39 British servicemen in a solemn ceremony Friday at their burial site in Poland.

The servicemen died in late 1918, toward the end of the war, from disease and ill treatment at the East Prussian prisoner camp in Heilsberg. Aged between 19 and 37, they were buried in a common grave in the town, which is now part of Poland and called Lidzbark Warminski.

Recent efforts by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission led to the ceremony at Lidzbark cemetery, where 39 white headstones were dedicated to the servicemen buried there.

British Ambassador Robin Barnett and local governor Artur Jankowski led the ceremony, and 39 schoolchildren held grave lanterns lit by candles at each of the headstones.
 

More warfare and the resulting redrawing of borders, followed by decades of political divisions in Europe, complicated efforts made by the families and British remembrance groups to honor them properly at the burial site. Instead, their names were put on a memorial plaque in Malbork, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) away.

Information about the dead was collected by the Western Front Association, a British non-governmental organization that preserves the memory of World War I soldiers, and by Pauline Page-Jones, an amateur historian from the Welsh village of Llanfyllin, where one of the men came from.

Pvt. William Gordon Jones, 19, of The Durham Light Infantry, died of pneumonia at Heilsberg camp hospital on Oct.30, 1918, less than a year after joining the army.

Jones' two nephews, John Gordon Jones, 68, and Owen Wyn Jones, 63, came from Llanfyllin, where the family still lives, with a poppy wreath. They were the first family members to be able to visit his burial site.

"It was very emotional and, my brother and I, we are very touched by it all," John Gordon Jones told The Associated Press. "We were able to pay respect to our uncle in this very much delayed ceremony. We are very grateful for this.

"The fallen should be remembered because they gave their lives for the rest of us, didn't they."

Once again, final post

Only 2 Kindle subscribers - I appreciate you guys very much but I no longer have the time to blog for just two people.

This blog will be removed from the Kindle tomorrow.

The voyage to building North America’s first concrete ship in Montreal in 1917

From the Daily Commercial News: The voyage to building North America’s first concrete ship in Montreal in 1917
North America’s first self-powered vessel made of concrete sailed through waters in the early 1900s.

In his book Captains of Concrete, Ottawa author Sonny Moran takes readers through memorable moments of the Canadian Government Ship (CGS) Concretia’s experiences as a government marine and fisheries ship and then refit as a recreational vessel.

“I believe the Concretia marked an important part of Canadian history because it demonstrated Canada’s innovative capacity during a time of world war,” explained Moran, whose great-uncle served as captain of the vessel.

“The Concretia was an example of the Government of Canada successfully partnering with the research community, in this case McGill University, and a private sector construction company to break new ground in shipbuilding design and durability in North America.”

Concrete ships had been built for use in Europe, but Canada was the first country to bring this form of shipbuilding to North America. The United States soon followed by building a fleet of concrete merchant marine vessels during WWI.

Concretia was completed in 1917 in Montreal. It was built out of concrete, technically known as ferrocement, as a World War One experimental vessel due to a shortage of wood and steel in Canada. The vessel passed all of its sea trials in 1917 and its existence was officially announced in 1918.

The hull was 18 inches thick on the sides and 24 inches thick at the keel. It was 132 feet long and typically employed a crew of 14.

“Many readers of my book have expressed surprise to me when they learned concrete can float,” said Moran.

Moran described the vessel as a “huge success” as it served as a Department of Marine and Fisheries lighthouse and navigation buoy maintenance ship from 1920 to 1931. It maintained the lighthouses and navigation buoys critical to ensure safe shipping lanes through the Thousands Islands Region in the St. Lawrence River and into Lake Ontario. The CGS Concretia was stationed in Prescott, Ont., which is now the location of a Canadian Coast Guard Base.

When it was refit in the late 1970s/early 1980s and renamed the Onaygorah, it was believed to be the largest Canadian pleasure craft registered with Transport Canada, said Moran.

In today’s pleasure craft industry, there are more than 500 boats registered with Transport Canada as having concrete construction, said Moran.

“When steel and wood became plentiful again after the conclusion of World War One the shipbuilding industry did not continue to use ferrocement for use in the construction of commercial merchant ships,” he explained.

“Their heavy hulls became too expensive to operate because they needed too much fuel to push them through the water. As well, concrete merchant vessels have little or no salvage value.”

Moran said writing the book gave him a better understanding of the concrete shipbuilding sector in North America and Europe, “and Canada’s significant role in the industry, that I never knew existed.”

His book has drawn international interest from libraries and maritime museums.

For more information, visit http://captainsofconcrete.web.officelive.com/

World War I Dog Tag Returned To Chase County

From Kake.com: World War I Dog Tag Returned To Chase County
Thanks to the work of a couple of French citizens searching for World War I artifacts, a Kanas family is now in possession of a loved one's World War I dog tag.

Ninety-four years after it was lost in the trenches of France, the dog tag has been returned to Cottonwood Falls in Chase County.

From the trenches of France to the Flint Hills of Kansas comes the dog tag of a Cottonwood Falls soldier who lost it in World War I.

Kent Potter, a Chase County farm boy, joined the army in 1917 to fight in World War I. He went to france and was a mule cart driver, hauling war supplies. World War I was known for its extreme carnage, up-close fighting in trenches and for chemical warfare with mustard gas, which could have contributed to Private Potter getting separated from his dog tag.

"As a soldier, it's your only identification, basically," said Col. (Ret.) Charles Rayl. "It's called dog tags."

But Potter returned from the war to Kanas without his dog tag, got married and raised a family in Butler County. His 75-year-old son Dale Potter of El Dorado never heard his dad talk much about the war or his missing dog tag.

"We didn't even know it was lost," Dale said.

But recently, two French men, Michael Toussaint and Jean Claude Fonderflick found the tag and got it returned to the U.S. There's an old Cavalry saying that a good soldier takes care of his horse or mule before he takes care of himself.

"We think there's a possibility he put the has mask on the mule before he put it on himself," Potter said.

And it's believed he lost the tag during a mustard gas attack. It's not certain that's the case. Dale Potter is just happy to receive the dog tag after all these years.

"But I hope that this dog tag will remind each of us and the items in this museum and other museums of the sacrifice so many gave over the many years," he said.

For now, the tag is on loan to the Chase County Historical Museum to be on display. Dale Potter's thanks goes out ot those French men for their efforts to get it returned.

Dale vows that the dog tag will not get lost again and plans on keeping it as a family heirloom.

Kevin Myers: Executions of 1916 still form toxic staple of brainwashing that passes for education in schools

An opinion piece From Independent IE: Kevin Myers: Executions of 1916 still form toxic staple of brainwashing that passes for education in schools

Some Dublin friends had builders in last May, for a job to be completed in July. So, of course, they spent the third week of December desperately trying to get the builders to finish by Christmas. And the really serious problem with this story is the effortless ease with which Irish readers know it is possible. Moreover, Irish builders -- not being parachuted down from Mars -- are probably a fair representation of the standards in much of Irish life.

Lying to ourselves is like concealing tumours from a doctor, yet it is what we repeatedly do. This year we begin a decade of anniversaries of largely calamitous events, the choicest of which will be officially suffused with a roseate glow of approval. But if you canonise historical tragedy, you should not be surprised if others then seek sainthood by repeating the bloody blunders of the past.

All of Europe has reason to remember the catastrophic events of a century ago; but only in Ireland will they be commemorated with pride. In part, this is because people have been lied to by their school textbooks, and their political masters.

Nationalists still do not know that Home Rule had been legally established in 1914. They do not know that there were no British regiments in Ireland in 1916, and that the 1916 Rising was directed solely at Irishmen, who for the most part didn't join the army to defend the UK, but to fight for Belgium and Home Rule.

They do not know that all the violence between 1916-l923 finally resulted in largely the kind of parliamentary democracy that Home Rule would have produced anyway: whatever the differences were, they were not worth a single life, never mind the thousands of dead and the economic ruination resulting from the abominable civil wars of 1916-23.

The executions of 1916 still form the toxic staple of the brainwashing that passes for education in our secondary schools. Were you taught about the other executions, of the 77 helpless anti-Treaty prisoners taken from their cells, and shot in batches, as a means of ending the Civil War? Were you taught about the thousands of protestants chased from their homes in the 26 counties between 1919-23?

Did you learn about how the IRA evicted around 100 children from the two protestant orphanages in Clifden in 1922, and burnt the buildings down, while the Royal Navy had to send in a warship to save the homeless waifs? Did you learn about the protestants abducted in Cork City, murdered and secretly buried in the farm of an IRA leader who was to be a Fianna Fail TD for over 40 years?

Yes, we all know about the Black and Tans, and the Auxiliaries. They are part of the educational staple, are they not? And no civilised person can today celebrate the burning of Cork or the Croke Park butchery. Yet just over a year ago, we had the minister for defence officially endorsing fancy-dress re-enactments of the ambushes in which Irish RIC-men were slain by Irishmen. This is barbaric.

No one else in Europe will actually be CELEBRATING the dreadful events of a century ago. That melancholy distinction falls to the Irish; so is it surprising that we are endlessly reliving different versions of the same story of bloody failure? Those annual gatherings at Bodenstown and Beal na mBlath and the GPO are nothing more than the semi-religious and wholly pagan sanctification of homicide.

And where do the builders come in this story? Why, because they are the living embodiment of the culture of moral imprecision that officially allows us to ignore the Ten Commandments of our choice. Some revere paramilitarism; or semi-states bosses who fiddle their expenses, and bank regulators on whose watch the State was destroyed, are allowed to retire early on full pension; or in the HSE, sick-leave = Monday hangovers.

Yes, I go on about this culture, and yes, I do so, ad nauseam. Why? Because it guarantees a return to failure, that familiar pit of sloth and dirges, where an addictive commemorationalism unfailingly provides the blueprint for Plan B.

Freed from the shackles of this perverse and dysfunctional domestic ethos, the Irish are probably the most successful ethnic group in the US. Yet 20th Century independent Ireland has historically been the least successful state in Western Europe. All other countries, including the North, increased their populations by 40pc between 1920 and 2000: ours, though boosted by an atypical decade of the Celtic Tiger, increased by just 20pc. But demographic growth up to 1980 was actually half that.

Revelling in bad history makes for a terrible future. And I can see it unfolding over the coming months; an orgy of self-pitying and ahistorical hubris over events of a century ago. Just about everywhere in Europe passed through a Golgotha between 1912 and 1923, and many countries experienced terrible civil wars. But only one country will actually, albeit selectively, rejoice in the deeds of that time: the one where even in an economic meltdown, builders promise to leave by July, and are still there in December.

DNA key to World War I mystery

The Warmabool Standard (Australia): DNA key to World War I mystery
STAN Turner grew up knowing little about his uncle who was killed in World War I — but 95 years later, the former VicRoads worker may now hold the key.

Today DNA from Mr Turner will be taken to England as part of a search by the Australian and British governments to identify hundreds of soldiers found in the German-dug mass graves at Fromelles.

Last year 75 of the 250 were identified from the battle in Northern France on July 19, 1916.

Mr Turner, named after his uncle Stanley Turner, said that to have confirmation that his uncle was killed at Fromelles would provide peace of mind and an end to the mystery.

“All that we really knew was that he was lost in action,” he said.

“I don’t know much. He was in his 20s when he was killed.

“He went to Gallipoli and was wounded in his thigh but survived which was a rarity.

“My dad was in France waiting to go to Gallipoli when his brother was wounded.

“The only record we have is that he didn’t come back.”

Mr Turner, from Dennington, said if the DNA matched and his uncle was buried at Fromelles, he and his family would head to the site to pay their respects.

“I’m nervous waiting for the results but I’m still absolutely rapt,” he said.

“Dad was in World War I and World War II. He never really talked about his brother.

“He once told a story how he was in the trenches in France and his mate was buried up to his waist. He stopped to help him but the man just said ‘leave me, my legs are gone’.

“After I agreed to do the test I thought, hold on, maybe you should do my brother, but I was the one they selected from the family tree.”

Mr Turner’s DNA will be picked up by UK company LGC Forensics services in England.

He said he expected to hear back from the company in the new year.

Charles Evans Hughes Focus of "The Contenders"

Go to the link to view the video.

From C-Span: Charles Evans Hughes Focus of "The Contenders"
Washington, DC
Friday, December 23, 2011

This reair of "The Contenders" looks at the election of 1916 and explore the life, times, legacy, and relevancy today of Charles Evans Hughes, the Republican Party nominee in 1916, who served two terms on the Supreme Court, the second time as Chief Justice, two terms as Republican Governor of New York, and Secretary of State in the Harding and Coolidge administrations.

Helping us to understand Hughes, the 1916 election, his career in politics and his crucial time as Chief Justice during the New Deal years are: former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, David Pietrusza, author of “1920: The Year of Six Presidents” and Bernadette Meyler, Cornell Law School Professor.

We’ll also see and listen to Hughes, and hear from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on the legacy of Hughes as Chief Justice.

For more information on the series and our Contenders, go to www.c-span.org/thecontenders - where you’ll find videos, biographical information, election results, helpful links, and more on each of the 14 featured in the series.