I am co-authoring a book about immigrant soldiers in the US military during World War I. It will be published by Schiffer Publishing, probably next year. I am asking for information from Forum members who might have relatives who fit this category. Specifically, I'd love to see photographs of the men in uniform, diaries, letters, or even oral history memories that members might remember. Of course my co-author and I will give credit in the book for anyone who can help. This is my third book, please see my Amazon author's page for more info!

Thanks very much!

Pete Belmonte

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/14/french-soldier-room-unchanged-first-world-war

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre_Dame_de_Lorette

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciX9nzgfFu4&list=UUDtoVZwMfUXRYYvrb6LKMIg

Hello:

 

I visited your website and thought you might be interested in my project. I am writing a book about a young Philadelphia artist, Edward Shenton, who enlisted in the Pennsylvania National Guard in early 1917. He went on to train with the 103rd engineers, later attached to the 28th Division and sailed for France in May of 1918. He saw action as a combat engineer at the battles of the Marne, Fismes, and Meuse Argonne, all the time carrying with him his canvas-bound sketchbook and drawing everything he saw. When he returned to the states in 1919, he put away his drawings and resumed his art career, attending the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and eventually becoming one of the foremost book and magazine illustrators of his day. The sketchbooks remained among Ed’s papers for over 90 years when they were discovered by his son many years after his death. I am putting together a book of his drawings in the context of the places he saw and the battles he fought. I have attached an announcement for the book, which will be out in the fall for the centenary of The Great War. You can see the book’s progress on facebook.com/thelostsketchbooks.

 

Rex Passion

Komatik Press

Gallipoli

Upon the margin of a rugged shore

There is a spot now barren, desolate,

A place of graves, sodden with human gore

That Time will hallow, Memory consecrate.

There lie the ashes of the mighty dead,

The youth who lit with flame Obscurity,

Fought true for Freedom, won thro' rain of lead

Undying fame, their immortality.

The stranger wand'ring when the war is over,

The ploughman there driving his coulter deep,

The husbandman who golden harvests reap-

From hill and ravine, from each plain and cover

Will hear a shout, see phantoms on the marge,

See men again making a deathless charge.

John William Streets

Australian troops charging an Ottoman trench, just before the evacuation at Anzac.

"A trench at Lone Pine after the battle, showing Australian and Turkish dead on the parapet. In the foreground of this much published image is Captain Leslie Morshead (later Lieutenant General Sir Leslie Morshead) of the 2nd Battalion and on his right (standing facing camera), is 527 Private James (Jim) Brown Bryant, 8th Battalion, of Stawell, Vic. As a 60th Battalion ("daughter" or "pup" battalion of the 8th) Company Quartermaster Sergeant (CQMS) Bryant was awarded the Military Medal (MM) in 1918. He enlisted in the Second AIF as VX55299 Lieutenant J B Bryant, and survived three years as a prisoner of the Japanese in Changi Prison, Singapore. Bryant lent his camera to an unknown friend who took AWM image A03869, an equally famous image of the Gallipoli trenches. Later in life he was one of the few Gallipoli veterans to undertake a private pilgrimage to Anzac Cove. Private Bryant was previously identified as Private Angus Sutherland Allen, later (Captain Angus Sutherland Allen MC), who was killed in action on 21 July 1918 in France. Note the prominent white over red 8th Battalion colour patch worn on Bryant's right shoulder".

Incredible. Lots of great photos, letters, etc. What a find!

Dice 1914 an small group of young and courageous American (whose majority lived in France) enthusiast of adventure but especially of idealism and love whith France, were committed in the French Army becoming Pilots in the "French AirForce".

They were the first American of all the History to help and to fight for the country which had helped their country to become independent during the American independence war

The French Army formed them and gathered them in an "American" squadron belonging to the French Army

They were equipped with the famous French aircrafts of the WW1, Nieuport between 1915 and 1916 and the most powerful SPAD (one of best and perhaps even the best aircraft of the WW1) in 1916

This Squadron was baptized "Escradrille Lafayette" in honor of this famous French, the French Army and France who fought beside the American colonists in the American independence war vs UK