Nothing to do with Pilsbury and more to do with another excellent lecture by the Herts art War group researching men of Hertfordshire who were killed and organising lectures and exhibitions. They've just got a big lottery grant so these free lectures can continue.Check out http://www.hertsatwar.co.uk/ to find out more.
Tonights was by Mike St Maur Sheil and called 'Fields of Battle - Lands of Peace' about the part the US played in World War One. Not why they joined but the actions they fought once they were involved. Being a photo journalist there was plenty of photos taken from the Western Front to illustrate his story.
The US has been criticised for the length of time it took to field an army once they'd declared war on Germany in April 1917, it was June 1918 before they was a coherent trained and ready for action US Army. Mike Maur Sheil makes an interesting comparison with the British arguing that their first really major offensive wasn't until July 1916 after declaring war in August 1914. On that basis the US were pretty quick. Alot of their equipment was supplied by Britain and France. He tells of many gallant actions such as the US Marine Corps at Belleau Wood and others, many were killed because the tactics used by General Pershing were the old tactics used in the opening of the war of solid ranks charging directly into machine guns. The British & French were beginning to learn that wasn't a good idea but the US learnt the hard way.
As the British soldiers were called Tommies & the French Poilus so the US soldiers were known as Doughboys. This came form the Mexican Wars of the 1860's when the cavalry riding past the infantry saw they were covered in adobe dust from the countryside they were marching through, calling them adobe boys which eventually got corrupted to Doughboy. At least this is the generally accepted theory according to our lecturer. He told us of a strange paradox of the last US soldier killed on 11th November 1918. An over zealous officer wanted to take a village before the war ended so the charging troops , even though waved back by the Germans came on and were shot, the last one being ironically a German immigrant. Many bodies of US troops were repatriated to America so there are only five US cemeteries in France and Flanders. Our lecturer told us that America in general doesn't really seem to know alot about World War One , there is no national memorial to it for instance and because of the repatriation of so many bodies going to all corners of America the high cost of battle was never really understood accept by those who were there of course.
It was a really interesting lecture.
Tonights was by Mike St Maur Sheil and called 'Fields of Battle - Lands of Peace' about the part the US played in World War One. Not why they joined but the actions they fought once they were involved. Being a photo journalist there was plenty of photos taken from the Western Front to illustrate his story.
The US has been criticised for the length of time it took to field an army once they'd declared war on Germany in April 1917, it was June 1918 before they was a coherent trained and ready for action US Army. Mike Maur Sheil makes an interesting comparison with the British arguing that their first really major offensive wasn't until July 1916 after declaring war in August 1914. On that basis the US were pretty quick. Alot of their equipment was supplied by Britain and France. He tells of many gallant actions such as the US Marine Corps at Belleau Wood and others, many were killed because the tactics used by General Pershing were the old tactics used in the opening of the war of solid ranks charging directly into machine guns. The British & French were beginning to learn that wasn't a good idea but the US learnt the hard way.
As the British soldiers were called Tommies & the French Poilus so the US soldiers were known as Doughboys. This came form the Mexican Wars of the 1860's when the cavalry riding past the infantry saw they were covered in adobe dust from the countryside they were marching through, calling them adobe boys which eventually got corrupted to Doughboy. At least this is the generally accepted theory according to our lecturer. He told us of a strange paradox of the last US soldier killed on 11th November 1918. An over zealous officer wanted to take a village before the war ended so the charging troops , even though waved back by the Germans came on and were shot, the last one being ironically a German immigrant. Many bodies of US troops were repatriated to America so there are only five US cemeteries in France and Flanders. Our lecturer told us that America in general doesn't really seem to know alot about World War One , there is no national memorial to it for instance and because of the repatriation of so many bodies going to all corners of America the high cost of battle was never really understood accept by those who were there of course.
It was a really interesting lecture.
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