Virginia Commemorates World War I and World War II
The month of April marks the 100th anniversary of the United States entrance into a conflict which was known in 1917 as “The Great War.” Scholars still disagree on the causes of the First World War, and there are essentially two theories. The first is simple, and blames the war on German greed and Imperialism. The second involves a complicated set of European dynamics as old as the 1860s, which came into play and involved ancient territorial disputes and a huge rise in Nationalism among those countries. This, combined with a never before seen surge in a new element called “The Arms Race” aligned for the perfect storm.
What’s interesting is that most of these theories end with the implication that Germany and her ally, Austria/Hungary, took advantage of this perfect storm in 1914 to declare war on Serbia and Russia, and subsequently France and England. The debates seem rather pointless as their conclusions are the same. The war soon erupted into the first global conflict in the history of the world, involving, before the end in 1918, 135 countries. The United States, however did not enter World War I until 1917.
This First World War has been appropriately dubbed the “Forgotten War” until recently when a British television series called Downton Abbey revived interest in the period. Book sales on the early 20th century took an upturn, and reenacting World War I increased in both the United States and Great Britain. In addition, the issues in the Middle East today have drawn more than one analogy, as some writers see a similar stage there with Russia playing the part of Germany, waiting for the right time to make a move.
The American President in 1917, Woodrow Wilson, was well known for his isolationist policies. He had recently been reelected with the slogan, “He kept us out of war.” For three years, however, the Kaiser played cat and mouse with his German submarines, sinking American vessels and then apologizing. When Germany finally made it an open policy in 1917 to sink any ship in water approaching Great Britain, Wilson and Congress had had enough. The decision was helped along by the American interception of what was known as the “Zimmerman Telegram,” which promised Mexico parts of the United States if they would enter the war on the side of Germany. Four million American troops were mustered and two million were transported by 1918 to Europe for seven of the last months of the war.
They joined millions of other soldiers on the Western Front — the battle lines made of trenches that stretched across northern France and Belgium — in what was a horrible conflict of attrition that would not end until November 11, 1918. American deaths were counted at 116,000, and historian’s opinions vary on how many people died in this “War to end all Wars,” but most agree that the number is around 15 million.
This year also marks the 75th Anniversary of the United States’ entrance into another war, which is a little more recent in our history, and about which much more is generally studied and known. While their numbers have diminished, we are still lucky enough today to have veterans of World War II with us so we can interview them first hand about this tremendous turning point in American history. We can still honor those veterans who returned as well as those who did not, from theaters of war like North African, Europe, the Middle East, and the Pacific The United States joined with the Allies, which consisted of the Soviet Union and Great Britain, declaring war on the Axis Powers of Japan, Germany, and Italy in December 1941.
Appropriately, last year the Virginia General Assembly created the World War I and World War II Commemorative Commission to carry out programs and activities to remember the 100th Anniversary of World War I, and the 75th anniversary of World War II. The Commission, chaired by House of Delegate member Kirk Cox, reached out to localities and counties all across Virginia with an invitation to participate and create their own programs. These coordinated efforts and opportunities included the construction of a traveling mobile museum, “Profiles of Honor,” dedicated to telling the story of our country’s participation in both wars, and available to localities upon application. This also included the availability of grant monies to help commemorate Virginia’s role in both of these major historical events, through education and tourism.
In Caroline County, with support from the Board of Supervisors, the Office of Economic Development and Tourism, took up the challenge, and the county was an early recipient of some of the first state grant monies. These have been used to develop and market a relevant series of connected sites on a corridor which spans the county, beginning on Interstate 95 and Rt. 207 where our Visitor Center is located. This trail takes visitors through the county seat of Bowling Green. Here, the Historical Society is collecting local data on both wars. The Caroline Museum and Cultural Center, also located in the town, is a site destination on the trail as well, and is dedicated to the county’s role and the local citizens who served in both wars. The trail then moves onto U.S. 301 and continues, north to the Port Royal Museum of American History, which will also feature period war artifacts from World War I and II. The trail ends with Caroline’s partner, King George County, at the Dahlgren Heritage Museum.
In addition to the trail, in Caroline events are being planned for both the spring and fall with the cooperation of Ft. A.P. Hill, which is where General George S. Patton trained before leaving for North Africa in 1942. Using one of only three original USO buildings left in the United States, in the county seat of Bowling Green, plans are formulating for an education day in September for county school students involving a visit from a reenactor who portrays the famous general.
The logo developed especially for Caroline’s Commemorative efforts includes pictures of real soldiers who served in both conflicts from the county. On April 23, the county kicks off it’s Commemorative with a community event, hosting a ceremony to honor the veterans and the surviving family members of those who served in both wars.
Presented here for the first time will be Caroline’s Legacy Project where local residents have been invited to share pictures of their loved ones who served in these wars as well as information and stories of their service. This visual slide program will be ongoing and enlarged as more families are contacted and come forward.
World War I information has been a particular challenge, but to date six soldiers of that long ago conflict have been documented through photographs and through family members. Research on 30 World War II soldiers has been completed. Congressman Rob Wittman will serve as Master of Ceremonies for the event, which will include a certificate of appreciation to each veteran or family member.
Research on World War I has revealed that two brothers from Caroline, one an engineer and one in the air corps, moved separately across Europe in 1918 and participated in some of the most bloody fighting of that war. They were able to meet after the battle of St Mihiel, the only World War I offensive launched solely by Black Jack Pershing with his American Expeditionary force, and without help from American Allies. The “Borkey Brothers” were then part of the last Allied Offensive, known as the Battle of the Argonne Forest, which eventually brought about Germany’s surrender. Lasting 47 days, it was the deadliest battle of World War I, costing the lives of 28,000 Germans and 26,000 Americans.
Of particular interest this year on Caroline’s History Corridor is a new display at the Caroline Museum and Cultural Center. The museum will highlight one of the First World War’s lesser known stories, that of the American Medical doctors who volunteered for the British Army before American troops were moved to the European stage. In the early days of the war, not realizing how long the conflict would last, England drafted and sent to the front lines many of her able-bodied young doctors. One county citizen in Caroline answered England’s plea.
Young Caroline County physician, Dr. John Randolph Travis, known to his family as Ran, was just 27 years old when he volunteered and sailed for Europe as a member of the Medical Officer’s Corp. He not only kept a daily journal of his movements on the continent, but he also wrote regularly to his family at home. Ran, a graduate of the Medical College of Virginia in 1914, was already a country doctor with a thriving practice in Caroline, which included his own doctor’s buggy and his trusty horse, Mongo. According to letters from home, his patients were devastated to see him go.
Ran left New York City on October 15, 1917, and wrote the following to his sweetheart, Edith Marshall, who would become his wife after the war:
“You can’t imagine how hard it is for me to realize that you are over there and I am over here. And the worst of all, just think of that great body of water between us. I am here now waiting for orders and expect to get them within a day or two where they are to send me. The Lord only knows, probably France, Egypt, India, or maybe they are going to keep me here, the latter I hope and want to say there is a better chance of me staying in England than any of the other places.”
During his voyage. his mother’s letter reached England before he did. Her words reflected a time when life was still tenuous and people placed great emphasis on expressing their feelings in writing to their loved ones.
My own Dear Child,
I am writing to you not knowing whether you will ever get it or not. You have been gone long enough to reach your destination and I do hope and pray we will soon hear some thing from you. I reckon you feel by now, this is indeed a big world, when you think of the hundreds of miles you have traveled and the vast expanse of sea and land that separate you from native land. I do want to hear if you were any sea sick and also if you had a friend or acquaintance on board.”
The letter is signed, “Your devoted Mama.”
Doctor Travis had indeed been seasick after a storm ranged in the Atlantic on his third day at sea. As they approached the coast of England, the sea became calm and two destroyers came to meet them. His ship followed the coast of Wales up the Irish sea and then landed at Liverpool, where the doctor promptly sent a cablegram to Caroline that he had reached his destination safely.
The following year, after being moved many times with medical units all over the front, a homesick Ran wrote to Edith on April 7, 1918, from Boulogne, France. His excerpts are presented as translated and have not been punctuated. The real work he is referring to are battle casualties, as opposed to inspecting as many as 500 men to make sure they are fit to be sent to the front.
Dearest Edith,
I can hardly realize where I am but there is one thing certain and this is I am sure there is a war going on. I have been on the go very much ever since I have been in these parts, and have seen quite a bit of country. I am now in real work and plenty of it to do, but I believe I could enjoy it lots more if these guns didn’t make quite so much nose. I wonder how everything is going in those parts, I just wish I could get one more look at Old Virginia, if it wasn’t but a short while. Well, I hope it won’t be long now before all of us can be back to our homes and girls for good.
Ran Travis’s letters to Edith are of a light nature, but his journal tells more of the day-to-day realities of a horrible war, where doctors saw for the first time ever chemical weapons used in the form of mustard gas. The devastating, never before seen injuries on the battlefields of World War I, led to the first use of rudimentary blood banks as well as the invention of plastic surgery. With a sense of humor, Travis refers many times in his journal to the German attempts to kill the members of the Medical Corps, nicknaming the enemy Fritz.
From July to September of 1918, he recorded the following:
“On duty from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m., not so busy but Fritz is busy putting them over. Slept well last night, Frtiz came over and dropped several bombs one fell just around the corner and killed an M.P. on duty 6 a.m, quite busy, had a good sleep although Fritz is still busy shelling on again, off again, busy lots of wounded Two Frenchman brought in both badly mutilated by a shell that hit the town. I amputated a hand on one of them.”
When the war ended and the guns finally went silent on November 11, 1918, Ran wrote again to his soon-to-be wife, Edith. His letter refers to the strict censorship in World War I in writing to family about one’s whereabouts:
“There is a whole lot of news for me to write about now, the first and and most important is that your boy is a Captain instead of a Lieutenant. The next thing is that I can write anything I want, that is well, where I am and the various places I have been to. Now don’t expect me to tell you all this in one letter for at the present I will just mention some of the places. I came to France on March 24 and was at once sent to Amiens and was at once sent right into the line, this was in the heat of the great retreat and I was in the battle for the defense of that city which as you know was saved, with the exception of it being heavily shelled and bombed.”
These letters, journal, pictures, and documents in the words of a very real person who lived through this great conflict are an amazing reflection of the time period, before the age of modern medicine, but when the world was undergoing rapid change. They are profound in their simplicity and offer an excellent testimony to the history of our state and our country.
Thanks to the doctor’s granddaughter, Ellen Perry, other personal items belonging to Dr. Travis have been lent to the museum for the year as well, including his medical bag, the compass he carried on his journey, and his eyeglasses. The sheer number of the collection of surviving correspondences to his family and sweetheart are significant, and also shed light on life in general in the early years of the 20th century in rural America.
Dr. T, as he is affectionately known to the Museum Board of Directors, survived the war to become a beloved regional physician, and also was instrumental in bringing electricity to Caroline County. He died in 1972, but his likeness as a young officer is on the left of the Caroline County logo. The excerpts from his journal and his letters are published for the first time here on Bearing Drift.
Kudos to the Virginia General Assembly for creating this opportunity to reflect and gain a better understanding of the events surrounding our country’s role in these conflicts, long before the age of technology and smart bombs. This milestone is also an opportunity to put real names and faces on the men and women who stepped forward all those years ago to keep us safe.
We can see how the events surrounding the end of World War I lead to World War II, and subsequently to many scenarios we see played out today. These 100-year-old outcomes continue to define the present and the future, and are a timely discussion for 2017 as nations seek to avoid the mistakes of the past. Pulitzer Prize winning author Herman Wouk, who wrote two highly acclaimed historical novels about World War II, aptly said, “The beginning of the end of war lies in remembrance.”
The Virginia World War I and World War II Commemorative Commission’s website will keep the public updated on dozens of special events throughout the state, and the effort will continue through 2019. In addition to special teacher symposiums, this year there are a number of stellar, one of a kind opportunities, spanning all parts of the Commonwealth as localities sign on to become partners in this worthy endeavor. Just some of these include the World War I Speaker Series which was created in partnership with the Virginia National Guard, and a special symposium on the Battle of Midway, which will be held on June 2, in Norfolk.
The Virginia World War I and World War II Commission was created by the Virginia General Assembly to carry out programs marking the 100th anniversary of World War I and 75th anniversary of World War II.
When asked to help host the first Caroline Commemorative event on the 23rd of April this year, Congressman Wittman said, “The events that Caroline has planned mirror the idea and the spirit of the Virginia World War I and World War II Commemorative, chaired by the Honorable Kirk Cox. This Commission was conceived for all Virginians to remember, as both the 100th and the 75th Anniversary of these wars are upon us, the huge sacrifices made by the men and women who served in those wars, so many years ago. I am always so honored to be asked to participate in events which recognize our veterans and showcase their legacy in our history.”
