World War I -- Heroism & Humanity Behind German Lines

Post #42: Anxieties and Frustrations March On

2018-08-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

Friday, August 10, 2018 DON’T-FORGET-WWI-PROJECT: Invasion. During the past week, 104 years ago on August 4, 1914, the Germans invaded Belgium to get to their real goal, France. Belgium was no stranger to invading armies. Before the country was established in 1830, the region was known as the cockpit of Europe because it had witnessed many other nations’ battles across their land—most

Post #41: Thanks to All Those Who Have Helped Me

2018-08-03T14:51:00.001-07:00

Friday, August 3, 2018 DON’T-FORGET-WWI-PROJECT: Pre-war Belgium. 104 years ago this week, the European powers were blustering toward the Aug. 4, 1914 start of World War I (1914-1918). The little country of Belgium was secure in knowing its neutrality was guaranteed by a treaty that all major players had signed. Belgium was the most industrialized country in Europe and imported more than 75

Post #40: A New World Is Coming

2018-07-29T13:50:00.002-07:00

Friday, July 27, 2018 Don't-Forget-WWI-Project: Pre-war world. Less than two weeks before the August 4, 1914 start of World War I (1914-1918), the world was a much different place than today. 100 years ago, there was no commercial radio, no TV, no cell phones, no commercial airplanes, and motorcars were still outnumbered by horses, wagons, and people on foot. The fastest form of

Post #39: America's Charitable Heart

2017-10-20T16:10:00.002-07:00

Friday, October 20, 2017 The Don’t-Forget-WWI Project: On October 22, 1914, 103 years ago Sunday, eight Americans came together in London and committed to trying to do what had never been done before—save an entire nation from starvation as the most horrific war the world had ever seen was raging around it. The private-citizen run Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) was founded that day

Post #38: George Washington's Birthday and Book Publishers

2017-02-19T14:31:00.002-08:00

Sunday, February 19, 2016 Don’t-Forget-WWI-Project: George Washington’s birthday – To foreigners 100 years ago, it led to an act of defiance against a prison state. During the harsh German occupation of Belgium during WWI, all acts and events reflecting Belgian patriotism were outlawed. Civilians couldn’t even wear or display the tricolors of their country’s flag. Baron von Bissing,

Post #37: Slave Raids and My Grandfather

2016-12-09T11:53:00.000-08:00

Don’t-Forget-WWI-Project: While many people know about the horrors of World War I’s trench warfare on the Western Front 100 years ago, most people do NOT know about the horrors endured by Belgian and Northern French civilians trapped behind German lines. Some Belgian children waiting for the CRB/CN food. At the start of the war, when the Germans occupied most of Belgium and a thin

Post #36: The Bloody Somme, the 1916 Belgian Harvest, and an NEH Rejection

2016-08-14T15:37:00.000-07:00

Sunday, August 14, 2016 Don’t-Forget-WWI-Project: Many know that in August 1916 World War One’s bloody Battle of the Somme had just started. It would last until November and have a mind-bogglilng 1.5 million causalities. But most don’t know that at the same time the American-led Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB), and its Belgian partner, the Comite National, were fighting their own

Post #35: Poison Gas vs. Food Relief

2016-04-15T15:42:00.001-07:00

Friday, April 15, 2016 Don’t-Forget-WWI Project: One hundred and one years ago, from April 22 until May 25, the Second Battle of Ypres reminded the world of the horrors of trench warfare. The 35 days of fighting saw the first use of poison gas on the Western Front. The Germans released chlorine gas on April 22 French soldiers with improvised gas makes. Source: Greatwarproject.org from

Post #34: Rhodes scholars Head into German-occupied Belgium

2015-12-06T13:48:00.000-08:00

Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015 Don’t-Forget-WWI Project: During World War One, exactly 101 years ago today, on Sunday, Dec. 6, 1914, 10 young American students on Christmas break from Oxford University were in Rotterdam preparing for the adventure of a lifetime. 1914: Belgians in a food relief line. They had been chosen to be the first 10 official “delegates” in the CRB (Commission for Relief in

Post #33: Understanding 1914 Belgium, and Searching for the Past in Present Day Antwerp

2015-10-02T10:49:00.003-07:00

Friday, October 2, 2015 The Don’t-Forget-WWI Project: An excerpt from page 99 of my nonfiction book, Behind the Lines, www.WWIBehindTheLines.com "We Shall Never Forgive!” As September [1914] came to a close, Max [the mayor of Brussels] was not the only Belgian in jail. All Belgians under German occupation rule had become “prisoners in their own land,” according

Post #32: This Coming Sunday, Reflect on Another Sunday 101 Years Ago

2015-08-21T15:12:00.001-07:00

Friday, August 21, 2015 THIS DAY IN WWI HISTORY (Sunday, Aug. 23, 1914): An excerpt from my nonfiction book, Behind the Lines,www.WWIBehindtheLines.com Dinant—“The Town Is Gone” Dinant excerpt page 20. A few days later, it was Dinant’s turn. A town of more than 7,500, Dinant was the second largest in Namur Province and sat on the right bank of the Meuse River at a major

Post #31: Another Tuesday 101 Years Ago Was Very Different for the World

2015-08-04T15:51:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, August 4, 2015 THIS DAY IN WWI HISTORY: An excerpt from my WWI nonfiction book, Behind the Lines, www.WWIBehindTheLines.com. German uhlan (lance-carrying cavalry) On that first day of the invasion, Tuesday, August 4, it was a hot and surprisingly clear summer day in the normally cool, cloudy, and wet country [of Belgium]. At 8 a.m. German uhlans (

Post #30: Belgian Refugees and a Leap of Faith

2015-07-25T10:41:00.002-07:00

May 21, 2015 An excerpt from Behind the Lines, chapter 12, “The Fall of Antwerp”: For the Bunges, on the morning of October 7, 1914, as the shells “continued to rain into the city, whistling over our heads, and filling the air with the roar of frightful explosions . . . it needed a good deal of will-power to go into the street . . . my daughters

Post #28: I Could Hear Screams and Sobs

2015-04-13T16:10:00.004-07:00

An excerpt from Behind the Lines: A Chance Meeting of a Businessman and an Abbé During the morning of Thursday, August 20, 1914, on a hill within a newly built suburb east of Brussels, a small crowd of neighbors and passersby gathered. Such a coming together normally would have been filled with greetings, handshakes,

Post #26: The Cast of Belgian Characters and How the Book is Doing

2015-01-05T11:13:00.000-08:00