World War I

Three Little Things by Patti Stockdale

/ sandramervillehart

Hatti Waltz comes to town to cheer for and say goodbye to local soldiers. It’s 1917, and Arno Kreger is one of the brave men heading for boot camp. She wishes she could forget him as easily as it seems he forgot her.

Arno wants to carry Hatti’s promise to write him. He wants to court her but her father doesn’t like him. He’s been warned away.

The war in Europe is against the Germans. Arno, an American with a German heritage, doesn’t have an easy time with fellow soldiers. His fists have landed him in trouble in the past, but that’s not the way to win Hatti’s heart.

This story highlights the conflict German-American soldiers faced on the home front and the power of letters to connect two hearts that long for one another.

The characters are believable with plenty of surprising twists that are true to the time. What intrigued me most was learning that the story is loosely set on the author’s grandparents.

A good book for lovers of American history and World War I.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas

Spanish Flu Pandemic

/ sandramervillehart

In March of 1918, the United States had been fighting World War I for almost a year when over 100 soldiers started suffering from fever, chills, and fatigue at Camp Funston in Fort Riley, Kansas. Their diagnosis? Flu. The number grew by five times over the next week.

The spring’s milder bouts of influenza were seen in Europe, Asia, and America and then spread around many parts of the world.

Because of wartime news blackouts, the flu wasn’t initially reported as it should have been. Spain wasn’t under the news blackout. When the disease struck, they reported it. The flu became known as Spanish Flu even though it didn’t originate there.

A second and more serious wave struck in August of 1918. The highest mortality rates were children under 5, adults 20—40, or 65 and older.

Schools and movie theaters closed in some cities due to the contagious nature of the disease. Public gatherings were prohibited. Hoping to avoid overcrowding in subways, the health commissioner of New York City ordered businesses to stagger shifts.

Illness in many workers forced businesses to close.

The public was urged to wash their hands when coming home from work, before meals, and when coming inside from the street. They were told to avoid crowds. Wearing masks was encouraged when in public.

These measures seemed to help the cities that followed them early.

Advertisers jumped on the bandwagon. Ads for Lifebouy Soap explained the importance of hand-washing. Some businesses offered no real health benefits yet advertised their products as being recommended for treatments.

With no known cure, doctors gave patients medications they hoped would ease symptoms. Bayer’s 1899 trademark for aspirin expired in 1917. This allowed other companies to produce it. The U.S. Surgeon General had recommended aspirin for the flu. Patients took up to 30 grams a day. Today’s physicians recognize this dosage as toxic—tragically, doctors didn’t know this in 1918. It’s feared that some deaths, originally attributed to the flu, resulted from aspirin poisoning.

There was a shortage of physicians and professional nurses in the fall.

World War I ended in November of 1918. The flu killed more soldiers than battles.

While negotiating the Treaty of Versailles, President Woodrow Wilson collapsed, possibly due to influenza.

January brought a third wave of the pandemic.

When it was finally over in the summer, an estimated 50 million people had died worldwide. Possibly as many as 675,000 of these deaths were in the United States. Because of poor recordkeeping, reports of the actual numbers vary.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

“1918 Pandemic (H1N1 Virus),” Center for Disease Control and Prevention,” 2020/03/28 https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html.

History.com editors. “Spanish Flu,” A & E Television Networks, 2020/03/28 https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/1918-flu-pandemic.

“Influenza pandemic of 1918-19,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2020/03/28 https://www.britannica.com/print/article/287805.

“’You Must Wash Properly,” Time, 2020/03/28 https://time.com/5810695/spanish-flu-pandemic-coronavirus-ads/.

 

The Christmas Truce

/ sandramervillehart

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by Sandra Merville Hart

The war had been going on for five long months. Soldiers missed their families, their homes, and those special girls who awaited their return.

They also missed being warm and well-fed on this cold winter’s evening. Earlier in that December of 1914, Pope Benedict XV had suggested the armies suspend fighting temporarily to celebrate Christmas, a request denied by the countries at war.

The soldiers hunched in the long trenches across from their enemy, longing for warmth, longing for something to mark this day as Christmas Eve. No man’s land, the area between opposing armies, was only about 100 feet in places. In those spots, soldiers could hear each other. The smell of meals cooking in the enemy trenches often wafted over.

Then the lonely soldiers heard something unexpected on the moonlit night—not the sounds of rifles or cannons, but singing. The Germans sang a Christmas carol in their own language. Next, Allied troops from opposing trenches sang a Christmas tune. This continued until the Allies began the familiar carol, “O Come, All Ye Faithful.” German soldiers joined in with the Latin words to the song. It must have been extraordinarily comforting.

helmet-1465352_960_720British Captain A.D. Chater was writing a letter to his mom at 10 am the next morning when he witnessed an amazing sight: a German soldier waving his arms before he and a companion, weaponless, entered no man’s land.

A British soldier cautiously approached them. Within five minutes, officers and men from both armies filled the area. They shook hands and exchanged Christmas greetings.

The soldiers kicked around a soccer ball together. Some accounts mention playing football. A German barber cut a British soldier’s hair. They gave each other gifts of plum pudding, cigarettes, and hats. They posed for photos together and exchanged autographs.

Each side also took the opportunity to bury their dead, soldiers who had been laying in no man’s land for weeks.

Around 100,000 soldiers—two-thirds of the men there—shared in the unforgettable Christmas truce.

christmas-1010749_960_720Peace lasted in a few areas until after New Year’s Day.

The Christmas truce never happened again.

The faith and joy of the season crossed enemy lines one lonely Christmas. Fighting ceased for a moment in time.

 

Sources

Bajekal, Naina. “Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce of 1914,” Time Inc., 2016/10/26  http://time.com/3643889/christmas-truce-1914/.

“Christmas Truce of 1914,” History.com, 2016/10/26  http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/christmas-truce-of-1914.

Dearden, Lizzie. “Christmas Day Truce 1914: Letter From trenches shows football match through soldier’s eyes for the first time,” The Independent, 2016/10/26  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/christmas-truce-of-1914-letter-from-trenches-shows-football-match-through-soldiers-eyes-9942929.html.