About American War Heroes of WWI
- 6 American Heroes of WWIFrom a balloon-busting fighter ace and a Navy escape artist to one of the most Marine Corps’ most legendary sergeants, meet six servicemen who distinguished themselves on the battlefields of World War I.
Books about WWI War Heroes
The Great Rescue
Published in commemoration of the centennial of America's entry into World War I, the story of the USS Leviathan, the legendary liner turned warship that ferried U.S. soldiers to Europe--a unique war history that offers a fresh, compelling look at this epic time. When war broke out in Europe in August 1914, the new German luxury ocean liner SS Vaterland was interned in New York Harbor, where it remained docked for nearly three years--until the United States officially entered the fight to turn the tide of the war. Seized by authorities for the U.S. Navy once war was declared in April 2017, the liner was renamed the USS Leviathan by President Woodrow Wilson, and converted into an armed troop carrier that transported thousands of American Expeditionary Forces to the battlefields of France. For German U-Boats hunting Allied ships in the treacherous waters of the Atlantic, no target was as prized as the Leviathan, carrying more than 10,000 Doughboys per crossing. But the Germans were not the only deadly force threatening the ship and its passengers. In 1918, a devastating influenza pandemic--the Spanish flu--spread throughout the globe, predominantly striking healthy young adults, including soldiers. Peter Hernon tells the ship's story across multiple voyages and through the experiences of a diverse cast of participants, including the ship's captain, Henry Bryan; General John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force; Congressman Royal Johnson, who voted against the war but enlisted once the resolution passed; Freddie Stowers, a young black South Carolinian whose heroism was ignored because of his race; Irvin Cobb, a star war reporter for the Saturday Evening Post; and Elizabeth Weaver, an army nurse who saw the war's horrors firsthand; as well as a host of famous supporting characters, including a young Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
George W. Hamilton, USMC
Leatherneck magazine declared that Major George W. Hamilton "never asked anyone to do anything he wasn't prepared to do himself...and do better." Indeed, the author of A History of the United States Marine Corps once called Hamilton "the most outstanding Marine Corps hero in World War I." A leader of the first major American assault on June 6, 1918, and the last ranking officer in the American Expeditionary Forces to learn that the war was over, Hamilton remained in the thick of the fighting from start to finish. Although he earned the Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross, the Croix de Guerre, and two Medal of Honor recommendations for his service, Hamilton's fame stalled when he died prematurely in 1922. With this first complete biography, Hamilton takes his rightful place among the first rank of American military heroes.
Portsmouth's World War One Heroes
Over 5,000 men from Portsmouth are believed to have been killed during the First World War - the greatest loss of life that the city has ever known. Not only were thousands of Portsmouth soldiers killed on the Western Front, but Portsmouth based ships were sunk throughout the war, causing massive loss of life.Thanks to a wealth of sources available and painstaking use of database software, it is possible to tell their stories in more detail than ever before. James Daly builds an extremely detailed picture of Portsmouth's World War One dead, down to where they were born, and where they lived. Not only will their stories tell us about how the war was fought and won, and their sacrifices; but they will also provide a clearer picture than ever before of how Portsmouth and its people suffered.
Lost Voices: The Untold Stories of America's World War I Veterans and Their Families
2017 is the 100th anniversary of America's declaration of war against Germany. Many historians take a diminutive stance regarding America's involvement but it cannot be underestimated by any means. It was the reason that brought Germany to it is knees and forced them to accept an armistice that was a victory of sorts achieved over the German forces and their allies. There is global renewed interest in World War One. All the protagonists are long dead but many of their relatives are still with us. This volume will draw you into the whole experience from the home front to the hell of the trenches. These are the voices of those who were never heard but their suffering and their involvement was total and uncompromising, and now finally they can breathe again. They are not forgotten.
Unsung War Heroes
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new window
In this film, Dan Snow will interview historians and family members about ordinary men and women of World War I, including a reporter criticizing the war, young boys joining the service, and a deserter. A BBC Production.
Memorials
- National World War 1 Museum & MemorialSoon after World War I ended, Kansas City leaders formed the Liberty Memorial Association (LMA) to create a lasting monument to the men and women who had served in the war. In 1919, the LMA and citizens of Kansas City raised more than $2.5 million in just 10 days. The equivalent of more than $35 million today, this staggering accomplishment reflected the passion of public sentiment for the Great War that had dramatically changed the world.
- World War I Memorial (DC)The centennial of World War I provided the opportunity to give long-overdue recognition to America’s 4.7 million sons and daughters who served in the War to End All Wars. The site eventually chosen for the new memorial was Pershing Park, originally the home of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) Memorial, dedicated in 1981 to honor the American forces who served in Europe during the war and named for their commander, General John J. Pershing. In 2020 the memorial was expanded to honor not just the AEF but all Americans who served, including U.S. Navy sailors, Coast Guardsmen, men and women in uniform who did not serve in Europe and those who served in civilian capacities.
- Verdun WWI Memorial (France)In the heart of the Verdun hills still ravaged by the millions of shells that caused the death of more than 300,000 people and wounded 400,000 in less than a year, the Verdun Memorial traces the history of the most famous battle of the First World War.
Created in 1967, under the aegis of the academician and veteran Maurice Genevoix, it is one of the main European museums of the Great War. For those who seek to feel, understand and transmit what Verdun has been, the Memorial is an obligatory passage.
But after more than four decades of existence, a modernization of the building was necessary to repair the ravages of time and recast the museography in order to create a new link with the younger generations. There are no survivors to remember what the Battle of Verdun was like. While respecting the spirit of Maurice Genevoix's work, it therefore seemed crucial that the Memorial adapt its message in order to bring the elements of interpretation of this Franco-German battle to the youngest.
Tennessee's Sergeant Alvin York
Christian | Sergeant York (sgtyork.org)
Sergeant York was awarded his nation's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions outside the French village of Chatel-Chehery on October 8, 1918, during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive against the German forces.
On October 8, 1918, after being pinned down in an attempt to capture a narrow-gauge railroad, York took his fateful walk into history. As the company sharp-shooter, he and 16 other soldiers under the command of Acting Sergeant Bernard Early were given the unenviable task of silencing the machine guns that halted the advance the day before. It was a cold, wet morning. Rain mixed with sleet added to the gloom of the fog that draped the landscape. As the soldiers worked their way around the hill, the men on the left flank stood exposed in the creek bottom. German machine gunners opened fire, wounding or killing nine Americans, including York's best friend Murray Savage. York was on the right flank beneath the crest of the hill in a natural depression, which he used to kill nine of the men who operated the guns. In the meantime, his comrades opened fire on the Germans, and in a few minutes 25 were dead. The Germans surrendered to what they thought was a superior force, and York and the American survivors escorted 132 prisoners to American forces at Varennes some 10 miles away.
WWI Hero | Sergeant York (sgtyork.org)
- Sergeant York Patriotic FoundationSince 1993 the Sgt. York Patriotic Foundation has supported efforts to preserve and promote Sgt. York's Legacy through the York State Park.
Books & Films about Sergeant York
Alvin York
Alvin C. York (1887-1964)--devout Christian, conscientious objector, and reluctant hero of World War I--is one of America's most famous and celebrated soldiers. Known to generations through Gary Cooper's Academy Award-winning portrayal in the 1941 film Sergeant York, York is credited with the capture of 132 German soldiers on October 8, 1918, in the Meuse-Argonne region of France--a deed for which he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. At war's end, the media glorified York's bravery but some members of the German military and a soldier from his own unit cast aspersions on his wartime heroics. Historians continue to debate whether York has received more recognition than he deserves. A fierce disagreement about the location of the battle in the Argonne forest has further complicated the soldier's legacy. In Alvin York, Douglas V. Mastriano sorts fact from myth in the first full-length biography of York in decades. He meticulously examines York's youth in the hills of east Tennessee, his service in the Great War, and his return to a quiet civilian life dedicated to charity. By reviewing artifacts recovered from the battlefield using military terrain analysis, forensic study, and research in both German and American archives, Mastriano reconstructs the events of October 8 and corroborates the recorded accounts. On the eve of the WWI centennial, Alvin York promises to be a major contribution to twentieth-century military history.
Sergeant York
Torn between religious pacifism and patriotism, farmboy Alvin York of Tennessee went on to become World War I's most acclaimed American hero, capturing 132 German soldiers during the Battle of Argonne.
Sgt. York His Life, Legend, and Legacy
War hero, Medal of Honor recipient, and subject of an Oscar-winning film, Sgt. Alvin York was the most famous soldier of his generation. But behind the honors and publicity was an uncompromising Christian patriot who suffered when his ideals were challenged by shifting views of faith, patriotism, and moral relativism. Untouched by German gunfire, York faced destruction from disease, disrespect, and the IRS. Sgt. York: His Life, Legend, and Legacy reveals the whole story of this great American figure based on original battlefield eyewitness reports, Hollywood archives, and interviews with York's family and friends. This new edition includes a message from York's ninety-year-old son, Andrew Jackson York.
Sergeant York
Alvin C. York went out on a routine patrol an ordinary, unknown American doughboy of the First World War. He came back from no-man's-land a hero. In a brief encounter on October 8, 1918, during the Argonne offensive, York had killed 25 German soldiers and, almost singlehandedly, effected the capture of 132 others. Returning to the United States the following spring, he received a tumultuous public welcome and a flood of offers from businessmen eager to capitalize on his acclaimed feat. But York, true to his character, went quietly back to his home in the Tennessee mountains, where he spent the remainder of his life working to bring schools and other services to those remote valleys where his neighbors lived. In this definitive biography, David D. Lee has firmly established the simple facts of Alvin York's life, distinguishing them from the myths which have grown up around the man. He has reexamined the sometimes conflicting accounts of the famous exploit, finding in his research a hitherto unknown report of the skirmish from German military archives. Lee goes beyond that single wartime episode, however, to consider its consequences on York's later life--his efforts, not always successful, to better his mountain community; his involvement in making a motion picture of his life; his difficulties with money and taxes. But Sergeant York is better known as a symbol than as an individual, and in this study Lee connects the man and his life to an American heroic ideal. With his rural background, his refusal to take commercial advantage of his fame, and his simple piety, Alvin York exemplified the traditional values of an agrarian America that was in his own day already receding into the past.
World War I-American Legacy
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowWorld War 1 - American Legacy vividly tells the many forgotten stories of the men and women who served in the Great War, reminding Americans of their impact on our country that can still be felt today. Charles Whittlesey of the Lost Battalion and Father Duffy of the Fighting 69th became famous for surviving against impossible odds. Pilots Victor Chapman and Quentin Roosevelt and ambulance drivers like Richard Hall made the supreme sacrifice.
Writers such as e.e.cummings, Ernest Hemingway, Joyce Kilmer and Alan Seeger were inspired by the tragedy around them. African-American soldiers like James Reese Europe and the Harlem Hell Fighters made history. Female volunteers like the "Hello Girls" and Red Cross nurses risked their lives supporting the troops and started a new era for women. From the summer of 1914 to November 1918, the Great War cost over 14 million lives, devastated entire countries and destroyed countless architectural landmarks. The war also led to important developments in literature, technology, music and social equality that have shaped the culture of 21st century America. Monuments and dedications to World War 1 veterans surround Americans today as a tribute to their service and sacrifice.