The first major exhibition devoted to exploring how American artists reacted to the First World War has opened in Philadelphia. World War I and American Art is being staged at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in the run up to the Centennial in April 2017, and features the work of some 80 artists [...]
At noon on Tuesday 8 January 1918 Woodrow Wilson stood before a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill. The US President was to make a speech outlining Fourteen Points: proposals which he hoped would act as a blueprint for the Allies in a post-War era, helping reshape a new peaceful and equitable world. Patrick [...]
A new Eastern Front exhibition at America's National World War I Museum in Kansas City is a timely reminder of an often overlooked aspect of the Great War, writes Patrick Gregory. Wacht im Osten or ‘Watch in the East’ sets out to explore the human impact of the experience of entering and controlling a vast sprawl of newly conquered lands [...]
A naval veteran of two world wars, the USS Texas is a battleship which has survived one or two scrapes in its time. USS Texas in service (Image: Texas Parks & Wildlife Department) But now, over a century on from its launch and after a long and distinguished second career as a [...]
On the night of 5 February 1918 the liner Tuscania, carrying over 2,000 US serviceman bound for Europe, was torpedoed off the coast of Northern Ireland. In the confusion which followed some 210 men perished, many of them swept to their deaths on the jagged coastline of Islay 20 miles away in western Scotland. As [...]
On 29 April 1918, Lieutenant Edward V. Rickenbacker of the US Air Service was to score the first of the air victories that would, within a few short months, catapult him to the status of America’s 'Ace of Aces' in World War I. For many, Rickenbacker, the All-American hero, came to symbolise his country’s air effort, [...]
The United States WWI Centennial Commission and America’s National World War I Museum & Memorial have teamed up to create a new online teaching resource aimed at increasing awareness of the Great War, writes CN’s Patrick Gregory. 'Understanding the Great War' is a bi-monthly electronic newsletter featuring information and features from WWI organisations across [...]
A hundred years ago today, the newly created First Army of the American Expeditionary Force went into battle for the first time, commanding its own sector in northeast France. The St Mihiel offensive, as it was known, was an operation to cut off the St Mihiel salient, a 200 square mile bulge of territory [...]
Historian John S.D. Eisenhower described it as ‘the turning point’. And certainly many of the key American participants of the time said they felt a decisive shift against the German Army after the Battle of Soissons in July 1918. Patrick Gregory has been looking at how US troops on the Western Front spearheaded Allied counter-attacks 100 years ago. American heavy artillery [...]
A new exhibition marking the centenary of the United States’ role in the Great War is opening this week at the American Museum in Bath. 'Side by Side: America and World War I' at the American Museum, Bath, from March 28-October 29 'Side by Side: America and World War I' seeks to [...]