My research in France for #WWI #nurses, invitation to send info re: your relatives, friends who served!

My husband and I pose in Chateau-Thierry, France
along River Marne during one of our research trips
for background to my novel, HEROIC MEASURES.

For many decades, I have researched the lives and experiences of the 22,000+ American women who volunteered to join the American Armed Forces as nurses after Congress declared war in April 1917.

Beginning in the 1980s, I went to the Library of Congress and the National Archives to look at diaries, letters and photographs by and about these valiant ladies.
Many of those records were presented to me in boxes, uncategorized, unannotated. Most of the photographs, torn and faded, came to me redacted. The logic there, presented by the War Department, was that no one wanted to see a wounded soldier, nor one who had experienced an amputation, not even if he sat next to a nurse in white. National moral and interest in the war had to be kept high and pictures of wounded soldiers would detract from that.

American WWICentennial Commission logo

I also went to Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania. They too gave me unidentified pictures, old black photo albums, the contents spilling out into cardboard box containers.

Years later, I went to France. Often. Not only obtaining a background in period French and English medical procedures and challenges, I visited all the American cemeteries where our deceased men and women lie under the Linden trees in peace. I also went to Cantigny, Illinois to the First Division Museum and had extensive help from the director and the curators to further my knowledge. And as the 100th Anniversary of the USA's entry into WWI approached, I decided to finally sit down and write the novel about these women who had always inspired me.

In 2014, my husband and I went to Washington to join the Centennial Commission and I am happy to announce that next week, I will launch as editor the section of the American World War One Centennial Commission devoted to the Army Nurse Corps. Please visit this site:
http://www.worldwar1centennial.org

I invite those of you who have friends, acquaintances and loved ones who served in this "war to end all wars" to send me their pictures, their biographies, their stories. For many of you, your knowledge of these people may be very limited. Those who served were modest, humble Americans who tended not to boast of their experiences. Most returned home after the Armistice, disavowing the might of cannons and guns to solve any problems. Even in our own family, we only recently discovered a great uncle who was a priest who volunteered to comfort the wounded and the dying. We now know he walked No Man's Land at night as all priests and chaplains did to give solace to those unable to leave the place where they had fallen.

I will happily relate the stories of your family and friends who served. Here on this blog, I will post anything you send me about men who served in any capacity, soldier, YMCA, Salvation Army, veterinarian, doctor, dentist, independent volunteer or any other. And if you like, I can refer you to the WWI Centennial person who will post your information about your loved one on the national site. The Library of Congress and the National Archives will keep the site up in perpetuity for all Americans to use in the centuries to come.

For those of you who have stories, pictures, letters or memorabilia of women who served as nurses during this conflict, I will post that information (with your consent) on the national site.
Please send an email to me, tell me what you have in what format and we can discuss how I can post it. My email address is: wjpower@ymail.com

Thank you.

18+ Days in AEF's footsteps: DAY 7, Chateau Thierry and the Second Battle of the Marne

USA Monument to those who fought and fell at Chateau-Thierry
sits atop a hill overlooking the prosperous city.

(River Marne to the left of pix and this road which runs along the river.) 

Sculpture on the Chateau-Thierry Monument
France and USA, holding hands,
Partners in War and Peace

    Chateau Thierry is a lovely town along the Marne River approximately 50 miles east of Paris. In the spring of 1918, the Germans decided to attack their lines in France with great force and hopefully win the war before the Americans could arrive in massive numbers.
   A year had passed since America had declared war and finally, the country had enough recruits, transportation routes and sufficient supplies to convey a million men to Europe, feed, clothe and care for them.
   No small part of this was the need to provide medical care. While a few Base Hospitals (as the primary structure of medical personnel was called by the Army Medical Corps) had arrived in France in spring 1917, they assisted the French and British caring for those nationals.
   Now with the arrival of American men, other based hospital units arrived in huge numbers. Consisting of doctors, dentists, orderlies and pharmacists and nurses, these units could vary in numbers. (In fact, as the Spring Offensives of 1918 proceeded, the US Army called for more recruiting of doctors and nurses. The Army originally thought 50 nurses per Base would be sufficient but soon sought 100 per Base.) While Army Nurse Corps recruits assisted in the Operating Rooms and ran the wards, American Red Cross nurses who had much less training worked as their staff. Usually 50 to 100 nurses worked the Base Hospital wards and surgical units along with 50 or more doctors and dentists. Orderlies and pharmacists (or trained orderlies who did this work) were fewer in number and varied according to location, total force numbers in the area and notice of imminent attack of the enemy.
   Within one mile of the town was a major Base Hospital at Aulnois. Here, the nurses often sponsored dances for their patients. Men who played instruments practiced in the wards and became pick-up bands. These entertainments were welcomed by the staff and the soldiers breaking the tedium of their days and the journey back to health.

One of Operating Rooms, Mars Hospital Center, France*
Note cinder block structure in this OR
as opposed to wooden structures or tents used for Mobile Hospital Units.
Note, too, nurses in grey crepe uniforms with white butcher aprons used in ward duty.
*Mars was composite center far back of front lines and not in Chateau-Thierry sector but farther east near Toul.

Lab at Mars Hospital Center, France
Orderly Mixing Compounds

Memorial atop a hill overlooking the town.
Inscription: "This monument has been erected by the United States of America to commemorate the services of her troops and those of France who fought in this region during the World War. It stands as a lasting symbol of the friendship and cooperation between the French and American Armies."

   Traveling the area around Chateau-Thierry, I easily saw the importance of this town along the Marne. Hold it and any military force could easily attack or defend the river's access to the capital city of Paris.
Do see the picture at the top of this post once more. There on that hilltop, I capture its position which was a disputed territory taken eventually by the American First, Second and Third Divisions. See also views east and west along the Marne, now serene.

Along the River Marne, looking in the same direction
as American Monument

View of the Marne, flowing east, in this lovely city.

American troops crossing the Marne in Chateau-Thierry.

American troops in public square after capture
of Chateau-Thierry,  July 1918.
This square facing Hotel de Ville to the right of picture and Marne to the left is now a parking lot!

Ruins of Chateau-Thierry, in upper right you see Hotel de Ville, City Hall.

American troops clearing a road in Chateau-Thierry.

Aisne-Marne Salient Map on the American Monument high above Chateau-Theirry.

Fighting with British at Cantigny, with French near Soissons, video, too!

   

American amputee and nurse, Walter Reed Army Hospital,
U.S. Government, public domain

 For a marvelous movie reel created by the American Signal Corps, please do click on the link to go to YouTube. This marvelous set of stills and reels, done in sepia tones of the period, shows you the American doughboys in the field.
     If you stick with the movie to its conclusion, you will see not only action by artillery and in trenches, but evacuation teams of stretcher bearers, as well as caissons drawn by horses and invasion into a small town, presumably Chateau Thierry.
Go here:
http://youtu.be/PusFK9U51LY

Historical fiction demands historical fact!

Postcard front, post-Battle of Chateau Thierry,
Postcard published by E.B.Remenson, Chicago, 1919
Copyright expired 

   As an author of 18 novels, historical and contemporary, plus a journalism career (and one non-fiction book soon to appear), I know first hand the value of fact. In fiction, it is even more vital, lest the entire book fail to convince the readership of the verisimilitude of the story.
   A writer can attempt to recreate a scene, for example, a dinner party, and cannot even begin without knowing the time of night, the place it's served, or the ordinary menu for that home, that family and their social class. A miner's family in Wales in 1890 will eat a much different meal at night than a banker's family in New York City or an English diplomat's in Shanghai.
   Historical novels demand just as much research, and perhaps more, than their non-fiction counterparts. Why?
   Because novels demand a suspension of disbelief and because they must be a parallel of the period, plus a microcosm of the mores and atmosphere, these books require minute attention to detail. And while many of the details an author collects in her research never show up in her pages, nonetheless, her research or lack of it will soon begin to speak for her. (Having written a few mysteries myself, I can also tell you that mystery readers absolutely demand correct police procedures and up-to-date forensics and analysis techniques in their novels. Failure to use them can mean readers send wild and crazy letters to the author and even the publisher!)
   Back to my topic of proper research for historical novels.
   To illustrate how vital fact is to the recreation of a period in fiction, I list for you a few popular entertainments. Here, I will show how the authors/producers did their homework and among other facts, used one to mightily increase the realism and value of the piece.
   What would popular DOWNTON ABBEY be without the fabulously rendered period clothing? The actresses have even discussed in interviews how the corsets felt so restrictive. Then when they were attired in garments of the 1920s and the corsets were withdrawn, how freeing they felt.
   What would WAR HORSE have meant had not the latter scenes shown the horror of the main character pulling the huge cannon through the muck of the battlefields? His perseverance, to say nothing of his strength of character and body, would have not been as meaningful when he gained his reward and was sent home to be with his original master.
   What would BAND OF BROTHERS have meant if Spielberg had not shown the landing on the French beaches and the struggle to gain every inch of sand? SAVING PRIVATE RYAN would have missed its tragic mark to show total devastation had it not shown the ruins of French villages and German, as well.
   In future weeks, I will bring you a few of my own hard-won facts about life along the American-French lines during World War One. From my years of research, I'll include my own photos along with the text.
   I hope you will return to relish them! Better yet, sign up to receive the posts in your email. You can do this by filling in your email addy at top right.

   Thank you!