There are several open-air museums relating to the ghastly events of World War 1 along the Soca-Isonzo River valley. Six are found in the upper reaches from Bovec in the north to Tolmin in the south. Here, we concentrate on those found on three hillocks – one being Mengore – across the river from Tolmin on the west side which made up the Tolmin Bridgehead.
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Over 600,000 Italians lie dead on the battlefields of the Great War with another 170,000 dying of illness or wounds in hospitals further back. Buried in small battlefield cemeteries, like elsewhere across the destroyed landscapes of Europe, remains in the small cemeteries were gathered up into larger cemeteries. Unlike the American example of offering repatriation of remains to families – two thirds of American families opted for that option – here in Italy, only about 50,000 remains returned to the families. By 1927, too many cemeteries remained for the State to maintain upkeep. So, the huge ossuaries – charnel houses, in England – came onto the scene. Here at the Caporetto Ossuary, mythology transposed defeat into victory of sorts. A victory leading to the Blackshirt March on Rome; a renewed and greater Italy.
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With the onset of heavier-than-air flight, it was only a matter of time before warfare incorporated the new adjunct into its far-flung assemblage. World War One saw America late to the scene with forces unprepared for what lay ahead in the battlefields of France and Belgium. One of the men helping bridge the wide gulf to the new industrial levels the Great War brought about was Edward Steichen.
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Oregon Agricultural College, OAC, is a land grant university. As such, military science and tactics became part of the curriculum. This in order for the school to receive land grants to help fund the establishment and development of the college.
All male students studied military classes for their first two years at school, taking part in military drills and parades in all the years of the school before 1917 – military classes would remain mandatory until 1961. Many remained in the classes for their entire sojourn at the school. With so many indoctrinated in the mysteries of military life, it should not surprise anyone that many students and graduates of OAC served in one branch or another during the first world conflagration the United States found itself involved with in 1917.
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Rising as a bump on the long Krn-Vršič ridge just to the south of the pyramidal climax of Krn, Batognica looks nondescript from afar. Closer up, say from the peak of Krn, that impression changes. Standing not unlike an aircraft carrier as the last mound rising above the 2100-meter mark as the ridge begins its precipitous drop to the south – and the murderous grounds of Myrzli vrh – Batognica takes on a different impression.
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The spire of the Capas National Shrine rises 240 feet into the air above the hot, humid plains of central Luzon. There is lots of symbolism included in the site. Three parts of the towering spire represent the peoples of the Philippines, the United States and … Japan. Covering 54 hectares – 130 acres – over half of the grounds have been planted with 31,000 trees representing the 25,000 Filipinos and 6,000 Americans who perished here at Camp O’Donnell following the end of the Bataan Death March in 1942. The park was named a national shrine by President Cory Aquino in 1991 with the tower was added in 2003 with a memorial wall behind with the names of those known to have perished here at the camp.
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Over a hundred years after the tumult of the Great War, vestiges of the struggle remain in visible evidence around the 2245-meter-high mountain top of Krn – Monte Nero (Black Mountain) in Italian. Strands of barbed wire twirl about on the slopes adding to the drama of the incredible views from the Adriatic Sea to the Italian Dolomites and into the heart of the Slovene Julian Alps. Here on Krn and its surrounding ridges, mountain warfare on a harsh scale took place from mid-June 1915 through to the end of October 1917 when the Battle of Caporetto moved the unmovable front far to the west for the Italian Front’s last acts.
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The last post described the Dambana ng Kagitingan – Shrine of Valor – standing atop Mount Samat on the eastern side of the Bataan Peninsula. While most monuments tend to reward victory, sometimes more can be learned in defeat. Most of the defenders here on Bataan were Filipino. Most of those who died here, on the Death March and in the initial stages of the Japanese prison camps were Filipinos. With the surrender on 9 April 1942, the Army of the Philippine Commonwealth ended. It would not be resurrected again until the nation gained independence in 1946. At that time, it transformed into the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Many of the leaders of the new Forces saw prior service in the army of the Commonwealth.
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Visitors to the Philippines enjoy a day’s outing, boating across Manila Bay to see the old guns of Corregidor. Off the regular path lies an even more important monument atop a mountain in the southern region of the Bataan Peninsula – the National Shrine of Mount Samat – Dambana ng Katingnan (Shrine of Valor).
Bataan, the sight of the worst defeat suffered by American forces in history. 78,000 men – the vast majority Filipinos new to soldiering – surrendered after a campaign of just over four months. As bad as the long battle against the enemy, the harsh jungle environment, malnutrition and disease was, another type of battle would fall upon the men afterwards, the battle to survive.
A two-part post with the first dealing mostly with the Shrine, the campaign and US Army units remembered here at Mount Samat. The second post will cover the Philippine Army divisions honored here. It is important to remember as hard as it was for American units to suffer on Bataan, Corregidor and throughout the islands, the Filipinos were forced to take the suffering to another level, both with the Commonwealth Army and the civilian population, as a whole.
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On a recent visit to a cemetery, I visited several family ancestors buried in the very small community of Bellfountain, Oregon. Bellfountain lies in the southern part of the Willamette Valley. Amongst the graves, I found one particular headstone near the family ancestors mentioning the man’s service in World War 1 as part of the 361st Infantry Regiment.
The American Army mushroomed almost overnight with the country’s entrance into World War 1 in April 1917. Selective Service – conscription – was brought back for the first time since the American Civil War. One of the units raised, mostly from draftees from Washington and Oregon was the 361st Infantry Regiment, 181st Infantry Brigade, 91st Division.
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