Featured Articles
Along the Western Front: Cycling, History, and the Hello Girls
In November 2025, I was approached by Linda Jantzen about joining her for an e-bike tour along the Western Front Way through France and Belgium. It would be a supported tour; our bags would [...]
Fall Cemetery Tour Honors World War I Pilot
This year the Fayette County (Ohio) Historical Society’s annual cemetery tour will honor First Lieutenant Paul Hughey. The annual cemetery tour recognizes local persons of interest buried in the Washington Court House Cemetery. The [...]
A Survivor of the Lost Battalion: One Swedish Brother’s Journey Home
The remarkable story of the Swedish emigrant Frank Gustaf Severin Erickson, the brother of Ernst Julius Erickson. You can find my earlier article about Frank’s brother, Ernst Julius Erickson, here on my webpage. I [...]
U.S. Naval Aviation vs. the U-boats in WWI
Introduction: The U.S. Navy aviation entered World War I as a tiny force of just 54 obsolete aircraft and 48 pilots, but expanded rapidly into a major anti-submarine patrol network operating 44 stations globally [...]
The Gluten-Free WWI Trend That Asked Americans: ‘Are You Eating Your 5 Bushels?’
Turns out that eating gluten-free was also popular during World War I. Wartime in the United States meant that certain supplies, including food, were temporarily in short order. For instance, the origins of canned [...]
What Vehicles Did The Army Use Before The Jeep?
Think of the U.S. Army, and you think of Jeep. While the small 4x4 might be seen as the archetype when it comes to military transport, the U.S. Army had been experimenting with various [...]
Upcoming Cycling Trip Along the Western Front Way UPDATE
Update: Follow the group's bicycle journey Along the Western Way on their CycleBlaze Journal here starting August 28. Originally published: June 24, 2026 In the Somme River region in France and in the Flanders region in [...]
Carey’s Force in the Somme: The Shrapnel-Dented Helmet of Fred Bachle, 6th Engineer Regiment, 3rd Division
This is the moderately-dented British Mark I helmet worn by Sergeant (Acting Sergeant 1st Class) Fred Bachle of Company B, 6th Engineer Regiment, 3rd Division, American Expeditionary Forces. Bachle was part of "Carey's Force", [...]
Wildfires expose — and detonate — buried bombs and mines from WWI and WWII
The wildfires burning across Europe this summer have exposed a potentially deadly threat lurking beneath the blackened landscape: rusty bombs and mines from World War I and II ELSENBORN, Belgium -- The wildfires burning across Europe [...]
