This year is the hundred year anniversary of the “War to End all
Wars”. The spark that caused the conflagration more commonly known as World War
1 was the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the
Austria-Hungarian throne. Ferdinand and his wife were shot by Gavrilo Princip
in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia on June 28, 1914. If you travel to Sarajevo you can see
footprints etched in the sidewalk where Princip, a hero to the Yugoslav cause,
fired his weapon and changed the world.
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| Princip's footprints |
The ensuing diplomatic crisis from the assassination evoked
international alliances forged by countries over decades and in a month the
world was at war. The four year conflict between the Allied and Axis Powers quickly
ground to a halt with trench warfare that saw the use of heavy artillery,
machine guns, chemical weapons, barbed wire and, for the first time tanks and
airplanes, all with deadly efficiency. Seventy million military personnel
became embroiled in WWI and the world suffered at least 37 million military and
civilian casualties. Such bloodshed and
devastation had never before been experienced at this scale and it had a
lasting effect on the world, giving rise to a disaffected core of young men who
were disillusioned after what some historians have termed an aimless, stupid
war.
Gertrude Stein called them a “Lost Generation”.
The United States remained neutral even after the Lusitania was sunk by
German U-Boats in 1915 with the loss of 128 American lives, but after January 1917
when the Germans sunk a number of U.S. merchant ships, war was declared on the
Axis powers. The American Expeditionary
Forces, more commonly known by the enduring nickname “Doughboys” made a
difference in the war. Major battles included Cantigny, Belleau Wood, St.
Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. In 1 ½ years of fighting the AEF
suffered nearly 53,000 battle deaths and over 200,000 wounded.
Varied memorials to the veterans were erected in communities across the
country as they welcomed home their wounded and honored their dead. The most
common statue from the time is “The Spirit of the American Doughboy” created by
a sculptor from Indiana, E.M. Viquesney. It is his most enduring and well known
work and according to his records he created upwards of 300 of this statue,
although this number may have been inflated by Viquesney. The statue is of a
doughboy walking into “No Man’s Land”, that area between the trenches. Tree
stumps and barbed wire are at his feet. He holds a grenade in his right hand
over his head and a bayonetted carbine in his left. He has a square gas mask
pouch on his chest, a backpack and wears a flat steel helmet. The details of
the soldier are uniform through the various versions Viquesney created, either
in copper, stone or zinc.
Though this detailed statue shows him approaching battle a Viquesney
quote said: “I do not
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| SPIRIT |
Other similar statues of the American Doughboy were erected, but it is Viquesney’s
that is the most common. Production of the statue began in the 1920’s through to the mid-30’s.
Some no longer exist, others have been moved or some are missing parts of the
statue. In all 30 states had claimed a Viquesney statue at one time. Active
restorations continue by those dedicated to the ubiquitous doughboy and a
listing of the whereabouts of the Viquesney (and other) doughboys can be found
on various websites as well as the Smithsonian. But, because Viquesney left an
incomplete listing of where his doughboys were sent, no one knows for sure how
many are there and some doughboy statues are mistaken for Viquesney’s.
This year, as part of the Wounded Warrior Project, Tour of Honor will
ride in search of all of Viquesney’s Doughboys, and hopefully find a few not
listed in any database. Regardless, this AMA (American Motorcycle Association)
sanctioned Tour of Honor is a way some honor our heroes and help contribute to
veterans’ causes. It begins April 1.
We at VFH chose to honor our fallen heroes in a different way. Nothing
will get me on a motorcycle, but I shall endeavor to visit known Viquesney
Doughboy sites in at least New Jersey. There are eight, mostly on municipal grounds
or small parks at intersections. Come back for our ride and perhaps you can too
honor our American Doughboys.
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