If you have never been to the National World War I Museum and have any interest at all in the Great War, you need to put this place on your bucket list. Located in Kansas City, this site looks like a war memorial on the outside. It has reflecting pools, somber statuary, and a tall tower. It is a quiet place that has the dignity and gravitas of a cemetery.
The museum itself if located below the monument, and it is filled with wonderful, interactive exhibits and enough information and artifacts to make your head spin. When I went to this museum, way back in May 2015, I had no plans to write a novel about World War I. I can’t say that this visit is the sole reason I wrote Blaze of Poppies, but it certainly contributed to it. There were so many things to think about. Here are three that didn’t make it into the book, but I find very interesting.
The museum itself if located below the monument, and it is filled with wonderful, interactive exhibits and enough information and artifacts to make your head spin. When I went to this museum, way back in May 2015, I had no plans to write a novel about World War I. I can’t say that this visit is the sole reason I wrote Blaze of Poppies, but it certainly contributed to it. There were so many things to think about. Here are three that didn’t make it into the book, but I find very interesting.
This is an Imperial German Border sign. Made of painted cast iron, a series of these marked the border between Germany and France.
Compare it to the shoulder of the uniform on the left edge of this picture, and you realize how large it is.
In August of 1914, an elite French strike force penetrated the border on the southern flank of the engagement and captured many of these.
It’s so much more beautiful than the signs I see along the highway marking borders these days.
Compare it to the shoulder of the uniform on the left edge of this picture, and you realize how large it is.
In August of 1914, an elite French strike force penetrated the border on the southern flank of the engagement and captured many of these.
It’s so much more beautiful than the signs I see along the highway marking borders these days.
This is a ML 9.45-inch Heavy Trench Mortar. It was about five feet long, weighed two hundred ninety-eight pounds, was shaped like a pig, which is why it was sometimes called the ‘Flying Pig.’ It was also called a ‘Sausage,’ a ‘Rum Jar’ and ‘Minnie.’” These mortars were used by French, Belgian, and U.S. troops and had a range of 490 yards, which means they were useful when enemy lines were close.
Kind of gives new meaning to the phrase "When pigs fly."
Kind of gives new meaning to the phrase "When pigs fly."
But this was my favorite display of all. Someone, I know not who, sent this Austrian helmet home as a souvenir to someone who lived in Kansas City. He didn't package the helmet in a box. He just a tag with an address and stuck stamps directly to the helmet.
When I was a kid and lived in Hawaii, we did pretty much the same thing with coconuts. We used a marker to write the address on the husks, stapled stamps to it, and off it went!
People were always delighted to get a coconut in the mail. I'm willing to guess whoever got this helmet got a chuckle out of how it was sent.
When I was a kid and lived in Hawaii, we did pretty much the same thing with coconuts. We used a marker to write the address on the husks, stapled stamps to it, and off it went!
People were always delighted to get a coconut in the mail. I'm willing to guess whoever got this helmet got a chuckle out of how it was sent.
Jennifer Bohnhoff' is a novelist who lives in the mountains of central New Mexico. Her novel A Blaze of Poppies tells the story of a young rancher willing to do anything, even go to war, to keep her ranch in the borderlands near the New Mexico- Mexico border during the WWI years. It will be published in October 2021. You can preorder a copy now.
