Jun 1, 2018 - The history department of Union University joined its counterpart at the University of Tennessee at Martin in sponsoring a World War I trip to Europe that lasted from May 20 to June 1, 2018. Dr. Stephen Carls, University Professor of History at Union, and his wife Alice-Catherine, Tom Elam Distinguished Professor of History at UTM, coordinated the trip for participants. Twelve people – mostly students – traveled with them to Europe. Two were Union students – history major Susannah Murphine and history minor Micah Pinkley.
The trip started in London, where the group visited several sites. Among them were Westminster Abbey, the Cenotaph war memorial at Whitehall, the Imperial War Museum, and St. Paul’s Cathedral. The group also enjoyed a welcome dinner at the Devonshire Arms restaurant, took a boat ride on the Thames River, rode in a double-decker bus, and experienced several rides on the London Underground.
After two-and-a-half days in London, the travelers took a Eurostar train to Lille, France, which served as their departure point for a day-long bus tour to Belgium that focused on World War I. While in Belgium on May 24, they visited the Tyne Cot Commonwealth Cemetery and Memorial to the Missing, the Langemark German War Cemetery, the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 in Zonnebeke, the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres, and the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres. Many also saw the Lille War Memorial dedicated to that city’s residents who died in World Wars I and II.
On their May 25 bus ride across northeastern France to Reims – the tour’s next major destination – the group stopped at the Château de Blérancourt to see the recently reopened Franco-American Museum and give special attention to its World War I exhibit. After checking into their hotel in Reims, the voyagers toured: the Reims Cathedral, badly damaged during the Great War but later restored; the Carnegie Library, built in an Art-Deco style in the interwar years; and the exterior of Fort de la Pompelle, an important French World War I defense point outside the city.
On May 26, the group’s private coach traveled to several historic spots in France on its way to a stopover in Verdun. The first visit was to the Russian cemetery at Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand that contains the graves of 915 Russian soldiers who died on the Western Front. While heading to Varennes, the bus stopped near the German Crown Prince’s Bunker in the forest of the Haute Chevauchée, where group members walked through some of the German army’s undisturbed World War I trenches. In Varennes, the travelers saw spots related to French King Louis XVI’s 1791 “Flight to Varennes” and the State of Pennsylvania Memorial erected in the 1920s to honor its soldiers who died in the Great War. Most of the afternoon was spent visiting: the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery that contains the graves of more than 14,000 American soldiers who died in World War I; the Meuse-Argonne American Memorial which is the largest of all US war memorials in Europe; the privately operated Romagne 14-18 Museum in Montfaucon; and Hill 304, an area of heavy fighting during the Battle of Verdun in 1916.
The trip participants spent the entire day of May 27 visiting sites related to the Battle of Verdun. These included a hike through a French communication trench, a tour of Fort Douaumont, an extended stop at the Douaumont Ossuary and Cemetery, a walk through the battle-destroyed village of Fleury, and a visit to the Verdun Memorial museum. The Battle of Verdun was the longest battle of World War I – lasting 10 months – and it cost the lives of some 700,000 French and German soldiers.
The group’s next French stop, late in the morning of May 28, was the Museum of the Great War in Meaux, located about 25 miles outside Paris. Opened in 2011, the museum focuses on how people experienced the war on both the battle and home fronts.
The travelers arrived in Paris on the afternoon of May 28 and stayed there for the rest of the trip. The first evening, the group went to the Sacré Coeur Basilica and Place du Tertre (Artists’ Square), where many enjoyed their first Parisian meal. The next morning, Dr. Alice-Catherine Carls conducted a city tour that consisted of: the Tuileries Gardens; the Rue de Rivoli, with stops at the Angelina Tea Salon and W. H. Smith Bookstore; the Place de la Concorde; the Arc de Triomphe; the Place des Etats-Unis; and the Place du Trocadéro that has a memorial to the fallen of World War I. The travelers were free to experience Paris on their own the rest of the day. On the morning of May 30, the group received a guided tour of the Palace of Versailles, with the balance of the day left open. On their final full day in Paris – May 31 – the voyagers went to the Hôtel des Invalides to see the French Army Museum’s exhibits on World Wars I and II, the tomb of Napoleon, and Saint-Louis-des-Invalides Cathedral. The group’s farewell dinner took place at Le Petit Cluny Restaurant in the Latin Quarter, after which Dr. Alice-Catherine Carls gave the group a tour that contained stops at the Sorbonne, the Panthéon, and the Luxembourg Gardens.
Sites that many of the travelers saw on their own in Paris included the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Shakespeare and Company Bookstore, the Deportation Memorial near Notre Dame, and the Passages Couverts Shopping Galleries near the hotel. One participant even made it to the Musée d’Orsay, which contains a large collection of art – mostly French - for the period from 1848 to 1914.
A bus took the travelers to Charles de Gaulle Airport on the morning of June 1, where they caught their international flight to Charlotte, North Carolina. They arrived in Nashville early in the evening of the same day. It was the end of a highly successful educational trip that all participants will long remember.
The World War I trip participants join together for a welcome dinner at the Devonshire Arms restaurant in London on May 21, 2018. They are: (left to right) Rick Rickard, Caraline Rickard, Ronda Rickard, Micah Pinkley, Susannah Murphine, Ansley Moore, Samuel Walgren, Jeanne Reed, Dr. Alice-Catherine Carls, Wendy Lay, Christopher Ray, Dr. Stephen Carls, Alex Carr, Mary Long, and Emily Hedges.
The Great War trip voyagers prepare to enter Westminster Abbey in London on the morning of May 22, 2018. They are (left to right) Jeanne Reed, Wendy Lay, Mary Long, Emily Hedges, Micah Pinkley, Susannah Murphine, Rick Ricard, Samuel Walgren, Ansley Moore, Alex Carr (behind Moore, face partially obscured), Caraline Rickard, Ronda Rickard, and Christopher Ray.
A World War II British Spitfire fighter aircraft is one of the many weapons on display at the Imperial War Museum in London. The UU-UTM group toured the museum on May 22, 2018.
Students enjoy a boat ride on the Thames River in London on May 22, 2018. They are: (front row) Susannah Murphine and Ansley Moore; (second row) Samuel Walgren, Micah Pinkley, and Alex Carr.
The Tyne Cot Cemetery in Belgium contains the graves of almost 12,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers killed in World War I. The UU-UTM tour group visited the cemetery on May 24, 2018.
The Langemark German War Cemetery in the Ypres Salient of Belgium contains the remains of more than 44,000 German soldiers killed in World War I. It is one of just four German Great War cemeteries located in the Flanders region. The West Tennessee travel group stopped at the cemetery on May 24, 2018.
Micah Pinkley tries on a gas mask at the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 in Zonnebeke, Belgium, on May 24, 2018.
The UU-UTM tour group stands in front of the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres, Belgium, on May 24, 2018. The memorial was erected to honor the British and Commonwealth soldiers who fought in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front in World War I and who have no grave. The travel group members are (left to right) Micah Pinkley, Emily Hodges, Ronda Rickard, Rick Ricard, Mary Long, Samuel Walgren, Christopher Ray, Ansley Moore, Jeanne Reed, Alex Carr, Susannah Murphine, Wendy Lay, and Dr. Alice-Catherine Carls.
World War I posters are among the items on display at the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres, Belgium. The UU-UTM travel group passed through the museum on May 24, 2018.
A horse carrying artillery shells is one of the main displays at the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres, Belgium. The World War I tour group explored the museum on May 24, 2018.
World War I tour members head toward the the Franco-American Museum at the Château de Blérancourt in Picardy, France, on May 25, 2018. They are (left to right, backs to camera) Micah Pinkley, Samuel Walgren, and Alex Carr.
Dr. Alice-Catherine Carls stands next to an American Field Service ambulance (Model T Ford) from World War I at the Franco-American Museum in Blérancourt, France, on May 25, 2018.
The Cathedral of Reims, badly damaged by the Germans during World War I but restored in the interwar years, has a beautiful Gothic-style interior. It was for centuries the official coronation site of the kings of France. The UU-UTM travel group toured the cathedral on May 25, 2018.
World War I tour participants enter the Carnegie Library of Reims, France, on May 25, 2018. American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie donated the money that was used to build the library in the 1920s as a part of the city's postwar reconstruction.
The Russian military cemetery at Saint-Hilaire-Le-Grand in France contains the remains of 915 Russian soldiers who were killed on the Western Front in World War I. There is also a Russian Orthodox chapel there. The UU-UTM travel group stopped at the cemetery on May 26, 2018.
Samuel Walgren (left) and Micah Pinkley stand in an undisturbed World War I German trench near the German Crown Prince's bunker in the forest of the Haute Chevauchée near Varennes, France, on May 26, 2018.
The Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in France contains the graves of more than 14,000 American soldiers, most of whom lost their lives during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of 1918. The World War I tour group viewed the cemetery on May 26, 2018.
Union student Susannah Murphine stands atop the Meuse-Argonne American Memorial near the township of Montfaucon, France, on May 26, 2018. The memorial is situated 20 miles northwest of Verdun.
The UU-UTM travelers follow the path of a French communication trench on May 27, 2018, during a daylong tour of the site of the 1916 Battle of Verdun.
An armored observation cupola sits on Fort Douaumont, with the (left to right) German, European Union, and French flags flying in the background. The World War I travel group from West Tennessee toured the fort on May 27, 2018.
Tour guide Guillaume Moizan (left) uses a map on May 27, 2018, to explain the 1916 Battle of Verdun to the UU-UTM travel group as he takes them through Fort Douaumont, the largest in a series of French forts that protected the city of Verdun from attack. The Germans captured the fort three days after the battle began in February; the French recaptured it in late October.
Thirteen thousand crosses mark the graves of French soldiers in the cemetery in front of the Douaumont Ossuary at Verdun. The UU-UTM travel group visited the cemetery and ossuary on May 27, 2018.
A French 75 mm 1897 model field gun is displayed at the Verdun Memorial museum. The French had over 1,000 75 mm light artillery pieces at Verdun by the beginning of April 1916. These guns inflicted heavy losses on the Germans during the Battle of Verdun. The World War I travel group visited the museum on May 27, 2018.
A World War I French Nieuport 11BB fighter aircraft replica is one of the main attractions at the Verdun Memorial museum. UU-UTM travelers saw the plane at the museum on May 27, 2018.
A French Berliet CBA truck is one of the vehicles on exhibit at the Great War Museum in Meaux, France. The majority of trucks used to supply French forces during the 1916 Battle of Verdun, using a single communication road (the "Sacred Way") to do so, were Berliet CBAs. The UU-UTM travel group saw this vehicle during their visit to the Meaux museum on May 28, 2018.
The Museum of the Great War in Meaux, France, features a Renault FT 17 tank that members of the UU-UTM tour group saw on May 28, 2018. The FT 17 was a French lightweight tank that had a revolutionary design, such that some historians have referred to it as the first modern tank.
World War I course participants stand on the hill of Montmartre in the north of Paris, with much of the city behind them. They are: (kneeling, left to right) Susannah Murphine, Emily Hedges, Mary Long, and Samuel Walgren; (standing, left to right) Wendy Lay, Ansley Moore, Alex Carr, Rick Rickard, Ronda Rickard, Jeanne Reed, Micah Pinkley, Christopher Ray, and Dr. Alice-Catherine Carls.
The Sacré-Coeur Basilica sits atop the butte Montmartre, the highest spot in Paris. The church was the World War I group's first tourist stop after their arrival in Paris on May 28, 2018.
Drs. Stephen and Alice-Catherine Carls, the leaders of the World War I trip to Western Europe, stand in front of the Angelina Tea Room on the Rue de Rivoli in Paris on May 29, 2018. A group stop at Angelina was part of a morning walking tour that Dr. A.-C. Carls conducted.
Members of the World War I tour group pause for a few moments to admire the Arc de Triomphe at the Place Charles de Gaulle in Paris on May 29, 2018.
World War I tour members stand in front of the Palace of Versailles prior to their tour of the site on May 30, 2018. They are: (left to right) Ansley Moore, Christopher Ray, Susannah Murphine, Samuel Walgren, Micah Pinkley, Jeanne Reed, Emily Hedges, Alex Carr, Mary Long, Rick Rickard, Ronda Rickard, and Wendy Lay.
Tour guide Fabienne Germé (front right) talks to the West Tennessee travelers about one of the rooms at the Palace of Versailles on the morning of May 30, 2018.
A Renault taxi cab - one of many cabs that took part in transporting French soldiers to fight in the First Battle of the Marne against the Germans in September 1914 - is on display at the French Army Museum in Paris. UU-UTM World War I participants visited the museum on May 31, 2018.
Napoleon's tomb lies beneath the golden dome of the Dome Church at the Hôtel des Invalides, which is a complex of buildings in Paris. Members of the UU-UTM travel group were able to see the tomb during their time at Les Invalides on May 31, 2018.
Micah Pinkley (left) stands with Dr. Stephen Carls in front of the Panthéon in Paris on May 31, 2018.