|
World War 1 Current News
World War 1 Soldiers. This picture is available under the Creative Commons License. | Although the war is now a distant memory and almost no one who fought in it is still alive, the First World War continues to make news today. In this section we will list current news items, such as information about the last surviving veterans, efforts to de-mine the old battlefields, as well as recent archaeological and historical research.
|
- February 25, 2014 -- Efforts are underway to locate and preserve the site of Sgt. York's exploits.
- February 17, 2010 -- John Babcock, the very last Canadian World War 1 veteran has died. He was 109 years old. Babcock joined the Canadian Army when he was 17 years old but did not see combat before the war ended.
- September 24, 2008 -- Ertugrul Osman, the last heir to the throne of the Ottoman Empire died at at the age of 94. Osman was the grandson of the Sultan who was deposed by the republican government of Ataturk, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
- October 27, 2008 -- Italy's last World War I veteran, Delfino Borroni, died at the age of 110. Mr. Borroni fought on the Austrian front in 1918.
- April 6, 2008 - Graves of Muslim soldiers from France's colonial empire, who fought and died for France during WW1 have been descrated. Vandals painted anti-Moslem sayings and planted a pig's head on one grave. Pigs are considered unclean animals by Moslems.
- March 14, 2008 - The last surviving French soldier who fought in World War 1 has died. Louis de Cazenave, was 110 years old.
- One of the last 3 known American World War 1 veterans died December 21, 2007 at the age of 109. J. Russell Coffey enlisted in the United States Army in 1918, when he was 20 years old, just one month before the armistice was signed. He did not see action overseas because the war ended. It is believed that there are now only two remaining veterans living in the United States. The number of ww1 veterans in other countries is also very small, and within a few years there will be no one left who actually fought in the Great War.
- State Funeral for Last Surviving World War 1 Veteran: approximately 616,000 men served in the Canadian armed forces during World War 1. Due to casualties and the passage of time, only about three are left alive today. The Canadian government has announced that it will provide a state funeral to the last soldier to die, as a way to honour not only his contributions but also those of all who died before him. All the survivors are currently over a hundred years old.
- World War 1 Cartoons on Display: cartoons drawn by a World War 1 soldier have recently been re-discovered and put on display. The cartoons show what life was like at the front as well as caricatures of officers and people that he knew.
|
|
