With Memorial Day coming up, have to note the special we saw on PBS last night, Model T's to War: American Ambulances on the Western Front, 1914-1918. This was the story of the volunteer Americans who drove ambulances during World War I before the United States joined in the war, and had some impressive vintage film footage. I can't say I found the narration that inspiring—I'm used to something a bit more lively, in the Edward Herrmann mode—but what I found the most amazing was what was left in the French fields. I know there are WWI museums, and battlefield sites, but I was surprised to see how much was left in the anonymous countryside, overgrown with trees and brush, but undisturbed: rusting chevaux de frise, corroded shell casings, half-buried rail tracks, etc. I thought it would have been all wiped out by World War II, if nothing else! Like ghosts rising from the mists of time.

Labels: history, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:58:00 PM

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