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BERGHEIM • BOERNE • COMFORT • FAIR OAKS • KENDALIA • SISTERDALE • WARING • WELFARE
N O V E M B E R
Thursday, November 5
11 T H
ARMISTICE DAY &
VETERAN’S DAY
History worth remembering Ed Mergele Ph.D., History VFW Post #688 Historian The end of World War One was officially over on the 11th of November 1918. We celebrate the eleventh month, the eleventh day, on the eleventh hour (a.m.) as the date and time that the Armistice was signed, but this is purely symbolic. The signing took place in a railway car at Compiegne Forest in France outside of Paris at 5 a.m. on that day between the Germans and the Allies.
Note: German Nazi Leader Adolph Hitler forced the French Officials in 1940 to sign a treaty with him in the same railway car used in the WWI Armistice Peace Treaty signing after his forces captured Paris. When the Nazis abandoned Paris in 1945 they blew up the railway car on Hitler’s orders. The 11th was supposed to be the actual ending of hostilities between the Allied Nations and Germany fighting in WWI. The German Kaiser Wilhelm (King) had abdicated, their government had collapsed, their Navy had rebelled and a large segment of their population was about to
revolt. The German officials had no other choice. Actually thousands of Allied forces and Germans were killed or wounded after the 11th and during the next eight months. The actual Peace Treaty, called the Treaty of Versailles, was not signed until June 29, 1919 in France. This was exactly five years from the day of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the incident that was blamed for the start of WWI. Many of the royal combatants on both sides in WWI were actually related. In fact, the heads of State of England, Germany and Russia were first cousins. It has been said that if their grandmother Queen Victoria of England had still been alive there would not have been a war. There was another interesting fact of history that I discovered while serving on board an attack troop transport in the Pacific Ocean during WWII. This was this same ship that had transported our then President Woodrow Wilson and his United States Peace delegates to Europe to negotiate the Treaty of Versailles. This steamship had been built for the trans-Atlantic trade. She was named the SS President Theodore Roosevelt. The U. S. Navy took her over at the beginning of WWII along with many other vessels. She was then turned over to the U. S. Coast Guard (part of the U. S. Navy in WWII) and renamed the USS Joseph T. Dickman, APAH 13. The U. S. Coast Guard had 600 combat ships operating in WWII all over the world. During WWII this ship safely delivered thousands of troops to five major invasion landings in the Atlantic and Pacific without a mishap. She landed our first Army troops
to go into combat on the North African coast in 1942 and the last combat invasion at Okinawa, Japan in 1945. On our last Pacific voyage we brought 1,600 American, British, and French Ex-Prisoners-of-War (freed from Japanese camps) back to San Francisco, California from the Philippines. She was then decommissioned and scrapped in the state of Washington in 1946. Our 27th President Woodrow Wilson (1913-21) designated our first Armistice Day to be November 11 in 1919 and we were asked to celebrate it on the nearest Sunday. King George V of England started the designation Armistice Day on November 7, in 1919. The U. S. Congress first named Armistice Day a Federal Holiday in 1926, but many States would not comply. We called it Armistice Day until the end of the Korean War (1953) when President Eisenhower (1953-61) changed it to Veteran’s Day. We renamed that federal holiday Veteran‘s Day to keep it from being confused with Memorial Day that we celebrated in May. This November Day is designated to honor all those who served our Country in time of National Defense. Most of the other Allied Nations that participated in WWI celebrate that war’s ending except Germany (who lost the war). In Germany it marks the beginning of a German carnival festival. In many other countries the 11th is still celebrated as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day. Now back to our Armistice Day. We now also call it Poppy Day and Veteran’s Day. The Red Poppy lapel flowers are in remembrance of the vast fields of blooming red poppy
flowers in Belgium at the end of WWI. They were covering the bloody corpses strewn across Flander’s Field. The English have planted thousands of Red Poppies in the moat (ditch) around the Tower of London in remembrance of all those brave men and women who lost their lives in WWI. Our local Veterans of Foreign Wars members pass out Red Poppy Flowers free to everyone who wants one. If you wish to make a donation 100% goes to Widows and Orphans of Veterans in need. Many of our distinguished Veteran’s names are inscribed in the bricks on the South Main Street walkway to the center. Be sure to look down at them as you walk up to the monument. Your ancestor or neighbor’s name might be there. We hope everyone will proudly wear their Red Poppy Flower in remembrance of the brave men and women who sacrificed so much for you to have the Freedom that you enjoy today. Our Local VFW Post #688 was founded in 1936 and is named after two distinguished Veterans – Bruno Phillip and William J. Bordelon. Bruno Phillip was born in San Antonio, Texas on October 13, 1887, however he grew up and attended school in Boerne. The Phillip family was early Kendall County settlers. Bruno’s occupation was a barber when he joined the Army at the age of 30 years. He then trained at Camp Travis in San Antonio and was then shipped off to the war front in France. Bruno was a member of the 46th Infantry, 90th Division. He was severely wounded in France’s so-called Western Front during the St. Mihiel offensive on September 3, 1918. His family received a letter
from Bruno on September 1st in which he told them his was doing just fine. Then 32 days later a telegram arrived from the U. S. Army telling them that Bruno had been killed. His body was shipped back to Boerne after the War and he is buried in the City Cemetery. William James Bordelon was born in San Antonio, Texas on December 15, 1920. Members of his family live in Kendall County. William enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1941. He attained the rate of staff sergeant by July 1942 having been rapidly promoted for his ability. Sgt. Bordelon was a member of the First Battalion, Eighteenth Marines attached to the 2nd Marine Division. These Marines departed for the South Pacific from San Diego, California right after their training was complete. They landed on the beach at Tarawa with Bordelon’s battalion under heavy enemy fire. He personally put two pillboxes out of action with demolition charges. Then while furnishing rifle fire protection for a group of his men trying to scale a seawall he was hit. Although wounded he remained in action and rescued two other wounded men from the water. Later he single-handedly assaulted a Japanese machine-gun position and was instantly killed at the age of 22 on November 20, 1943. He was first buried in Tarwara. Then reburied in Hawaii. At his family’s request his body was shipped back and re-interred at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas in 1995. A Gearing Class U. S. Navy Destroyer the USS Bordelon (DD-881) was named for him. Sergeant Bordelon was posthumously awarded his country’s highest honor - the Medal of Honor.
