​​​    NEW

The first comprehensive biography of the American soldier-poet in the French Foreign Legion, killed in the Battle of the Somme, July 4, 1916.


Chris Dickon

Canada England France Poland Spain China

Americans at War in Foreign Forces

                                          1914 -1945


​The story of named American war dead still buried abroad since 1804. 

Foreign Burial American War Dead

Commonwealth Forces WW II: Air


From Americans at War in Foreign Forces:
On July 4, 1941, the city of London devoted the day to a celebration of the signing of the American Declaration of Independence. The Union Jack and American flag were hung side by side in the streets and railroad stations, and in the midst of buildings that had already been damaged by German bombing. England still awaited the hoped for American declaration of war. Pictures of President Roosevelt were all about, and he would be giving a speech on British radios in the evening that was as eagerly anticipated as any given by Winston Churchill. Restaurants gave some of their selections American names like Baltimore Fried Chicken and Boston Baked Beans. At a luncheon held at the American Society in London, Americans and citizens of all the Commonwealth nations toasted to a common heritage and faith in the future. 

The most solemn event took place at St. Paul’s Cathedral where England’s Secretary for Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair, unveiled a tablet in the memory of Pilot Officer William M.L. Fiske the Third, “An American citizen who died that England might live.” It was placed in a wall near a bust of George Washington. Approximately 100 people in attendance heard the Secretary continue with a remarkable encomium for a man who was a bobsled racer at heart:

​
Under no kind of compulsion he came and fought for Britain and, fighting, died. So he gave his life for his friends and for the great cause, the common cause of free men everywhere, the cause of liberty. That is why we honor his brave spirit today. That is why we have written the chronicle of his deed in letters of bronze in the shrine of the empire’s capital. 

List.