The saying goes that “there are no atheists in foxholes.” The Knights of Columbus Museum in New Haven, which tells the history of that Catholic organization, seems an appropriate place to re-create the holes that doughboys stood in during World War I battles.
During those battles, prayers — from Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, nonbelievers who suddenly got religion — must have echoed off the sandbags in the walls as the bullets flew, prayers that the ammunition wouldn’t pierce the soldiers’ steel helmets and send them home in a coffin rather than on two good legs.
This is the year of WWI remembrances, being the 100th anniversary of the United States’ entry into The Great War. Many museums have commemorated the centennial of that tragic period in world history with exhibits of recruiting posters, uniforms, vintage newspapers, stories from the homefront.
No other museum in the state, however, has gone so far as to build a regulation-height replica of a battlefield trench in the gallery.
Many elements of these life-or-death shooting galleries could not be duplicated: the deafening sound of exploding shells, the whizz and ping of bullets, the odor of blood and sweat, the torrents of rain, the sloppy mud on the ground, lice, rats, overflowing latrines. Still the museum’s faux trench gives a good idea of how big and tall those wartime foxholes were, the sandbagging and wooden construction and why it was necessary to build them that way. Visitors can even put on a reproduction of a doughboy’s coat and helmet before entering the trench.
By Armistice Day, WWI tallied 20 million military and civilian deaths, including 116,000 American men. More than 1,600 members of K of C were among those killed while serving in the American Expeditionary Forces. These included the first — Dr. William T. Fitzsimmons — and last officers to be killed in the conflict. The exhibit tells the stories of both the war, how the conflict changed the map and terrain of Europe, and what befell many K of C men who fought the war.
An array of items found in the average soldier’s kit bag are on view: canteens, mess kits, sewing kits, pipes and lighters, binoculars, a gas mask, daggers, and — this being the Knights of Columbus Museum — pocket shrines and rosaries. Homefront relief and fundraising efforts are showcased as well.
Also impressive is the collection of headgear from people on both sides of the conflict, including the legendary spiked helmets that were seen in political cartoons for decades afterward as visual shorthand for “German.”
WORLD WAR I: BEYOND THE FRONT LINES will be at Knights of Columbus Museum, One State St. in New Haven, until Dec. 30, 2018. Talks accompanying the exhibit include “Russia in the Great War” on Sept. 16, “Father William Davitt: Knight of the Doughboy” on Oct. 21 and “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers” on Nov. 11. All talks are at 2 p.m. Admission and parking is free. kofcmsueum.org.
