Lawrence Akey was a young man who was kind, helpful and loved his country and the first soldier of Rudolph, WI to die. He died of Spanish Influenza and Pneumonia at the Sweeney Auto School in Kansas City, Mo. He was a part of WWI, which started in 1914 and lasted through 1919.

The U.S. and its Armed Forces, of which Akey was one, entered the war shortly after the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German Uboat. Almost all of the land fighting took place in Europe, mostly in France. The style of fighting was called "trench fighting". This is where both sides dug long trenches and basically popped up and shot at each other. Gas warfare became very useful and more efficient than bullets. Millions of soldiers died without any ground being gained by anybody.

The Naval Battles took place in the Atlantic Ocean. Convoys of ships carrying supplies and soldiers from America to Europe were attacked and torpedoed by wolf packs. These were several Uboats working together attacking them. The devastation caused by these Uboats changed Naval warfare forever.

World War I ended with a "cease-fire" in November of 1918. Besides the war casualties which numbered in the millions, an estimated 30 million world wide died from an influenza epidemic, just like Lawrence Akey. It is believed that 400,000 to 500,000 died in America alone. This was labeled as the war to end all wars. But as we know now World War II came about thirty years later.

This quote reminds me of the Germans and their attitude during the war, "Peace had to be a piece of reconciliation, a peace without victory, for a victor's peace would leave a sting, a resentment, a bitter memory upon which terms of peace would rest, not permanently, but only upon quicksand."

Marshfield Middle School