November is Wurstfest month and at the New Braunfels Conservation Society you can enjoy some authentic German food at the Kaffee Haus, see an exhbit of Hidden Treasures of World War 1 featuring a display of WW1 trench art, often associated with specific battles like the battle of Verdun in France and you can tour historic buildings.
Trench art in its simplest form are objects made by soldiers out of discarded military materials.
Those associated with war creatively used materials at hand, such as spent artillery shells, bullets, grenades, helmets and the like fashioned into vases, ashtrays, lamps and sculpture.
In WW1 even civilian townspeople would craft trench art to sell or trade as souveniers to the troops for desperately needed money or commodities.
Hot air balloons have been used in warfare since the 18th century. In WW1, highly explosive Hydrogen filled balloons were used for observation of the enemy lines.
There were several Balloon Corp training camps in the US compromising over 100 companies of balloon trainees.
It was quite an operation requiring hundreds of men to get them in the air.
They had to manufacture the Hydrogen and fill the giant blimp-size balloons with Nurse balloons and used big rollers on trucks to reel them up and down.
It was also quite dangerous as this was the first time airplanes were used in combat and routinely shot the balloons which would violently explode!
Camp Wise in San Antonio was one of the last balloon training camps to open before the armistice was signed, so only a few companies actually saw combat in France during the War.
NBCS will be displaying a letter and documents from a Balloon Corpsman as well as photographs and clothing and interesting artifacts.
Old Town at Conservation Plaza is a collection of original 19th century buildings furnished and festooned in their Patriotic attire awaiting your arrival to explore the town, hear the player piano plank out period WW1 music and learn about some obscure WW1 facts at Old Town at Conservation Plaza, 1300 Church Hill Drive, New Braunfels, 830-629-2943, [email protected]
Trench art photo: Trench Art from World War I. This “1918 Verdun” shell has been molded into a vase.
