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World War I library lecture to discuss Ohio's part in the war
CANFIELD
The centennial of the U.S. entry into World War I and Ohio’s contribution to that war effort will be the theme of a free program at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Canfield public library branch, 43 W. Main St.
The program will be presented by Retired Army Lt. Col. Roderick A. Hosler of Boardman, who was an assistant professor and chairman of military science at Youngstown State University.
At YSU, Hosler was director of the university’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.
He is now a member of the Mahoning County Veterans Service Commission.
“What Ohio provided were soldiers for the American Expeditionary Force, as well as units, such as a base hospital that came from the Greater Youngstown area,” Hosler said of the World War I effort.
Hosler’s program will focus on some of the last battles of World War I, which were fought in Russia, including the battles of Toulgas, Shenkursk and Bolshie Ozerki.
The Polar Bear Expedition, which went to Archangel in northern Russia and suffered heavy casualties in nine months of fighting, was a Detroit-based unit that included soldiers from Toledo and Amherst, Ohio.
“It’s a little-known theater of war,” he said of World War I combat in northern Russia.
“The outcome affected the United States and Soviet Russia relations for over 70 years,” he added.
The World War I centennial program is part of an ongoing series of genealogy and local history programs offered by the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County.
“We strive to honor the history of the United States of America and to bring understanding to what led us to take certain actions at different times in our history in hopes of bringing an understanding to the current world,” said Josephine Nolfi, the library system’s programming director.
“It is also our goal to help people understand the role that local individuals played in these huge events in history,” she added.