World War I Podcast

What was the United States Coast Guard doing during World War I? We sat down Dr. William H. Thiesen, Atlantic Area Historian for the United States Coast Guard, to discuss the history of the Coast Guard and how World War I served as the first true test of the modern Coast Guard's military capability.

By the end of 1916, the Allied and Central powers were exhausted and were facing serious political, economic and social problems. For Russia, a country already struggling with the structural problems of autocracy, the troubles of 1916 led to revolution. To learn more about the timeline and particulars of the Russian Revolution, we had a conversation with Dr. Colleen Moore, Assistant Professor of History at James Madison University.

Many small countries entered World War I with the hope of gaining some sort of advantage in the post-war period. Most of these countries did not contribute troops or any other substantial aid to the combatants. Siam is a notable exception. To learn more about Siam's participation in World War I, we spoke with Dr. Stefan Hell, author of the book Siam and World War I: An International History.

While radio and telephone were becoming more and more a part of the battlefield, these communication technologies also had weaknesses on the World War I battlefield. A secure, reliable, low tech communication option was needed. Armies on both sides turned to Homing Pigeons to provide this vital link. We sat down with Dr. Frank Blazich, Curator of Modern Military History at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History, to discuss the U.S. Army's pigeon service and how these birds contributed to the war effort.

America’s path to World War I was complicated and involved some deep cultural shifts. What changes drove the evolution from neutrality to war? What role did immigrant and minority groups play in this shift? And, did the American people go into this war naïve to the costs? To answer some of these questions, we sat down with Dr. Michael Nieberg to discuss his book The Path to War: How the First World War Created Modern America.

World War I taught a young Dwight D. Eisenhower some significant leadership lessons – just not on the battlefield. Eisenhower spent a good part of the war as the commander of Camp Colt in Gettysburg, PA. Camp Colt sat on part of the Gettysburg battlefield and was home to the U.S. Army’s fledgling tank school. From an initial lack of tanks to the Spanish Flu pandemic, Eisenhower proved himself a brilliant organizer and a capable leader in difficult times. In this latest episode, Daniel Vermilya, an NPS Park Ranger at the Eisenhower Farm in Gettysburg, discusses Camp Colt and Eisenhower's long association with the region.

World War I had profound social and economic consequences. American industry had typically relied upon European immigrant labor. When the war disrupted immigration, American industry turned to other sources of labor and began recruiting African Americans. Responding to these new economic opportunities, large numbers of African Americans began leaving the rural south for the urban north. In this latest episode, Dr. Steven Reich discusses the Great Migration in the context of World War I and explains its cultural legacy.

Like the other Great Powers, Russia experienced a great deal of turmoil in the decades leading up to World War I. Slow industrialization, military failure in the Russo-Japanese War, and mass social unrest were just some of the problems that were further compounded by weak leadership and a fragile political system. In this latest episode, Dr. Colleen Moore describes this pre-war turmoil and outlines Russia's path into World War I.

The Hapsburgs were a very old and distinguished noble family in Europe. Members of the Hapsburg-Lorraine branch of the family ruled Austria-Hungary during World War I. In this latest episode, Dr. Maura Hametz discusses the many tragedies and intrigues of these Hapsburgs and outlines the roles of Emperor Franz Josef I and his successor, Karl I, during World War I.

Appointed Supreme Allied Commander during World War I, Ferdinand Foch is regarded as the architect of the 1918 victory. He is also recognized as one of the most original thinkers in the 20th century French military. In this episode, Dr. Michael Neiberg discusses Foch's unusual career path, outlines his World War I service, and highlights his unique understanding of the war.

Arriving in Paris in 1919 for the Peace Conference, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson made it clear that he believed Italy entered World War I in a Machiavellian spirit of “cold-blooded calculation.” Italy’s leaders disagreed – arguing that their participation in the war was about liberation and self-determination. Regardless of the argument, like most of the combatants, Italy’s decision to go to war lay somewhere between practical and opportunistic. A member of the Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary and Germany when the war started, Italy renounced this alliance in 1915 and joined the Entente Powers on the battlefield. Italy emerged as one of the victors in November 1918, but it’s complicated road to war, devastating casualties on the Italian front, and the disappointments of the Treaty of Versailles would lead the Italian’s to label the victory the “mutilated victory.”

Prior to 1914, there was a theory that Great Britain would not survive a major European war if it lost access to food and supplies coming from North America. When World War I began, this concern initially faded away. The Royal Navy had quickly blockaded Germany and by January 1915, the Imperial German High Seas Fleet was bottled up in the North Sea. However, despite these successes, the trans-Atlantic supply line was still not safe. German U-boats remained free to prowl and soon became Germany’s primary weapon at sea. To combat this danger, the British resorted to a wide variety of U-boat traps. The Q-ship was one such effort. Relying on deception and clever camouflage, Q-ships were armed but designed to look like vulnerable merchant vessels in order to lure U-boats to attack. While not the most effective means of destroying the U-boat threat, Q-ships played an interesting role in the war.

In this interview, Dr. Sanders Marble, Senior Historian of the U.S. Army Medical Department Office of Medical History, discusses how the U.S. Army worked with the medical community and the Red Cross to prepare for and confront the crisis of World War I. Faced with new clinical practices and diagnoses, U.S. Army medical professionals worked hard to orchestrate treatment of the wounded.

Dr. Edward Lengel, author of Never in Finer Company: The Men of the Great War's Lost Battalion, describes the exploits of American soldiers and Marines on the battlefields of 1918.

William Walker, author of Betrayal at Little Gibraltar, explores the controversy that surrounds the 1918 fight for Montfaucon and argues that changes need to be made in terms of how that tragic battle is interpreted.

Dr. Mitchell Yockelson, author of Forty-Seven Days, How Pershing's Warriors Came of Age to Defeat the German Army in World War I, discusses the evolution of the A.E.F. as a fighting force and how American troops "came of age" during the Meuse-Argonne campaign.

In the final years of World War I, a deadly influenza pandemic killed about 3% of the world's population. The pandemic effected both the Allied and Central Powers, as well as neutral nations. Due to wartime censorship, belligerent nations made no public acknowledgement of the crisis. For neutral nations like Spain however, the pandemic was widely reported because there was no censorship in place. Accordingly, the pandemic became associated with Spain. In this interview, Dr. Marble Sanders, Senior Historian of the U.S. Army Medical Department Office of Medical History, discusses the origins and spread of Spanish Flu and why it was more than just a tragic coda to World War I.

Very early in World War I, the public was made aware of a condition known as shell shock that was affecting a significant number of soldiers. From 1915-1918, the diagnosis of shell shock evolved, as medical professionals attempted to determine if the condition was physical, psychological, or moral (i.e. cowardice). In this interview, Dr. Marble Sanders, Senior Historian of the U.S. Army Medical Department Office of Medical History, discusses shell shock and how doctors tried to diagnose, treat, and even prevent shell shock during World War I.

Chemical weapons were one of the great horrors of the World War I battlefield. While different types of gases were used throughout the war, Mustard Gas was the most prominent and most effective chemical weapon in use by 1917. In this interview, Dr. Marble Sanders, Senior Historian of the U.S. Army Medical Department Office of Medical History, provides an overview of Mustard Gas and discusses the U.S. Army’s efforts to counter this weapon.

The Battle of Chateau Thierry (July 18, 1918) marked an important turning point in World War I. In this podcast, TRADOC Deputy Chief Historian Stephen C. McGeorge places the Battle of Chateau Thierry in the wider context of the war and discusses the cooperation between U.S. and French forces during the battle.