World War I Podcast

In 1917, war mobilization plans included no black combat divisions. With only four black regiments in existence at the time, all the new African American volunteers and draftees presented the U.S. Army with a bit of a problem. Where did they fit in? Where could they go? Initially the Army began organizing these men into provisional, unarmed labor units. This was unacceptable to African American le...

In February 1918, General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force had only five divisions in France. One of those divisions, the 42nd “Rainbow” Division, had just arrived and had not yet experienced trench warfare. Along with the other American divisions, the 42nd was partnered with French units in order to learn to operate and survive at the front. Under French tutelage, t...

"Verdun After 100 Years: An Iconic or Exceptional Battle” In October 2016, the World War One Historical Association hosted a World War I Centennial Symposium at the MacArthur Memorial. Dr. Paul Jankowski, the Ray Ginger Professor of History at Brandeis University and the author of Verdun: The Largest Battle of the Great War, presented on the topic “Verdun After 100 Years: An Iconic or Excepti...

In October 2016, the World War One Historical Association hosted a World War I Centennial Symposium at the MacArthur Memorial. Dr. Graydon Tunstall, a senior lecturer in history at the University of South Florida, presented on the topic: "Eastern Front 1916: Russian Victory to Revolution." Dr. Tunstall explores the major Russian offensive at Lake Naroch, the Romanian campaign, as well as...

In October 2016, the World War One Historical Association hosted a World War I Centennial Symposium at the MacArthur Memorial. Historian Paul Walsh examined American neutrality and the political difficulties faced by President Woodrow Wilson from 1914-1917. Keeping America out of war during that period grew increasingly difficult, and Walsh explains how public opinion gradually began to swing in f...

In October 2016, the World War One Historical Association hosted a World War I Centennial Symposium at the MacArthur Memorial. Greg Hansard, the Manager of Web and Digital Resources at the Virginia Historical Society, presented on the topic: “Haven of Safety: U.S. Internment of German Sailors, 1914-1917.” Hansard described the largely positive and beneficial relationship between the German sailors...

In October 2016, the World War One Historical Association hosted a World War I Centennial Symposium at the MacArthur Memorial. Carl Bobrow, a member of the collections department at the National Air and Space Museum, presented on the topic: “Russian Air Assets in the Brusilov Offensive 1916.” Mr. Bobrow is an expert on the advent and development of Russian aviation and his lecture examined the ext...

In October 2016, the World War One Historical Association hosted a World War I Centennial Symposium at the MacArthur Memorial. Dr. David Silbey of Cornell University presented on the topic: "A Citizen Army Learns to Fight: The Tactical Evolution of the British Army in 1916." Dr. Silbey explores how the British created a mass army by 1916. It was that army - not the highly trained profess...

In October 2016, the World War One Historical Association hosted a World War I Centennial Symposium at the MacArthur Memorial. The focus of the Symposium was 1916, and that was an interesting year in terms of military aviation. During 1916, Austrian flying boats attacked Venice sixteen times, London was bombed by German Zeppleins, the British adopted strategic bombing, the French launched an air r...

In October 2016, the World War One Historical Association hosted a World War I Centennial Symposium at the MacArthur Memorial. William MacMullen, a member of the U.S. Navy League, the U.S. Naval Institute, and past Executive Director of the U.S. Naval Ship Building Museum, gave a presentation entitled: "Big Navies, Big Innovations, Big Battle...then Fizzle. Why?" MacMullen discussed ship...

From 1890-1914, Kaiser Wilhelm II struggled through a series of scandals and crises. His gaffes on the international stage embarrassed his government and helped create the alliances that would be arrayed against Germany in 1914. Due to these issues, even as he struggle for personal rule, his power within Germany was on the wane. When World War I began, he assumed his role as Supreme Warlord, the l...

Kaiser Wilhelm II: Part One When the World War I ended, King George V of England wrote of his cousin Kaiser Wilhelm II: “…I look upon him as the greatest criminal known for having plunged the world into this ghastly war.” But who was Kaiser Wilhelm II? Was he criminal bent on world domination? Or was he a bumbling fool in a picklehaub? Throughout the war, Allied propaganda seemed to suggest either...

On January 16, 1917, a coded German dispatch was intercepted by British Naval Intelligence. Over the next weeks, cryptographers in the innocuous sounding Room 40 began deciphering the message. What they found was shocking. Germany was proposing to bankroll Mexico in a war that would serve two purposes: 1. Keep the U.S. from aiding the Allies, 2. Allow Mexico to recover its lost territories of Texa...

In this podcast, W. Douglas Fisher and Joann H. Buckley, authors of the book: African American Doctors of World War I, shed light on the little known story of African American doctors who served during World War I. Fisher and Buckley discuss the difficulties these men faced in obtaining medical degrees, their service in a segregated military, and their ultimate return to life in the United States....

When World War I ended, parts of the American Expeditionary Force were sent into Germany to serve as an occupation force. The Occupation of Germany (1918-1923) would be regarded as the most successful U.S. military occupation in history until the Occupation of Japan after World War II. In this podcast, Al Barnes, the Virginia National Guard Command Historian and author of the book In a Strange Lan...

While sometimes considered a “sideshow” in histories of World War I, the Middle East was a region of considerable value to both the Allied and Central powers. As stalemate mired the Western front, both sides expended vast amounts of men and treasure in the Middle East in an attempt to outflank each other, but also with an eye to expanding influence in the region in the post-war period. In 1917 Gen...

By late September 1918, Germany’s military leaders were aware that victory was completely out of reach. General Erich Ludendorff and Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg began to call for an immediate armistice, arguing that it was in Germany’s best interests to try to negotiate a peace before Allied boots crossed into Germany. Their willingness to seek an armistice was not just about gaining advant...

Just weeks into the Great War, Pope Pius X died. A cardinal for all of three months, Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa joined the resulting conclave to elect a new Pope. The cardinals assembled debated whether to elect an experienced diplomat as pope in order to cope with the war, or to elect a more theologically minded leader. The debate was short. On September 3, 1914, della Chiesa, a...

During World War I, German Major General Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck led the British Army on a four year cat and mouse chase through German East Africa and its surroundings in what was called the “Little War.” Over the course of this “Little War,” his tiny force of about 14,000 troops kept approximately 300,000 British troops occupied. Lettow-Vorbeck’s troops were still fighting when the war ende...

Today Herbert Hoover is remembered for being president when the Great Depression started. As a result, he is often blamed for not doing enough to relieve the distress caused by that economic crisis. But was Hoover really disinterested in the sufferings of those in need? Was he a terrible administrator? Before the Great Depression, no one would have thought so. Hoover was internationally regarded a...

From transportation, to communication, security, comfort and morale, animals have been indispensable human partners throughout history. It is therefore not surprising that animals have played important roles in military conflicts. During World War I, millions of animals were put into service on each side. This war is often remembered for the great human suffering, but millions of animals also expe...

The sinking of the passenger liner RMS Lusitania on May 7, 1915 was one of the great controversies of World War I. Targeted by a German U-Boat as part of a campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare, the Lusitania was carrying 1,266 passengers and 696 crew members. She was also carrying a substantial cargo of supplies for the Allies. She sank in 18 minutes after being struck by a torpedo fired by...

The 1915 Gallipoli Campaign was an imaginative operation that was supposed to end the stalemate of the Western Front. It utilized a mix of troops mainly from Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand. As these troops sailed towards Gallipoli, some considered themselves the luckiest young men in the war. They believed they were not bound for the mud and filth of the trenches in Europe, but for the...

Since the days of Julius Caesar, the territory of what is now Belgium has been a thoroughfare and battleground for foreign armies. Hoping to avoid being ravaged by future wars, modern Belgium committed itself to a policy of neutrality. This neutrality was violated in World War I when Belgium was invaded by Germany. While this violation of Belgium’s neutrality is most commonly linked to the entry o...

In November 2014, the MacArthur Memorial hosted a World War I Centennial Symposium. Joseph Hoyt, a maritime archeologist with NOAA and a specialist in the archaeological recording of deep water shipwrecks, presented on the topic of World War I and the underwater battlefields within U.S. territorial waters. Have a comment about this episode? Send us a text message! (Note: we can read texts, but we...