As stalemate ensued on the Western Front in the fall of 1914, the French Army began providing a daily wine ration for its soldiers stationed there. As the war went on, the ration went from about ¼ litre to about a bottle per soldier, per day. A...

When the United States declared war in April 1917, the 48 states that made up the nation at that time played an important role in mobilization – both in terms of manpower and in terms of the home front. Every state made a contribution that refl...

Kiffin Rockwell believed that America owed France a debt for its support during the American Revolutionary War. He was 21 years old when World War I began, and he immediately sailed to France to volunteer to fight. He initially joined the Frenc...

Between 1914-1917, communications technology, and the way to secure or intercept this kind of traffic, progressed dramatically. When the United States entered WWI in April 1917, it had to quickly catch up in these areas. Remarkably, the America...

When the United States declared war in April 1917, it was unprepared to actually fight a war in Europe. The regular army was small and American industry needed time to produce war materials on a massive scale. It also needed time to train and t...

Like many leaders during WWII, Adolf Hitler served in World War I. It was an important part of his identity, and, prior to his rise to power in Germany, he even went to court to defend his service record. His detractors claimed he was a “rear a...

In 1918, German secret agent, Lothar Witzke, entered the United States via the southern border. His mission was to conduct a campaign of terror and sabotage. This included the destruction of American factories making war materials, the assassin...

The North Sea was one of the most relevant naval theatres of the war. It was also home to important fishing grounds. By 1914 a combination of technology, markets, and demand was leading to overfishing in the region. World War I reversed this, b...

How does World War I poetry help us understand the complexity of the experience of the war? Why was poetry so important then? Why does the poetry of World War I continue to have such resonance? To answer these questions, the World War I Podcast...

When most people think of World War I on the Western Front, they probably think of trenches. Trench systems were present along most of the 475 miles from the English Channel to the Swiss Alps. It wasn’t just one straight continuous line, howeve...

Part IIIn early October 1918, several companies of the US 77th Division found themselves surrounded in the Argonne Forest during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.  Led by Major Charles Whittlesey, the Lost Battalion, as it came to be...

Part IIn early October 1918, several companies of the US 77th Division found themselves surrounded in the Argonne Forest during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.  Led by Major Charles Whittlesey, the Lost Battalion, as it came to be ...

Between September 1814 and June 1815, against the backdrop of Napoleon’s exile to Elba and his brief return, the Congress of Vienna worked out a new way to balance the power of the Great Powers and avoid future conflict. This system was called ...

In 1914, as German forces quickly outmaneuvered Allied armies in the opening days of the war, there was some suspicion among the Allies that the circuses that had traveled around Europe in the years before the war – many of which were owned by ...

When World War I began, the famed historian, sociologist, and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois was at the height of his influence. When the United States entered the war, he encouraged African Americans to “close ranks” and support the Alli...

In the winter of 1918, General John J. Pershing presented then Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur with his second Distinguished Service Cross. The award was for actions in France at the Côte de Châtillon between October 14-16, 1918. The citati...

In 1890, half of the US Government’s budget was devoted to disability pensions for Civil War veterans. This enormous financial burden combined with medical advances led to a different approach when it came to the US Army’s care of wounded soldi...

Between 1914-1916, Portugal walked a delicate line. While actively engaged in an undeclared war with Germany in Africa, Portugal was not a combatant in Europe, nor did it officially declare neutrality. It stayed out of the war, but it provided ...

When WWI began in 1914, Catholic priests were virtual pariahs in France. This was the result of a trend towards anti-clericalism that began with the French Revolution and continued in fits and starts into the 20th century. Prior to WWI, to furt...

On Feb. 8, 2022, a local undertaker was digging a grave in the cemetery at Villers-sur-Fère, a small village in northeastern France near the Ourcq River, where the U.S. Army’s 42d Infantry Division pushed back German forces in 1918. At about f...

On October 8, 1918, seventeen American soldiers of Company G, 2nd Battalion, 328th Infantry, 82nd Division flanked a German machine gun nest, surprising and capturing dozens of German soldiers. Acting Corporal Alvin York – a conscientious objec...

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby tells the novel’s narrator about his World War I military service and a particularly heroic engagement in the Argonne Forest. He ends his story by explaining: “I was promoted to be ...

The Battle of Gallipoli was fought on the Gallipoli Peninsula from February 19, 1915 to January 9, 1916. The Entente Powers hoped to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war by seizing control of the Dardanelles and then putting the capital city...

When WWI broke out in 1914, women in eight states – mostly in the west – had the right to vote. Women in the other 40 states that made up the US at that time did not have the right to vote. America’s involvement in the war spurred on many suffr...

The ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920 removed obstacles to American women exercising their right to vote, but it didn’t happen without a fight - and the final stage of that fight took place against the backdrop of World War I.  Un...