WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.980 Welcome back. We are so glad you could join us 00:00:02.980 --> 00:00:04.980 for today's Deep Dive. Yeah, thanks for tuning 00:00:04.980 --> 00:00:06.960 in. I'm really excited about this one. Because 00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:11.039 today we're exploring a truly massive transformation. 00:00:11.480 --> 00:00:14.740 You might think of World War I just as trenches 00:00:14.740 --> 00:00:17.480 and biplanes and that tactical stalemate on the 00:00:17.480 --> 00:00:19.059 Western Front. Right, the mud and the barbed 00:00:19.059 --> 00:00:21.899 wire. Exactly. But today we are looking at the 00:00:21.899 --> 00:00:24.539 sheer math behind breaking that stalemate. We 00:00:24.539 --> 00:00:27.620 are digging into the history of the American 00:00:27.620 --> 00:00:30.940 Expeditionary Forces. or the AEF, which is just 00:00:30.940 --> 00:00:33.520 a fascinating subject. It really is. The mission 00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:36.679 today is to figure out how you physically transplant 00:00:36.679 --> 00:00:40.060 an army across an ocean in 1917. Right. We are 00:00:40.060 --> 00:00:41.619 talking about how the United States military 00:00:41.619 --> 00:00:44.140 went from this tiny, vastly inexperienced force 00:00:44.140 --> 00:00:47.960 to a massive modern combat tested army of millions 00:00:47.960 --> 00:00:50.960 in just over a single year. It is a staggering 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:53.000 leap. I mean, when you look at the raw logistics 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:55.979 of this operation, it completely rewrites the 00:00:55.979 --> 00:00:58.649 standard narrative. We tend to picture fully 00:00:58.649 --> 00:01:00.789 formed armies just arriving on the battlefield, 00:01:00.810 --> 00:01:03.950 ready to go. But the reality of building a military 00:01:03.950 --> 00:01:08.129 machine from scratch on foreign soil is, well, 00:01:08.750 --> 00:01:11.730 it's far more chaotic and complex. And that is 00:01:11.730 --> 00:01:13.849 exactly what makes this so compelling. You have 00:01:13.849 --> 00:01:16.209 to consider the scale. Like, how do you move 00:01:16.209 --> 00:01:19.010 two million people across an ocean filled with 00:01:19.010 --> 00:01:21.370 enemy submarines? Yeah, that alone is a nightmare. 00:01:21.469 --> 00:01:24.109 And once they arrive, how do you keep them fed, 00:01:24.450 --> 00:01:27.400 armed and organized? without totally collapsing 00:01:27.400 --> 00:01:29.640 the local infrastructure. You really can't overstate 00:01:29.640 --> 00:01:31.840 how difficult that is. OK, let's unpack this. 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:34.239 To grasp the magnitude of that challenge, we 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:36.540 really need to look at the starting line. In 00:01:36.540 --> 00:01:40.299 June 1917, there were a grand total of 14 ,000 00:01:40.299 --> 00:01:43.659 American soldiers in France. Wait, 14 ,000? Just 00:01:43.659 --> 00:01:46.739 14 ,000. That is barely enough to fill a modern 00:01:46.739 --> 00:01:49.469 sports arena. Wow. But then fast forward to May 00:01:49.469 --> 00:01:52.290 1918, which is less than a year later, and that 00:01:52.290 --> 00:01:54.709 number exploded to over one million American 00:01:54.709 --> 00:01:56.930 troops stationed in France, and half of them 00:01:56.930 --> 00:01:58.890 were deployed directly on the front lines. From 00:01:58.890 --> 00:02:02.310 14 ,000 to over a million, that is a wild escalation 00:02:02.310 --> 00:02:05.530 in manpower. It's unprecedented. And the whole 00:02:05.530 --> 00:02:08.469 operation was spearheaded by Major General John 00:02:08.469 --> 00:02:10.750 J. Pershing. Though it's interesting, President 00:02:10.750 --> 00:02:13.530 Woodrow Wilson actually initially planned to 00:02:13.530 --> 00:02:15.389 give the command to General Frederick Funston. 00:02:15.710 --> 00:02:18.949 Right, but Funston passed away suddenly in February 00:02:18.949 --> 00:02:22.569 1917. Yeah, which left the door open for Wilson 00:02:22.569 --> 00:02:25.370 to appoint Pershing that May. And Pershing brought 00:02:25.370 --> 00:02:28.750 a very specific, uncompromising philosophy to 00:02:28.750 --> 00:02:31.710 this command. He absolutely insisted that American 00:02:31.710 --> 00:02:34.530 soldiers be thoroughly trained before ever seeing 00:02:34.530 --> 00:02:36.270 combat in Europe. He wasn't just going to throw 00:02:36.270 --> 00:02:38.830 them into the meat grinder. Exactly. He established 00:02:38.830 --> 00:02:41.849 large training areas near Verdun for the initial 00:02:41.849 --> 00:02:44.069 divisions. You had the 1st Division, which was 00:02:44.069 --> 00:02:47.530 the regular army, the 26th National Guard Division, 00:02:47.930 --> 00:02:50.629 the 2nd Division, which was this mix of regular 00:02:50.629 --> 00:02:53.969 troops and Marines, and the 42nd Division. The 00:02:53.969 --> 00:02:56.009 Rainbow Division, right, because it literally 00:02:56.009 --> 00:02:58.430 pulled soldiers from nearly every state in the 00:02:58.430 --> 00:03:01.129 U .S. That's the one. And because of this massive 00:03:01.129 --> 00:03:03.710 training requirement, very few American troops 00:03:03.710 --> 00:03:06.490 actually arrived on the front lines before January 00:03:06.490 --> 00:03:09.770 1918. But wasn't Pershing risking the entire 00:03:09.770 --> 00:03:12.729 war by holding those troops back? I mean, over 00:03:12.729 --> 00:03:15.509 in Europe, the Western allied leaders were desperate. 00:03:15.509 --> 00:03:17.590 Oh, they were panicking. They had been grinding 00:03:17.590 --> 00:03:20.370 through this brutal war for years. Their units 00:03:20.370 --> 00:03:22.830 were severely depleted. They were facing mutinies. 00:03:23.069 --> 00:03:25.650 The French army was practically in open revolt 00:03:25.650 --> 00:03:28.090 in some sectors. Right. And they were actively 00:03:28.090 --> 00:03:30.289 losing ground. They just wanted to use these 00:03:30.289 --> 00:03:33.289 fresh American troops as individual replacements, 00:03:33.430 --> 00:03:36.669 basically to plug the bleeding holes in the. 00:03:36.750 --> 00:03:39.409 British and French armies. It was a massive gamble 00:03:39.409 --> 00:03:42.810 for Pershing and he faced intense pressure, but 00:03:42.810 --> 00:03:45.409 he flat out refused to amalgamate his troops. 00:03:45.889 --> 00:03:47.990 He demanded that the American force would not 00:03:47.990 --> 00:03:50.909 be used merely to fill gaps as, you know, cannon 00:03:50.909 --> 00:03:53.169 fodder for foreign generals. Which didn't make 00:03:53.169 --> 00:03:55.750 him very popular. Not at all. He wanted the United 00:03:55.750 --> 00:03:57.810 States to fight as an independent field army. 00:03:58.310 --> 00:04:00.729 The allied leaders deeply distrusted the potential 00:04:00.729 --> 00:04:03.509 of an American army that lacked any real experience 00:04:03.509 --> 00:04:06.620 in large scale modern warfare. They thought Pershing 00:04:06.620 --> 00:04:09.259 was being incredibly naive. The British government 00:04:09.259 --> 00:04:11.620 even went so far as to use their spare shipping 00:04:11.620 --> 00:04:14.599 vessels as leverage. Yeah, this part is wild. 00:04:14.780 --> 00:04:17.300 They basically said, hey, we will give you the 00:04:17.300 --> 00:04:20.050 ships to transport your men. but only if you 00:04:20.050 --> 00:04:22.790 put those American soldiers under British operational 00:04:22.790 --> 00:04:25.529 control. Talk about high stakes negotiations. 00:04:25.949 --> 00:04:28.310 The fate of Europe is hanging in the balance, 00:04:28.449 --> 00:04:31.470 and they're haggling over transport ships. If 00:04:31.470 --> 00:04:34.189 we connect this to the bigger picture. Oh, definitely. 00:04:34.290 --> 00:04:36.089 Oh, wait, I think you usually say that. Yeah, 00:04:36.089 --> 00:04:38.509 I'll take it. If we connect this to the bigger 00:04:38.509 --> 00:04:41.509 picture, you can see how Pershing's stubbornness 00:04:41.509 --> 00:04:44.790 in that specific moment really laid the groundwork 00:04:44.790 --> 00:04:47.490 for the modern American military identity. How 00:04:47.490 --> 00:04:50.699 so? Well, by refusing to let U .S. troops be 00:04:50.699 --> 00:04:54.199 absorbed and commanded piecemeal, he ensured 00:04:54.199 --> 00:04:56.060 that the United States would emerge from the 00:04:56.060 --> 00:04:58.300 war not just as a junior partner or an allied 00:04:58.300 --> 00:05:01.980 helper, but as a distinct unified and major global 00:05:01.980 --> 00:05:04.459 military power. To actually become that major 00:05:04.459 --> 00:05:06.279 power, though, they had to get all those troops 00:05:06.279 --> 00:05:08.980 to the fight, which brings us to the supply chain. 00:05:09.259 --> 00:05:12.490 The real war winner. Exactly. Imagine you are 00:05:12.490 --> 00:05:15.170 in charge of logistics. You have a million men 00:05:15.170 --> 00:05:17.670 arriving in France. And you realize you don't 00:05:17.670 --> 00:05:19.750 even have the ships to get them there, let alone 00:05:19.750 --> 00:05:22.250 the docks to unload them once they arrive. The 00:05:22.250 --> 00:05:24.490 logistics operations were placed under the direction 00:05:24.490 --> 00:05:27.170 of Charles G. Dawes. He was a Chicago banker 00:05:27.170 --> 00:05:29.750 who transitioned into a logistician. A banker? 00:05:29.910 --> 00:05:32.810 Yeah. He served first as a colonel and then as 00:05:32.810 --> 00:05:35.470 a brigadier general reporting directly to Pershing. 00:05:36.189 --> 00:05:38.730 Dawes was essentially trying to create a coherent 00:05:38.730 --> 00:05:41.470 support structure with almost zero institutional 00:05:41.470 --> 00:05:44.269 knowledge to draw from. And he had to be incredibly 00:05:44.269 --> 00:05:47.250 creative just to get the men across the Atlantic 00:05:47.250 --> 00:05:49.850 because the U .S. Army didn't have enough transport 00:05:49.850 --> 00:05:52.629 ships. They pressed civilian passenger liners 00:05:52.629 --> 00:05:55.069 into service, whatever floated. Basically, they 00:05:55.069 --> 00:05:57.089 seized German ships that had been interned in 00:05:57.089 --> 00:05:59.589 U .S. ports and they borrowed allied ships just 00:05:59.589 --> 00:06:02.250 to transport the soldiers, the doughboys from 00:06:02.250 --> 00:06:04.670 ports in Hoboken, New Jersey and Newport News, 00:06:04.670 --> 00:06:07.189 Virginia. And simply crossing the ocean was only 00:06:07.189 --> 00:06:09.889 step one. Once they arrived at French harbors 00:06:09.889 --> 00:06:13.029 like Bordeaux or Brest, the true engineering 00:06:13.029 --> 00:06:15.290 nightmare began. Because the ports were full. 00:06:15.470 --> 00:06:18.589 Exactly. French ports were already operating 00:06:18.589 --> 00:06:21.509 at absolute maximum capacity, just trying to 00:06:21.509 --> 00:06:23.589 keep their own war effort alive. They couldn't 00:06:23.589 --> 00:06:26.449 handle a million extra Americans showing up with 00:06:26.449 --> 00:06:28.310 all their gear. So the Americans just had to 00:06:28.310 --> 00:06:30.069 build the infrastructure themselves. They did. 00:06:30.449 --> 00:06:33.050 This stat from the source blows my mind. American 00:06:33.050 --> 00:06:36.509 engineers in France constructed 82 entirely new 00:06:36.509 --> 00:06:39.569 ship berths. 82. Think about the engineering 00:06:39.569 --> 00:06:42.290 hurdles there. Navigating the tides, working 00:06:42.290 --> 00:06:45.350 in war torn areas with a massive lack. of local 00:06:45.350 --> 00:06:48.709 labor and having to import the steel and heavy 00:06:48.709 --> 00:06:51.310 cranes just to build the docks that would eventually 00:06:51.310 --> 00:06:53.670 unload their own supplies. And it didn't stop 00:06:53.670 --> 00:06:56.870 at the docks. They also laid nearly one thousand 00:06:56.870 --> 00:06:59.490 miles of additional standard gauge railroad tracks. 00:06:59.629 --> 00:07:01.970 A thousand miles. And the gauge is critical here 00:07:01.970 --> 00:07:04.269 because it had to perfectly match the French 00:07:04.269 --> 00:07:07.389 railway system. If the tracks were even a fraction 00:07:07.389 --> 00:07:09.949 of an inch off, American supply trains couldn't 00:07:09.949 --> 00:07:12.170 seamlessly connect with the existing French rail 00:07:12.170 --> 00:07:14.769 network to move troops to the front. And beyond 00:07:14.769 --> 00:07:17.509 the physical transport, they strung over 100 00:07:17.509 --> 00:07:20.949 ,000 miles of telephone and telegraph lines across 00:07:20.949 --> 00:07:23.850 France. That is a lot of wire. It sounds like 00:07:23.850 --> 00:07:25.730 a random statistic, but the insight there is 00:07:25.730 --> 00:07:29.009 huge. World War One was the first major conflict 00:07:29.009 --> 00:07:32.529 where the sheer scale of the battlefield entirely 00:07:32.529 --> 00:07:35.660 outpaced. human messengers, or guys on horseback. 00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:37.720 You couldn't just run a note to the next trench. 00:07:38.120 --> 00:07:40.519 Right. Instant communication wasn't just a convenience. 00:07:40.660 --> 00:07:43.300 It was the absolute backbone of the war effort. 00:07:43.720 --> 00:07:45.759 You couldn't coordinate a million men without 00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:48.560 that wire. Dawes recognized that this couldn't 00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:51.540 just be an American effort either. He recommended 00:07:51.540 --> 00:07:53.639 setting up a Joint Logistics Planning Board, 00:07:53.899 --> 00:07:56.800 which the Allies approved. It became the Military 00:07:56.800 --> 00:07:59.339 Board of Allied Supply coordinating logistics 00:07:59.339 --> 00:08:03.060 on both the Western and Italian fronts. But while 00:08:03.060 --> 00:08:05.779 the Americans were busy building all this infrastructure, 00:08:06.300 --> 00:08:08.920 they were surprisingly lacking in actual combat 00:08:08.920 --> 00:08:11.060 equipment. That is something that really flips 00:08:11.060 --> 00:08:13.060 the script for me. You usually picture the American 00:08:13.060 --> 00:08:14.819 military showing up with all their own heavy 00:08:14.819 --> 00:08:17.850 gear, ready to roll. Yeah, but American factories 00:08:17.850 --> 00:08:20.449 simply couldn't retool fast enough for this kind 00:08:20.449 --> 00:08:22.730 of war. So they had to rely heavily on European 00:08:22.730 --> 00:08:25.610 weapons. Yeah. They use French 75 millimeter 00:08:25.610 --> 00:08:29.129 cannons. They drove French Renault FT light tanks, 00:08:29.329 --> 00:08:31.550 which are iconic, by the way. Oh, totally. Even 00:08:31.550 --> 00:08:35.090 their aviation units flew CESPE 13 and Newport 00:08:35.090 --> 00:08:38.549 28 fighter planes. These were incredibly fast, 00:08:38.870 --> 00:08:41.669 highly maneuverable French biplanes, basically 00:08:41.669 --> 00:08:43.809 because the U .S. didn't have a combat ready 00:08:43.809 --> 00:08:47.190 fighter plane of its own yet. It is a stark reality 00:08:47.190 --> 00:08:49.730 check about what it actually takes to win a modern 00:08:49.730 --> 00:08:52.190 war. We always focus on the front lines, the 00:08:52.190 --> 00:08:54.490 weapons, and the romanticized charges over the 00:08:54.490 --> 00:08:57.730 top. Movie stuff. Right. But an army runs entirely 00:08:57.730 --> 00:08:59.710 on its rear area network, what they call the 00:08:59.710 --> 00:09:02.389 services of supply. Tell me about that. We are 00:09:02.389 --> 00:09:04.950 talking about massive depots, vehicle maintenance 00:09:04.950 --> 00:09:07.789 facilities, industrial bakeries, clothing repair 00:09:07.789 --> 00:09:10.149 shops, replacement depots. You don't think about 00:09:10.149 --> 00:09:13.059 clothing repair in a war. But you need it. and 00:09:13.059 --> 00:09:15.740 ice plants to keep food from rotting, and grimly 00:09:15.740 --> 00:09:18.139 graves registration to handle the casualties. 00:09:18.820 --> 00:09:21.480 This immense logistical enterprise is what actually 00:09:21.480 --> 00:09:24.360 enabled the success of the AEF. So we have this 00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:26.860 massive logistical machine moving millions of 00:09:26.860 --> 00:09:30.200 men. But who exactly were these men? The demographics 00:09:30.200 --> 00:09:32.600 are fascinating. African Americans were drafted 00:09:32.600 --> 00:09:35.440 on the exact same basis as white citizens, making 00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:38.480 up 13 % of the draftees. That's a significant 00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:42.860 portion. By the end of the war, Over 350 ,000 00:09:42.860 --> 00:09:45.820 African Americans had served in AEF units on 00:09:45.820 --> 00:09:48.440 the Western Front. Here's where it gets really 00:09:48.440 --> 00:09:51.159 interesting. To understand the reality for African 00:09:51.159 --> 00:09:53.240 American troops, we really have to look at the 00:09:53.240 --> 00:09:56.000 systemic discrimination they faced. The source 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:58.679 details how they were assigned to strictly segregated 00:09:58.679 --> 00:10:01.940 units, commanded almost exclusively by white 00:10:01.940 --> 00:10:04.559 officers. And the historical record highlights 00:10:04.559 --> 00:10:07.340 how racial hostility in the United States boiled 00:10:07.340 --> 00:10:10.480 over tragically in 1917. specifically with the 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:13.720 Houston riot. It's a deeply sobering event. The 00:10:13.720 --> 00:10:15.840 history details that this incident occurred within 00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:18.360 a climate of overt racist hostility from members 00:10:18.360 --> 00:10:20.919 of the all -white Houston Police Department against 00:10:20.919 --> 00:10:23.159 the local black community and the black soldiers 00:10:23.159 --> 00:10:25.460 of the 24th Infantry Regiment, who were stationed 00:10:25.460 --> 00:10:27.620 at Camp Logan. Following instances where police 00:10:27.620 --> 00:10:29.639 officers arrested and physically assaulted black 00:10:29.639 --> 00:10:33.279 soldiers, a mutiny erupted involving 156 soldiers. 00:10:33.419 --> 00:10:35.419 They marched into Houston and according to the 00:10:35.419 --> 00:10:37.360 source material, the resulting violence led to 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:40.240 the deaths of 11 civilians and five policemen. 00:10:40.519 --> 00:10:43.580 soldiers also died in the chaos. Under the military 00:10:43.580 --> 00:10:47.159 laws of the time, 118 soldiers were court -martialed. 00:10:47.399 --> 00:10:50.860 Ultimately, 110 were convicted, 63 were sentenced 00:10:50.860 --> 00:10:53.980 to life imprisonment, and 19 were executed. It 00:10:53.980 --> 00:10:56.480 is a heavy piece of history, and those soldiers 00:10:56.480 --> 00:10:59.519 carried that reality with them into the theater 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:02.779 of war, and that discrimination fundamentally 00:11:02.779 --> 00:11:05.700 dictated how they were deployed overseas. There 00:11:05.700 --> 00:11:09.039 is a stark contrast in the numbers. Only one 00:11:09.039 --> 00:11:11.320 -fifth of the black soldiers sent to France actually 00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:13.940 saw combat, compared to two -thirds of the white 00:11:13.940 --> 00:11:16.340 soldiers. Black soldiers made up just three percent 00:11:16.340 --> 00:11:19.080 of the AEF combat forces. That disparity was 00:11:19.080 --> 00:11:21.000 a deliberate policy choice, wasn't it? It was. 00:11:21.320 --> 00:11:24.159 A 1918 general staff report explicitly stated 00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:26.460 that the mass of colored, drafted men could not 00:11:26.460 --> 00:11:29.279 be used for combatant troops. The military brass 00:11:29.279 --> 00:11:31.620 recommended they be organized into reserve labor 00:11:31.620 --> 00:11:34.480 battalions instead. Consequently, the vast majority 00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:36.980 were assigned to unskilled labor tasks. Many 00:11:36.980 --> 00:11:39.320 worked as stevedores at the Atlantic ports. Doing 00:11:39.320 --> 00:11:41.960 the absolutely backbreaking labor of manually 00:11:41.960 --> 00:11:45.000 unloading supply ships. Or working as common 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:47.860 laborers building those camps in France. Even 00:11:47.860 --> 00:11:50.480 the 92nd Division, which was the only black combat 00:11:50.480 --> 00:11:53.500 division, suffered from poor preparation, deliberate 00:11:53.500 --> 00:11:56.299 dispersal during stateside training, and senior 00:11:56.299 --> 00:11:58.940 white officers who repeatedly requested to be 00:11:58.940 --> 00:12:01.379 transferred out. But then you have this... Incredible 00:12:01.379 --> 00:12:03.720 anomaly, the 93rd Division, which included the 00:12:03.720 --> 00:12:06.879 369th Infantry Regiment. The legendary Harlem 00:12:06.879 --> 00:12:10.000 Hellfighters. Exactly. The French Army was facing 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:12.340 devastating mutinies from their own frontline 00:12:12.340 --> 00:12:15.220 troops who were refusing to go on suicidal offensives. 00:12:15.710 --> 00:12:18.090 The French were absolutely desperate for manpower, 00:12:18.370 --> 00:12:20.929 so they requested and received control of several 00:12:20.929 --> 00:12:23.590 regiments of Black American combat troops. Because 00:12:23.590 --> 00:12:26.929 the French military did not harbor the same institutionalized 00:12:26.929 --> 00:12:29.950 racial disdain. Right. These regiments were integrated 00:12:29.950 --> 00:12:31.730 into the French command structure and served 00:12:31.730 --> 00:12:34.190 with immense distinction. And the logistical 00:12:34.190 --> 00:12:37.110 weirdness of their situation creates this wild 00:12:37.110 --> 00:12:39.610 visual. I mean, I'm geeking out over this image 00:12:39.610 --> 00:12:41.870 because they were under French command. These 00:12:41.870 --> 00:12:44.870 African -American soldiers wore American uniforms. 00:12:45.019 --> 00:12:47.399 But wait, some of those uniforms actually dated 00:12:47.399 --> 00:12:49.539 all the way back to the Union Army from the Civil 00:12:49.539 --> 00:12:53.500 War. Yes, but they wore French helmets. And instead 00:12:53.500 --> 00:12:56.580 of carrying the standard issue American Springfield 00:12:56.580 --> 00:12:59.759 bolt action rifles, they were armed with French 00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:02.690 Berthier rifles. It is such a powerful image 00:13:02.690 --> 00:13:05.809 of coalition warfare in practice, and their combat 00:13:05.809 --> 00:13:09.690 record is astonishing. The 369th spent six months 00:13:09.690 --> 00:13:12.429 on the front lines. Six months. That was longer 00:13:12.429 --> 00:13:14.389 than any other African -American regiment in 00:13:14.389 --> 00:13:17.909 the entire war. 171 members were awarded the 00:13:17.909 --> 00:13:20.309 French Legion of Merit. Sergeant Henry Johnson 00:13:20.309 --> 00:13:23.129 is a major standout here. He was awarded the 00:13:23.129 --> 00:13:25.230 French Croix de Guerre for fighting off a German 00:13:25.230 --> 00:13:28.049 raiding party and was later posthumously awarded 00:13:28.049 --> 00:13:30.669 the Medal of Honor. Unbelievable bravery. So 00:13:30.700 --> 00:13:32.679 Navigating from the heavy realities of their 00:13:32.679 --> 00:13:34.500 deployment and the sheer scale of the logistics, 00:13:34.860 --> 00:13:36.919 we have to look at what happened when this massive 00:13:36.919 --> 00:13:39.220 machine finally hit the trenches. The sharp end 00:13:39.220 --> 00:13:41.379 of the spear. The timeline of American combat 00:13:41.379 --> 00:13:44.539 actions kicked off on October 23, 1917, when 00:13:44.539 --> 00:13:46.799 the First Division fired the very first American 00:13:46.799 --> 00:13:49.759 shell of the war toward German lines. Initially, 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:52.080 Pershing deployed his four battle -ready divisions 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:54.740 under French and British command in relatively 00:13:54.740 --> 00:13:58.009 quiet sectors. This was strictly to gain combat 00:13:58.009 --> 00:14:00.669 experience without risking a total collapse of 00:14:00.669 --> 00:14:03.309 his forces. But he was always maneuvering toward 00:14:03.309 --> 00:14:05.769 his ultimate goal of deploying an independent 00:14:05.769 --> 00:14:10.830 U .S. field army. Always. By June 1918, the logistical 00:14:10.830 --> 00:14:13.690 pipeline was fully open. Americans were arriving 00:14:13.690 --> 00:14:17.809 at a staggering rate of 10 ,000 a day. Ten thousand 00:14:17.809 --> 00:14:21.259 a day. that is a small city arriving every morning. 00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:23.320 And they were undergoing a minimum of six weeks 00:14:23.320 --> 00:14:25.899 of intense training led by battle -experienced 00:14:25.899 --> 00:14:28.440 British, Canadian, and Australian officers. And 00:14:28.440 --> 00:14:30.259 speaking of the Australians, there's this highly 00:14:30.259 --> 00:14:32.879 memorable moment where American troops essentially 00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:34.860 snuck into a major offensive. This is one of 00:14:34.860 --> 00:14:37.720 my favorite anecdotes. On July 4, 1918, at the 00:14:37.720 --> 00:14:40.500 Battle of Hamel, 1 ,000 American troops from 00:14:40.500 --> 00:14:43.039 the 33rd Division fought alongside the Australian 00:14:43.039 --> 00:14:45.759 Corps. The detail that really stands out is that 00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:48.220 their involvement was voluntary and it directly 00:14:48.220 --> 00:14:50.399 violated orders. They just wanted to fight. They 00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:53.299 fought despite last -minute directives from AEF 00:14:53.299 --> 00:14:55.700 headquarters expressly forbidding them from taking 00:14:55.700 --> 00:14:58.379 part in offensive operations led by non -U .S. 00:14:58.759 --> 00:15:00.799 generals. They went into battle under the command 00:15:00.799 --> 00:15:03.360 of Australian Lieutenant General Sir John Monash. 00:15:03.659 --> 00:15:05.700 And it wasn't just a rebellion, it was a historically 00:15:05.700 --> 00:15:09.019 significant battle. It served as a highly successful 00:15:09.019 --> 00:15:11.899 blueprint for combined arms attacks, perfectly 00:15:11.899 --> 00:15:15.179 synchronizing artillery, armor, infantry, and 00:15:15.179 --> 00:15:17.600 air support. From there, the American involvement 00:15:17.600 --> 00:15:21.080 just exploded in scale. U .S. troops played a 00:15:21.080 --> 00:15:23.399 critical role in stopping the German thrust toward 00:15:23.399 --> 00:15:25.799 Paris during the Second Battle of the Marne in 00:15:25.799 --> 00:15:28.960 June 1918, fighting brutally at Chateau Thierry 00:15:28.960 --> 00:15:32.700 and below Wood. Then came the first major distinctly 00:15:32.700 --> 00:15:35.960 American offensive. the Battle of Samuel in September 00:15:35.960 --> 00:15:39.700 1918. Pershing finally had his independent command 00:15:39.700 --> 00:15:42.080 leading the U .S. First Army, which was composed 00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:44.740 of over 500 ,000 men. And they followed that 00:15:44.740 --> 00:15:47.120 success immediately with the Musar -Ghan Offensive, 00:15:47.240 --> 00:15:49.500 which is a battle we really have to pause and 00:15:49.500 --> 00:15:51.840 fully consider. It's massive. It lasted from 00:15:51.840 --> 00:15:54.200 late September all the way to the armistice on 00:15:54.200 --> 00:15:57.019 November 11th. This was not a quick skirmish. 00:15:57.299 --> 00:15:59.559 This was the largest and deadliest battle in 00:15:59.559 --> 00:16:02.179 United States military history. Pershing was 00:16:02.179 --> 00:16:04.519 commanding more than one million American and 00:16:04.519 --> 00:16:07.409 French combatants. Just picture the logistical 00:16:07.409 --> 00:16:10.330 nightmare of the Meuse -Argonne. You are moving 00:16:10.330 --> 00:16:13.490 a million men into position entirely at night 00:16:13.490 --> 00:16:16.809 over muddy, destroyed roads, all while trying 00:16:16.809 --> 00:16:19.649 to quietly rotate out the exhausted French troops 00:16:19.649 --> 00:16:21.710 they were replacing. Without tipping off the 00:16:21.710 --> 00:16:23.830 Germans. Right. And then they had to push through 00:16:23.830 --> 00:16:26.909 the Argonne forest, which was rugged, densely 00:16:26.909 --> 00:16:29.389 wooded terrain heavily fortified by the Germans 00:16:29.389 --> 00:16:32.169 with interlocking machine gun nests and concrete 00:16:32.169 --> 00:16:34.570 bunkers. The coordination required to supply 00:16:34.570 --> 00:16:37.289 a million men engaged in relentless, forward 00:16:37.289 --> 00:16:39.429 -moving combat through a fortified forest is 00:16:39.429 --> 00:16:42.649 almost incomprehensible. But between Samuel and 00:16:42.649 --> 00:16:45.210 the Meuse -Argonne, Allied forces recovered more 00:16:45.210 --> 00:16:48.470 than 200 square miles of French territory. It 00:16:48.470 --> 00:16:50.429 essentially broke the back of the German army. 00:16:50.750 --> 00:16:53.009 But the cost of breaking that stalemate was immense. 00:16:53.429 --> 00:16:56.549 The AEF sustained about 320 ,000 total casualties. 00:16:56.610 --> 00:17:00.820 It's a devastating number. That includes 53 ,402 00:17:00.820 --> 00:17:06.079 battle deaths, 63 ,114 non -combat deaths, and 00:17:06.079 --> 00:17:09.119 over 204 ,000 wounded. What's fascinating here 00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:11.619 is when you break down those non -combat deaths, 00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:14.220 you realize that an invisible enemy was actually 00:17:14.220 --> 00:17:16.240 deadlier than the artillery shells. You're talking 00:17:16.240 --> 00:17:20.089 about the flu. The 1918 influenza pandemic. The 00:17:20.089 --> 00:17:21.869 Spanish flu swept through the tightly packed 00:17:21.869 --> 00:17:24.569 troops. The close quarters of the transport ships 00:17:24.569 --> 00:17:26.529 in the muddy trenches were the perfect breeding 00:17:26.529 --> 00:17:29.450 ground. Nowhere to isolate. Exactly. The flu 00:17:29.450 --> 00:17:31.809 took the lives of more than 25 ,000 men in the 00:17:31.809 --> 00:17:35.890 AEF and caused another 360 ,000 to become gravely 00:17:35.890 --> 00:17:38.789 ill. It completely and severely strained the 00:17:38.789 --> 00:17:40.769 medical infrastructure they had just built. It's 00:17:40.769 --> 00:17:42.289 hard to fathom everything we've just covered. 00:17:42.789 --> 00:17:45.170 In just over a single year, the American Expeditionary 00:17:45.170 --> 00:17:47.710 Forces went from an inexperienced, highly debated 00:17:47.710 --> 00:17:51.009 group of 14 ,000 recent arrivals to a massive, 00:17:51.349 --> 00:17:54.349 million -strong combat -tested modern army that 00:17:54.349 --> 00:17:56.390 fundamentally altered the course of global history. 00:17:56.490 --> 00:17:58.490 They really did. They recovered heavily defended 00:17:58.490 --> 00:18:00.569 territory. They faced down a global pandemic 00:18:00.569 --> 00:18:02.849 and they established a logistical network that 00:18:02.849 --> 00:18:04.730 spanned the globe. So what does this all mean? 00:18:05.069 --> 00:18:08.049 For you listening, the story of the AEF is essentially 00:18:08.049 --> 00:18:10.230 the ultimate blueprint for the 20th century. 00:18:10.829 --> 00:18:13.849 It is a master class in modern logistics, how 00:18:13.849 --> 00:18:16.430 to build infrastructure from scratch, manage 00:18:16.430 --> 00:18:19.630 transatlantic supply chains and sustain millions 00:18:19.630 --> 00:18:22.529 of people under the most extreme conditions imaginable. 00:18:22.769 --> 00:18:26.619 Yeah. It's also an early, complicated case study 00:18:26.619 --> 00:18:29.480 in coalition warfare, navigating the massive 00:18:29.480 --> 00:18:33.440 egos and desperate needs of allied nations. And 00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:35.740 importantly, it's a reflection of America confronting 00:18:35.740 --> 00:18:38.779 its own deep societal contradictions on a global 00:18:38.779 --> 00:18:41.940 stage, asking men to fight and die for a country 00:18:41.940 --> 00:18:43.720 that structurally discriminated against them 00:18:43.720 --> 00:18:46.460 at home. It really was a defining era that set 00:18:46.460 --> 00:18:48.220 the stage for everything that followed in the 00:18:48.220 --> 00:18:50.779 modern military. It was. And this raises an important 00:18:50.779 --> 00:18:53.769 question, or rather leaves us with one incredibly 00:18:53.769 --> 00:18:56.650 unique detail to ponder. Lay it on me. Think 00:18:56.650 --> 00:18:59.369 about the immediate aftermath. After the armistice 00:18:59.369 --> 00:19:01.930 in November 1918, you have millions of troops 00:19:01.930 --> 00:19:05.309 waiting to be demobilized. By July 1919, over 00:19:05.309 --> 00:19:07.029 three million members of the military had been 00:19:07.029 --> 00:19:09.849 discharged, but hundreds of thousands were still 00:19:09.849 --> 00:19:12.009 stuck in France waiting for transport ships. 00:19:12.069 --> 00:19:13.750 Because they couldn't all sail back at once. 00:19:14.069 --> 00:19:16.589 Right. And the AEF didn't just have them sit 00:19:16.589 --> 00:19:19.069 around in muddy camps. They literally established 00:19:19.069 --> 00:19:21.750 a university for them. Wait, a full university? 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:24.019 Just for the troops waiting to go home? Yes, 00:19:24.200 --> 00:19:26.400 the American Expeditionary Forces University 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:29.400 at Bone. It wasn't just a few makeshift tents, 00:19:29.680 --> 00:19:32.420 either. It had a full faculty, including an instructor 00:19:32.420 --> 00:19:35.720 who was a botanist. A botanist. A dedicated librarian, 00:19:36.019 --> 00:19:38.519 and it even established its very own chapter 00:19:38.519 --> 00:19:41.559 of the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. 00:19:41.819 --> 00:19:44.970 That is amazing. Imagine the logistical and cultural 00:19:44.970 --> 00:19:48.089 flex required to suddenly build a fully functioning 00:19:48.089 --> 00:19:51.250 university in a foreign country, strictly for 00:19:51.250 --> 00:19:53.450 an army that is just waiting to catch a ship 00:19:53.450 --> 00:19:55.930 home. Think about what that tells you about the 00:19:55.930 --> 00:19:58.549 American mindset and their obsession with organization 00:19:58.549 --> 00:20:00.750 and progress at the dawn of the 20th century. 00:20:01.170 --> 00:20:03.230 Picture yourself surviving the news are gone 00:20:03.230 --> 00:20:05.750 offensive. and a few months later you are studying 00:20:05.750 --> 00:20:08.670 botany in a French town waiting for your boat. 00:20:09.029 --> 00:20:11.329 It's incredible. That is wild. Thank you so much 00:20:11.329 --> 00:20:13.390 for joining us on this deep dive. We hope this 00:20:13.390 --> 00:20:15.390 exploration into the logistics, the struggles, 00:20:15.549 --> 00:20:17.670 and the triumphs of the American Expeditionary 00:20:17.670 --> 00:20:21.250 Forces has given you a new perspective on a massive 00:20:21.250 --> 00:20:24.049 piece of history. Keep learning, keep questioning 00:20:24.049 --> 00:20:26.170 the world around you, and we will catch you next 00:20:26.170 --> 00:20:26.349 time.