An Interview with Dr. Jeff Gusky on the Smithsonian’s “We Return Fighting” Exhibit and the American 93rd Division in WW1
Battles of the First World War Podcast
Release Date: 07/26/2020
Battles of the First World War Podcast
A short review of Ann Hood’s “The Stolen Child,” a new book to be released in May 2024. Book link here: Order it from your local bookstore so that you support your local businesses. The BFWWP is on Patreon: . Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter at @WW1podcast, the Battles of the First World War Podcast page on FaceBook, and on Instagram at @WW1battlecast. Not into social media? Email me directly at [email protected]. Please consider reviewing the...
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This is a release of a former Patreon-only episode. The German 8th Army receives two new leaders: Hindenburg and Ludendorff. They rush to stave off the Russian 2nd Army’s invasion from Russian Poland to the south. A classic battle of maneuver, modernized with modern weapons and heavy casualties, plays out. Corps, divisions, and brigades collide with each other as each seeks to turn their enemy’s flanks. Aislingeach’s awesome music is here! The BFWWP is on Patreon: . Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website,...
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This is a release of a former Patreon-only episode. The Germans and Russians are ready to fight, and each gives battle. The Russian 1st Army invades East Prussia from the east, and meets German 8th Army forces at Stallupönen. Both sides clash again at Gumbinnen, where the Germans suffer a stinging defeat that sets off a panic within 8th Army headquarters. The BFWWP is on Patreon: . Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter at @WW1podcast, the Battles of the First World...
info_outline Tannenberg - Eastern PromisesBattles of the First World War Podcast
This is a release of a former Patreon-only episode. The beginning of World War I in the summer of 1914 saw Germany faced with fighting a two-front war. Its legions marched into France to defeat that nation first, while in the east just one field army was tasked with holding back an inevitable Russian invasion. This episode will set the stage for the opening of the Great War’s Eastern Front. The BFWWP is on Patreon: . Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter at...
info_outline Forgotten Veterans, Invisible Memorials, a Discussion with Dr. Allison FinkelsteinBattles of the First World War Podcast
Author and historian Dr. Allison Finkelstein comes on the podcast to discuss her book, Forgotten Veterans, Invisible Memorials: How American Women Commemorated the Great War, 1917-1945. From Dr. Finkelstein’s website: In Forgotten Veterans, Invisible Memorials: How American Women Commemorated the Great War, 1917–1945, Allison S. Finkelstein argues that American women activists considered their own community service and veteran advocacy to be forms of commemoration just as significant and effective as other, more traditional forms of commemoration such as memorials. Finkelstein...
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Part 4 of the ongoing discussion looks at the French Army in 1915: an often overlooked year, it was a year of “carnage, optimism, and learning,” as Alex says in the talk. Fighting to keep pressure on the German invader and relieve pressure on the WW1 Russian Front, the French faced a long year where that optimism took several body blows; it was a year where the French Poilu learned this would be a long and terrible war. This was a fascinating conversation as always, and you really need to listen for the part where Jim Taub talks about handling and firing a Chauchat light...
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New year, new opportunity to see the AEF battlefields of France! That’s right, Rob and I are launching the 2024 Lost Battalion Tours Meuse-Argonne Tour. Tour dates are July 03 - 09, 2024, and we’ll be visiting the following stops: - Vauquois Hill and the 35th Division area, - the Montfaucon Memorial - Hill 285 and Le Chene Tondu in the Argonne, - the Crown Prince’s bunker complex, - the German war cemetery near Apremont, - Exermont, - a Medal of Honor Day visiting the sites of Barkley, Woodfill, and York, a complete tour of the Lost Battalion site (including both...
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An early Christmas gift for the BFWWP community--the battle of Fismes in summer 1918. This was a Patreon release, so you'll hear the old scores used in the episode. Following the German Friedensturm offensive in July 1918, the Allies struck back with a counteroffensive that shifted the momentum of the war in the Allies’ favor. Through the rest of July the Germans retreated from their Marne salient, steadily pursued by the French and American forces. When the Germans retreated behind the River Vesle, American troops encountered obstacles not common to the Great War battlefield:...
info_outlineReturning to the Battles of the First World War Podcast is Dr. Jeff Gusky, an emergency physician, artist, photographer for National Geographic, and explorer. I’m grateful that with the ongoing epidemic Dr. Gusky is able to come on the show and share his latest work with us, which is part of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture’s “We Return Fighting” exhibit.
Dr. Gusky is the photographer and talent behind the fascinating Hidden World of WW1, an exploration of the many unknown underground cities inhabited by soldiers of both sides of the Western Front during the Great War. His photographs have been seen worldwide through National Geographic, Smithsonian museum exhibitions, and featured in several newspaper and television articles worldwide. His work truly is remarkable, and brings a world silent and in darkness for over a century back into the light. I urge you to follow his work if you haven’t already done so.
In this interview we discuss Dr. Gusky’s contribution to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture’s “We Return Fighting” exhibit, as well as his discovery of the only remaining command post of the 370th Infantry under the old battlefields of France. The 370th Infantry Regiment was a segregated African-American unit during WW1; however it also had the distinction of being the only regiment also led by Black American officers. The men of the 370th were called the “Black Devils” by the Germans due to their fierceness in combat.
Jeff’s discovery has been called “I Have a Dream...before I Have a Dream.”
In the course of the conversation I made an error in the first time Jeff Gusky came on the podcast; it wasn’t two years ago but three. Just goes to show you how the years pass by without you knowing it sometimes.
Dr. Jeff Gusky’s work: https://jeffgusky.com/
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture’s “We Return Fighting:” https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/we-return-fighting
The BFWWP is on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BattlesoftheFirstWorldWarPodcast.
Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter at @WW1podcast, the Battles of the First World War Podcast page on FaceBook, and on Instagram at @WW1battlecast. Not into social media? Email me directly at [email protected]. Please consider reviewing the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes.