Battles of the First World War Podcast

From hero to zero.

On the evening of July 14th, 1918, French soldiers of the 366eme Regiment d'Infanterie led a historic raid into the German trenches opposite them. One of the Poilus, Sergeant Joseph Darnand, led a squad that captured not just German prisoners but an intelligence gold mine. Postwar, Darnand would be called an "artisan de la victoire"--an artisan of victory.

By the end of the Second World War however, Darnand would be called something else: traitor.

Ron Howard & Adam Pearce's new podcast is here! Victoria Cross Hunters: In search of Valour

2027 Meuse-Argonne & Aisne-Marne Battlefield Tours

The BFWWP is on Patreon! Join the BFWWP community while supporting the podcast.

Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com.

Follow us on BlueSky and the BFWWP website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com.

Email me directly at [email protected] with any questions, comments, or concerns.

Please review the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes! :)

A recent trip to the American Civil War battlefield of Fredericksburg, VA inspired this short episode of one remarkable man who lived in that city and went on to serve his country during the First World War: Dr. Urbane Bass.

Champagne - 93rd Division in the Fight: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/battles-of-the-first-world-war-podcast/id1119044000?i=1000478892689

Champagne - "Les Enfants Perdus:" 93rd Division Operations on the Champagne Front: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/battles-of-the-first-world-war-podcast/id1119044000?i=1000485397109

Oise-Aisne - The Black Devils: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/battles-of-the-first-world-war-podcast/id1119044000?i=1000488258778

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 BlueSky at @WW1podcast.bsky.social:

https://bsky.app/profile/ww1podcast.bsky.social

and the BFWWP website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Email me directly at [email protected] with any questions, comments, or concerns.

New Ypres League member Kirsten Note joins the podcast to discuss her work as a battlefield archaeologist, where she has assisted the Commonwealth Graves Commission (CWGC) in recovering the remains of fallen soldiers of the Great War.

Find out more about the New Ypres League in this episode:

The New Ypres League with Roger Steward & Prof Mark Connelly

Please consider joining the New Ypres League and supporting remembrance efforts:

www.newypresleague.com

The BFWWP is on Patreon! Join the BFWWP community while supporting the podcast.

Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com.

Follow us on BlueSky and the BFWWP website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com.

Email me directly at [email protected] with any questions, comments, or concerns.

Please review the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes! :)

New Ypres League member Rosie Barron joins the podcast to discuss her work as part of the Joint Casualty & Compassionate Centre, aka the MOD War Detectives.

Join us for a fascinating conversation with someone whose daily work is to help identify the missing and unknown soldiers of the Great War and beyond.

Note: This podcast was recorded on August 20th, 2026, the day after news broke that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (Harry and Meghan) would be moving back to the UK, so that's why the references to them are in there.

Other podcasts on the New Ypres League:

What is the New Ypres League?

Ypres Day 2026

Demarcation Stones Fundraiser

Please consider joining the New Ypres League and supporting remembrance efforts:

www.newypresleague.com

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 BlueSky and the BFWWP website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com.

Email me directly at [email protected] with any questions, comments, or concerns.

Please review the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes! :)

Battles of the First World War Tours, part of the BFWWP, is excited to offer two WW1 battlefield tours for summer 2027:

Meuse-Argonne

July 01 - 07, 2027

A journey through the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the largest military operation conducted by the United States in its history.

Aisne-Marne

July 07 - 13, 2027

A journey through the Aisne-Marne Offensive, aka the 2nd Battle of the Marne, where the American Expeditionary Force served as part of the international force that stopped the Germans.

Contact the Battles of the First World War Tours team via email at [email protected].

Join us in walking in the footsteps of the Doughboys, and together we will honor their memory in an experience you will not forget.

Support the BFWWP on Patreon! BFWWP patrons receive early and ad-free access to all episodes, as well as access to other exclusive features.

Follow us on:

BlueSky

Instagram

FaceBook

and the BFWWP website: www.firstworldwarpodcast.com.

Email me directly at [email protected] with any questions, comments, or concerns.

Please review the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes! :)

New Ypres League member Christopher Sims joins the podcast to discuss his four decades of working for the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) as the Senior Cemetery Associate for World War I Flanders Field American Cemetery, in Waregem, Belgium. During his career with the ABMC, Christopher also authored a reference work titled "The Soldiers of the American Military Cemetery Flanders Field."

Join us for a conversation on preserving the memory of the American fallen in Flanders Fields.

ABMC's web page for Flanders Fields American Cemetery

Find out more about the New Ypres League in this episode:

The New Ypres League with Roger Steward & Prof Mark Connelly

Please consider joining the New Ypres League and supporting remembrance efforts:

www.newypresleague.com

The BFWWP is on Patreon! Give back to the podcast you enjoy.

Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Follow us on BlueSky at @WW1podcast.bsky.social:

https://bsky.app/profile/ww1podcast.bsky.social

and the BFWWP website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Email me directly at [email protected] with any questions, comments, or concerns.

Please review the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes! :)

Lady Lucy French, great granddaughter of BEF commander Field Marshal Sir John French, Roger Steward, Chairman and co-founder of the New Ypres League, Ypres Battlefield Tours guide, and author, join the podcast to discuss the Ypres Day commemoration events scheduled for the weekend encompassing the 31st of October, 2026.

Please consider joining the New Ypres League and supporting remembrance efforts:

www.newypresleague.com

If you're in Ypres, Belgium, contact Roger for tour details -

Ypres Battlefield Tours: www.ypresbattlefieldtours.be

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 BlueSky at @WW1podcast.bsky.social:

https://bsky.app/profile/ww1podcast.bsky.social

and the BFWWP website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Email me directly at [email protected] with any questions, comments, or concerns.

Please review the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes! :)

Following the discussion of German plans for their next great offensive, we turn now to French and Allied plans to meet this next attack.

Allied Supreme Commander Marshal Ferdinand Foch and French Army commander GEN Philippe Pétain intended to respond to this next attack differently: as soon as the Germans overextended themselves, a swift Allied counterattack would follow.

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 BlueSky at @WW1podcast.bsky.social:

https://bsky.app/profile/ww1podcast.bsky.social

and the BFWWP website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Email me directly at [email protected] with any questions, comments, or concerns.

***Technical note: My apologies on the audio reverb that may be heard in this episode.

A concise history revealing New Jersey's vital industrial, military, and civilian contributions to America's World War I effort.

During World War I, New Jersey played a prominent role in the manufacturing of war-related munitions, created the infrastructure necessary to train and mobilize troops, and supplied a portion of the manpower necessary to fight overseas.

Without the support of New Jersey's industrial base, the war effort of the United States may very well have failed. Contributions from New Jersey ranged from artillery rounds from Amatol, fuses from Bloomfield, shells from Lyndhurst, gun carriages (Singer), aircraft engines (Duesenberg), Handley Page Bombers from Elizabeth, and ship building (New York Shipbuilding and ELCO).

Over 140,000 New Jerseyans served during the war, and the state was home to 38 military installations by the end of the war, including Camp Dix. Troops from New Jersey included National Guard units activated and assigned to the 29th Division that trained at Camp McClellan, Alabama, and National Army soldiers (draftee) assigned to the 78th Division that trained at Camp Dix. New Jersey-based units from the 29th and 78th Infantry Divisions would fight in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. Women, too, underwent training in New Jersey, in preparation to serve in the Army Signal Corps, while women from the state volunteered to serve with aid organizations including the Red Cross, and raised money for the war effort.

In the post-war years, over 160 monuments were constructed across New Jersey to memorialize the war dead and honor the veterans who served in the Great War, including several of the famous "Spirit of the American Doughboy" statues produced by E. M. Viquesney. New Jersey mothers and widows would travel in pilgrimages to the battlefields and cemeteries of France, such as the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, as well as to Brookwood cemetery in Great Britain to visit the graves of their loved ones in the 1930s as part of the Gold Star Mothers and Widows Pilgrimage.

This book will for the first time reveal the full extent of New Jersey's pivotal role in America's war effort during the Great War, and will shed light on prominent figures and their connections to New Jersey, such as Dr. Fred Albee, the father of bone grafting, Cecil Dorrian, the first American female War Reporter in World War I, Amabel Roberts, the first American nurse from New Jersey to die during the war in France, and Lillian Marx, who danced and sang in Newark during war support donation events.

Where to buy: https://www.brooklinebooks.com/9781955041478/the-war-to-end-all-wars/

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 BlueSky at @WW1podcast.bsky.social:

https://bsky.app/profile/ww1podcast.bsky.social

and the BFWWP website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Email me directly at [email protected] with any questions, comments, or concerns.

Please review the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes! :)

The story behind an often erroneously captioned photograph of the First World War, and remembering the man in it.

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 BlueSky at @WW1podcast.bsky.social:

https://bsky.app/profile/ww1podcast.bsky.social

and the BFWWP website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Email me directly at [email protected] with any questions, comments, or concerns.