WW1 Centennial News: Episode #34 - Trains | Planes | You’ve got Mail | Dissent in German Forces | Being German in America | War Letters | 100C/100M profile | Word=Strafe…

Highlights

Moving the goods - The railroads and the war effort |@ 01 :00

Lynn Heidelbaugh - The postal service in WW1 |@ 08:20

The “Hat in the ring Gang” - Centennial of the 94th Aero Squadron |@ 13:40

Mike Shuster - Dissent in the German forces |@ 15:15

Richard Rubin & Jonathan Bratten - Being German ain't easy in 1917 |@ 19:50

Speaking WW1 - This week’s word “Strafe” |@  29:30

John Motley - 100C/100M project in Fort Towsen, OK |@ 30:20

Andrew Carroll - Center for American War Letters |@ 36:45   

And more…

Opening

Welcome to World War 1 centennial News - It’s about WW1 100 years ago this week  - and it’s about WW1 NOW - news and updates about the centennial and the commemoration.

Today is August 23rd, 2017 and our guests this week are:

Lynn Heidelbaugh, Curator at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum

Mike Shuster from the great war project blog,

The Storyteller and the Historian, Richard Rubin and Jonathan Bratten   

John Motley from the 100 Cities / 100 Memorials project in Fort Towson, Oklahoma

And Andrew Carroll, Founding Director of the Center for American War Letters at Chapman University

WW1 Centennial News is brought to you by the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission and the Pritzker Military Museum and Library. I’m Theo Mayer - the Chief Technologist for the Commission and your host. Welcome to the show.

World War One THEN

100 Year Ago This Week

[MUSIC TRANSITION]

We’ve gone back in time 100 years to explore the war that changed the world!

It is 1917 and America is preparing a war effort that is transforming her

more quickly than any previous event in her short history.

For example, 100 years later people will simply take for granted, the country’s ability to move huge volumes of goods, resources and people across the vast land. But there is no highway system in 1917… There are few canals… but there is a large and even transcontinental infrastructure - The railroads!

So it is not surprising, that trains quickly becomes a key strategic element in the war effort, 100 years ago.

Following are some the headlines and notes from the Official Bulletin - America’s War Gazette published daily by the Committee on Public Information, the US government propaganda ministry headed by George Creel.

We’ll track the story about the railroads through its headlines and pages starting just a month after war is declared.

[SOUND EFFECT]

Dateline: May 15, 1917

Headline: BILL TO GIVE PRESIDENT POWER OVER FREIGHT SHIPMENTS INTRODUCED

The story reads:

"As war conditions develop It is certain there will be times when the shipment of arms and ammunition may be of prime importance ; at another time the movement of provisions may be more important; yet at another, the movement of coal and Iron ore may become the most Important of all.

Under these conditions It is thought essential that the President should have the power to determine what particular freight shall have priority and for how long this priority should continue.

Less than a month later --  the scope of the challenge is outlined in the Bulletin:

[SOUND EFFECT]

Dateline: June 5th, 1917

Headline: THE MOBILIZATION OF RAILROADS FOR THE NATION'S WAR NEEDS ARE DEFINED

The story reads:

Freight cars are lacking…

There are 2,500,000 freight cars in the United States and their capacity is barely sufficient for current commercial needs.

The railroads in the near future will use 120,000 cars to transport material for the construction of the ' new army ' training camps, and a continuous flow of cars to keep those camps in supplies. They estimate that It will take 200,000 cars to carry the material used for the construction of the Government merchant ships, whether of stee