“The Hello Girls: America’s First Women Soldiers,” a Discussion with Elizabeth Cobbs

Ypres Battlefield Tours guide and author Roger Steward joins Professor Mark Connelly of the University of Kent, Canterbury, to discuss a new remembrance project: the New Ypres League.    A remembrance project aimed at preserving the memory of soldiers from all nations who fell in the Ypres Salient during the Great War, the New Ypres League is based on the original Ypres League that was present in Ypres in the years after the First World War. Where to join -   New Ypres League vzw: 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 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]. Rate, review, and subscribe to the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.  

A review of Lawrence Kaplan’s new book, “Pershing’s Tankers: Personal Accounts of the AEF Tank Corps in World War I,” and a couple of excerpts from men of the AEF 301st Tank Battalion.   Book link here:   https://www.indiebound.org/search/book?keys=Pershing%27s+Tankers   Order it from your local bookstore so that you support your local businesses.  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.   

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: 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.   

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: 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.   

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 employs the term “veteranism” to describe these women’s overarching philosophy that supporting, aiding, and caring for those who serve needed to be a chief concern of American citizens, civic groups, and the government in the war’s aftermath. However, these women did not express their views solely through their support for veterans of a military service narrowly defined as a group predominantly composed of men and just a few women. Rather, they defined anyone who served or sacrificed during the war, including women like themselves, as veterans.   These women veteranists believed that memorialization projects that centered on the people who served and sacrificed was the most appropriate type of postwar commemoration. They passionately advocated for memorials that could help living veterans and the families of deceased service members at a time when postwar monument construction surged at home and abroad. Finkelstein argues that by rejecting or adapting traditional monuments or by embracing aspects of the living memorial building movement, female veteranists placed the plight of all veterans at the center of their commemoration efforts. Their projects included diverse acts of service and advocacy on behalf of people they considered veterans and their families as they pushed to infuse American memorial traditions with their philosophy. In doing so, these women pioneered a relatively new form of commemoration that impacted American practices of remembrance, encouraging Americans to rethink their approach and provided new definitions of what constitutes a memorial. In the process, they shifted the course of American practices, even though their memorialization methods did not achieve the widespread acceptance they had hoped it would.   Meticulously researched, Forgotten Veterans, Invisible Memorials utilizes little-studied sources and reinterprets more familiar ones. In addition to the words and records of the women themselves, Finkelstein analyzes cultural landscapes and ephemeral projects to reconstruct the evidence of their influence. Readers will come away with a better understanding of how American women supported the military from outside its ranks before they could fully serve from within, principally through action-based methods of commemoration that remain all the more relevant today.   The Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) awarded this book the 2022 Arline Custer Memorial Award for the best book written in the Mid-Atlantic region. We have a promo code exclusively for BFWWP listeners! Use BATTLE24 to unlock a 30% discount on either format of the book when ordering directly from our website at:   https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817361211/forgotten-veterans-invisible-memorials/ 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]. Rate, review, and subscribe to the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.  

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 machine gun!   Joining us for this discussion are:   Alex Lyons, the man who spends his free time telling us the story of his Poilu great-grandfather on Twitter, Steve Marsdin, a student and researcher of the 1914 Battle of the Frontiers and its effects, Jim Smithson, author of “A Taste of Success: The First Battle of the Scarpe. The Opening Phase of the Battle of Arras 9-14 April 1917” and two guide books on the Arras battlefields James Taub, Associate Curator at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, PA, and a public historian with a specialty in French history, and its presentation to American audiences. 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.   

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 entrapment sites), - the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, - site of SGT Henry Gunther's death (last US KIA), - an "Indiana Jones" moment where we explore a new site for all of us,   - a day exploring the battlefield and town of Verdun, - and so much more!   Special requests in case are also possible if there is something important to you that you would like to see.   Details in the episode – do give it a listen!   Or contact us at [email protected]   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.

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: the town of Fismes and its sister village of Fismette. Both would have to be cleared of German troops for the advance to continue.    August 1918 saw weeks of staggering violence as American Doughboys and German Frontkaempfer fought tooth and nail for the ruins of these towns.    Interested in the 2024 Lost Battalion Tours’ Meuse-Argonne battlefield tour?    Email us: [email protected]   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. 

The Hello Girls of the WW1 US Army have never been officially recognized for the groundbreaking service they provided as America’s first women soldiers. In this call to action, an incredible group of people came on to talk about why the Hello Girls should receive the Congressional Gold Medal.   Joining us are:   Ms. Catherine Bourgin, granddaughter of Hello Girl Marie Edmee LeRoux Mr. Daniel Dayton, Executive Director of the World War I Centennial Commission Dr. Allison S. Finkelstein, Senior Historian at Arlington National Cemetery Ms. Claudia Friddell, award winning author of “Grace Banker and Her Hello Girls Answer the Call” COL Linda Jantzen, United States Army Signal Corps, Retired Carolyn Timbie, granddaughter of Grace Banker, Chief Operator of the 1st women's telephone unit that sailed to France in March, 1918 Ms. Phyllis J. Wilson, President of the Military Women’s Memorial in Arlington, VA Support a Congressional Gold Medal for the WWI Hello Girls! Instructions are here:   https://ww1cc.org/715-valor-medals/valor-medals-meet-the-heroes/7321-hello-girls-congress.html   US listeners, call your Congressional Representatives today! Interested in the 2024 Lost Battalion Tours’ Meuse-Argonne battlefield tour?    Email us: [email protected] 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.  

Historian, novelist, and documentary filmmaker Dr. Elizabeth Cobbs joins the podcast to discuss her 2019 book on the story of the US Army Signal Corps’ “Hello Girls,” the American Army’s first female soldiers.    Book link: http://elizabethcobbs.com/the-hello-girls   Elizabeth Cobbs’ website: http://elizabethcobbs.com/   Support a Congressional Gold Medal for the WWI Hello Girls!   https://www.worldwar1centennial.org/715-valor-medals/valor-medals-meet-the-heroes/7321-hello-girls-congress.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery   Interested in the 2024 Lost Battalion Tours’ Meuse-Argonne battlefield tour?    Email us: [email protected] 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.