History Of The Great War

By the second half of 1916 for both the French and Germans it was time for a change at the very top and by the end of the year both Joffre and Falkenhayn would be replaced. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Special free Patreon episode on the neutrals of Europe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A catch up episode of some random topics that missed previous episodes. Lord Kitchener dies, Britain institutes the draft, and politicians all over Europe start wondering if peace is a good idea. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lets talk about things for just a bit.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

October and November would be the final months on the Somme and another force would join the fighting, weather. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

September would be the month of the tank, the month of the last general offensives, and the most costly month for the Germans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

August and September were a depressing time for the British and French on the Somme as yet another effort would be launched and yet another effort would fail. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To celebrate episode 100 I asked listeners for questions, and here is what they came up with. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The last two weeks of July were a fitting end to what had been a month of hell for all of the men on the Somme. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The next big British effort would be on July 14th, it would actually sort of work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The attack was not over, but on July 3rd the British entered a lull in the fighting, a lull resulting in 25,000 more casualties. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The dreadful day of July 1st is over, so it is time to us to take a breath and look back, before looking forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the far south of the British line the 13th Corps goes hand-in-hand with the French, and things actually go pretty good. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is the Third and the Fifteenth Corps time in our story as they move out toward the German postions, and actually accomplish something. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 8th and 10th Corps moved forward against the German lines on July 1st, the results were less than amazing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After months of planning, and a week of artillery fire, the day had come, and July the 1st dawned. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A critical piece of the preparations for the Somme was the artillery, this episode looks at it in detail. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In early 1916 the British and French were gearing up for their next great offensive astride the banks of a little river called the Somme. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In early 1916 the British and French were gearing up for their next great offensive astride the banks of a little river called the Somme. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All three armies take a breather in the East, as all prepare for what is to come. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All three armies take a breather in the East, as all prepare for what is to come. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the East, the great battle of 1916 is about to begin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the East, the great battle of 1916 is about to begin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the East, the great battle of 1916 is about to begin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Rising, that so quickly came to be, will now quickly come to an end. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode we leave the battlefield and instead move to the streets of Dublin, which are about to erupt in rebellion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode we leave the battlefield and instead move to the streets of Dublin, which are about to erupt in rebellion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the fifth and final episode on the battle of Jutland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now it is time for the largest naval battle of the war, and I think the largest one in history up to 1916, so let's get to it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we pick up at that point with the battlecruisers of the two Admirals fully engaged with each other. There was however another group about the enter the battle and that was the 5th Battle Squadron and its 4 Queen Elizabeth class superdreadnoughts under the command of Evan-Thomas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So it begins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We start today on our story of the greatest naval battle of the war, it was an action that took place on the North sea on May the 30th and into the next morning. It involved 150 British ships and 100 German vessels. It would be both the biggest and the last purely surface encounter of primary fleets in naval history. Its result would be somewhat ambiguous with discussions even to this day on who was in fact the winner. The battle would be called Jutland by the British and Skaggerak by the Germans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Verdun, is over. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a long hard fought offensive the Germans were finally stopped by the end of July and now it was time for the French to start pushing them back, it is these actions that we will discuss today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode represents our third to last episode on the events of the battle of Verdun. In the months of June and July the Germans would launch another set of attacks, this time aiming for Fort Souville. This goal could have represented the final goal of the campaign, but we will never know. The effort of these attacks, coupled with the Brusilov Offensive in June and the British attack on the Somme in July, meant that this would also be the end of the German attacks at Verdun. Finally, we will discuss a bit about a change in the German high command where Falkenhayn is forced to resign in favor of Hindenburg and Ludendorff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we move forward to May and the attacks launched by both sides during the month. In the ned May would be catastrophically deadly for all involved. After covering the events of May we will then cover one of the most harrowing events of the entire campaign, the fall of Fort Vaux which occurred in June. It is an important event for sure, but it is more than that because of the events that occurred and the resistance of the French soldiers inside the fort well beyond the normal limits of resistance. There was an endless mountain of suffering at Verdun, but even in that mountain Vaux still stands out as an extreme case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week the Germans failed in their attacks on the West Bank at Verdun in March 1916. April would mark the beginning of what I am calling The Long Grind by which I mean a series of attacks and counter attacks against the same targets for the next several months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we will ask the question that the German leaders were also beginning to look around and ask themselves "what next." After the offensive finally came to a halt on the east bank on the 28th of February Falkenhayn, the Crown Prince, and Knobelsdorf would meet to determine the answer to that question, an answer that would eventually become an attack on the West Bank. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Into this situation there would be one man who was given command over Verdun and would forever be associated with the rest of the battle, than man was General Henri Phillipe Petain. Soon he would become the savior of Verdun, then the Savior of France, and then the man who led France to Victory. Through that process Petain would, more than any other single person on either side, become associated with Verdun. Today we will look at how Petain became involved with the fighting before talking about some of the decisions that he quickly made to stabilize the situation at the front. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we will look at the third and fourth days of fighting before looking at one incident that happened on the fifth day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today the action finally begins at Verdun. Today we will look at the opening German attacks on the first and second days of fighting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Up to this point in these episodes we have been discussing Falkenhayn, The Germans, and their plans for the attack almost exclusively. It is finally time to take a look at the French, what they had been up to, and how they prepared for the defense against the coming storm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we move one step closer to the start of the battle in February by looking at the German preparations for their attack. First we will talk about one of the most important features of the fighting, which was the masses of German artillery that would be utilized in the opening attacks. Then we will take our discussion of plans down another level of detail to look at how the Corps of the Fifth Army were arranged around Verdun and what orders were given to the infantry that would be executing the attack. Then we will dive into some specific preparations happening on the ground that were unique to the attack at Verdun. The German troops then had to suffer through weeks of waiting for the weather to be right for the attack, which was a painful and slow process given the winter weather that blew through the region in early February 1916. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we are going to dive much deeper into the German plans for their attack at Verdun. The attack would be planned for two phases, the first phase the attack at Verdun and then the second phase was the counter attack to a British or French relief offensive. We will also talk about why on earth the Germans would attack Verdun and more importantly the geography and fortifications around Verdun which made it such an imposing target for an army in 1916 to try and attack, let alone make any progress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In many ways Verdun became the First World War, and it distills down all of the problems that the armies had been facing since 1914, all of the lessons they had thought they had learned, and showcased so many of the problems that they still had to solve before either side could obtain victory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

100 years later and soldiers still come back from serving their country irrevocably changed. The fact that service men and women still suffer from problems not dissimilar from those experienced by men in the trenches gives this topic a type of applicability that often is not present in our histories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By January 1st 1916 the war, which was supposed to be over by Christmas was now 522 days old. And 1916 would be the year of the war, it would be the year that everybody remembers, it would be the year of Jutland, the year Verdun, the year of the Somme. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As 1915 drew to a close so to did the defiance of the little Balkan nation that started it all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The path to and away from unrestricted submarine warfare. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the first war in history submarines, or U-Boats as the Germans called them, would play an important role. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices