The Century: America's Time - 1914-1919: Shell Shock

Summary

Highlights

• The Lusitania's sinking in 1915 was a pivotal event, drawing the US closer to involvement in the war. 🚢
• Trench warfare was a grueling experience, leading to massive casualties and psychological trauma known as 'shell shock.' 💣
• The introduction of new weapons like tanks and gas transformed how battles were fought. 🛡️
• America's industrial boom during WWI set the stage for its emergence as a global power post-war. 🏭
• The Versailles Treaty would have lasting negative impacts, setting the stage for WWII. 🕊️

Key Takeaways

• WWI introduced devastating new technologies like poison gas, machine guns, and tanks that changed warfare forever. ⚔️
• The Lusitania tragedy brought the war's harsh realities closer to the American public. 🇺🇸
• Trench warfare defined this war, with invisible enemies and grueling conditions breaking soldiers' spirits. 🌧️
• America's entry into the war marked a significant turning point, both on the battlefield and in global politics. 🌍
• The Treaty of Versailles, meant to ensure peace, instead sowed the seeds of future discord and conflict. ⚖️

Overview

Chapters

• 00:00 - 05:00: Introduction and Lusitania The chapter titled 'Introduction and Lusitania' begins with introductory music and applause, setting a tone of anticipation and grandeur. However, the transcript provided does not contain coherent sentences or specific details, making it difficult to discern the chapter’s content solely from this text snippet. The main focus appears to be an introduction or prelude into the subject matter revolving around Lusitania, possibly exploring historical aspects, cultural impacts, or significant events related to it.
• 05:00 - 10:00: Outbreak of War The chapter titled 'Outbreak of War' begins with the setting at Pier 54 in New York City on May 1st, 1915. On this day, 2,000 passengers boarded a ship renowned for its speed and luxury. The scene sets the stage for unfolding events related to the onset of World War I, but further details are required to expand the summary.
• 10:00 - 15:00: War Enthusiasm and Initial Battles The chapter titled 'War Enthusiasm and Initial Battles' begins by introducing Lusitania, a ship noted for its beauty and distinctive red funnels. The narrative follows EDA Stanley and her family as they make their way back to England amidst an ongoing global conflict. The First World War had already been raging for nearly a year, casting a shadow on any transatlantic voyage due to the lurking threat of German submarines that made sea journeys perilous.
• 15:00 - 20:00: Impact of War on America The chapter titled 'Impact of War on America' includes a section on the Lusitania. It describes how passengers felt safe aboard the Lusitania, which was a passenger ship. The narrative captures a serene and beautiful afternoon as the Lusitania was nearing the Irish coast.
• 20:00 - 30:00: Technological Warfare and Trench Life The chapter titled 'Technological Warfare and Trench Life' details the destruction caused by a German torpedo on the Lusitania, emphasizing the intensity of warfare technology. Only a few lifeboats could be launched before the ship sank, highlighting the desperate situation faced by those on board. The narrative captures the chaos and urgency as people begged for help amidst the disaster.
• 30:00 - 40:00: Stalemate and Escalation The chapter explores the theme of 'Stalemate and Escalation'. It begins by discussing a tragic event where 1,200 individuals were involved in a drowning incident, with 128 Americans among those affected. While the memory of this event has faded for many, it remains vivid for a few, some of whom share their stories in this chapter. The chapter indicates that this event has had a significant impact on subsequent developments, suggesting a link between past tragedies and current or future situations.
• 40:00 - 50:00: Russian Revolution and U.S. Entry The chapter begins with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in June 1914 by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo. This assassination event is marked as the starting point of the First World War, known as the Great War. It highlights the interconnectedness of European royalty at the time, noting that Franz Ferdinand was part of a circle that included the king of England, the Tsar of Russia, and the Kaiser of Germany. Their empires collectively held sway over much of the Earth's population, leading to a complex web of alliances and rivalries. The aggression of the German Kaiser, magnified by this assassination, serves as a catalyst for the war.
• 50:00 - 60:00: American Contribution and War's End The chapter titled 'American Contribution and War's End' discusses the origins and consequences of World War I. It begins by explaining how European royals were eager to engage in war, hoping to expand their influence, not fully understanding the transformative impact the war would have on the 20th century. The summer of 1914 set the stage for this pivotal conflict, implicating a generation that would come to define the First World War.
• 60:00 - 72:00: Post-War Consequences and Treaty of Versailles This chapter delves into the immediate post-war consequences following World War I and the implications of the Treaty of Versailles. It highlights the enthusiasm of young men who were eager to serve their countries, unaware of the horrors they would soon face on the battlefield. The narrative also mentions the experiences of a twelve-year-old boy, Joachim von Elbe, living in the German city of Coblenz, who started a diary at the outbreak of the war, capturing the local environment filled with soldiers singing as they prepared for the conflict.

The Century: America's Time - 1914-1919: Shell Shock Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] country [Music] created [Applause] [Music] on this wall [Applause]
• 00:30 - 01:00 [Music] pier 54 New York City on May the 1st 1915 2000 passengers boarded one of the fastest most luxurious ships in the world the
• 01:00 - 01:30 Lusitania she was a city of wonderful steady ship chat for red funnels and she was a beautiful sight to say she really was EDA Stanley and her family were heading home to England and into the midst of the most brutal conflict man had ever experienced the first world war was almost a year old and any transatlantic crossing was made potentially dangerous by the presence of German submarines
• 01:30 - 02:00 still the passengers felt safe after all the Lusitania was a passenger ship [Music] on her last day at sea the Lusitania was approaching the Irish coast [Music] it was two o'clock in the afternoon and you could see all this coastline was a beautiful day could have been any better
• 02:00 - 02:30 terrific bang dad knew what he was I mean that he knew done when he was at Alpena the single German torpedo did such damage that the Lusitania could launch only six of her lifeboats before she went down we could not take the people and they were begging to be taken in any reader capsized and everybody would have gone
• 02:30 - 03:00 1,200 rounded they he was 12 on a drone more rather was saved among those who drowned were a hundred and twenty-eight Americans the memory has faded for all but a very few some of whom you'll hear from but because it has affected so much of what has happened since the bulk of this
• 03:00 - 03:30 program is about the First World War the Great War they called it it began in June of 1914 with the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Hungary he was shot by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo Ferdinand had governed in a circle of European royalty that also included the king of England the Tsar of Russia and the Kaiser of Germany and together their colonial empires dominated most of the Earth's population and when the competitive Kaiser seized upon the assassination as
• 03:30 - 04:00 a pretext to begin a European war he found the other Royals only too willing to go along all of them sought to widen their influence none could possibly realize how radically they were about to alter the course of the 20th century in the summer of 1914 the generation that would fight the First World War was
• 04:00 - 04:30 enthusiastic about doing so those young men who were so quick to answer their nation's call to arms had no reason to anticipate the hell ahead [Applause] in the German city of Coblenz twelve-year-old yo Keem von Elbe began a diary August 5 1914 the city is full of soldiers they were singing this song on
• 04:30 - 05:00 on to fight the are born on on to fight for the fatherland to Kaiser bill him the have sworn to president
• 05:00 - 05:30 [Music] the optimism of the Germans was matched by their allies in Austria and by their enemies in Russia in France and in England as soon as I enlisted I was in the crowd of Val other 1890 and 20 year old and we thought was going to be a tremendous tremendous lot to go and not the Kaiser of his strategy
• 05:30 - 06:00 everyone everyone thought the war would be over Christmas and they really badly wanted to get to France to get in the fighting [Music] [Music] the Germans attacked first
• 06:00 - 06:30 and very quickly they were through Belgium and into France the romantic notion of war that so many young men carried into battle was very quickly shattered the new weapons of war were so ferocious that by the end of the first year French casualties alone would approach a million man [Music]
• 06:30 - 07:00 nobody in York expected these important casualties and when they came they were utterly crushing [Music] the first dreadful experience was that of the victims of what was called the massacre of the innocents in Germany these boys from high school or college who were given a couple of months training and sent off to the front and who died in tens of thousands in a few
• 07:00 - 07:30 weeks [Music] nothing like that had ever happened before to any country in York and moreover this was the flower of German youth they were they the best educated young men they were from middle-class families almost exclusively and they had no expectation at all this terrible thing was going to happen [Applause]
• 07:30 - 08:00 Americans had never dreamed that a war on the other side of the ocean could affect them the US was officially neutral and most of its citizens assumed it would stay that way
• 08:00 - 08:30 people were going about their own business object being to make money good business everything was very pleasant indeed it's hard for people who weren't there them to realize how enormous see the world has changed our New Year's Day President Wilson had open house at the White House [Music] and he could go down a we went down once
• 08:30 - 09:00 I was a little kid I was I was taking off went downward and stood a little cue and it moved up and we all went through shook his hand shook hands with the President on New Year's Day [Music] but certainly America was changing the pace of life was quickening almost overnight Henry Ford's historic assembly line had lowered the cost of making cars as well as the cost of buying them the mass-produced Model T
• 09:00 - 09:30 came in one color black but at 295 dollars it was the first car priced within reach of ordinary Americans we played baseball in the streets there was no problem of playing baseball when horses and wagons dominated to traffic it only became a problem when automobiles and trucks
• 09:30 - 10:00 [Music] so much in America was changing as Europe went about its ugly war [Music] that this first movie that I attended I recall the scene where there was a great deal of shooting as they came to the front of the screen and that figures got
• 10:00 - 10:30 larger and larger and I thought they were coming at me and I started screaming so badly that had to take me out of the movie houses as moviemaking techniques improved movies became an American obsession and it was in the movie houses that Americans were exposed to the war in Europe in the movie house it still seemed glamorous we went every Saturday morning and dis devoured the
• 10:30 - 11:00 pictures of the war beautiful uniforms of the dashing mounted cavalry with her flashing sabers in the Sun driving into battle and oh I thought that would be something else I was just just eighteen to go
• 11:00 - 11:30 [Music] the movies were the perfect proving ground for the new art form called propaganda Americans saw and soon sympathized with the British view of the Germans [Music] by early 1915 the war in Europe was good for America u.s. banks were lending huge amounts of money to Britain and France
• 11:30 - 12:00 who in turn used the money to buy arms from American factories with the war Americans were in the greatest economic boom in their history during the war everybody worked before the war my father brought home six or seven dollars a week now he brought home checks for one hundred one hundred and ten dollars
• 12:00 - 12:30 a week it was like it was like bringing home a check for a million the war had another effect it virtually cut off European immigration to the United States causing a labor shortage in American factories and that forced northern employers to look for the very first time at the substantial black labor pool of the American South black newspapers we went down south and told
• 12:30 - 13:00 them and come on up Chicago with us we'll get you a job and take you you know I have to stay down here and be lynched employed my relatives and uncle cousins came north he was getting into factories and steel mills jobs that just wouldn't have been available to blacks under normal
• 13:00 - 13:30 circumstances this great migration from the South kept America's economy strong and vigorous while the increasing economic stake in Britain and France encouraged greater support for their war against the Germans but the war was not going well and the idea that Americans might yet have to be involved was now an issue all over the United States with the support of former President Theodore
• 13:30 - 14:00 Roosevelt potential volunteers began to train for battle [Music] by Christmas 1914 the armies of Europe had completely bogged down and fighting had spread to Russia Africa and the Middle East the empires drew on their colonies for manpower 60 countries were eventually represented in the conflict
• 14:00 - 14:30 the Germans had expected to win in 42 days but they had not anticipated what would happen on the Western Front in France on the Western Front the German assault had finally failed and soldiers on both sides had raced to dig an elaborate trench system that stretched for 300 miles from the English Channel all the way to Switzerland on New Year's Day in 1915 the young men who had gone
• 14:30 - 15:00 off to fight glorious battles were now trapped in a desperate war of attrition [Music] someone said to us excitedly Jack Smith I said what about him instead he'd been chopped the first swab of the battalion to be
• 15:00 - 15:30 shot I said what yes he's dead speak shot he put his head too far over the cipher gossamer and that caused a bit of a sensation amounts their balance they thought well this is not exactly what we come for father business but later on from that day onwards but we were to the trenches it was three killed four kill five kill 20 killed a hundred kill by
• 15:30 - 16:00 then we was Veterans a young American poet Alan Seeger was among those looking for adventure when he joined the Foreign Legion to fight for France his diary reveals how seldom
• 16:00 - 16:30 he found it it's a miserable life shivering in these wretched holes in the dirt we're not leading the life of men at all but that of animals living in our holes on the ground and only showing our heads outside to fight into feed [Music] where we be there about six months coveted but wet so practically all day absolutely chewed up my life for you to
• 16:30 - 17:00 say and to think we wanted to come to this whole I said yes we didn't know [Music] every so often one side or the other seized a few hundred yards of territory only to be forced back again surrendering what had costs hundreds of lives to win the front never moved more than a mile or two in either direction
• 17:00 - 17:30 by the spring of 1915 the generals had concluded that the best way out of the stalemate was to blast the enemy out of their trenches [Music] the same factories in assembly lines that had begun to contribute to life in the 20th century we're now retooled to create massive killing machines
• 17:30 - 18:00 this was the industrialization of war [Music] [Music] they're just a splintered types of trees
• 18:00 - 18:30 there's the corner of the shell holes and no glare no grasp it was just like a lunar landscape really [Music] that night the rats they grew to
• 18:30 - 19:00 enormous sizes feeding on the bone and the corpse was that it was it possible to get to get the dead buried we put dead bodies in the bottom of the trench so that we could stand on the prefer to keep drawing and in some occasion dead bodies was put on the top of the trench to make it higher so that we could walk a bit better instead of crouching
• 19:00 - 19:30 and contributing to the stalemate word new weapons by now the machine gun had been perfected to the point that a single soldier could command as much firepower as 40 riflemen [Music] the tank made its first appearance invented by the British to get through the dense thickets of barbed wire that
• 19:30 - 20:00 protected the enemy trenches and in April 1915 the Germans introduced the most terrifying weapon of all poison gas no one had ever seen it before this is the moment when chemical warfare was invented it scared the living daylights out of the Canadian troops that were hit by it
• 20:00 - 20:30 the First World War had become a contest not of fighting spirit but a technological night and for the soldiers caught in the middle of it there was no way forward and no way back there was simply endurance your saw a little bush
• 20:30 - 21:00 yes whoa that bush was somebody creeping up on you the perfect sword of that net war would have been somebody with no imagination whatsoever we all had too much imagination [Music] so many men who had been through these dangers and anxieties their love broken
• 21:00 - 21:30 they were the victims of shell shock you know there is a breaking point for most people for anybody really robbed of all humanity and courage and everything else makes life worth living really he's descended of something less than human
• 21:30 - 22:00 the stalemate in the trenches continued through 1915 and into 1916 when the generals decided to go back to their original weapon their men [Music] the river some northern France early summer 1916 along a front 25 miles wide a massive Allied army prepared to attack
• 22:00 - 22:30 thousands of British tummies as they recalled would lead the charge and they would follow one of the most intense bombardments in the history of warfare and artillery barrage would last an entire week [Music] the battle of the somme was about to begin that must be a thousand gods if there was one it was a terrible roar for
• 22:30 - 23:00 Borden tonight but the foolish officers said tomorrow boys will be over the top and don't worry sis there'll be no trenches there how she'll have blown to pieces there were no Germans there they're blown to pieces all you have to do is to walk over and take those trenches in fact he says
• 23:00 - 23:30 you'll carry your rifle like a bag [Music] the Germans after the shelling they simply come out of the dugouts grabbed their machine guns and then waiting for the Townies [Music] they just simply shrugged them down so you're cutting down grain they didn't get 200 feet in the trench when German
• 23:30 - 24:00 machine gunner said I stopped firing because I was sickened by what we were doing it was the bloodiest day in British history 20,000 men killed 40,000 wounded
• 24:00 - 24:30 and yet the day after and four days after that young men continued to be ordered out of their trenches and into near certain death how it volunteer Alan Seeger was killed on July the 4th on the same morning Ted Francis waited for the signal to go [Music] officers are down below us in the trenches with a whistle and where they blow that whistle away double - out of the trenches and make for this German
• 24:30 - 25:00 tips and it's et season though still four or five minutes but we look at each other and say I would also do this sub were visibly shaken some were crying and of course when the whistle went our we had to scramble over
• 25:00 - 25:30 [Music] the battle of the somme would come to define the futility of the First World War it went on for six more months at a cost of a million men and at the end of it the Allied armies had moved a grand total of five miles the guns of the Somme were so loud and so insisted that they were heard across the English
• 25:30 - 26:00 Channel in London a hundred and fifty miles away in every country that was involved in the war there were growing problems at home after so many years of struggle the disillusionment of the battlefront now extended to the home front Russia in particular was right for revolution its people were starving and it's battered army was on the verge of defeat in February 1917 a food riot
• 26:00 - 26:30 broke out in the city of Petrograd which had been called Saint Petersburg in no time Russia was embroiled in full-scale revolution the ruling family led by Tsar Nicholas was brought down 300 years of royal rule were replaced by a provisional government that stubbornly decided to continue the war
• 26:30 - 27:00 the Germans chose this moment to help a Russian revolutionary returned home from exile the man who spoke for a socialist movement known to Russians as the Bolsheviks his given name was flattered me Leonov he's better remembered as Vladimir Lenin sascha Bryansk II served as Lenin's bodyguard spoke with a lot of gestures rushed forward calling us through the lands saying power had been taken over
• 27:00 - 27:30 by the bourgeoisie that went on with the bloody war a new order had to be established to ensure the power of the working class Lenin and the Bolsheviks hoped to create the world's first communist state where all land capital and political power would be given to the people for many Russians it would mean the end of privilege [Applause]
• 27:30 - 28:00 victory of the Bolsheviki would mean the end of Russia that we that we knew I remember one evening at our country place I was running down the lawn to call my mother to tell her that supper was ready and I suddenly stopped and he was all the beauty around the roses the trees the park the lawns it was a
• 28:00 - 28:30 beautiful place it was sunset and I stopped and said all this disappears all this will be gone that was the one moment I remembered that feeling of fear that the whole world of which I was pardoned was a support and it would in October 1917 Lenin encouraged an
• 28:30 - 29:00 insurrection against the provisional government that had replaced the fallen Tsar the end came at the Czar's old wooden house I ran up the carpeted stairway in the very first room I saw soldiers standing with their rifles ready I shouted down put down your weapons defenders just dropped their weapons
• 29:00 - 29:30 we saw the fires in the Nike and then after five or six days the shooting died there were no more guns so we knew it was over and we knew that we eventually he had warned [Applause]
• 29:30 - 30:00 with Lennon's victory Russia quickly withdrew from the war but the Germans had seen their plans succeed only to find that they now faced a new opponent it was clear to most Americans now that Germany regarded them as an enemy to President Woodrow Wilson resisted the demands to get involved for a while but
• 30:00 - 30:30 by 1917 the Germans had increased their attacks on unarmed ships and then they brazenly urged Mexico to invade the United States the president felt he had no other option on April the 2nd 1917 Woodrow Wilson stood anxiously before a special session of Congress and asked for a declaration of war he hoped it would be the war to end all wars he said it is a fearful thing for me to try to
• 30:30 - 31:00 lead a great peaceful people into war it could be one of the most terrible and disasters of all wars but let me tell you this right is more precious than peace the idea of a last great war and being part of it was very very strong strong appeal and
• 31:00 - 31:30 it certainly influenced me a great deal I said this we never got to see another war this is the time to see it in the summer of 1917 American troops landed in France returning the favor of
• 31:30 - 32:00 Lafayette's the French soldier who would fought with America during the Revolutionary War one of the officers he said it loud enough for everybody he did not see and he was weary disease Lafayette Lafayette new lovely it would Lafayette Lafayette we are here [Music] there was coverage at the end of our
• 32:00 - 32:30 being and when the Americans decided to have a go I was absolutely a said array they were untouched by the anxiety doubts that had afflicted everybody else by that stage they were they were American no they were American they worked the Americans were supposed to be
• 32:30 - 33:00 they were enthusiastic they were also badly armed poorly trained and like the Europeans before them completely unprepared for what lay ahead [Music] the train came through from the front and we got the gold board of course which we did it sooner we couldn't get
• 33:00 - 33:30 on it and asked guys how was up there what's going on and what are you doing and it was a hospital stream I can see these four kids like me youngsters but the lake are two arms go on well this is a
• 33:30 - 34:00 kind of a cold water treatment all of a sudden to realize what law was like you grew up very quickly surroundings like that there is no longer freshman studies it was a real world
• 34:00 - 34:30 by 1918 with thousands of Americans pouring into France every day the Germans decided they had to do something massive [Music] the March 1918 the German army tried its last major gamble last major offensive on the Western Front it was successful was a remarkable moment the Western Front moved war of movement finally
• 34:30 - 35:00 arrived and after years of impasse the Germans suddenly threatened to overwhelm the Allies and actually captured the French capital Paris the Germans had a fire they called it sweeping fire everything upon earth got hit they were wounded or died the threat to Paris was so severe than a million people simply
• 35:00 - 35:30 left the city the Germans got to within 30 miles at this point these still semi trained American divisions we're thrown into the bath along with the French managed to stop the German drop [Music] the Germans had put everything into this
• 35:30 - 36:00 last desperate effort and when it was over they were finally spent along the Western Front that autumn the focus shifted from war to peace on the 10th of November the Kaiser was forced into exile by his own government a victim of the war he had helped to start this not me so deeply that I can't
• 36:00 - 36:30 tell you I has a little picture of the Kaiser in my room but did I do I put a black tie around the picture to show my other sorrow for this tremendous change in history and finally at the 11th hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month November 1918 the Germans formally surrendered
• 36:30 - 37:00 and suddenly the guns stopped and there was a terrible shock as if somebody had hit me over the head with a big pan [Music] and sudden hush after four years of continual gunfire and become part of our
• 37:00 - 37:30 life that seemed to be something missing we didn't believe it June [Music] [Applause]
• 37:30 - 38:00 [Music] one of the greatest calamities in human history was over and America's veterans began to return home [Music]
• 38:00 - 38:30 the trouble was that having made the world a safer place American veterans returned to a very uncertain future the economy that the boomed during the war was now shrinking factories were laying off workers just as veterans came looking for jobs we had no help to find a job no grants to go to school to finish our college education when you took your
• 38:30 - 39:00 discharge that was it you had no more connection with the government are they with you you were on your own [Music]
• 39:00 - 39:30 in the winter of 1918 Europe was a disaster the empires of Germany Austria and Russia had been shattered leaving destitute nations in their wake [Music] even the victors Britain and France grappled with ruin and rage [Music]
• 39:30 - 40:00 in all nine million men had died every family had lost someone a father a son a brother a cousin a friend [Music]
• 40:00 - 40:30 for years the wounded in the maimed haunted the streets of every city in Europe [Music] and even those who had escaped physical harm were forever changed by the great war subtabs are thinking about the war toward three
• 40:30 - 41:00 o'clock and my brother beat it my best friend be killed I wonder why live lie dead bed how is it's the sideline a and they're all dead I lost all my youth I lost the best years of my life you might say and I lost her many friends it was all lost for me I mean a few medals don't make up
• 41:00 - 41:30 for that you know nobody wins in a war they lost we didn't win into this chaos traveling to a post-war peace conference in the French town of Versailles came President Woodrow Wilson with him President Wilson brought his
• 41:30 - 42:00 so-called fourteen points which called for liberty and self-determination for all even the enemy the people of Britain and France greeted Wilson ecstatically for he represented the hope of democracy but the British and French governments were interested in revenge the Versailles peace treaty is the politics of hatred it was the encapsulation of every
• 42:00 - 42:30 mean-spirited element on the Allied side the new Soviet Union was completely excluded from the peace conference and not one victorious power was ready to give up a colony sowing the seeds of future discord Britain and France added several colonies by carving up the Middle East as for the Germans they were forced to accept conditions that would humiliate and impoverished them for
• 42:30 - 43:00 years in the end Versailles was about punishment not peacemaking in many ways all those men who died nine million men died for nothing [Music] almost before it was over then it was clear that the legacy of this war would be anything but the end of all wars within 30 years these same nations would
• 43:00 - 43:30 all fight again over precisely the same ground the war had shown technologies dark side but dark or bright technology was here to stay and in the decade that followed an electric pulse of change ran through America we'll see that on the next episode of the century America's time
• 43:30 - 44:00 thank you for joining us I'm Peter Jennings [Music]