Giant with Feet of Clay: The U.S. Army Enters WWI - Richard S. Faulkner

At the centenary of United States’ entry in to World War I, join noted and invigorating lecturer, Dr. Richard Shawn Faulkner, for an examination of how the U.S. Army met the myriad of difficulties presented in entering the fray in the Great War and the country’s effectiveness as a fighting force.

The John J. Pershing Lecture Series is presented in partnership with the Command and General Staff College Foundation.

[jamieyoho]

Just discovered Dr Faulkner! Very impressed

[smithnwesson]

Its amazing looking back that prior to ww1 the United States military ranked 18th in the world behind Romana. A lot has changed.

[filipeamaral]

Colonel Richard S. Faulkner is one of my favorite lecturer. His narrative is always a pleasure and I feel like I am back at a bootcamp classroom. This subjet also interests me because the American military mission training the Brazilians for WWII had very similar complaints about our army preparation; it is an interesting parallel.

[Skanzool]

Excellent presentation. Dr. Faulkner is one of the best historians and always gives very good lectures.

[Aubury]

As an outlander, l found this lecture fascinating and educational.

[tlivingston]

Great lecture and great lecturer! I enjoyed this very much.

[tnarggrant]

Suicidal Cheerleader tactics is my favorite military niche.

[davidchardon]

Was the BEF, really the spearhead of the 100 days offensive ?

On the Western Front, the 1 November 1918 :

French Army :

- 102 infantry divisions, 6 cavalry divisions
- 2, 659, 084 men and 630, 440 horses
- 5, 578 heavy guns and 1, 626 trench guns
- 50, 700 chauchats and 30, 664 heavy MG's
- 1, 272 tanks
- 3, 609 planes

British Army :

- 60 infantry divisions and 3 cavalry divisions
- 1, 721, 890 men and 388, 00 horses
- 2, 197 heavy guns and 2, 570 trench guns
- 20, 000 lewis and 4, 632 heavy MG's
- 611 tanks
- 1, 678 planes (!!!)

American Army :

- 31 infantry divisions and no cavalry division
- 1, 821, 449 men and 151, 250 horses
- 746 trench guns and 406 heavy guns
- 18, 465 light MG's (most of them being chauchat CSRG 1918 and the rest being BAR's) and 6, 239 heavy MG's
- 91 tanks (lol)
- 2, 032 planes

[sarapatricius]

Thank-you Dr. Faulkner for another most interesting lecture!

[edwardrichardson]

Woodrow (“He kept us out of war” Wilson entered us into that war not because of Lusitania (which the Germans rightfully sunk) but because we had extended the Entente around $10 billion in loans and goods and it looked as if that train was going to get robbed. The Doughboys were little more than America’s Pinkertons. Now I know Wilson was a HUGE democracy fanatic and utopian League of Nations global world order dreamer, but the war debt was the central gear turning all other gears in the American war machine. Not surprisingly, Wilson creates the federal reserve and was issuing so many liberty bonds left and right, Congress adopted its first debt ceiling, though the term is laughable now. The late great historian Ralph Raico referred to this as the Warfare-Welfare State and you see it repeated again in WW2.

[daniel]

Shocking to see how Americans 100 years ago felt about interventionism!

[TalonAshlar]

Wilson was by no means committed to neutrality he allowed the cards to fall where they may and then intervened on the winning side.

[mugwump]

I opine that the Model of 1917 is a much better "combat" rifle than the '03.

[lindencamelback]

Would our founding fathers think today's military (its size & importance in the world) be a scandal or our destiny?

[toomanyuserids]

Leave time on an Essex carrier or a flock of Fletchers or all the logistics goes back into the 30s.

FDR got that right.

[philiproseel]

Sons and "daughters" In 1917? Sons and daughter.

[christopher]

amazing video except one of his last do you spend over a trillion dollars in Iraq if you dont have a large military industrial hes completely wrong. He should have said not as large as then.

[LucidFL]

28:26 Uh, does he realize all these immigrants are White?

[thermionic]

“Sons and daughters!” What are you talking about? In World War One we had the good sense to keep women out combat.

[clivejones]

Why does the USA have a WW1 museum? You were hardly there.