Aisne-Marne & Vesle Sector - SGT William Shemin

Battles of the First World War Podcast

Mike Cunha

History

4.8 • 812 Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the final days of the Aisne-Marne Offensive, American forces pursued the retreating Germans to the River Vesle in August 1918. During the battles for possession of the key village of Bazoches-sur-Vesle, an American son of Russian-Jewish immigrants would distinguish himself by looking out for his friends and soldiers.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	War is not about medals.
0:06.0	I love my country, I love my men.
0:09.0	That's all that counts.
0:12.0	Sergeant William Shemin, Company G, 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment,
0:19.0	4th Division, American Expeditionary Force, post-war. I'm...
0:40.3	... The
0:57.0	The Hey folks, welcome to the battles of the First World War podcast.
1:21.2	Ain Marn and Vell Sector, Sergeant William Shemin.
1:28.7	So, remember me, guys?
1:30.9	I'm the guy who does this podcast, and man, has it been a while.
1:35.2	As you guys have no doubt heard and seen, the thesis is done, y'all,
1:39.4	and I'm not sure words can convey how excited I am to get back into the BFWP.
1:50.0	In the spring, an article came into my emails regarding the gentleman who is the subject of this episode.
1:56.4	The tab to that article has been open in my browser since then, and despite several attempts to produce
2:02.6	something before heading off for the Lost Battalion Tour's summer pilgrimage, and writing the
2:09.1	thesis, it just could not happen. So, for the rest of spring and through the summer, I looked at that
2:16.1	tab and looked at it, and looked at that tab and looked at it and looked at it. And well,
2:20.3	here we finally are. So where we are headed this episode is to the very end of the second
2:30.6	battle of the Marn. When the battle shifted from the end of the N-Marn offensive
2:36.1	to holding the line in the Vell sector in August 1918.
2:41.6	The Allied counterattack on July 18th, on the newly formed German salient on the Marne,
2:47.7	had seen a combined force of French, American, British, and Italian
	...

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