Seicheprey - Cherry Blossoms in Spring

Battles of the First World War Podcast

Mike Cunha

History

4.8 • 812 Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2018

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Seicheprey is a little hamlet in the Woëvre, and in April of 1918 it was the scene of the first clash between the newly-arrived American Doughboys and the battle-hardened German soldier.

The Germans set out to teach the Americans a lesson: that they shouldn’t hope to tangle with the German soldier. In return the Americans, despite having a lot to learn, would teach a lesson or two of their own.

Having been overshadowed by titanic clashes elsewhere on the Western Front at the time, the Battle of Seicheprey was a stark and brutal introduction to the American Expeditionary Force of what modern industrial warfare was truly like.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It was our first real test.
0:05.9	He was a real, honest-to-goodness battle with charging infantry, galloping artillery, guns, spitting fire and roaring all around.
0:16.3	Shells falling thickly and shaking the earth.
0:19.4	The cough of motorcycle dispatch riders speeding through the
0:22.9	fires of hell and runners wounded, limping along to report and keep up communications. It was war,
0:30.3	as we had read about, and what a thrill it was to feel oneself a part of it.
0:39.4	Corporal Ernest LaBranch.
0:42.3	1002nd Field Artillery,
0:44.7	26th Infantry Division,
0:47.2	American Expeditionary Force,
0:50.6	Seishapre, April 1918. The 1918.
1:08.1	Hey folks.
1:17.8	Welcome to the Battles of the First World War podcast episode SA5, Cés Chary Blossoms in Spring.
1:28.9	In January 1918, the American Expeditionary Force's first division entered the frontline trenches in the Vuevre,
1:33.5	the region to the east of Saint-Mille in the northeast of France.
1:39.4	There, the eager doughboys organized into a mammoth infantry division,
1:51.0	27,000 men strong, man the trenches from Apremont Le Forre to Richcourt and Seche-Pret and joining the French on their right at Filles-Gé.
1:58.5	These are small villages and if you want to see them point your Google Maps or a similar map tool to Saint-Mille in France and look to the east. For further reference,
2:04.6	Saint-Mille is to the southeast of Verdun.
2:11.2	The Americans began thoroughly learning the business of trench warfare under the tutelage of the
2:16.9	French. They began to take casualties,
2:19.3	although these weren't the first. The first three American men to be killed in action,
	...

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