somewhere that is completely secluded. we are dealing not only with the cultural context. we are looking at individual experiences and needs for privacy. >> monday night on "the 2.mmunicators" on c-span coming up next, old dominion university professor timothy lord talks about how world war i was different from previous wars and highlights some of the major battles. this introduction is just under half an hour. >> at this time, i'd like to bring up dr. timothy orr, who will lead all of our sessions today. dr. orr is a professor of history at old dominion university and specializes in american military history and the history of the civil war era. in particular, he's written on union mobilization and the lives of union soldiers. his latest research focuses on partisan conflict within the

officer corps and also a divergent set of interests, u.s. naval dive bombing during the battle of midway. dr. orr teaches courses on history. dr. timothy orr. [applause] >> on september 19, 1917. >> on september 13, 1917, a german soldier, who had been off the front lines for a full year, received the iron cross, second class. one of 5.1 million medals awarded by the german army. he was not pleased. at first he admitted that the medal offered him some small sense of compensation for his services. but the more he looked at it, the more despicable the medal appeared. the day after he received it, he wrote, when i was left alone, i had quite different thoughts from those that were in my mind before.

jules elaborated, telling his reader that the more he looked at it, the less it appeared like a stylus and the more it resembled a grotesque, ghastly impression of the war's brutality. he focused on the colors, solid black guilded with a sickly yellow edge. the more he began to imagine nightmarish colors he had seen on the western front, all things that he had seen were black, crusted in yellow. he had wrote, it seemed as if the cross were made of splinters, black blood congealed on a yellow face with open mouth. bandages crusted with pus. strangled cries of hoarse voices. gangrenous flesh. the thought unsettled him. he did not want to see all those black and yellow sights again.

he said, i wait for what fate may bring. i am low-spirited and love the dusk. incidentally, jules did not have to wait long. four days later, he was killed. jules' jaded opinion of the hollowness of glory well defined the experience of the great war. the symbol of the iron cross took on two meanings. one, a symbol of courage and fortitude. the other, the emblem of suffering and death. the other was a vision of the soldiers, those who remembered only the war's human cost. the final proof of the finite nature of human existence. in this way, the great war was like all armed conflicts. it emphasized the essential disparity between what the war actually was and what people wanted it to be. but the great war was unique in that contrary to other conflicts, the impersonal forces

of war did not wait long to teach this lesson of disillusionment. humankind came to accept the emptiness of the war spirit, an astonishing transformation, given that the war occurred within the zenith of national discourse. how can such a transformation happen so quickly? i would contend that the sweeping forces of organization accounted for the speed with which humanity destroyed itself from 1914 to 1918. strategists were so well-prepared for this war that their plans accelerated the rate at which the usual restraints that normally held back mindless destruction were broken down. in short, the emphasis on order and organization produced the senselessness and chaos that marked the battles on the western front. a cursory survey of the military history of the great war, to the world view of the ordinary fighter, gives one the sense that organization and disorder went hand in hand. when the great war began, it did not find the military planners

in europe flat-footed or even unaccepting of the globe's new conflict. indeed, for years, both france and germany possessed precise, detailed plans of invasion. germany had an elaborate plan. this strategy entailed a massive movement through belgium, bypassing the network of fortresses. although the new chief of staff greatly altered this strategy in the years before 1914, fundamental thrusts and its inadequacies remained firmly in place. the french, meanwhile, had an elaborate plan of their own. it involved a massive multiarmy offensive intended to slam into the german left flank. in short, neither of the two nations felt a sense of unreadiness when the diplomatic situation broke down so quickly in the summer of 1914. both offenses ran into trouble.

the french assault ground to a halt first, its three armies coming to a bloody standstill. the german offensive maintained for longer. but it too ground to a halt just short of paris. there it received a sudden surprise. the commander of french forces had shifted troops from his right flank to reinforce his left. thus arose the so-called race to the sea. the series of leap-frogging moves by the germans and allies to turn the enemy's northern flank. neither side gained an advantage by these maneuvers but by mid-october they had run out of land. quite unintentionally, they created a stalemate, extending from the english channel in the

north to the swiss border in the south. for the soldiers, the early phase of the war was eye-opening, particularly in regard to how quickly they become demoralized when staring into the face of battle. one general joined up in august 1914, because in his words he felt ashamed to be seen in civilian clothes. he told his parents he could not live in a peaceful city anymore. the nation could not sit idly by. quite certain that he meant to die in a glorious cause, he wrote home, dear father, mother, please don't think me cruel, but it would be a good thing if you two would, with brave hearts, get accustomed to the idea that you will not see me or any of my brothers again. then if bad news does come, you will be able to receive it more calmly. however, within three weeks, he had trouble squaring his glorious cause with the inhuman nature of combat. his first battle was long, loud and offered him no opportunity

to even see his foe. he said this ghastly battle is raging for the fourth day. like most battles in this war, it has consisted almost entirely of an appalling duel. i am writing this letter in a grave-like hole. the shells are falling so thickly that one may regard it only as the mercy of god if one comes out. he was eager for peace once again, writing to his parents. he said, yes, i can hardly believe it myself, but it is true. i am on my way to you and home. oh, how happy i am to see a brighter world again, instead of that world of horror. i am at last free from that secret dread that i should never see your world again. unless some unforeseen obstacle should arise, i shall look into your eyes once more.

unfortunately for him, an unseen obstacle did arise. four days later, he was dead from tetanus. those soldiers who succumbed to the war's early effects were spared the grim horrors of the later years. but the opening months offered no easy combat, as the war transformed into a bloody stalemate on the western front, sharp conflict took place on the other side of europe. here the germans placed a single army in the path of russian soldiers. on the eastern front, the german army operated under the notion that it must stall for time until the western front was decided. oddly enough, it was here that the outnumbered germans showcased masterful tactics. at the end of august, the german army nearly annihilated the russian army. the russian advance made better progress against the austrian army. they brought this allied offensive to a halt by mid-december. just like the western front, the east was quickly transformed into a stalemated line, where the two sides jockeyed indecisively. although the eastern front represented near hell on earth as anyone would want, for the

next two years, the warring powers focused on the west. by the end of the war, that fighting chopped up 7.9 million allied soldiers and 5.6 million soldiers attached to the central powers. deep entrenchments, land mines and elaborate bunkers, rendering frontal assaults entirely impractical. a german soldier described a typically useless foray into the so-called no man's land. a continuous whistle of bullets. on my right, another man was shot in the arm. i got a bullet. so we lay behind a hedge. we were supposed to fire but could see no enemy. we went farther on, getting into complete disorder. no officers left and comrades falling in rows.

still, we went on. suddenly, tick-tack. our own machine gun was firing at our backs. and that finished us. we went back, bittering disappoint, grinding our teeth. -- bitterly disappointed, grinding our teeth. then, from behind the last straw stack, we heard the cries of badly wounded comrades lying, still under heavy fire. two comrades and i crawled out in spite of the fire but could not get them in. weeks later, i came upon them, on patrol, and had to crawl over them, rows of dead bodies. he added to the growing rolls of body personally. he was killed soon after. throughout 1915 and 1916, the allied and central powers sought alternatives. something to break the stalemate. they attempted mass artillery barrages, aerial reconnaissance.

still, none of these alternatives remodeled the essential point of the infantry offensives, that breaking through the western front required at some level a mass infantry attack across no man's land. the first allied attempts to break the stalemate through mass assault began in the spring of 1915 and they did not let up. every day, some small engagement occurred along the line. the two largest offenses came in 1916. they committed 1.2 german soldiers in the attacks against the french. by the end of the struggle, the french admitted to suffering 337,000 casualties while the german suffered somewhere about 281,000. despite months of heartache, the series of battles barely altered the front lines, driving them a few miles here and there, but nothing decisive enough to break either side's commitment to holding that sector. just as the battle sputtered to a close, the british organized

the ambitious offense of their own. they planned an attack along a 20-mile front, using a portion of the french army. for a solid week, 1400 british guns rained 1.5 million shells into german lines. then on july 1, british infantry rolled forward. the british having achieved little destruction with their artillery, the defenders easily retaliated against the british soldiers, inflicting 30,000 casualties in an hour's time. by the end of the day, that number rose to 57,000. the offensive droned on until november, adding 630,000 additional allied casualties to the roll. but again, doing nothing to break the deadlock.

the fighting had a particularly devastating effect on the spirit of the survivors. even the most hearty and driven soldiers felt an overpowering urge to cease action, even commit acts of mutiny, just for the sake of self-preservation. a lieutenant, a french officer, simply qualitied in his cell hole on june 30. he decided he'd had enough. so he claimed, when his head started buzzing uncontrollably. as he admitted in his journal, he simply sat down and waited an unfriendly shell to land in the hole and kill him instantly. soon, wounded men started to fill the hole beside him, asking for help. what can we do? they asked. there are clouds of smoke. the air is unbreathable. death everywhere. he described the human wreckage. at our feet, the wounded groaned in a pool of blood. two of them, more seriously hit, are breathing their last. one man has one eye hanging out of his socket. in addition he has lost his leg.

the second man has no face, an arm blown off. moaning atrociously, they say, lieutenant, i'm suffering, please help me. the other implores me to kill him with these words, lieutenant, if you don't want to, give me your revolver. frightful, terrible moments. we are splattered with mud and earth by the shells. for hours, these groans and supplications continue. they die before our eyes, without anyone being able to help them. the dramatic loss of life did not halt the allies fondness for the offenses. in 1917, they only increased the frequency with which they tested the german offensive perimeter. -- defensive perimeter. knowing the overthrow of the czarist government in russia would soon knock out their strongest allies. the generals planned a series of

offenses to ravage the so-called line. they launched the offenses, and they all came to screeching halts. the germans offered an elastic offense, which allowed allied troops to penetrate the line, only to find more serious symptoms of interacting fields of fire in the secondary and tertiary lines to the rear. the germans minimized their losses, only to retake it again. the british lost 47,000 men and ended up getting pushed back to an area behind their initial line of departure. despite the victories they had achieved in 1917, the german armies elected not to sit passively in 1918. with the u.s. now entering in on the side of the allies, german high command believed that their armies were under the clock. they had to bring about a decisive victory before the american forces entered the

fray. the major planned a meticulous spring offensive, one that meant to hurl three armies to the front. they utilized attack formation. 32 infantry divisions in front supported by 27 reserves, the german armies plowed into the british position, pushing it back some 35 miles. the largest offensive surge on the western front in terms of mileage of the entire war. still, germany's offensive did not achieve its goals. british generals managed to plug their lines with reinforcements. undeterred, they sent four more attacks in the area. by the time it was over, another 680,000 german soldiers had become casualties. by the end of the german spring

offensive, an important change in the allied war effort. the american force had finally arrived in significant numbers. the u.s. entered the war back in april 1917 and after a speedy period of mobilization, the state had raised 3.6 million soldiers. the first 50,000 arrived at summer, with 250,000 more arriving each month, in 1918. the german's spring offensive made its last gasp, attacking a newly arrived division. but the american troops held their sector firm. now charged with coordinating all the allies on the western front, they used the offensive to initiate a counteroffensive of their own. attacking the salient. the offensive went better than anticipated, reducing the enemy pocket by august 8. spurred on by an american general, who was not content to

let his soldiers sit in the trenches for too long, faulk ordered too simultaneously offensives. the primarily american part of the offensive counted more than 850,000 troops. and this surge lasted from september 26 until november 11. like all the other offenses prior to this, the assault was terribly disappointing. the offenses stopped well short of their objectives, sustained 117,000 casualties, including 26,000 killed. to the americans, fresh faced and untroubled by years of failure, the war they had entered was nothing like they imagined. although they accepted the death toll for what it was, they had a hard time accepting the fact that every area, even the rear positions, were dirty, unsanitary and unsafe. 27-year-old corporal ross of the 665th artillery, found himself at the forefront of the last offensive. marching his way on, he noted

the horrible conditions on the road. it was pouring down rain, he noted, as dark as pitch in the woods. we got the order to form single file and place a hand on the shoulder in front of us. we crossed the stream on a narrow foot bridge and then were told to sleep anywhere we pleased. i put my blankets down and in the cold mud i flopped. my tin hat served as a pillow. much of his journal described the death of friends who died from effects other than wounds in battle. in early september 1918, he recalled the grisly death of a man in his unit who shot himself. he wrote, a soldier of our battery, from oregon, decided he had had enough. he leaned against a tree and put the muzzle of his rifle under his chin and pulled the trigger. his brains were scattered on the ground.

his reason, near as we could find out, was he had contracted a venereal disease. he imagined he was getting worse. he was engaged to a girl in oregon and was very despondent over the trouble he had gotten into. so he decided he would stay in france. they waited to leave france after the war ended. conditions were so miserable and the treatment of u.s. troops so poor that they went so far as to call it a death camp. but february 1919, more than 3300 troops had died. he wrote home. german prisons had never been treated so brutally, as all the american soldiers are being treated right now in that death camp. we had men die of pneumonia by the hundreds each week. he scratched out a poem. we've killed a million and tried to take our beds. we plucked them from our toenails and scratched them from our heads.

we have withstood a million inspections. we have loaded ships. we went about our duties with all kinds of pep and zest, for we knew it would be heaven when we'd gotten out of breast. when the last fatigue sounded and we laid aside our cares and they wouldn't even ask us to dust down golden stairs, when the angels bid us welcome, when the whole of kingdom come, then we'll hear st. peter calling sweetly to the blessed, you've earned eternal happiness, you've done your hitch in breast. four years of conflict had produced ten million military dead and another six million civilian dead. it was a heavy death toll to swallow. but to some observers, it might be stomached if world leaders

preserved international peace and security for generations to come. perhaps then the memories of all who perished between 1914 and 1918 might have meaning. the world's leaders had a ready-made solution. the league of nations, spurred largely by the philosophy of president wilson. founded as a result of the paris peace conference. it took up a primary mission of preventing wars. many observers, though, had their doubts. back in the united states, a 79-year-old veteran of the american civil war, white, finished writing a massive 322-page memoir, recounting his service in the u.s. army. 620,000 dead piled up onto the floor. in that war, the union army had accomplished a terrific thing. it had saved a nation from tearing itself apart. now, white was less keen on the results of the so-far bloodiest

war in human history. having seen the way that war had changed since the days when he helped kill the southern rebellion, white looked upon the future of armed conflict with great pessimism. the prophetic reminder, which he used to close his memoir, served as an instructive prompt about the primordial nature of humankind and the nations to which they belong. humankind. as long as we have nations like this, we will have war. as long as we have strong nations with faithful citizens, we will have bloody wars. the reality is that oppositional devotion can create unbreakable deadlocks, creating war for the sake of it. thus, white, a veteran of a 19th-century war, cast his warning upon humankind in the 20th century. my faith in the league of nations to prevent war is very low, he wrote.

i cannot see how human ideas and opposition to human ideas can be settled when opposite parties are in ernest, except by force. self-interest generally makes man's interests a second nature, making it impossible for him to abandon it and only when he was forced to do it. questions handled by the league of nations will, i have no doubt, bring war to the people of the earth in no small measure. perhaps i am wrong. i hope so. and i hope so too. thank you very much. [applause] &a," reportersq share stories of being on the campaign trail with senator mitch mcconnell. >> he planted his campaign for four years. he planned this after rand paul.

rand paul the mcconnell's handpicked guy in the primary. at that point, he realized i have to recalibrate everything i know about politics in my home state. he makes changes. he starts to build a very sophisticated structure, knowing this may be the most difficult race in his campaign. >> they knew that he would spend a lot on technology. they watch the obama campaign in 2008 and 2012. as they watched harry reid's reelection in 2010. he was going to have the latest technology. it was 2013 and he said he was going to build the most the row senate campaign ever. >> in american history. >> in american history. and he probably got -- he probably got there. "qon c-span's