Category: Armor

WWI military history book – “Blood, Guts, and Grease: George S. Patton in World War I” (University Press of Kentucky, 2019) – Jon B. Mikolashek interview

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Jon Mikolashek is a military historian who has written extensively on US military history. We discuss his latest book about George Patton’s life during WWI. Check out the book here.

0:51 – Jon talks about how he became interested in writing on Patton

2:50 – Jon talks about his book is different from other Patton books.

5:27 – Jon talks about why he started the book in 1916.

7:41 – Jon explains why Patton modeled himself after Perhsing.

9:02 – Jon talks about how Patton got into tanks. Patton wanted command and quick promotion.

12:36 – Jon talks about how Patton approached commanding tanks.

15:52 – Jon talks about Patton picking his tank commanders.

17:53 – Jon talks about Patton’s approach to combined arms. Patton didn’t like the infantry much.

22:03 – Jon talks about an incident where Patton hits a soldier with a shovel.

22:58 – Jon talks about traumatic brain injury.

25:26 – Jon talks about Patton’s diaries and other resources he used.

29:45 – Jon talks about Patton’s relationship with his wife.

38:42 – Jon talks about Patton’s indecision to join the tank corps.

42:50 – Jon talks about the importance of WWI to Patton’s career.

48:58 – Jon is on facebook at Jon Mikolashek and twitter @slavoshek.

Links of interest

Check out the book here.

https://www.kentuckypress.com/live/title_detail.php?titleid=5623#.XcbxY697mM8

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jon-Mikolashek/538694696173063

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me at www.warscholar.org, on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Jon B. Mikolashek

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, Patton, wwi, wwii, us army, mexico, punitive expedition, pershing, polo, tanks, staff officer, cavalry, infantry, salerno, billy mitchell, air power, virginia military institute, Rockenbach, renault, omar bradley, interwar

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WWI military history book – “Pershing’s Tankers” (The University Press of Kentucky, 2018) – Lawrence Kaplan interview

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Lawrence Kaplan is a military historian who has worked for the US Army and has written numerous books on the subject. Today we spoke about his latest book on the American tank corps during WWI.

1:51 – Larry Kaplan talks about how he got into studying the American tank corps in WWI. He found a number of reports associated with the tank corps that hadn’t been discovered before or had been forgotten. Patton was one of the officers involved with the tank corps.

6:30 – Larry talks about the early development of the US Army tank corps. The French and the British helped the US in this effort. But not a lot was written about this history. Tanks were used for only 7 weeks at the end of the war.

11:20 – George Patton became the commander of the two tank battalions that were to be used in the war.

14:00 – Many of the records of these early tank battalions ended up missing. Larry found them among US Army Field Artillery records.

21:00 – Larry also collected newspaper accounts that were basically the letters home that some tank officers had sent home. He also made some extensive Congressional testimony on the WWI tank corps in WWI readable in a narrative form.

29:30 – Larry talks about what happened to the tank corps after WWI.

31:50 – Larry talks about a scandalous event that occurred during Patton’s time in WWI.

38:48 – The presence of American tanks helped US Army morale and hurt German morale.

39:39 – Larry summarizes how the end of the war went.

53:39 – Larry talks about how the tanks were moved around the theater of war. He also addresses problems with tank maintenance during combat. He gets into how an American officer named Brain was trying to develop requirements for an American-built tank.

58:30 – Larry will be publishing a translated and edited version of a Russian female soldier’s novel about serving in WWI.

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Lawrence Kaplan

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, world war one, WWI, tank corps, armored warfare, George Patton, French, british, Germans