Category: Europe

WWII history book – “Soldiers of a Different Cloth” (University of Notre Dame Press, 2018) – John Wukovits interview

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John Wukovits has been studying, teaching, and writing history for over thirty years. His focus is WWII and we spoke about his latest book on Notre Dame chaplains who served in WWII.

1:17 – John talks about how he got into writing this book. He’s been writing books on WWII for 25 years. These chaplains were on many fronts and one even parachuted into Normandy. He tells the story of 35 Notre Dame missionaries and chaplains.

4:00 – John focused on 4 or 5 main [characters] chaplains but he also touches on the rest of the chaplains.

6:30 – John talks about the civilian capacities of these chaplains before they entered the war.

9:00 – The chaplains had to do the same basic training as all the younger soldiers they’d be serving.

14:30 – Father Joe Barry is one of the main persons discussed in the book. He went through many battles and ended up in prison. He received lots of praise from his fellow soldiers.

25:55 – The chaplains’ letters were often not very censored when sent back to the US. John found that many of these letters hadn’t been read by other historians.

27:00 – John talks about a parachute rescue of some missionaries in the Philippines. A couple of chaplains were on the Bataan Death march.

31:15 – John talks about a chaplain who jumped into France with the 101st and what he encountered. The chaplain met one of the Niland brothers and found the grave of another brother.

47:30 – John tells a story about Father Barry hearing a soldier talk the night before a big battle. The next day Father Barry held the same dying soldier in his arms.

58:17 – John has a website, johnwukovits.com. He’ll also sign books bought from his website.

Links of interest

https://johnwukovits.com/

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: John Wukovits

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, WWII, World War II, Notre Dame, chaplains, diocese, Los Banos, Philippines

Cold War history book – “Sovereign Soldiers” (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) – Grant Madsen interview

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Dr. Grant Madsen has long been interested in history and this led him to earn a PhD in History. Sovereign Soldiers is his first book and explains how the US military transformed the global economy with the economic policies it applied to the occupation of Germany and Japan after WWII.

2:03 – Dr. Madsen talks about how he got into studying and writing about history. He grew up with historians and he felt he made sense of the world historically. He decided to get a PhD in history and the book stems from his dissertation research.

5:10 – Dr. Madsen talks about the details of the book. After WWII, the US military men found that they needed to understand how to run the economies of Germany and Japan. Joseph Dodge was instructed to fix the economy of Japan.

7:28 – There is agreement that these military leaders succeeded in developing the occupied territories and helped the economy of the West. Dr. Madsen examined economic theories and practice in his research.

9:43 – Economic stability seemed to be the key to success. Dr. Madsen feels there was no Keynesian approach to how these economies were developed.

12:03 – The military had economic policies in place as soon as the occupation periods started. These policies were based on New Deal policies but disappeared over the time of the occupations. Germany had cartels and Japan had zaibatsus which had to be worked with to develop these economies.

15:28 – The military dropped its military economic policies quickly in Germany and used a new approach to build that economy. Japan took a little longer to develop.

17:24 – Though the US held all military power in Japan and Germany, it wasn’t useful in imposing US economic will. Clay in Germany and MacArthur in Japan had to be careful on how they used their military power.

20:48 – About 1947, the US military was focused on making Japan and Germany capable of helping to resist the Soviets.

22:46 – There was a fight between State and Defense on who would pay for the occupations. The military was stuck with the bill. Many military leaders didn’t want to be blamed for failure in the occupations since they didn’t think they would succeed. They didn’t want to look bad like it had in earlier decades.

26:06 – In 1947-48, the US strategically decided to make Germany and Japan perimeter defenders against the Soviets. The initial plan was to jointly control Germany with four nations to create worldwide peace and cooperation, but by 1947, Germany became a country that would be a perimeter. Military bases became a way to funnel US money into Germany and Japan.

30:38 – The book starts with the Spanish-American War where the US begins controlling other territories. The US had governance issues when they planned to stay in places only temporarily. The book first focuses mainly on the Philippines during the early occupation. The middle chapters talk about Germany and Japan. The final chapters focus on Eisenhower’s military-economic focus.

35:41 – Joseph Dodge left many useful historical papers to the Detroit Public Library. Mr. Madsen also used the various Presidential libraries for his research. The Eisenhower address took on a different tone as he did his research.

40:36 – One question Dr. Madsen had was how were US leaders using the word democracy. He decided that the word was a stand in for the term economic policy.

43:44 – It’s around WWI that countries realize that military power and industrial economy became strongly linked. Eisenhower jumped up in the ranks quickly because he understood combined arms and industrial conversion of a peacetime economy to a wartime economy.

47:19 – Right after the war, the US and the Soviets discussed what economic system they would impose on Germany. The Soviets planned to just let the Germans starve and had no plan for an economic system there. By 1947, the Soviets imposed communism since they saw they had to grow East Germany to counter the West.

51:28 – In 1950, the Japanese economy was struggling and an anti-American Prime Minister was elected. This was when the US changed course in Japan.

53:11 – Dr. Madsen hopes that the book changes how historians discuss the post war period. Peacekeeping operations are much more common than wartime operations so this is an important subject to study in regards to war and the history of military nation building and peacekeeping.

59:21 – His website is grantmadsen.net.

Links of interest

Grantmadsen.net

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: Grant Madsen

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, spanish-american war, Philippines, Germany, Japan, MacArthur, Eisenhower, Soviet Union, economy, military-industrial complex, Keynesian

World War I history book – “German Submarine Warfare in World War I” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017) – Lawrence Sondhaus interview

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Dr. Lawrence Sondhaus is Professor of History at the University of Indianapolis. He has written numerous books about Naval warfare and about WWI with a focus on the Central Powers. I was able to interview him about his most recent book on German submarine warfare in WWI.

1:27 – Dr. Sondhaus talks about how he got into history writing about it. He was a child of the 60s. He had a particular interest in the Central Powers in WWI since he has a Croatian heritage.

3:39 – Dr. Sondhaus was asked to write a book on the Eastern Front in WWI but he suggested a book on German submarine warfare. He tends to study WWI from the perspective of the Central Powers which is uncommon among English writers on WWI.

5:20 – The Central Powers tended to take the lead in WWI with the Allies reacting and so WWI histories should focus on the Central Powers. He also focused on the German politics behind the war.

8:00 – Germans felt the U-boat blockade of Britain was equivalent to the British surface blockade of Germany. The Americans and the UK didn’t accept this. Also, German U-boat warfare in WWI was not as cruel as that of WWII. German U-boats applied cruiser rules.

11:20 – One German U-boat captain captured a number of merchantmen who became POWs for the duration of the war. However, submarines could not generally hold prisoners or tow them to land.

14:10 – Many German U-boat commanders felt they needed to be chivalrous. It was difficult for them to engage in unrestricted warfare because they were unable to be cruel. This was different from WWII.

16:13 – The Lusitania was not the main reason the US entered the war. It was shocking because of the number of people that died but the US took a long time afterwards to enter the war. It took many decades afterwards for the British to admit that the Lusitania was carrying munitions.

20:45 – When measuring cost to gain, the German WWI submarine was the most effective among the three great submarine warfare campaigns.

25:20 – Both sides used gas, submarines, bombed civilians, and other cruel methods, but the Germans are always the first ones to raise the stakes. This makes their image worse after they lose the war.

28:30 – Germans could not believe that their army did some of the cruel things they were accused of but it turned out they had. Germans were unified in support of the war once the Russians mobilized for war. Dr. Sondhaus highlights the feelings of one German politician, Erzberger, who worried that unrestricted submarine warfare would bring the US into the war. German opinion began to drift towards a negotiated peace during the war.

37:00 – Germany came close to winning the war but the Allied convoy system helped stop German success. The US and UK then used the convoy system in WWII.

41:05 – Dr. Sondhaus used British wreck divers maps to help do his research.

48:46 – The Germans suddenly lost their advantage in sinking ships in August 1918. Up until then they were doing well in this regard. But unrestricted warfare alone was not going to win the war for Germany.

49:57 – Dr. Sondhaus came across amazing stories of survival during submarine accidents and mishaps. There were sad stories about U-boat commanders trying to save enemy sailors.

55:02 – A lot of British historians don’t value US involvement in the war as important as other British efforts. This book adds weight to the importance of American involvement in the war.

1:00:25 – German WWI U-boat commanders went on to very interesting and different things after the war.

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: Dr. Lawrence Sondhaus

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, Germany, WWI, world war one, submarine, Britain, UK, U-boats, Italy