The French Army's Wine Ration

As stalemate ensued on the Western Front in the fall of 1914, the French Army began providing a daily wine ration for its soldiers stationed there. As the war went on, the ration went from about ¼ litre to about a bottle per soldier, per day. Armies throughout history have relied on psychotropic drugs to strategically shape the behavior of those fighting, but in the case of World War I, the French demonstrated a unique ability to harness the transformative power of alcohol to physically and emotionally fortify French soldiers to benefit the war effort. To discuss the French Army’s wine policy on the Western Front, the World War I Podcast hosted Dr. Adam Zientek, Associate Professor of History at UC Davis, and author of A Thirst for Wine and War: The Intoxication of French Soldiers on the Western Front. 

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