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Artillery proved to be the greatest killer on the Western front in World War I, and the use and misuse of artillery was certainly a determining factor in the war^D's outcome. While many books explore the artillery forces and employment of the European powers, this is the first study to examine artillery employment in the American Expeditionary Force. Grotelueschen follows one AEF division through its entire World War I experience, from preliminary training to each of its battles in France. This approach allows for great investigative depth and an opportunity to explore the implementation of doctrinal changes throughout the war.
While accounts of the AEF written in the immediate aftermath of the war praised it as a great fighting machine, most scholars have concluded that the AEF was a flawed combat force. This study demonstrates that despite significant flaws and weaknesses, especially in artillery doctrine and employment, at least some AEF divisions did attain effective fighting ability. American divisions were most successful when carrying out limited, set-piece attacks, efforts that ran counter to approved US Army and AEF doctrine at the time. Historians will find this unique approach to the study of division level strengths and weaknesses to be useful in making more accurate and complete comparisons among the great armies of the Western Front.
List of contents
Introduction
The Creation of a Modern Army: The Building and Training of an AEF Division
Belleau Wood: Hard Lessons in Position Warfare
Soissons: Terrible Success in Open Warfare
St. Mihiel: The 2nd Division in the First American Army
Blanc Mont: The Set-Piece Attack vs. the Breakthrough
Meuse-Argonne: Breakthrough, of a Sort
Conclusion--Between Pershing and the Revisionsits: Artillery, the 2nd Division, and the AEF Style of Warfare
Appendix A--Artillery Used by the AEF
Appendix B--2nd Division Organizational Chart
Bibliography
About the author
Dr. Mark E. Grotelueschen teaches strategic studies in the Department of Military and Strategic Studies at the USAF Academy. A 27 year veteran of the Air Force, he holds degrees from the United States Air Force Academy, the University of Calgary, and Texas A&M University. He is the author of The AEF Way of War: The American Army and Combat in World War I (Cambridge), and, most recently, Into the Fight: April-June 1918 for the US Army Center of Military History’s Campaigns of World War I series.
MARK E. GROTELUESCHEN is Assistant Professor of History at the United States Air Force Academy./e
