Excerpt from The Campaign in Poland 1939 (Silver Spring: Dale Street Books, 2014), Originally published in 1941 at the United States Military Academy. COMPARATIVE FIGHTING STRENGTHS Potentially, Poland as a nation could never be a match for the newly armed Nazi might, backed by the tremendous German industry, rich resources, and plentiful reserves. Poland’s near […]
Through the eyes of a German Staff Officer. Excerpt from Battle of the Meuse Argonne from the German Perspective (Silver Spring: Dale Street Books, 1917), reproduction of original articles published in the Infantry Journal in 1921. THE FIRST AMERICAN ASSAULT SEPTEMBER 26 Although the French attack west of the Argonne in no way surprised the […]
[Excerpt from Trying to Stop a War in 1939 (includes verbatim reproduction of 122 documents in their entirety included in the British Foreign Office report Miscellaneous No. 9 (1939) Documents Concerning German-Polish Relations and the Outbreak of Hostilities between Great Britain and Germany on September 3, 1939).] Timeline to War: Our story begins in 1934 when Germany […]
“Prior to the arrival of the A.E.F., the American Military Mission in Paris had, by direction of the Chief of the War College, investigated and submitted a report under date of May 21st, 1917, giving the latest British and French technical and tactical ideas on the use of Tanks. Major Frank Parker, Liaison Officer at […]
“As the minds of both soldiers and civilians bent themselves to the great contest, it was inevitable that they should be busied with forecasts. All agreed that the war would be of a magnitude never known before in history, and that most of the problems would be different in kind from those of the past. […]
“The last campaign of the World War was a fitting climax to a struggle which had endured already for more than three years and had surpassed all previous contests recorded in human history. In the final phase more than six millions of men, representing seven nations, fought for 235 days on a front of 250 […]
“It was between the front lines, in the maze of old abandoned trenches, and in the marshy No Man’s Land between these, that the American Army in France had its first taste of real patrolling. Each night, every battalion in the line would send out a patrol on some mission or other; and every now […]
“At the end of February 1918 the Eastern front had gone out of existence. Russia, disjointed and anarchical, lay helpless in the grip of harsh treaties, and Germany was able to bring westward sufficient troops to abolish the small Allied numerical superiority. Already she exceeded their numbers, and she could at will call up a […]
“On the 24th of February the diplomats took over the conduct of affairs, and more and more obviously it fell into the hands of Count Czernin. Secretary of State von Kuhlmann did not take the prominent place which our prestige, our co-operation in the defeat of Rumania and our military situation warranted. General von Arz […]
General John J. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief, American Expeditionary Forces, appointed Colonel Samuel D. Rockenbach, Chief of the Tank Corps on December 23, 1917. The Americans were assembling their forces to deploy to the European theatre of war and did not have tanks in their inventory. The war, with its barbed wire, trenches, gas and machine guns needed an […]