U.S. Army Campaigns of World War I

SUPPORTING ALLIED OFFENSIVES: 8 AUGUST-11 NOVEMBER 1918

SUPPORTING ALLIED OFFENSIVES: 8 AUGUST-11 NOVEMBER 1918

Paul B. Cora and Alexander A. Falbo-Wild

U.S. Army Campaigns of World War I
CMH Pub 77-6, Paper
2018; 88 pages, illustrations, maps, further readings

GPO S/N: 008-029-00640-5

Supporting Allied Offensives: 8 August�11 November 1918 is the sixth installment of the U.S. Army Campaigns of World War I series, covering the American Expeditionary Forces� (AEF) participation in Allied actions in various sectors of the Western Front in the final months of the war. As increasing numbers of U.S. troops landed in France in late 1917 and early 1918, AEF commander General John J. Pershing initially resisted French and British efforts to amalgamate fresh American forces directly into the depleted Entente armies. However, the crisis of the German Spring Offensives that began in March 1918 forced Pershing to moderate his hardline stance on amalgamation, and he allowed American units to participate in combat operations as part of Allied forces for the remainder of the war. The narrative of this volume focuses on the American efforts in several critical Allied operations, ranging from the trenches of Belgium and northern France to the foothills of northwestern Italy. The inexperienced but determined doughboys fought alongside seasoned soldiers under French, British, Belgian, and Italian command, and provided much-needed physical and moral support to rejuvenate the exhausted Allied forces. The AEF divisions and regiments that participated in these campaigns continued to fight right up until the Armistice on 11 November, and their vital contributions illustrate the truly multinational victory of the Allied Powers in 1918.

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