Search results for AEF.

The War to End all Wars. The American military experience in World War I

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By Edward Coffman. Published by University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI (1986) ISBN 10: 029910964XISBN 13: 9780299109646 The history of the American involvement in the Great War, first published in 1986 by OUP, has been to many the standard work on the subject. It was based upon some sources new at the time and used interviews with 30 survivo…


The War To End All Wars: The American Military Experience in World War I

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The War to End All Wars, The American Military Experience in World War I by Edward M. Coffman This work, first published in 1968, has been reprinted in 1998. The following is a transcript of interviews which took place in May and June 1998, between Dr Coffman and Paul Guthrie, exploring the elements identified by Dr. Coffman as crucial to understa…


1 August 1918 Cpl Isaac E Holloway

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Isaac was a graduate of the Marion Conservatory of Music and was a member of the National Military Home Band at the time of his enlistment. Marion Conservatory of Music was founded in 1898 by Percy L. Nussbaum who had studied in Europe with some of the greatest musicians of the era. Classes including instrumental and vocal music, music history…


20 October 1918 : Cpl Gilbert P Hamilton

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Gilbert was a machinist by trade. He enlisted into the Indiana National Guard (Co B, 4th Infantry) on 4 May 1917 and was sent to Camp Shelby, Missouri, where he was assigned to the 139th FAR. Sent overseas in early October 1918, he died of influenza in hospital in Manchester (England) on 20 October 1918 where he was buried. Gilbert's body was …


28 October 1918 : Cpl John Bildner

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John's parents were Louis and Lizzie Bildner. In 1900, the second of three children living at 86 Conwell Street, Dearborn Country, Indiana. His German born grandparents lived at 84 Conwell Street.  A machinist before the war John was drafted into service with the 159th Depot Brigade at Lawrenceburg, Indiana on 29 March 1918, he was trained at Ca…


18 November 1917 : Pvt Harry George Myers

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Harry Myers was a foster child who was raised on a farm at Uniontown, Perry County, Indiana.  Harry enlisted into the US regular Army in 1916 and was trained at Columbus Barracks, Ohio before seeing action on the Mexican Border. he was sent overseas with the American Expeditionary Force in June 1917. He was killed in action in the Sommervil…


024: Winter 1988

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Retreat Hell! We Only Just Got Here! The American Expeditionary Force in France, 1917-1918

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By Martin Marix Evans Published by Osprey Militery, Oxford 1998 Review by Gary Sheffield. I have always thought that the distinction sometimes drawn between 'popular' and 'academic' history is unhelpful. The real categories are good and bad history and this book most definitely falls into the former category. By far the worst thing about this bo…


060: January 2001

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U.S. Infantry Weapons of the First World War

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Book Review by Len Shurtleff. Mr Canfield is an internationally recognised specialist in twentieth century U.S. military weapons and a contributing editor to the American Rifleman. In this information-packed and richly illustrated volume, he presents a comprehensive record of rifles, shotguns, automatic rifles, pistols, machine guns, bayonets, kni…


062: September 2001

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075: January 2006

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11 August 1918 : Lieut. Alfred Edward Gaby VC

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The seventh child of parents Alfred and Alicia Gaby. Alfred went to school in Scottsdale and after school worked on the family farm. He then spent some time in southern Tasmania. While working on his father's farm he had joined the militia and served for three years with the 12th Infantry Battalion (Launceston Regiment). Two elder brothers had …


The Final One Hundred Days of the Western Front

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Introduction The British involvement in war on the Western Front lasted for 1,294 days: from the 12th of August 1914 - when the first elements of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) arrived in France - until the 11th November 1918, when the Armistice took effect. For each of those days an average of 1,751 men were wounded and 436 died (the latte…


With Their Bare Hands: General Pershing, the 79th Division and the Battle for Montfaucon

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By Gene Fax Osprey, £14.99, softback, 495pp, 55 ills, notes, refs, index. ISBN: 978–147–282–979–5 The title implies that this book is a narrow study of the US 79th Division and its struggle to capture the dominant feature of Montfaucon during the opening phase of the Meuse–Argonne offensive. In fact, it is much more, deploying the 79th Division…


Hamel 4th July 1918: The Australian & American Triumph

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By John Hughes-Wilson Uniform Publishing, £12.99, pb, 163pp, 15 ills. ISBN: 978–191–160–442–6 This is a somewhat odd book about an event which normally takes up no more than a chapter in many histories. Nevertheless, Hamel was undoubtedly a significant action, part of what the Australians called ‘peaceful penetration’ of the German lines which…


6 June 1918 : Sgt James Lucas

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James was a farmer from Reddington, Jackson County, Indiana He enlisted into the US Regular Army at Laredo, Texas on July 17th 1915 and saw service in the Mexican Border campaign prior to the US declaration of war. James Lucas was sent to join the American Expeditionary Force  in France in September 1917 and served in Lorraine before moving t…


3 July 1918 : Pvt John L Vaughn

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Son of James Clinton (farmer) and Sarah Jane (née Lytle). Vaughn. John was one of 12 children in the family, of whom only four outlived their parents: two died in infancy, another five between the ages of 14 and 39.  John entered service at Lagrange, Indiana on 20 September 1917 and received training at Camp Taylor and Camp Shelby where he w…


17 July 1918 : Sgt Omer Albert Huntzinger

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Omer enlisted into the army at Newcastle, Indiana on 7 December 7 1917. He trained at Fort Thomas, Kentucky and Camp Merritt, New Jersey. He embarked for service with the AEF in March 1918 but fell ill within weeks after arrival. Moved into US Hospital No.4 in France, Omer died of a brain tumour on 17 July 1918. His remains were returned …


When and Why the Doughboys Finally Joined the War in 1917

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When the First World War began in August 1914, none of the 48 autonomous states that then made up the United States of America (USA) supported the taking of sides with either the Entente Powers (Britain, France and Russia) nor the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary). The USA had a professional regular army of 100,000, nearly half of which …


Ep. 14 – General Fox Conner and the American Expeditionary Force in WW1 – Steven Rabalais

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Steven Rabalais talks about his biography of General Fox Conner (published by Casemate) who was the American Expeditionary Force during the Great War and was a mentor to Dwight Eisenhower in the 1920’s.


Ep. 44 – The Yanks are Coming! The AEF in World War One – John Lee

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John Lee talks about the American Expeditionary Force and how the adapted to combat conditions on the Western Front in 1918. This lecture was given on the 9 November 2017 at the Ulster Museum in Belfast. 


Ep. 98 – Australian Corps Operations during the Hundred Days – Richard Stobo

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Richard Stobo talks about, ‘The Australian Victories in France in 1918? An Examination of Australian Corps Operations during the Hundred Days’.
This talk was given as part of the ‘End of the War & the Reshaping of a Century’ conference held at the University of Wolverhampton in September last year.


14 June 1917 : John Francis McCarthy

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John McCarthy was a salesman prior to enlisting into the US Marine Corps in New York on 25 January 1910. After four years service, he re-enlisted at San Francisco on 31 January 1914 at served on the USS Massachusetts and the USS Denver before becoming part of the American Expeditionary Force to Nicaragua.   John was killed in an automobile…


Doc ‘Pete’: A Baltimorean with the Royal Fusiliers, 1917-18

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As the US went to war in April 1917 without tanks, aircraft, heavy artillery, or more than a handful of infantry divisions, a legion of its physicians readied themselves for immediate deployment to the Western Front. In a twist of irony, the first US soldiers sent to France and Flanders were armed only with the Hippocratic Oath. This vanguard estab…


Trial by Friendship. Anglo-American Relations 1917-1918. David R. Woodward.

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1993 University Press of Kentucky  [This review first appeared in Stand To! No.43 April 1995. Members of The Western Front Association receive our journal Stand To!, three times a year and have access to the full archive online].  Anglo-American relations at the time when the United States entered the Great War have been somewhat neglected by Bri…


Two Colored Women with the American Expeditionary Forces by Addie W Hunton and Kathryn M Johnson (1997) Introduction by Adele Logan Alexander

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325 pages, 520 including a biography of Adolpheaus Hunton. (1997) Introduction by Adele Logan Alexander GKHall & Co Illustrated throughout with ornate collages and collections.  Hardcover first edition as part of the the African-American Women Writers 1910-1940 series, under the general editorship of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Jennifer Burt…


Freedom Struggles. African Americans and World War One by Adriane Lentz-Smith

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Paperback $28.00 £22.95 ISBN 9780674062054 Publication Date 30 September 2011 336 Pages In this influential 2009 Harvard publication Adriane Lentz-Smith provides a long overdue appraisal of the experience of African American soldiers in the American Expeditionary Force in 1918 and 1919. In doing so the lives and hopes of black Americans are se…


'Too Black, Too White' by Ely Green

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‘Too Black, Too White’ is the fascinating autobiography of a smart, orphaned, unschooled boy of mixed ethnicity born in the southern US town of Sewanee, Tennessee in 1894. The son of white boy from a well-off family of German heritage and his black mother, a young maid, Ely was raised by a succession of African-American adoptive parents, These incl…


Torchbearers of Democracy. African American Soldiers in the World War I Era by Chad L.Williams

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472 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 18 halftones, notes, bibl., index PAPERBACK ISBN: 978-1-4696-0985-0Published: August 2013 The University of North Carolina Press (2010)  EBOOK ISBN: 978-0-8078-9935-9Published: September 2010 Awards and Distinctions 2011 Liberty Legacy Foundation Award, Organization of American Historians A 2011 Choice Outstanding Acade…


Scotts Official History of the American Negro in the World War [1] by Mr Emmett J Scott (1919)

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Mr Emmett J Scott was Special Assistant to Hon, Newton D.Baker, Secretary of War - so he had to be circumspect.   This is a reproduction of the 1919 printed on demand large format. Though not a hardback it is secure in a sturdy artificial binding. An attractive cover and reverse with examples of the kinds of photographs found inside featured here…


Paris Noir : African Americans in the City of Light by Tyler Stovall

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Tyler Stovall's motivation to write 'Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light' came from his own grandfather's war experience Paris Noir spans several decades, with the First World War the kickstart to the appearance in France of many African Americans eager to enjoy freedoms and civil treatment that were rare in their own country at the…


Rayford W.Logan and the Dilemma of the African American Intellectual by Kenneth R. Janken (1993)

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By Kenneth Robert Janken University of Massachusetts Press 1993 319 pages  ISBN-10 : 0870238582 ISBN-13 : 978-0870238581 There are several reasons why Americans are not that interested in the First World War: they came to it late, their losses were nothing like as severe as other combatants, there was little negative impact on the home front …


The Unknown Soldiers : Black American Troops in World War One

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By Arthur E. Barbeau and Florette Henri (1974) Philadelphia Temple University Press  ISBN 0-877722-063-8 ‘The Unknown Soldiers’ is essential reading if you are interested in understanding how African-American soldiers served and were treated during the First World War as part of the American Army. The foreword is blunt about the authors reveali…


Ep.192 – ‘The Fighting Irish’ – The US 69th Infantry Regiment in WW1- Stephen L. Harris

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A student at Trinity College, Burlington, Vermont. Stephen L. Harris started his career as a  journalist and freelance writer on his hometown newspaper, The Wilton Bulletin. He then moved into corporate communications and for 12 years, Stephen edited GE’s award-winning, company-wide magazine, Monogram. This had a circulation of more than 330,000.…


Ep. 196 - Men of the AEF's 'Lost Battalion' - Dr Edward Lengel

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Historian and writer Professor Edward G Lengel talks about his book Never in Finer Company: The Men of the Great War’s Lost Battalion that investigates the action in which men from four different infantry battalions of the 77th Division of the American Expeditionary Force, were isolated by German forces during American attack in the Argonne Forest …


Americans All. Foreign-Born Soldiers in World War I by Nancy G Ford

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Texas A&M University Press, College Station, $32.95, 2000, 207pp, ills, index.  ISBN: 1 58544 118 X.  His is a well-crafted history of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) which sets out to establish, and successfully so, that the US Army allied itself with progressive social reformers in integrating foreign-born and nonEnglish speaking dra…


Sons of Freedom: The forgotten American Soldiers who defeated Germany in World War One by Geofrey Wawro

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Basic Books. £13.81 (on Amazon special at the time of the book’s review). HB 596 pp. 14 maps. Ills throughout. Bibliog: Notes. Index. ISBN: Currently not published in the UK. Available via online shops. £20 from Abebooks.  Professor Wawro is the director of the Centre for Military History at the University of North Texas and joint editor, with…


The US 2nd Division at Blanc Mont Ridge by Major General by David T Zabecki

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[This article first appeared in the October 1918 edition of Stand To! No. 113] The US 2nd Division’s capture of the heavily– defended German positions on Blanc Mont Ridge on 3 October 1918 was arguably the most ingenious and skilfully conducted American divisional attack of the Great War. Ironically, however, Blanc Mont today is one of the least r…


Quentin Roosevelt; A Sketch with Letters (and poetry)

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Edited by Kermit Roosevelt Illustrated New York Charles Scribner's Sons 1921 (Facsimile) From the start there is a sense of tragedy; you know that this is a collection of letters sent by someone serving in France who is going to die. It is rather like watching the film ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ - you know that it ends with a shot and the…


Americans All. Foreign-Born Soldiers in World War I

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Texas A&M University Press, College Station, $32.95, 2000  207pp, ills, index. ISBN: 1 58544 118 X.  [This review first appeared in Stand To! No. 63 January 2002] This a well-crafted history of the AEF which sets out to establish, and successfully so, that the US Army allied itself with progressive social reformers in integrating foreign-b…


The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919

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Edited by  David Killingray and Howard Phillips Routledge (2003)  390 pages ISBN 9780415510790 There is so much to learn from ‘The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919’.  A comparative history will be written in due course comparing the pandemic of 1918-19 and that of 2019-2021. Writing in 1998, ‘What occurred in 1918-19, we are repeatedly t…


African American Doctors of World War I – The Lives of 104 Volunteers by W Douglas Fisher and Joann H Buckley

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McFarland and Co., 2016, $45 US, 277pp, (2016 price, also available for Kindle £17.28 in 2021) illustrated, bibliog., index. ISBN: 9–781–476–623–177 [This review first appeared in the October 2016 edition of Stand To! No.107] When America formally entered the war in 1917 and a draft was established this draft would eventually include 400,000 A…


Out Now! Stand To ! No. 125 January 2022

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From the Editor Welcome to the first edition of Stand To! for 2022. As I write this in late December, COVID–19 is still running wild, the Omicron variant the latest to threaten us. France (and most of Europe) has closed its borders with the UK and travelling abroad is off the cards again. Who knows what the next 12 months will bring? I hope bet…


125: January 2022

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The African American Experience in World War One

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There are several reasons why most Americans are not interested in World War One: they came to it late; their losses were small - nothing like as severe as other combatant countries; there was little negative impact on the home front (indeed the opposite was the case given huge growth in arms manufacturing and boost to the economy); there was not…


Ep.243 – Discipline in the AIF in WW1 – Prof Peter Stanley

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Prof. Peter Stanley talks about the discipline and dissent in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) during the Great War. Your browser does not support the audio element. This interview is based on Peter’s 2011 book, ‘Bad Characters’, that exa…


Ep.266 – The US 103rd Regiment in World War One – Jonathan Bratten

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Jonathan Bratten talks about his history of the US 103rd Regiment during the Great War. The 103rd was a National Guard unit drawn from New England and saw action with the American Expeditionary Force in the US 26th Division. Your browser does not support the audio element. …


Film Review : All Quiet on the Western Front reviewed by Major General David T. Zabecki, U.S. Army (Ret’d)

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[This article first featured in edition No.123 of Bulletin (page 48). Members received this, our in-house magazine three times a year and Stand To! our journal, four times a year].  The new German remake of All Quiet on the Western Front is an excellent movie-right up until the final half hour. Then it goes off the rails. The period work is spot…


Ep.316 – AEF Communications during the Great War – Dr. Brian Hall

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Academic Dr Brian Hall talks about his research into the development of communications in the American Expeditionary Force during the Great War. Your browser does not support the audio element. Brian is the Programme Leader, BA (Hons) Conte…