The Test of Battle: The American Expeditionary Forces in the Meuse-Argonne Campaign

About this book

In this revised edition Dr. Paul Braim analyzes the history of the Meuse-Argonne Campaign the most significant challenge to the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in World War I. Delving into newly acquired sources he details the great difficulties encountered by the fledgling AEF sent to fight in cooperation with Allies in France. Deployed to France from an army hastily expanded twenty times over its peacetime strength the AEF was forced to organize a theater of operations train the hundreds of thousands of arriving U.S. troops and commit its partially trained forces into battle prematurely. Braim recounts the commitment of the lesser trained soldiers of the AEF into positions for a major offensive into the Meuse-Argonne the "test of battle" for the Americans in France. His description of the grim fighting evokes the sounds and smells of front-line battle as the army drove north through the strong defenses in the Meuse-Argonne sector and gained a bloody victory on the heights overlooking Sedan. Braim analyzes this costly victory by inadequately trained and inexpertly led forces as "learning to fight by fighting!"