With Their Bare Hands: General Pershing, the 79th Division, and the Battle for Montfaucon
Written by Gene Fax
Narrated by Jonathan Davis
4/5
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About this audiobook
With Their Bare Hands traces the fate of the US 79th Division--men drafted off the streets of Baltimore, Washington, and Philadelphia--from their training camp in Maryland through the final years of World War I, focusing on their most famous engagement: the attack on Montfaucon, the most heavily fortified part of the German Line, during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in 1918.
Using the 79th as a window onto the American Army as a whole, Gene Fax examines its mistakes and triumphs, the tactics of the AEF commander-in-chief General John J. Pershing, and how the lessons it learned during the Great War helped it to fight World War II. Fax makes some startling judgments, on the role of future Army Chief-of-Staff, Colonel George C. Marshall; whether the Montfaucon battle-had it followed the plan-could have shortened the war; and if Pershing was justified in ordering his troops to attack right up to the moment of the Armistice.
Drawing upon original documents, including orders, field messages, and the letters and memoirs of the soldiers themselves, some of which have never been used before, Fax tells the engrossing story of the 79th Division's bloody involvement in the final months of World War I.
Gene Fax
During his 45 years in the policy research industry, Gene Fax has written more than 200 research reports, policy papers, and competitive proposals and has edited hundreds more. An engineering graduate of MIT, he spent eight years conducting research and tactical studies in anti-submarine warfare for the US Navy. He is the co-founder of The Cadmus Group, Inc., which specializes in program development, evaluation, and policy research in environmental protection, energy efficiency, and sustainable development. He lives in New York, USA In preparation for With Their Bare Hands, Gene spent seventeen years researching archives in Washington, Baltimore, Paris, West Point, and Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He also researched this most bloody and fiercely contested battle on the battlefield itself.
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Reviews for With Their Bare Hands
9 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finally a book where the person reading the text as a person with English as their first language does not butcher the French, German and other languages used in the text. Two thumbs up in this regard.
Also two thumbs up for a well researched and written book filled with facts, dates and locations and plenty of first person accounts of this division, personnel, and history of this division in particular - from the start of the conflict, training, arrival, conflict and post war.
I believe I may purchase this book to have on my shelves after listening to it. It’ll be a valuable reference and wonderful future read. I highly recommend. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Book received from NetGalley.I am really just starting to read more about World War I history and I have to admit I had never heard of this battle prior to receiving this book. The author does well at showing how things were for the first American forces to enter World War I. I thought it was a great book on a part of American history that I had not studied before.
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