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

Author: Gene Fax

Narrator: Jonathan Davis

Unabridged: 18 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/02/2017

Synopsis

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.

About Gene Fax

Gene Fax has written over two hundred research reports, policy papers, and proposals. An engineering graduate of MIT, he spent eight years conducting research and tactical studies in antisubmarine warfare for the U.S. Navy. He is the cofounder of the Cadmus Group, Inc., which specializes in development, evaluation, and policy research in environmental protection, energy efficiency, and sustainable development. In preparation for With Their Bare Hands, Gene spent seventeen years researching archives.

Reviews

Goodreads review by patrick

This is a very griping book about the Meuse- Argonne campaign during the First World War. The author takes you from the beginning of the 79th and through their training and then to their arrival at the front. The author takes you through the difficulties that were experienced by this unit in losing......more

Goodreads review by Shrike58

Over the years, I've read about 300-plus books relating to the Great War, and this is one of the better studies that I've encountered. Fax's goal is to take one typical division of the American Expeditionary Force, and see what its collective experience tells us about American military performance d......more

Goodreads review by Terri

Reading about the First World War can be so depressing. The American Expeditionary Force went into the Meuse-Argonne battle untrained and mismanaged, which led to thousands of unnecessary deaths. General Pershing assumed he knew better than the British or French because they’d been at it for four yea......more

Goodreads review by Rick

World War I had always been a mystery to me. I have some knowledge only as it has related to other various interests i.e Winston Churchill or the lead up to World War II. This book covers the American mobilization and a minor (for someone not involved in the shooting) battle. The Montfaucon action t......more

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