U.S. soldiers marching through Montfaucon, France, on the second day of the Meuse-Argonne battle, 1918 (U.S. Signal Corps)
From September to November 1918, a hard-fought battle pitting green, poorly equipped American doughboys against combat-hardened German troops saw the U.S. military come of age in just 47 days in the brutal, devastating clash known as the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne. In that short period, Americans pushed back the enemy and forced the Germans to surrender, bringing the First World War to an end—a feat the British and the French had not achieved after more than 3 years of fighting.
Historian Mitchell Yockelson tells the story of the cast of remarkable individuals, including America’s original fighter ace, Eddie Rickenbacker; Corporal Alvin York, a pacifist who nevertheless single-handedly killed more than 20 Germans and captured 132; General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing; Lieutenant General Hunter Liggett; artillery officer and future president Harry S. Truman; innovative tank commander George S. Patton; and Douglas MacArthur, the Great War’s most decorated soldier.
Yockelson, a military historian, teaches at Norwich University and works as an investigative archivist at the National Archives and Records Administration. His book Forty-Seven Days: How Pershing’s Warriors Came of Age To Defeat the German Army in World War I (Penguin) is available for signing.
