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

by Gene Fax

Overview

After the American declaration of war on Germany in 1917, hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops were deployed to France--among them the recently drafted Seventy-Ninth Division. Thrown into the hellish stalemate of trench warfare, the (AEF) was blooded in battle by the time of the Meuse-Argonne offensive of 1918 where the Seventy-Ninth would fight its most famous engagement--the battle of Montfaucon.

Using stunning contemporary photographs and testimony from a wealth of primary sources from all sides of the conflict and all military ranks, With Their Bare Hands follows the Seventy-Ninth from its origins in 1917 through to the end of the war, with a focus on the bloody encounter at Montfaucon. Using the division as a window on the whole AEF, Gene Fax explores its achievements and failures, as well as shows how the lessons learned from this conflict ultimately affected American strategy in World War II.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472819239
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	02/21/2017
Pages:	496
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

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 in archives across the U.S.

Table of Contents

Prologue
Introduction
Chapter 1: Setting the Stage
Chapter 2: Creating an Army
Chapter 3: Training: The Army at War with Itself
Chapter 4: Americans Reach the Battlefield
Chapter 5: First Army Takes the Field
Chapter 6: Concentration
Chapter 7: The Germans
Chapter 8: Over the Top and Up the Hill, September 26
Chapter 9: Left, Right, and Straight Ahead, September 26
Chapter 10: To Montfaucon and Beyond, September 27
Chapter 11: Bois de Beuge and Nantillois, September 28
Chapter 12: Bois 250 and Bois des Ogons, September 29-30
Chapter 13: Interlude: Troyon Sector, October 1-28
Chapter 14: Heights of the Meuse, October 29-November 10
Chapter 15: Armistice to Home, November 11, 1918-July 1919
Epilogue

Editorial Reviews

"With Their Bare Hands is an unvarnished examination of all corners of the battlefield, filled with failures and setbacks, courage and fear, noble sacrifices and, in many places unnecessary casualties. Mr. Fax considers the battle on its own terms and n its own time, allowing the reader an unfiltered view of combat and confusion and command decisions—both wise and unwise." - Matthew J. Davenport, The Wall Street Journal

"Superb account of the final, violent throes of World War I . . . compelling account of the hastily assembled, lightly trained American Expeditionary Forces." - Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times

"Based on meticulous research Gene Fax’s fascinating account of the poorly trained 79th Division in the Meuse-Argonne offensive tells us much about how inexperience, poor communications and inadequate support compelled that division’s courageous soldiers to fight 'with their bare hands.' Fax tells the amazing story of how the American Expeditionary Force and the 79th Division overcame many errors and false ideas and paid a high price learning how to fight effectively." - Brigadier General (ret.) Robert A. Doughty

"The men of the AEF’s 79th Division were warriors for the working day: civilians in uniform. Their training was minimal, their cohesion limited, their tactics defying four years of Western Front experience. Yet the 79th’s first assignment was to take one of the best-defended position in the Argonne Forest. It became a compound disaster. But the division’s subsequent recovery is a case study in American soldiers’ often-demonstrated high learning curve and the AEF’s contribution to victory in 1918. Gene Fax’s new history of the 79th Division is a masterful study of the long and difficult road to victory." - Professor Dennis Showalter

"Ordered to capture the heavily fortified high-ground of Montfaucon on the first day of Meuse-Argonne, the doughboys of 79th Division-fresh from Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia-proved themselves as brave and tenacious soldiers. With Their Bare Hands is a fine testament to their courage under fire and a compelling work of history by Gene Fax." - Mitchell Yockelson, author of FORTY-SEVEN DAYS: HOW PERSHING'S WARRIOR'S CAME OF AGE TO DEFEAT THE GERMAN ARMY IN WORLD WAR I

"A careful study of a little-remembered division, in a little-remembered battle, in a little-remembered war. All of which is a pity, because as Gene Fax points out, the accomplishments of the 79th Division were remarkable and reflected better on the record of the American Expeditionary Force than historians often assume. A meticulous story, compellingly told." - Eliot Cohen, author of THE BIG STICK: THE LIMITS OF SOFT POWER AND THE NECESSITY OF MILITARY FORCE

"...an in-depth look at a single division in a single battle, fighting a difficult action with little support." - Military Heritage

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