Over There

Over There
Author: Carl Andrew Brannen
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Total Pages: 196
Release: 1997-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780890967911

"When America declared war in 1917, I was a few months past eighteen years of age and just finishing my first year in college. By the time I was to reenter in the fall for the second year, war activities were [under way] on a large scale. Men were going into some branch of the service on all sides. I felt that my family should do their bit in uniform, and my age designated me as the most appropriate one." This Texas A&M College student was Carl Andrew Brannen; these are his memoirs of a time when boys became men and your country became your life. Over There: A Marine in the Great War takes the reader on an almost two-year journey through his world as a young soldier in the war. Based on Brannen's memoirs recorded in the 1930s and photographs he took with a German camera as a soldier, this book describes day-to-day obstacles he and his fellow soldiers faced during Marine Corps training, movement to France, and mortal combat. "As I jumped for protection into a ditch nearby, a fusillade of bullets caught me below the heart on the left side, through one lens of the field glasses, and against my bandoleer of ammunition. The best I remember, ten bullets in my own belt exploded, but they had deflected the enemy bullets, saving my life." Brannen, though wounded in battle and in the hospital for three weeks, went on with 80th Company through the Meuse-Argonne campaign to the armistice on November 11. He pulled his months of duty in the occupation of the Rhineland and, at its end, earned a place in the Composite Regiment of men selected to represent the American Expeditionary Forces in the many ceremonial events of 1919. Complemented with a unique set of photographs by the author's son that retrace his father's military campaigns, Over There is a highly personal account, presented from an enlisted man's perspective of the battle fronts of Belleau Woods in the Château-Thierry sector, Soissons, Pont-a-Mousson, St. Mihiel, Blanc Mont Ridge, and the Meuse-Argonne battle. As a first hand commentary and a social document of life in the trenches during World War I, it is a useful contribution to military history. Brannen's personal accounts will touch and fascinate all those interested in World War I.

The Doughboys Over There

The Doughboys Over There
Author: Susan Provost Beller
Publisher: Twenty-First Century Books
Total Pages: 116
Release: 2007-07-31
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0822562952

Shares the experiences of the Doughboys fighting in World War I in Europe.

To the Limit of Endurance

To the Limit of Endurance
Author: Peter F. Owen
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2007-08-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781585445998

Scholars and historians offer several theories for the crippling losses suffered by the American Expeditionary Forces on the battlefields of World War I: inexperience, poor leadership, hasty expansion of duties, and others. But until now, most of these studies have focused at the division level or higher. Now, with To the Limit of Endurance, Peter F. Owen offers a tautly worded, historically rigorous, and intensely human survey of the agonizing burden shouldered by the Second Battalion of the Sixth Regiment of U.S. Marines from its formation in Quantico, Virginia, in 1917 until the cessation of hostilities in November of the following year. In places like Belleau Wood and Soissons, these young men, led by dedicated officers, died in staggering numbers—primarily because of the outmoded tactics they had learned. Owen shows how the battalion regrouped after these campaigns, however, and embarked on a period of intense retraining. By the time of the closing weeks of the war, the adjustments they had made allowed them to mold themselves into a coldly efficient military machine. Drawing on a treasure trove of surviving first-hand accounts, Owen expertly combines these individual observations with military records and archival sources to create a mosaic that provides not only a case study of how one organization grappled with transformation but also a tightly focused, ground-level view of the lives—and deaths—of these courageous American military men. The grueling, ultimately triumphant odyssey of the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines will appeal to military historians, professional soldiers, and interested general readers.

United States Marine Corps Generals of World War II

United States Marine Corps Generals of World War II
Author: George B. Clark
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2024-10-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1476607192

This biographical dictionary profiles each of the 98 men who served as generals of the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II. Arranged alphabetically, the entries detail each general's background and education; military schooling; military service, both before and during World War II; service abroad (France, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Mexico, Cuba, China, and Panama); medals and awards for courage and skill in combat; and retirement and death dates.

American Soldiers

American Soldiers
Author: Peter S. Kindsvatter
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Total Pages: 456
Release: 2003-04-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 0700614168

Some warriors are drawn to the thrill of combat and find it the defining moment of their lives. Others fall victim to fear, exhaustion, impaired reasoning, and despair. This was certainly true for twentieth-century American ground troops. Whether embracing or being demoralized by war, these men risked their lives for causes larger than themselves with no promise of safe return. This book is the first to synthesize the wartime experiences of American combat soldiers, from the doughboys of World War I to the grunts of Vietnam. Focusing on both soldiers and marines, it draws on histories and memoirs, oral histories, psychological and sociological studies, and even fiction to show that their experiences remain fundamentally the same regardless of the enemy, terrain, training, or weaponry. Peter Kindsvatter gets inside the minds of American soldiers to reveal what motivated them to serve and how they were turned into soldiers. He recreates the physical and emotional aspects of war to tell how fighting men dealt with danger and hardship, and he explores the roles of comradeship, leadership, and the sustaining beliefs in cause and country. He also illuminates soldiers’ attitudes toward the enemy, toward the rear echelon, and toward the home front. And he tells why some broke down under fire while others excelled. Here are the first tastes of battle, as when a green recruit reported that “for the first time I realized that the people over the ridge wanted to kill me,” while another was befuddled by the unfamiliar sound of bullets whizzing overhead. Here are soldiers struggling to cope with war’s stress by seeking solace from local women or simply smoking cigarettes. And here are tales of combat avoidance and fraggings not unique to Vietnam, of soldiers in Korea disgruntled over home-front indifference, and of the unique experiences of African American soldiers in the Jim Crow army. By capturing the core “band of brothers” experience across several generations of warfare, Kindsvatter celebrates the American soldier while helping us to better understand war’s lethal reality--and why soldiers persevere in the face of its horrors.

Devil Dogs

Devil Dogs
Author: Jeanne Clark
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Total Pages: 514
Release: 2013-01-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 161251216X

In telling the story of the extraordinary contributions of the U.S. Marines in World War I, this now-classic history examines the Corps’ entire experience in France. Now available in paperback, the book is a valuable resource for data, especially details about each unit and how they functioned. Bolstered with information from official documents as well as published and unpublished memoirs, readers follow the Marines from their recruitment, through training and shipment overseas, to the horrors of trench warfare. The famous battle at Belleau Wood is fully examined, along with the lesser known campaigns at Blanc Mont and Meuse River, and the critical engagements at Verdun, Marbache, and St. Mihiel. Readers learn how the 4th Marine Brigade earned the nickname “Devil Dogs” and why their experiences helped forge the Corps’ identity. It is a new addition to the Leatherneck Classics series.

Blanc Mont Ridge 1918

Blanc Mont Ridge 1918
Author: Romain Cansière
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 97
Release: 2018-07-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472824970

The dominating Blanc Mont Ridge complex in the Champagne region of France was home to some of the most complex German defences on the Western Front. Its heights offered artillery observation that made even approaching the ridge virtually suicidal. Pessimistic about the ability of depleted and demoralized French units to capture the position, Général Henri Gouraud was granted the use of two American divisions: the veteran 2nd “Indianhead” Division, including the 4th (Marine) Brigade, and the untested 36th “Arrowhead” Division of the Texas and Oklahoma National Guard. This fully illustrated book describes this Allied offensive with American troops in the vanguard, and shows how despite the heavy losses it sustained to both manpower and supporting armour, they eventually forced the Germans to abandon most of the region in one of the largest withdrawals of the war.

A Regiment Like No Other: The 6th Marine Regiment At Belleau Wood

A Regiment Like No Other: The 6th Marine Regiment At Belleau Wood
Author: LCDR J. Wayne Hill
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2014-08-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 178289697X

This thesis addresses the unique composition of the 6th U.S. Marine Regiment and the role they played in the battle of Belleau Wood. It analyzes composition of the 6th Marine Regiment: 60 percent were college men, many of whom were college athletes. With the exception of the Battalion's senior officers and a handful of senior non-commissioned officers, the Regiment was composed of volunteers. Although they were put through rigorous training, these young Marines were not fully prepared for the war that they would face. These young men overcame shortfalls, and became leaders who motivated others to follow. The argument is that these men were able to use their educational and athletic backgrounds to overcome adverse training and combat conditions and proceeded to shape both the outcome of the First World War as well as the Marine Corps for the remainder of the 20th Century.

VPNavy! USN, USMC, USCG and NATS Patrol Aircraft Lost or Damaged During World War II

VPNavy! USN, USMC, USCG and NATS Patrol Aircraft Lost or Damaged During World War II
Author: Douglas E. Campbell
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 644
Release: 2018-02-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 1387491938

Thousands of hours of research have culminated in this First Edition of U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard and Naval Air Transport Service patrol aircraft lost or damaged during World War II. Within these 600+ pages can be found more than 2,200 patrol aircraft across nearly 300 squadron designations; the majority of the aircraft complete with their stories of how they were lost or damaged or simply Struck Off Charge (SOC) and removed from the Navy's inventory. Of interest to the reader may be the alphabetical Index to the 7,600+ names of Officers, aircrewmen and others mentioned in the book.