United States Army in World War II

United States Army in World War II is the official history of the ground forces of the United States Army during the war. The 78-volume work was originally published beginning in 1946.[1]

Overview

The work describes and to a degree evaluates the ground operations of the Army in 21 volumes. Additional volumes address grand strategy; recruitment, organization, and training; the service forces; the technical services; and special studies; again almost exclusively those of the ground forces. Three additional volumes provide a pictorial account. (Air operations, logistics, and training are presented in a separate seven-volume series, The Army Air Forces in World War II.) Different authors or teams wrote most of the accounts, though some authors wrote more than one. Most of the authors were serving or retired officers though enlisted personnel and professional historians also contributed.

The volumes devoted to operations are grouped by theater and campaign. (See the list of titles below.) Battles are described at a unit level appropriate to the size of the engagement. In some cases authors detail the actions of units as small as an infantry company, though most battles are presented at the battalion or regimental level. Many accounts of individual heroism are included, especially actions which resulted in the award of the Medal of Honor.

Each volume includes some photographs. Operations volumes include small maps within the text and larger fold-out maps attached inside the back cover. All operations volumes include bibliographical notes, a glossary, a list of code names, and a list of military map symbols. Some include additional features such as a table of equivalent U.S. and German, Italian, or Japanese ranks.

More than two-thirds of the volumes of the history are devoted to subjects other than actual operations. (See the list of titles below.) These provide information which is not appropriate for a purely operational history but is important for an understanding of the Army’s activities as a whole during the war.

Contents

THE WAR DEPARTMENT

Title Author(s) Year Published
Chief of Staff: Prewar Plans and Preparations Mark Skinner Watson 1950
Washington Command Post: The Operations Division Ray S. Cline 1951
Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare: 1941–1942 Maurice Matloff and Edwin M. Snell 1953
Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare: 1943–1944 Maurice Matloff 1959
Global Logistics and Strategy: 1940–1943 Richard M. Leighton and Robert W. Coakley 1955
Global Logistics and Strategy: 1944–1945 Robert W. Coakley and Richard M. Leighton 1968
The Army and Economic Mobilization R. Elberton Smith 1959
The Army and Industrial Manpower Byron Fairchild and Jonathan Grossman 1959

THE ARMY GROUND FORCES

Title Author(s) Year Published
The Organization of Ground Combat Troops Kent Roberts Greenfield, Robert R. Palmer, and Bell I. Wiley 1947
The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops Robert R. Palmer, Bell I. Wiley, and William R. Keast 1948

THE ARMY SERVICE FORCES

Title Author(s) Year Published
"The Organization and Role of the Army Service Forces" John David Millett 1954

THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE

Title Author(s) Year Published
The Framework of Hemisphere Defense Stetson Conn and Byron Fairchild 1960
Guarding the United States and its Outposts Stetson Conn, Rose C. Engelman, and Byron Fairchild 1964

THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC

Title Author(s) Year Published
Strategy and Command: The First Two Years Louis Morton 1962
The Fall of the Philippines Louis Morton 1953
Guadalcanal: The First Offensive Samuel Milner 1949
Victory in Papua Samuel Milner 1957
CARTWHEEL: The Reduction of Rabaul John Miller 1959
Seizure of the Gilberts and Marshalls Philip A. Crowl and Edmund G. Love 1955
Campaign in the Marianas Philip A. Crowl 1960
The Approach to the Philippines Robert Ross Smith 1953
Leyte: The Return to the Philippines M. Hamlin Cannon 1954
Triumph in the Philippines Robert Ross Smith 1963
Okinawa: The Last Battle Roy E. Appleman, James M. Burns, Russell A. Gugeler, and John Stevens 1948

THE MEDITERRANEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS

Title Author(s) Year Published
Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West George F. Howe 1957
Sicily and the Surrender of Italy Albert N. Garland and Howard McGaw Smyth 1965
Salerno to Cassino Martin Blumenson 1969
Cassino to the Alps Ernest F. Fisher, Jr. 1977

THE EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS

Title Author(s) Year Published
The Supreme Command Forrest C. Pogue 1954
Cross-Channel Attack Gordon A. Harrison 1951
Breakout and Pursuit Martin Blumenson 1961
The Lorraine Campaign Hugh M. Cole 1950
The Siegfried Line Campaign Charles B. MacDonald 1963
The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge Hugh M. Cole 1965
Riviera to the Rhine Jeffrey J. Clarke and Robert Ross Smith 1992
The Last Offensive Charles B. MacDonald 1973
Logistical Support of the Armies, Volume I Roland G. Ruppenthal 1953
Logistical Support of the Armies, Volume II Roland G. Ruppenthal 1959

THE MIDDLE EAST THEATER

Title Author(s) Year Published
The Persian Corridor and Aid to Russia Thomas Hubbard Vail Motter 1952

THE CHINA-BURMA-INDIA THEATER

Title Author(s) Year Published
Stillwell’s Mission to China Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland 1953
Stillwell’s Command Problems Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland 1956
Time Runs Out in CBI Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland 1959

THE TECHNICAL SERVICES

Title Author(s) Year Published
The Chemical Warfare Service: Organizing for War Leo P. Brophy and George J. B. Fisher 1959
The Chemical Warfare Service: From Laboratory to Field Leo P. Brophy, Wyndham D. Miles, and Rexmond C. Cochrane 1959
The Chemical Warfare Service: Chemicals in Combat Brooks E. Kleber and Dale Birdsell 1966
The Corps of Engineers: Troops and Equipment Blanche D. Coll, Jean E. Keith, and Herbert H. Rosenthal 1958
The Corps of Engineers: Construction in the United States Lenore Fine and Jesse A. Remington 1972
The Corps of Engineers: The War against Japan Karl C. Dod 1966
The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany Alfred M. Beck, Abe Bortz, Charles W. Lynch, Lida Mayo, and Ralph F. Weld 1985
The Medical Department: Hospitalization and Evacuation, Zone of the Interior Clarence McKittrick Smith 1956
The Medical Department: Medical Service in the Mediterranean and Minor Theaters Charles M. Wiltse 1965
The Medical Department: Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations Graham A. Cosmas and Albert E. Cowdrey 1992
The Medical Department: medical service in the war against Japan Mary Ellen Condon-Rall and Albert E. Cowdrey 1998
The Ordnance Department: Planning Munitions for War Constance McLaughlin Green, Harry C. Thomson, and Peter C. Roots 1955
The Ordnance Department: Procurement and Supply Harry C. Thomson and Lida Mayo 1960
The Ordnance Department: On Beachhead and Battlefront Lida Mayo 1968
The Quartermaster Corps: Organization, Supply, and Services, Volume I Erna Risch 1953
The Quartermaster Corps: Organization, Supply, and Services, Volume II Erna Risch and Chester L. Kieffer 1955
The Quartermaster Corps: Operations in the War against Japan Alvin P. Stauffer 1956
The Quartermaster Corps: Operations in the War against Germany William F. Ross and Charles F. Romanus 1965
The Signal Corps: The Emergency (to December 1941) Dulany Terrett 1956
The Signal Corps: The Test (December 1941 to July 1943) George Raynor Thompson, Dixie R. Harris, Pauline M. Oakes, and Dulany Terrett 1957
The Signal Corps: The Outcome (mid-1943 through 1945) George Raynor Thompson and Dixie R. Harris 1966
The Transportation Corps: Responsibilities, Organization, and Operations Chester Wardlow 1951
The Transportation Corps: Movements, Training, and Supply Chester Wardlow 1956
The Transportation Corps: Operations Overseas Joseph Bykofsky and Harold Larson 1957

SPECIAL STUDIES

Title Author(s) Year Published
Chronology: 1941–1945 Mary H. Williams 1960
Buying Aircraft: Matériel Procurement for the Army Air Forces I. B. Holley 1964
Civil Affairs: Soldiers Become Governors Harry L. Coles and Albert K. Weinberg 1964
The Employment of Negro Troops Ulysses Lee 1966
Military Relations between the United States and Canada, 1939–1945 Stanlye W. Dziuban 1959
Rearming the French Marcel Vigneras 1957
Three Battles: Arnaville, Altuzzo, and Schmidt Charles B. MacDonald and Sidney T. Mathews 1952
The Women's Army Corps Mattie E. Treadwell 1953
Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb Vincent C. Jones 1985

PICTORIAL RECORD

Title Author(s) Year Published
The War against Germany and Italy: Mediterranean and Adjacent Areas John C. Hatlem and Kenneth E. Hunter 1951
The War against Germany: Europe and Adjacent Areas Kenneth E. Hunter 1951
The War against Japan Kenneth E. Hunter and Margaret E. Tackley 1952

Publication history

The works were first published by the Historical Division, Department of the Army, later called the Office of the Chief of Military History and later still the Center of Military History. They are in a large format, 7¼” x 10”, with green cloth covers and no dust jackets. The cover has only the eagle insignia of the Army; the title, author, and other data are on the spine. Many volumes have been reprinted by the Center of Military History in the same format beginning in the 1980s, and all are available as PDF downloads.[2]

The operations-oriented volumes and some others were reprinted by The National Historical Society during the 1990s in a 50th Anniversary Commemorative Edition series. They were 7” x 9” with a hard cover (without a dust jacket) whose face was a black-and-white photograph with the title superimposed. They omitted the original editions’ fold-out maps but instead printed them in two separate atlases.

Two volumes, ‘’Cross Channel Attack’’ and ‘’The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge’’, were reprinted in the 1990s by Konecky & Konecky in a large 8½” by 11” format. They, too, omitted the fold-out maps. Other publishing houses have also reprinted selected volumes.

References

  1. ↑ Adamczyk, Richard D. (1992). United States Army in World War II: Reader's Guide (PDF). Washington, DC: Center of Military History. p. 173. ISBN 978-0160378171. OCLC 813914147. CMH Pub 11-9
  2. ↑ "U.S. Army in World War II Series". army.mil. U.S. Army Center of Military History. Retrieved 4 September 2016.

External links

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