Operational Art and Munitions Supply: An Analysis of Munitions and Their Influence on Operational Art Practiced by the American Expeditionary Forces During World War I

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Z. Licata
Author(s):  
Andrew Byers

This chapter examines U.S. Army deployments to France during the First World War and the occupations of France and Germany in the aftermath of the war. At the outset of American involvement in World War I, army and War Department officials were especially concerned with how they might cope with an anticipated venereal epidemic, and how to deal with expected problems from romantic fraternization between American soldiers and the European women they would encounter while deployed. This chapter also examines uses the experiences of the American Expeditionary Forces to illuminate differing conceptions of masculinity and sexual propriety for the officer corps and enlisted men.


2015 ◽  
Vol 139 (9) ◽  
pp. 1161-1172 ◽  
Author(s):  
James R. Wright ◽  
Leland B. Baskin

Context Historical research on pathology and laboratory medicine services in World War I has been limited. In the Spanish American War, these efforts were primarily focused on tropical diseases. World War I problems that could be addressed by pathology and laboratory medicine were strikingly different because of the new field of clinical pathology. Geographic differences, changing war tactics, and trench warfare created new issues. Objectives To describe the scope of pathology and laboratory medicine services in World War I and the value these services brought to the war effort. Methods Available primary and secondary sources related to American Expeditionary Forces' laboratory services were analyzed and contrasted with the British and German approaches. Results The United States entered the war in April 1917. Colonel Joseph Siler, MD, a career medical officer, was the director, and Colonel Louis B. Wilson, MD, head of pathology at the Mayo Clinic, was appointed assistant director of the US Army Medical Corps Division of Laboratories and Infectious Disease, based in Dijon, France. During the next year, they organized 300 efficient laboratories to support the American Expeditionary Forces. Autopsies were performed to better understand treatment of battlefield injuries, effects of chemical warfare agents, and the influenza pandemic; autopsies also generated teaching specimens for the US Army Medical Museum. Bacteriology services focused on communicable diseases. Laboratory testing for social diseases was very aggressive. Significant advances in blood transfusion techniques, which allowed brief blood storage, occurred during the war but were not primarily overseen by laboratory services. Conclusions Both Siler and Wilson received Distinguished Service Medals. Wilson's vision for military pathology services helped transform American civilian laboratory services in the 1920s.


Author(s):  
Ilya Nikolaevich Adeshkin

This article examines the participation of African Americans in the World War I in the ranks of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe during the 1917 – 1918. The author studies the attitude of the African-American community towards participation in the World War I, describes the peculiarities of military service of African American soldiers in the American Expeditionary Forces, and reveals the manifestations of racial discrimination. The article also reviews the attitude of French soldiers and officers towards African American soldiers of the U. S. Army, analyzes the impact of the acquired combat experience and sociocultural interaction with foreign soldiers upon the activity of African American population in fighting for their rights and freedoms in the United States. In Russian historiography, the participation of African Americans in the American Expeditionary Forces during the World War I, peculiarities of their service, and the impact of war on self-consciousness of this category of military servicemen have not previously become the subject of special research. Based on the article. The conclusion is made that the attitude of African American community towards participation in the World War I was quite ambiguous. Their soldiers faced different forms of discrimination during their military service: they could not serve in the Marine Corps and other elite units, and most of the time were engaged in the rear. A different experience received African American soldiers from the units transferred under the leadership of the French Army, whose officers treated them with respect; the blood shed for their country, combat experience and respectful of the allies enhanced desire of the African Americans to gain equal civil rights and freedoms in their homeland.


2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Frahm

When historians describe the American woman who served overseas with the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) during World War I, they typically fall back on generalizations. The American women who served “over there” were white, single, well-educated, and from an urban area of the Northeast or West Coast of the United States. Most were gainfully employed before going to Europe, holding a teaching, clerical, or other position suitable for respectable white women of that period. Frequently, they were financially independent and lived on their own. While such generalizations are valuable, their obvious drawback is that they obscure the diversity of women serving in specific organizations. Also, such generalizations can prove misleading when applied to any one organization; what might be true for a YMCA worker might be false for a telephone operator.


Author(s):  
Michael Matheny

The art of warfare is practiced in three levels: the strategic, operational, and tactical. Operational art refers to the military commander’s employment of force in a theater of operations to achieve strategic objectives. Operational art is inextricably linked to the planning and conduct of military campaigns in specific theaters of war, which distinguishes it from tactics and strategy. Strategy and tactics have long been studied and described, but the third level of war, the operational level, began to emerge only in the 19th century as nations began to field ever-larger armies. The maneuver of large armies or multiple armies required commanders to orchestrate large-scale maneuvers in the theater of war. During the Napoleonic Wars the aim of this maneuver was the pursuit of the decisive battle, such as Austerlitz and Waterloo. By World War I, it was clear that single battles could not yield strategic results. The armies were simply too large for single decisive battles to provide political results, and so campaigns designed to arrange a series of battles became necessary. During the interwar years, practitioners and theorists from several countries began to formalize theories of operational art. The roots of modern operational art can be traced back to World War I in which the conduct of operations in three dimensions became necessary. Historians have largely overlooked the operational level of war, but to the extent it has been studied, there is a good deal of debate on when, how, and why operational art developed. Scholarship on operational art generally falls into several categories that include current military theorists, schools of thought on the development of operational art, and campaign studies. Some historians assert that the roots of operational art lay with the development of the Prusso-German school in the 19th century. Other historians emphasize the Soviet interwar theorists as the preeminent authors of the concept. A much smaller number of scholars point to the United States contribution to operational art. In general, the study of operational art may be divided into the various schools of thought on the development of operational art, theory, and practice. Although the origins and practice of operational art have long been linked to large-scale conventional military operations, the advent of irregular warfare since 1945 has sparked a debate about the role of operational art in irregular warfare. Theorists, practitioners, and historians have wrestled with the concept of operational art in small wars and counterinsurgency. This recent interest peaked due to US counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.


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