mardi 28 juin 2016

Brigadier General Harbord at Belleau Wood, a butcher or a man who did his best

Firstly let me say that despite my massive interest in pre 1945 military history I have until recently not had much of a interest in the AEF on the western front in WW1. I have collected hundreds of books on WW1 over the years but none on American involvement.
In the last two months that has changed. I got Ospreys book on the St Mihiel attack and went from their. I've now got all the Osprey books including the ones on the Marines and Belleu wood. I also got "first over there" about Cantingy, "Through the wheat"about Marine involvement , the recent "little Gibraltar" the Schiffer publishing books and Alan Axelrods "Miricle at Belleau wood".
I like Axelrods stuff, his book on the battle of the crater is good as his recent work on Verdun. But I found his book on Belleau wood to be treacle like in its treatment of the Marines and Harbord.
I have noticed a oddity of accounts both modern and more contempory in regards to Harbors. Some have him as the Army officer sent to the Marines at the right time to do a tough job with poor support. Which he did successfully. Others have home as the man who sent the Marines out in company columns with a real lack of artillery support and, at least partly, lay the heavy losses at his door.
As I said, this is a recent intrest for me (if it was Jacobite risings, ww1 airships, Zulu war,Crimean war etc I would be fine) and so want to farm it out to someone more skilled in the battle in question.


via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/298FOsA

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