Research Catalog

Title

Million-dollar barrage : American field artillery in the Great War / Justin G. Prince.

Author

Prince, Justin G. (Justin Gilles)

Publication

Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, [2021]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 256 pages : illustrations (black and white); 24 cm

Summary

At the beginning of the twentieth century, field artillery was a small, separate, unsupported branch of the U.S. Army. By the end of World War I, it had become the 'King of Battle,' a critical component of American military might. Million-Dollar Barrage tracks this transformation. Offering a detailed account of how American artillery crews trained, changed, adapted, and fought between 1907 and 1923, Justin G. Prince tells the story of the development of modern American field artillery - a tale stretching from the period when field artillery became an independent organization to when it became an equal branch of the U.S. Army. The field artillery entered the Great War as a relatively new branch. It separated from the Coast Artillery in 1907 and established a dedicated training school, the School of Fire at Fort Sill, in 1911. Prince describes the challenges this presented as issues of doctrine, technology, weapons development, and combat training intersected with the problems of a peacetime army with no good industrial base. His account, which draws on a wealth of sources, ranges from debates about U.S. artillery practices relative to those of Europe, to discussions of the training, equipping, and performance of the field artillery branch during the war. Prince follows the field artillery from its plunge into combat in April 1917 as an unprepared organization to its emergence that November as an effective fighting force, with the Meuse-Argonne Offensive proving the pivotal point in the branch's fortunes. Million-Dollar Barrage provides an unprecedented analysis of the ascendance of field artillery as a key factor in the nation's military dominance.

Alternative Title

American field artillery in the Great War

Subjects

• United States
• Artillery, Field and mountain
• United States > Army > Field Artillery
• History
• 1900-1999
• World War > (1914-1918)
• Artillery, Field and mountain > United States > History > 20th century
• World War, 1914-1918 > Artillery operations, American
• United States > Army > Field Artillery > History > World War, 1914-1918

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

"They Surely Had Men at Those Guns": An Introduction -- "Drifting Along as before the Civil War": The School of Fire and the Modernization of American Field Artillery -- "We Talk Preparedness and Remain Unprepared": Prewar Technology and Training -- "I Was After Guns and Not Hell": American Industry and Equipping the Army in the Great War -- "Open Warfare Must Not Be Neglected": Field Artillery Training, 1917-1918 -- "We Had to Pay for Our Unpreparedness": American Artillery and the Observation of Fire -- "The Million-Dollar Barrage": American Artillery in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, 1918 -- "Misguided Youths and Old Methods": The Postwar Debates, 1919-1923 -- "Written with a Prologue": The Establishment of American Field Artillery.

Call Number

JFE 21-5229

ISBN

• 9780806167558
• 0806167556

LCCN

• 2020024351
• 40030418619

OCLC

1157628329

Author

Prince, Justin G. (Justin Gilles), author.

Title

Million-dollar barrage : American field artillery in the Great War / Justin G. Prince.

Publisher

Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, [2021]

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological Term

1900-1999

Other Standard Identifier

40030418619

Research Call Number

JFE 21-5229