Research Catalog

Million-dollar barrage : American field artillery in the Great War

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]

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library D570.32.A1 P75 2021Off-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
Subject
  • United States. Army. Field Artillery > History > World War, 1914-1918
  • United States. Army. Field Artillery
  • 1900-1999
  • World War, 1914-1918 > Artillery operations, American
  • Artillery, Field and mountain > United States > History > 20th century
  • Artillery, Field and mountain
  • United States
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.
ISBN
  • 9780806167558
  • 0806167556
  • 9780806191171
  • 0806191171
LCCN
  • 2020024351
  • 40030418619
OCLC
  • on1157628329
  • 1157628329
  • SCSB-9853576
Owning Institutions
Princeton University Library