During World War II, James A Huston served as an operations officer in the 3rd Battalion, 134th Infantry, a unit that helped to liberate or capture dozens of cities across France, Belgium, and Germany. From July 1944 through April 1945, the regiment captured 8,974 prisoners of war and covered over 1,500 combat miles, but lost 10,046 men in the process. “Biography of a Battalion” recreates the action and provides an account of the war from one soldier who lived through it.
During World War II, James A Huston served as an operations officer in the 3rd Battalion, 134th Infantry, a unit that helped to liberate or capture dozens of cities across France, Belgium, and Germany. From July 1944 through April 1945, the regiment captured 8,974 prisoners of war and covered over 1,500 combat miles, but lost 10,046 men in the process. “Biography of a Battalion” recreates the action and provides an account of the war from one soldier who lived through it.
This study examines the historical record and primary source of conflict between the armed services over the issue of the effective employment of close air support during the Korean War. The study considers the impact of the single air asset manager on CAS employment during World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. The disagreement examined and explained in this study is the distinction and desire between the Navy-Marines control system and the Army-Air Force control system. The author evaluates the development of service and joint doctrine and the arguments over centralized and decentralized command and control in the execution of the air war. The thesis emphasizes CAS issues during the Korean War using General Keith B. McCutcheon’s writings and papers as a guide to develop and understand CAS employment, methodology, and effectiveness from World War II through Vietnam. The Korean War period significantly shaped the persistent argument concerning CAS employment among Marines, sailors, airmen, and soldiers and its value to a winning strategy. This study emphasizes General McCutcheon views on CAS employment and how he provided a template for cooperation during the Philippines Campaign. Cooperation and coordination as well as the role of doctrine are the primary themes throughout this study. Doctrine, and coordination and cooperation are necessary tools to develop the most effective means of employing CAS.
This study examines the role of combat gliders in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States during World War II (WWII). This thesis compares and contrasts each country with respect to pre-WWII glider experience, glider and airborne doctrine, glider pilot training, and glider production while outlining each country’s major glider operations. The author then compares the glider operations in the China-Burma-India Theater to the operations in Europe to describe the unique challenges based on the terrain and mission. Next, this thesis presents an analysis of the glider’s precipitous decline following WWII. The study concludes with recommendations for glider operations in the future based on the experiences of the past.
This study analyzes the logistics operations of the North Africa Campaign. The thesis covers wholesale and retail level preparedness and execution of the U.S. ground force sustainment following the Allied landings in northwest Africa in November 1942. The analysis concludes with the German surrender in Tunisia in May 1943. The logistical efforts of the campaign are studied against the framework of modern Airland Battle doctrine. The functional areas of manning, fueling, arming, fixing, and transporting are assessed by the doctrinal imperatives of anticipation, integration, continuity, responsiveness, and improvisation.
This is a study of the logistical system that supported the Union armies in the Civil War, focusing on the Army of the Cumberland under the command of Major General William S. Rosecrans in 1863. It begins with a description of the logistical bureaus in the War Department in Washington, D.C. and the challenges they had in developing the national logistical support structure in the first years of the war. Next, the support structure in the Department of the Cumberland is described, to include the challenges in maintaining the rail link from Nashville, Tennessee, back to Louisville, Kentucky. Finally, the performances of the commanders and logisticians in the field during the Tullahoma and Chickamauga Campaigns are explored, with an emphasis on the problems with transportation. This study concludes that the logisticians overcame enormous problems to create a logistical system that allowed the commanders to win the war. In the Army of the Cumberland, the support was exceptional when compared to the challenges that were faced. Logistics became a limiting factor because of the senior leadership’s poor planning, disregarded orders, and unrealistic expectations which doomed both the Tullahoma and Chickamauga Campaigns from achieving decisive results even before they had begun. This study attempts to put the rarely explored, but extremely significant, field of logistics in its proper place of importance in the study of military history. Logistics is inextricably tied with strategy and tactics; without logistics, victory is not possible.
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