My Experiences in the World War by John J. Pershing Vol 1-2

I feared this book would consist of a battle by battle by battle account of the war, the type of history that doesn't do much for me.  But this book was far different and endlessly interesting.

I've always heard that the real key to winning a war has more to do with supplying the troops, rather than strategy, weaponry or technique.  Pershing proves this point thoroughly with his story of World War I.

When America declared war on Germany in early 1917, we didn't have much of a standing army.  We had to build one almost from scratch, and that took time and a massive application of resources.  It's this buildup of manpower, machinery, infrastructure and supplies that consumers 80-90% of Pershing's story.

By 1917 the Allied Powers (France, England, Belgium and Italy) had been fighting for three years and were both mentally and physically spent.  They were on the verge of losing, something that certainly would have happened the following year without the entry of the U.S. into the war.

Pershing's story is that of building, almost literally, a small country within the borders of France.  Because the Allies' own resources were completely overwhelmed and overtaxed, the U.S. had to build virtually everything from scratch.  Not only did we have to recruit, draft and train the army itself, but we had to build everything that would support that army.  Ports and docking facilities in France, railroads, trains and locomotives, warehouses, roads, barracks, hospitals, airplanes, trucks, a police force, a postal system, power plants, telecommunications and so much more.

From the spring of 1917, when Pershing first arrives in France, until early summer of 1918 when American first enters battle, his story focuses on this massive buildup in stunning detail.  The logistical undertaking, with nothing less than the hegemony of Europe at stake, provides rich drama.

The American fight in the war itself, from about May of 1918 to Armistice in November, a span of just six months, proceeds rapidly and ferociously.  But none of it could have happened without the massive buildup of supplies, infrastructure and manpower.

Fascinating stuff!