The Yanks Are Coming! (41 page)

13
.
    
Quoted in Byron Farwell,
Over There: The United States in the Great War, 1917–1918
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1999), 183–84.

14
.
    
On the second day of battle, 19 July, Marine Lieutenant Daniel Bender reconnoitered for enemy gas shells. He was wounded, and sent back this brief report: “No gas. Shot in the ass. Bender.” Quoted in Johnson and Hillman,
Soissons 1918
, 103.

15
.
    
These quotations come from Johnson and Hillman,
Soissons 1918
, 125.

16
.
    
Fighting of course raged on, and Soissons itself was not taken until 2 August.

17
.
    
Quoted in Farwell,
Over There
, 184.

18
.
    
Quoted in Johnson and Hillman,
Soissons 1918
, 138.

CHAPTER SEVEN: SAINT-MIHIEL AND THE MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE

1
.
      
While taking on this field command, he maintained his status as commanding general of the American Expeditionary Force.

2
.
      
The fourteen-inch guns were served by American sailors under the command of Rear Admiral Charles P. Plunkett. Helping them find their targets was infantry captain Edwin P. Hubble, who later became a celebrated astronomer.

3
.
      
Edward G. Lengel,
To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918; The Epic Battle That Ended the First World War
(New York: Henry Holt, 2009), 69.

4
.
      
Quoted in Lengel,
To Conquer Hell
, 71.

5
.
      
Edward M. Coffman,
The War to End all Wars: The American Military Experience in World War I
(Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1998), 300.

6
.
      
Quoted in John S. D. Eisenhower, with Joanne T. Eisenhower,
Yanks: The Epic Story of the American Army in World War I
(New York: Touchstone, 2002), 207.

7
.
      
Quoted in Byron Farwell,
Over There: The United States in the Great War, 1917–1918
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1999), 223.

8
.
      
The German defenses were organized on three east-west lines: the
Etzel-Giselher Stellung
, which included Montfaucon; the stronger
Kriemhilde Stellung
; and the last-ditch
Freya Stellung
, five miles farther north.

9
.
      
That historian is Edward G. Lengel in
To Conquer Hell
, 61.

10
.
    
W. Kerr Rainsford,
From Upton to the Meuse: With the Three Hundred and Seventh Infantry
(Charleston, SC: Forgotten Books, 2012), 158
–
59.

11
.
    
Quoted in John Toland,
No Man's Land: 1918, The Last Year of the Great War
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books, 2002), 464.

12
.
    
Alexander, the son of a judge, chucked an incipient legal career and enlisted in the Army as a private in 1886. He earned an officer's commission three years later. He had many critics who thought perhaps he should have been busted back to his previous rank.

13
.
    
Quoted in Thomas W. Johnson and Fletcher Pratt,
The Lost Battalion
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books, 2000), 93.

14
.
    
Quoted in Richard Slotkin,
Lost Battalions: The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality
(New York: Henry Holt, 2005), 333.

15
.
    
Among those killed trying to relieve the lost battalion was Captain Eddie Grant, a Harvard-educated professional baseball player (his major league career spanned 1905 to 1915). A lawyer in civilian life, he had enlisted in 1917.

16
.
    
Laurence Stallings,
The Doughboys: The Story of the AEF, 1917–1918
(New York: Harper & Row, 1963), 294.

17
.
    
Douglas MacArthur,
Reminiscences
(New York: Crest Books, 1965), 76.

18
.
    
Quoted in Eisenhower,
Yanks
, 262.

CHAPTER EIGHT: JOHN J. PERSHING (1860–1948)

1
.
      
Quoted in Richard O'Connor,
Black Jack Pershing
(New York: Doubleday, 1961), 41.

2
.
      
Colonel Baldwin also noted of Pershing, “You did some tall rustling, and if you had not we would have starved. . . .” Quoted in Frank E. Vandiver,
Black
Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing
, vol. 1 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1998), 211.

3
.
      
Quoted in Richard Goldhurst,
Pipe Clay and Drill: John J. Pershing; The Classic American Soldier
(New York: Reader's Digest Press, 1977), 105.

4
.
      
Quoted in Jim Lacey,
Pershing
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 34.

5
.
      
Twenty years after the loss of his wife and daughters, visiting guests asked him why he appeared so melancholy. His answer: “Today is my daughter's birthday.” See Donald Smythe,
Guerrilla Warrior: The Early Life of John J. Pershing
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973), 217.

6
.
      
Orders of the Secretary of War Newton Baker to Major General John J. Pershing, AEF, reproduced in William R. Griffiths,
The Great War
(Garden City Park, NY: West Point Military History Series, Square One Publishers, 2003), 202.

7
.
      
Lacey,
Pershing
, 142.

8
.
      
It was also answered by Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, who concluded that “The American infantry in the Argonne won the war.” Hitler agreed, incidentally. Both are cited in John Mosier,
Cross of Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German War Machine, 1914–1918
(New York: Henry Holt, 2006), 26
–
27.

9
.
      
John J. Pershing,
My Experiences in the World War
(New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1931), 255.

10
.
    
It was this commission that created the American military cemeteries in France.

CHAPTER NINE: PEYTON C. MARCH (1864–1955)

1
.
      
These were the comments of his colonel, cited in Edward M. Coffman,
The Hilt of the Sword: The Career of Peyton C. March
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1966), 10.

2
.
      
Quoted in ibid., 12.

3
.
      
Quoted in ibid., 17.

4
.
      
Quoted in ibid., 32.

5
.
      
March was initially appointed as acting chief of staff under the nominal direction of General Tasker Bliss. He took on the full role in May.

6
.
      
Quoted in Byron Farwell,
Over There: The United States in the Great War, 1917–1918
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2000), 65.

7
.
      
In March 1918, a new air base for pilot training—March Field, in Riverside, California—was named in honor of March's son, Peyton C. March Jr.

8
.
      
Quoted in Coffman,
The Hilt of the Sword
, 69.

9
.
      
In his General Order No. 80, 1918, March, with the approval of Baker, made this explicit, the order reading in part: “The Chief of Staff by law (Act of May 12, 1917) takes rank and precedence over all officers of the Army, and by virtue of that position and by authority of and in the name of the Secretary of War, he issues such orders as will insure that the policies of the War Department are harmoniously executed.” Quoted in John S. D. Eisenhower, with Joanne T. Eisenhower,
Yanks: The Epic Story of the American Army in World War I
(New York: Touchstone, 2002), 134.

10
.
    
Quoted in Coffman,
The Hilt of the Sword
, 92.

11
.
    
John S. D. Eisenhower notes that March lacked “the social manners that were generally considered prerequisite for a successful military career: his style was ruthless and abrasive. That had never held him back, however, especially when he had been called on to perform difficult jobs. His superior officers viewed him as a troubleshooter. . . .” See
Yanks
, 90.

12
.
    
Coffman,
The Hilt of the Sword
, 151.

13
.
    
MacArthur achieved much of what March wanted, though Congress insisted on West Point remaining a four-year college. MacArthur remained a March favorite. March recommended MacArthur's appointment as Army chief of staff and thought him the right man for the job in the Korean War. MacArthur, in turn, was effusive in his praise of March.

14
.
    
Quoted in Coffman,
The Hilt of the Sword
, 189.

15
.
    
Quoted in ibid., 249.

CHAPTER TEN: DOUGLAS M
AC
ARTHUR (1880–1964)

1
.
      
This was a taste he shared with Texas-born, Kansas-raised Dwight Eisenhower, who loved Western novels, and with VMI graduate George C. Marshall. For men of action, Westerns aren't bad preparation.

2
.
      
Douglas MacArthur,
Reminiscences
(New York: Crest Books, 1965), 23.

3
.
      
When Spain declared war on the United States in 1898, MacArthur considered chucking his studies to enlist, but his parents dissuaded him. Douglas MacArthur's father was himself soon off to the Philippines as a brigadier general of volunteers.

4
.
      
Other nicknames, listed by William Manchester in
American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880–1964
(New York: Dell/Laurel, 1983), 103, were “the Beau
Brummell of the A.E.F.” and “the Fighting Dude.” Officers not in the 42nd Division were not always so complimentary, thinking him a glory hound.

5
.
      
Geoffrey Perret,
Old Soldiers Never Die: The Life of Douglas MacArthur
(New York: Random House, 1996), 84.

6
.
      
William Manchester,
American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880–1964
(New York: Dell/Laurel, 1983), 103.

7
.
      
Perret,
Old Soldiers Never Die
, 87.

8
.
      
Manchester,
American Caesar
, 104.

9
.
      
Quoted in ibid., 110.

10
.
    
MacArthur,
Reminiscences
, 66
–
67.

11
.
    
He was sent off with a gold cigarette case inscribed to “The bravest of the brave.”

12
.
    
MacArthur,
Reminiscences
, 68.

13
.
    
Both quotations can be found in Richard B. Frank,
MacArthur
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 9.

14
.
    
Quoted in Edward G. Lengel,
To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918; The Epic Battle that Ended the First World War
(New York: Henry Holt, 2009), 329. Lengel also quotes the reaction of one soldier who heard of MacArthur's promise to risk 100 percent casualties: “Generous son of a bitch, ain't he?”

15
.
    
MacArthur and Summerall quoted in Byron Farwell,
Over There: The United States in the Great War, 1917–1918
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1999), 230.

16
.
    
Had this happened, and it is testimony to their incompatibility that she suggested it, one can imagine after the great crash of 1929, MacArthur declaring, indomitably, “Our yields shall return!”

17
.
    
MacArthur,
Reminiscences
, 93.

18
.
    
She went on to marry and divorce two more men. When MacArthur became a four-star general, she was married to the actor Lionel Atwill, prompting her memorable comment, “It looks like I traded four stars for one.”

19
.
    
Later, in the Philippines, he would munch a head of lettuce while he did so. He was Spartan in diet, and his daily pacing likely added up to several miles of walking.