American Military Operations, Research Paper Example

During the early part of World War 1 the American army desired a state of neutrality from the outbreak of war in Europe. In particular the American military command wanted neutrality from the German U Boat (submarine) threat menacing the Atlantic. In 1917 the Germans resumed U Boat attacks on merchant ships in the Atlantic; knowing full well this would induce America into the war.  The Americans responded in the summer of 1918 by sending an Expeditionary Force under the command of John Pershing.  Pershing was a graduate of the American Military College and had previously fought in the American Spanish War (1898). He was famed for “his punitive mission to Mexico in search of Pancho Villa” (World War 1, 2010). Pershing was instrumental in taking raw recruits and converting them into an effective fighting force. The congress made him ‘General of the Armies’ in 1919.

The Battle of Cantigny (1918) was the first major US offensive in World War 1. A regiment of the American 1^st Division had some 4,000 troops under the command of Major General Robert Lee Bullard and they “captured the village of Cantigny, held by the German Eighteenth Army commanded by von Hutier and the site of a German advance observation point, strongly fortified.” (Duffey, 2009). The American 1^st Division took the village and extended the front by over a mile. The incurred 1067 casualties and took over 100 German prisoners. This success was followed by other notable victories at Chateau-Therry and Belleau Wood. The 1^st World war saw the rise of General Douglas McArthur “In the First World War MacArthur commanded the 42nd Division on the Western Front and was decorated 13 times and cited seven additional times for bravery. Promoted the rank of brigadier in August, 1918, three months later he became the youngest divisional commander in France.” (Military Records, 2010).

Works Cited

Military Records. (2010). Retrieved 10 22, 2010, from Douglas MacArthur: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmacarthur.htm

World War 1. (2010). Retrieved 10 22, 2010, from http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/nfhtml/nfexww1.html

Duffey, M. (2009, 8 22). The Battle of Cantigny 1918. Retrieved 10 22, 2010, from The First World War: http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/cantigny.htm