Eisenhower's Lieutenants: The Campaign Of France And Germany, 1944-1945

by Russell F. Weigley

Their kettle-shaped helmets lent a medieval aspect to the horse soldiers clattering out of the twilight. The year was 1940, the occasion a preparedness parade, the helmets actually those of the 1917-1918 style. Yet to a small boy catching his first glimpse of Americas army as well as the metallic headgear seemed to represent old wars rather than new, a military past yet more remote than the Mexican border skirmishes for which the troopers in fact were outfitted.

Thus begins this brilliant study of the American-led campaign for Europe in World War II. It is an analysis of command at both the strategic and the tactical level. All the complex ingredients of nations at war the burdens of history, the impact of technology, the roles of personalities, the confusions of the battlefield are presented in a powerful narrative which is as pleasurable to read as it is deeply founded in scholarship.

The portraits of Field Marshal Montgomery and of Iikes lieutenants Omar N. Bradley, Jacob L. Devers, Courtney H. Hodges, George S. Patton, Jr., Alexander M. Patch, William H. Simpson, Leonard T. Gerow, J. Lawton Collins, and Matthew B. Ridgway, among others are the first detailed treatments that many of these leaders have received. Every major strategic and tactical decision in every battle of the American offensive is covered in detail with maps and careful descriptions of key terrain features, including many personal insights drawn from diaries kept at the American army group and army headquarters.

This is a major and grippingly told reassessment of the leadership and the fighting capabilities of the Allied forces in climactic battles of World War II.

Contents:
Preface

Part One: The Armies
1. The American Army
2. Weapons and Divisions
3. The View of the Far Shore
4. By Air and by Sea

Part Two: Normandy
5. The Beach
6. Cherbourg and Caumont
7. The Bocage
8. Cobra
9. The Crossroads South of Avranches

Part Three: France
10. The Short Envelopment
11. The Riviera the the Rhone
12. The Seine
13. The Meuse
14. The Twin Tyrants: Logistics...
15...and Time

Part Four: The Disputed Middle Ground
16. Holland
17. Attack in the Ardennes (I)
18. Lorraine (I)
19. The Reich Frontiers
20. Autumn Interlude
21. Lorraine (II)
22. Alsace
23. Huertgen Forest and Roer Plain
24. On the Eve of a Breakthrough
25. The Breakthrough
26. The Doctrinal Response
27. The Precarious Balance
28. The Battles of Christmastide
29. Attack in the Ardennes (II)
30. "Inadequate Means’

Part Five: Germany
31. The Eifel
32. Two Tumors Excised: Colmar and the Roer Dams
33. To the Rhine
34. The Crossing of the Rhine
35. Eastward from the Rhine
36. The Legions on the Rhine
37. The Ruhr
38. Berlin
39. The National Redoubt
40. The Elbe, the Moldau, and the Brenner Pass

Epilogue
Notes and Sources
Index

Reviews:
“The publication of Eisenhower's Lieutenants is an event of significance in American military writing. . . . admirable . . . clearly the product of exhaustive, painstaking research." —The New York Times Book Review

" . . . the best account we have of the World War II campaigns from Normandy to the Elbe." —American Historical Review " . . . precisely informative and broadly rewarding." — Kirkus Reviews

" . . . an outstanding and highly recommended work." —Journal of American History " . . . by the dean of American military historians . . . " — Washington Post Bookworld”

“I had thought I knew everything about World War II that I would ever want to know. I was wrong. Reading Eisenhower's Lieutenants was a wonderfully enriching experience. I learned more than I ever would have thought possible. This will unquestionably become one of the great classics of American military history.” — Stephen E. Ambrose

Genres: History, World War II, Nonfiction, Military Fiction, Military History, Biography, American History

800 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1981

About the author

Russell Frank Weigley, PhD, was the Distinguished University Professor of History at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and a noted military historian. His research and teaching interests centered on American and world military history, World War II, and the American Civil War. One of Weigley's most widely received contributions to research is his hypothesis of a specifically American Way of War, i.e. an approach to strategy and military operations, that, while not predetermined, is distinct to the United States because of cultural and historical constraints.

Weigley was born in Reading, Pennsylvania on July 2, 1930. He graduated from Albright College in 1952, attended the University of Pennsylvania for his masters degree and doctorate, and wrote his dissertation under Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Roy F. Nichols. It was published as Quartermaster General of the Union Army: A Biography of M.C. Meigs (Columbia University Press, 1959). After receiving his degree, Weigley taught at Penn from 1956 to 1958, and from 1958 to 1962 at Drexel University. Then he joined the faculty at Temple as an associate professor and remained until his retirement in 1998 as Distinguished University Professor. The school considered him the heart and soul of the History department, and at one point he had over 30 PhD candidates working under him concurrently. He also was a visiting professor at Dartmouth College and the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Weigley's graduate teaching emphasized military history defined in a broadly comprehensive way, including operational, combat history but also extending to the larger issues of war and its significance; to the history of ideas about war, peace, and the armed forces; and to the place of the soldier in the state and in society.

Weigley was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 1969-70. He received the Athenaeum of Philadelphia Award for Non-Fiction in 1983 and the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize of the American Military Institute in 1989. His Age of Battles received the Distinguished Book Award of the Society for Military History for 1992 for a work in non-American military history. He has served as President of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the American Military Institute. In recognition of his scholarly achievements, Weigley was named Distinguished University Professor at Temple in 1985.

- from Wikipedia

Reviews

[Austin Gisriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb scholarship, but this tome is not for the faint-of-heart. It is a study of the American philosophy of war and how it was applied by Eisenhower and his generals. That philosophy is illustrated by the strategies that the American army applied from D-Day through the German surrender. There is just enough battle description to bog down the reader, or at least this reader, and distract from the main thesis.

Weigley included maps, but unless you have an intimate familiarity with France and Germany, they proved fairly useless.

Highly recommended for the very serious student of World War II, but not for the casual reader or someone looking for a moving narrative.

[Colin Freebury · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-researched and detailed account of the American Army's participation in the invasion of Europe during the Second World War, and within that, a description and discussion of the roles played by American senior commanders and their strengths and weaknesses. All this is marred somewhat by an awkward and even pretentious writing style. At times, Weigley seems obsessed with Montgomery, for he rarely misses an opportunity to bemoan the fact that the Field Marshall was an insufferable egoist and difficult person to work with.

[JerryDeanHalleck · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an incredibly dry, long, detailed book about the US Army in Northwest Europe. If you don't have the time or energy to read the US official Army histories this will give you a shorter version. Sadly, its long on details ("the 4th division attacked with 2 Regiments toward St. Lo on June 30th, and made minimal gains. General Bradley decided to visit the Divisional commander and review the situation.") and short on analysis or interesting opinions.

[Gabriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting read in that I have a better understanding of the challenges which face general officers and the difficulties of coordinating upper echelon units and forces. Being a company grade officer myself it gave me an appreciation for the orders which might come my way.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

He gets pretty far in the weeds, outlining every military engagement on the Western Front in 1944-45, but he’s a good writer and I learned a lot. Not as much about the personalities as I hoped, and virtually nothing about Eisenhower. The maps could have been better.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough and analytical account of the American Army's WW II Northwest European campaign (France and Germany). As the title would indicate, much information on the leaders of divisions, corps, and armies. Photos and maps. Total of 1,060 pages.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book but massive. Very detailed but could sometimes be mind numbing. I've read it twice but frankly didn't get much out of it the first time. The second time I was laid up for weeks after surgery so I read it straight through and did get a lot more out of it.

If you can't slug your way through the whole book, you'll get a lot of insight about the challenges facing the US Army by reading the first three chapters and the epilogue. You'll understand better why some things happened the way they did. Like Montgomery was so cautious because the British had reached the bottom of their manpower capabilities. Heavy casualties was something the British army couldn't endure in 1944-45.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

According to Tom Brokaw this was the greatest generation so by that definition, the generals must have been the greatest leaders! This is an attempt to replicate Douglas Southall Freeman book on Lee's Lieutenants for the WWII generals. In my opinion, the copy surpasses the original.

[Andy Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best "big picture" book I have read on the campaign in France and Germany. Covers many points that I was not familiar with ( for example, shortages of replacement troops for both the US and the British, shortages of munitions, and the many other issues of logistics). Very well written!

[Mark Singer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Old-fashioned military history at its best! This a detailed examination of operational command of Allied forces in northwest Europe in 1944 and 1945.

[Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good analysis but the conclusion, that the Allies won simply because they had numerical superiority, is very determinist.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

It had been a long while since i had read any WWII works so this was a refresher for me with lots of new information. very complete history and well organized. rather long but no wasted words.