Pershing's Lieutenants (Hardback) | Released: 24 Nov 2020

Pershing's Lieutenants details the history of the key leaders working for and with the American Expeditionary Forces Commander-in-Chief General John J. Pershing, several of whom went on to become important figures in World War II.

World War I changed the world. Four ancient dynasties collapsed in the midst of this war, entire societies were radically altered, a plethora of nations were created or given new life, and the map of the Middle East was redrawn. Beyond these cataclysmic transformations, the nature of war itself was forever changed, no longer limited to conflict on the land and sea, but also the air.

The day the United States declared war on Germany, the US Army was only the 17th largest in the world, ranking behind Portugal--the Regular Army had only 128,00 troops, backed up by the National Guard with some 182,000 troops. By the end of the war it had grown to 3,700,000, with slightly more than half that number in Europe. Until the United States did so, no country in all history had tried to deploy a 2-million-man force 3,000 miles from its own borders, a force led by American Expeditionary Forces Commander-in-Chief General John J. Pershing. This was America's first truly modern war, and rising from its ranks was a new generation of leaders who would control the fate of the United States armed forces during the interwar period and into World War II.

This book reveals the history of the key leaders working for and with John J. Pershing during this tumultuous period, including George S. Patton (tank commander and future commander of the US Third Army during World War II); Douglas MacArthur (42nd Division commander and future General of the Army); and Harry S. Truman (artillery battery commander and future President of the United States). Edited by Major General David T. Zabecki (US Army, Retired) and Colonel Douglas V. Mastriano (US Army, Retired), this fascinating title comprises chapters on individual leaders from subject experts across the US, including faculty members of the US Army War College.

David T. Zabecki (Maj. Gen. Ret) is the author, editor, or translator of seventeen military history books. His encyclopaedia, Germany at War: 400 Years of Military History, won a Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award in 2016. He is editor emeritus of Vietnam Magazine. He holds a PhD in Military History from Britain's Royal Military College of Science, Cranfield University, where his supervisor was the late Professor Richard Holmes. In 2012 he was the Shifrin Distinguished Professor of Military History at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis. He is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the University of Birmingham's War Studies Programme.

Douglas V. Mastriano (Colonel, Retired) is the author of two books, and senior editor and primary contributor to two published strategic studies. His book, Alvin York: A New Biography of the Hero of the Argonne won four awards; William E. Colby Award, Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award, U.S. Army War College Madigan Award and the Carder Family Book Prize. He was a Professor of the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Mastriano has a PhD in Military History from the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada.