An inventive study of relations between the National Guard and the Regular Army during World War II, Guard Wars follows the Pennsylvania National Guard's 28th Infantry Division from its peacetime status through training and into combat in Western Europe. The broader story, spanning the years 1939-1945, sheds light on the National Guard, the U.S. Army, and American identities and priorities during the war years. Michael E. Weaver carefully tracks the division's difficult transformation into a combat-ready unit and highlights General Omar Bradley's extraordinary capacity for leadership-which turned the Pennsylvanians from the least capable to one of the more capable units, a claim dearly tested in the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest. This absorbing and informative analysis chronicles the nation's response to the extreme demands of a world war, and the flexibility its leaders and soldiers displayed in the chaos of combat.
By:
Michael E. Weaver
Imprint: Indiana University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 33mm
Weight: 658g
ISBN: 9780253355218
ISBN 10: 0253355214
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 29 October 2010
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of Maps Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: Background and Issues 2. Relations with the Army and State Identity 3. Readiness and Training: 1939–1941 4. Peacetime Maneuvers: 1939–1941 5. The Pennsylvania National Guard and American Society 6. Social Class, Recruiting, and Ideology 7. The October Purge 8. Stateside Training: 1942–1943 9. Training in Wales: 1943–1944 10. From Normandy to the West Wall 11. Battle of the Hürtgen Forest: A Leadership Failure 12. Battle of the Bulge: Stubbornness and Flexibility 13. Winter Battles 14. Conclusion Appendix 1: The Execution of Private Slovik Appendix 2: The Reestablishment of the Pennsylvania National Guard Notes Bibliography Index
Michael E. Weaver is Associate Professor of Comparative Military History at the U.S. Air Force Air Command and Staff College.
Reviews for Guard Wars: The 28th Infantry Division in World War II
A significant contribution to understanding how the U.S. Army organized, trained, and prepared for war. Edward G. Miller, author of Nothing Less than Full Victory: Americans at War in Europe, 1944-1945 Michael E. Weaver's Guard Wars does a fine job of bringing the Twenty-Eighth Infantry Division to life. The book begins by focusing on the National Guards' relationship with the regular army as well as the division's interaction with Pennsylvania society and institutions... Overall, Guard Wars is an insightful study of a National Guard division in World War Two. Weaver does not limit himself to the Twenty-Eighth Infantry Division's role in combat, but instead spends half of the book investigating the Bloody Buckets training and its influence on Pennsylvania society. The book is well researched and heavily cited. - Alex Lovelace, H-War, August 2012
- Winner of 2011 AAUP Public and Secondary School Library Selection.
