Peter F. Owen is a lieutenant colonel in the United States Marines. His first command was a weapons platoon in the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines. During his research for this book, he walked every battlefield on which 2/6 fought during the Great War. Owen previously annotated Carl Brannen's World War I memoir, Over There.
""An important work of professional military education by a retired Marine infantry lieutenant colonel . . . . Research of the author rests on extensive work . . . . maps, figures, and photographs are excellent. . . is a timely, original, and important contribution to the record. I highly recommend it to the infantry professional operating at the tactical level of war or to any Marine who is interested in our rich and storied history.""--Marine Corp Gazette-- ""Marine Corp Gazette"" ""This is one of the most useful 'soldier's eye' stories published during the last few years. Although the general reader will gain from it, the more one knows, the better it becomes. Built on interviews, archival deposits, memoirs, printed documents and appropriate secondary sources, it catches in the words of the actual participants the grim realities of rain, mud, bad food, lost friends and a formidable adversary characteristic of Great War literature. It also has the positive impact of a Leavenworth Staff Study with proper maps, sections of critical leadership analysis, and the always useful 'lessons learned' included in the narrative. Lt. Col. Owen's book is a serious addition to the study of the American military experience in the Great War."" --Journal of Military History-- ""Journal of Military History"" ""Perhaps in every 10 years one worth-while history of the American experience in World War I is published. To the Limit of Endurance, in my opinion, is one such history. . . Through the author's skillful presentation of facts and figures, from predeployment training-such as it was then-the trip to France and more limited training (for trench warfare), then each of the battles during a relatively short 11 months, the battalion emerges as a first-class fighting outfit. . . By careful usage of personal memoirs and papers of participants and official records, Owen has recreated a superb rendering of life in the 4th brigade of Marines 90 years ago. His maps and diagrams are skillfully crafted, and the selection of photos is impressive. His appendixes, casualties of the battalion, and brief sketches of some of the notable, then and later, are extremely helpful, as are his notes. . . All in all, this is a fine book, which any Marine historian will be pleased to read and proud to own. I heartily recommend this as the ultimate study of one relatively small unit in its entirety-from preparation for war and finally to its war. It will definitely help junior officers and non-commissioned officers improve their skills and may even delight more senior Marines.""--Leatherback--George B. Clarke, Leatherback, June 2008