what ww1 battle saw the first mass use of british tanks,

Worse, it refused to learn when given the opportunity. The United States therefore joined the battle largely with the same innocence the others had possessed in August 1914. It had no real experience with modern warfare and didn’t learn much about it from the experience of the belligerents who had entered the war earlier. 26, 1918 and still ranks as the largest and deadliest battle in American history.

The first fell in November 1917, but Americans were not heavily involved in the fighting until the late spring of 1918 and were never more than junior parties compared to the British and French armies. Even then, most of the killing took place in the period that began in mid-July with the Second Battle of the Marne. In fact, almost half (26,000), lost their lives in the final Meuse-Argonne Offensive, which began on Sept. Fifty-three thousand Americans were killed within a relatively short span of time. Rather than let their self-confidence close their minds, they saved it for assertiveness on the battlefield.Ĭentral to appreciating the Great War as fought by the AEF are two facts. Most importantly, they recognized that in fact America’s allies had a great deal to teach the U.S. The good: Notwithstanding the initial arrogance and conservative institutional culture, some commanders and their men displayed an ability and willingness to learn, especially at the operational and tactical levels. To begin with the bad: One finds arrogance and the conviction of superiority vis-à-vis America’s allies and enemies, along with the assumption that they had nothing to teach U.S.

The AEF exhibited both good and bad traits. Is there an “American way of war?” To answer this question, one would do well to start with the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in World War I, often rightly said to be America’s first modern war.

What ww1 battle saw the first mass use of british tanks,