United States Army in World War II is the official history of the ground forces of the United States Army during World War II. The 78-volume work was originally published beginning in 1946.
Overview The work describes and to a degree evaluates the ground operations of the Army in 21 volumes. Additional volumes address grand strategy; recruitment, organization, and training; the service forces; the technical services; and special studies; again almost exclusively those of the ground forces. Three additional volumes provide a pictorial account. (Air operations, logistics, and training are presented in a separate seven-volume series, The Army Air Forces in World War II.) Different authors or teams wrote most of the accounts, though some authors wrote more than one. Most of the authors were serving or retired officers though enlisted personnel and professional historians also contributed.
The volumes devoted to operations are grouped by theater and campaign. (See the list of titles below.) Battles are described at a unit level appropriate to the size of the engagement. In some cases authors detail the actions of units as small as an infantry company, though most battles are presented at the battalion or regimental level. Many accounts of individual heroism are included, especially actions which resulted in the award of the Medal of Honor.
Each volume includes some photographs. Operations volumes include small maps within the text and larger fold-out maps attached inside the back cover. All operations volumes include bibliographical notes, a glossary, a list of code names, and a list of military map symbols. Some include additional features such as a table of equivalent U.S. and German, Italian, or Japanese ranks.
More than two-thirds of the volumes of the history are devoted to subjects other than actual operations. (See the list of titles below.) These provide information which is not appropriate for a purely operational history but is important for an understanding of the Army's activities as a whole during the war.
Contents THE WAR DEPARTMENT Title Author(s) Year PublishedChief of Staff: Prewar Plans and Preparations Mark Skinner Watson 1950Washington Command Post: The Operations Division Ray S. Cline 1951Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare: 1941–1942 Maurice Matloff and Edwin M. Snell 1953Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare: 1943–1944 Maurice Matloff 1959Global Logistics and Strategy: 1940–1943 Richard M. Leighton and Robert W. Coakley 1955Global Logistics and Strategy: 1944–1945 Robert W. Coakley and Richard M. Leighton 1968The Army and Economic Mobilization R. Elberton Smith 1959The Army and Industrial Manpower Byron Fairchild and Jonathan Grossman 1959
THE ARMY GROUND FORCES Title Author(s) Year PublishedThe Organization of Ground Combat Troops Kent Roberts Greenfield, Robert R. Palmer, and Bell I. Wiley 1947The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops Robert R. Palmer, Bell I. Wiley, and William R. Keast 1948
THE ARMY SERVICE FORCES Title Author(s) Year PublishedThe Organization and Role of the Army Service Forces John David Millett 1954
THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE Title Author(s) Year PublishedThe Framework of Hemisphere Defense Stetson Conn and Byron Fairchild 1960Guarding the United States and its Outposts Stetson Conn, Rose C. Engelman, and Byron Fairchild 1964
THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC Title Author(s) Year PublishedStrategy and Command: The First Two Years Louis Morton 1962The Fall of the Philippines Louis Morton 1953Guadalcanal: The First Offensive John Miller 1949Victory in Papua Samuel Milner 1957CARTWHEEL: The Reduction of Rabaul John Miller 1959Seizure of the Gilberts and Marshalls Philip A. Crowl and Edmund G. Love 1955Campaign in the Marianas Philip A. Crowl 1960The Approach to the Philippines Robert Ross Smith 1953Leyte: The Return to the Philippines M. Hamlin Cannon 1954Triumph in the Philippines Robert Ross Smith 1963Okinawa: The Last Battle Roy E. Appleman, James M. Burns, Russell A. Gugeler, and John Stevens 1948
THE MEDITERRANEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS Title Author(s) Year PublishedNorthwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West George F. Howe 1957Sicily and the Surrender of Italy Albert N. Garland and Howard McGaw Smyth 1965Salerno to Cassino Martin Blumenson 1969Cassino to the Alps Ernest F. Fisher, Jr. 1977
THE EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS Title Author(s) Year PublishedThe Supreme Command Forrest C. Pogue 1954Cross-Channel Attack Gordon A. Harrison 1951Breakout and Pursuit Martin Blumenson 1961The Lorraine Campaign Hugh M. Cole 1950The Siegfried Line Campaign Charles B. MacDonald 1963The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge Hugh M. Cole 1965Riviera to the Rhine Jeffrey J. Clarke and Robert Ross Smith 1992The Last Offensive Charles B. MacDonald 1973Logistical Support of the Armies, Volume I Roland G. Ruppenthal 1953Logistical Support of the Armies, Volume II Roland G. Ruppenthal 1959
THE MIDDLE EAST THEATER Title Author(s) Year PublishedThe Persian Corridor and Aid to Russia Thomas Hubbard Vail Motter 1952
THE CHINA-BURMA-INDIA THEATER Title Author(s) Year PublishedStillwell’s Mission to China Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland 1953Stillwell’s Command Problems Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland 1956Time Runs Out in CBI Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland 1959
THE TECHNICAL SERVICES Title Author(s) Year PublishedThe Chemical Warfare Service: Organizing for War Leo P. Brophy and George J. B. Fisher 1959The Chemical Warfare Service: From Laboratory to Field Leo P. Brophy, Wyndham D. Miles, and Rexmond C. Cochrane 1959The Chemical Warfare Service: Chemicals in Combat Brooks E. Kleber and Dale Birdsell 1966The Corps of Engineers: Troops and Equipment Blanche D. Coll, Jean E. Keith, and Herbert H. Rosenthal 1958The Corps of Engineers: Construction in the United States Lenore Fine and Jesse A. Remington 1972The Corps of Engineers: The War against Japan Karl C. Dod 1966The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany Alfred M. Beck, Abe Bortz, Charles W. Lynch, Lida Mayo, and Ralph F. Weld 1985The Medical Department: Hospitalization and Evacuation, Zone of the Interior Clarence McKittrick Smith 1956The Medical Department: Medical Service in the Mediterranean and Minor Theaters Charles M. Wiltse 1965The Medical Department: Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations Graham A. Cosmas and Albert E. Cowdrey 1992The Medical Department: Medical Service in the War against Japan Mary Ellen Condon-Rall and Albert E. Cowdrey 1998The Ordnance Department: Planning Munitions for War Constance McLaughlin Green, Harry C. Thomson, and Peter C. Roots 1955The Ordnance Department: Procurement and Supply Harry C. Thomson and Lida Mayo 1960The Ordnance Department: On Beachhead and Battlefront Lida Mayo 1968The Quartermaster Corps: Organization, Supply, and Services, Volume I Erna Risch 1953The Quartermaster Corps: Organization, Supply, and Services, Volume II Erna Risch and Chester L. Kieffer 1955The Quartermaster Corps: Operations in the War against Japan Alvin P. Stauffer 1956The Quartermaster Corps: Operations in the War against Germany William F. Ross and Charles F. Romanus 1965The Signal Corps: The Emergency (to December 1941) Dulany Terrett 1956The Signal Corps: The Test (December 1941 to July 1943) George Raynor Thompson, Dixie R. Harris, Pauline M. Oakes, and Dulany Terrett 1957The Signal Corps: The Outcome (mid-1943 through 1945) George Raynor Thompson and Dixie R. Harris 1966The Transportation Corps: Responsibilities, Organization, and Operations Chester Wardlow 1951The Transportation Corps: Movements, Training, and Supply Chester Wardlow 1956The Transportation Corps: Operations Overseas Joseph Bykofsky and Harold Larson 1957
SPECIAL STUDIES Title Author(s) Year PublishedChronology: 1941–1945 Mary H. Williams 1960Buying Aircraft: Matériel Procurement for the Army Air Forces I. B. Holley 1964Civil Affairs: Soldiers Become Governors Harry L. Coles and Albert K. Weinberg 1964The Employment of Negro Troops Ulysses Lee 1966Military Relations between the United States and Canada, 1939–1945 Stanlye W. Dziuban 1959Rearming the French Marcel Vigneras 1957Three Battles: Arnaville, Altuzzo, and Schmidt Charles B. MacDonald and Sidney T. Mathews 1952The Women's Army Corps Mattie E. Treadwell 1953Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb Vincent C. Jones 1985
PICTORIAL RECORD Title Author(s) Year PublishedThe War against Germany and Italy: Mediterranean and Adjacent Areas John C. Hatlem and Kenneth E. Hunter 1951The War against Germany: Europe and Adjacent Areas Kenneth E. Hunter 1951The War against Japan Kenneth E. Hunter and Margaret E. Tackley 1952
Publication history The works were first published by the Historical Division, Department of the Army, from March 28, 1950 called the Office of the Chief of Military History and from June 15, 1973, the Center of Military History. They are in a large format, 7¼” x 10”, with green cloth covers and no dust jackets. The cover has only the eagle insignia of the Army; the title, author, and other data are on the spine. Many volumes have been reprinted by the Center of Military History in the same format beginning in the 1980s, and most are available as PDF downloads.
The operations-oriented volumes and some others were reprinted by The National Historical Society during the 1990s in a 50th Anniversary Commemorative Edition series. They are 7” x 9” with a hard cover (without a dust jacket) whose face is a black-and-white photograph with the title superimposed. They omitted the original editions’ fold-out maps but instead printed them in two separate atlases.
Two volumes, ‘’Cross Channel Attack’’ and ‘’The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge’’, were reprinted in the 1990s by Konecky & Konecky in a large 8½” by 11” format. They, too, omitted the fold-out maps. Other publishing houses have also reprinted selected volumes.
References
External links Scanned images of many volumes PDF and HTML copies of the volumes