To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918 The Epic Battle That Ended the First World War [Paperback]

Edward G. Lengel (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0805089152 | ISBN-13: 978-0805089158 | Publication Date: January 6, 2009 | Edition: First Edition

The authoritative, dramatic, and previously untold story of the bloodiest battle in American history

On September 26, 1918, more than one million American soldiers prepared to assault the German-held Meuse-Argonne region of France. Their commander, General John J. Pershing, said that in thirty-six hours the doughboys would crack the German defenses and open the road to Berlin. Six weeks of savage fighting later, the battle finally ended with the signing of the armistice that concluded the First World War. The Meuse-Argonne had fallen at the cost of more than 120,000 American casualties, including 26,000 dead. In the bloodiest battle the country had ever seen, an entire generation of young Americans had been transformed forever.

To Conquer Hell is gripping in its accounts of combat, studded with portraits of remarkable soldiers like Pershing, Harry Truman, George Patton, and Alvin York, and authoritative in presenting the big picture. It is military history of the first rank and, incredibly, the first in-depth account of this fascinating and important battle.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Edward Lengel has filled an inexplicable gap in the American history of World War I with this vivid, deeply researched account of the Doughboys’ heroism – and agony – in the Argonne. Anyone interested in military history should have it on his bookshelf."—Thomas Fleming, author of The Illusion of Victory: America in World War I

"Each First World War battle deserves a historian; not every battle finds one. Those who fought on the Meuse-Argonne in 1918, and all Americans interested in their national heritage, are fortunate that Edward G. Lengel has written this deeply researched book – bringing the strategy, the commanders, the officers and men, the tactics, the horror and the heroism together in a moving, dramatic, and intensely human account. One of the most powerful war books that I have read."—Martin Gilbert, author of The First World War and The Somme

“There have been several efforts by American authors since the Armistice of 1918 to retell the story of the American Army's engagement on the Western Front during the First World War.  Ed Lengel's book is a superior achievement and will be greatly enjoyed both by experts and by the general reader.”—John Keegan

"Ed Lengel's account of how American doughboys died in their tens of thousands to end the First World War is one of the great war stories of all time. In Lengel's skilled hands, the last great battle of the Great War is both riveting and deeply affecting. Authoritative, vividly drawn, and packed with arresting anecdotes and new material, To Conquer Hell is destined to be a classic. I cannot recommend it highly enough."—Alex Kershaw, author of The Few and The Longest Winter

About the Author

Edward G. Lengel is an associate professor of history at the University of Virginia. He is the author of several books on military history, including General George Washington: A Military Life. A recipient, with the Papers of George Washington documentary editing project, of the National Humanities Medal, he has made frequent appearances on television documentaries and was a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks; First Edition edition (January 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805089152
• ISBN-13: 978-0805089158
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #183,456 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Great War for all Americans, January 27, 2008

By 

Mr. Tommy L. Johnson (Norco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918 (Hardcover)

I bought this book as a gift for a friend. His grandfather was an infantryman in the AEF and as we were going through the proverbial old shoebox we came across a World War I Victory Medal with a battle clasp that read Meuse-Argonne. Though something of an amateur military historian I know the battles of World War I only as a list of names. Just as I was trying to find out about the Meuse-Argonne this book was published, so I decided to get one for myself too. It is extremely readable and the opening chapters establish a context for the battle to follow. Short personal biographies familiarize us with the people involved. Some, like Patton, are familiar to us from a later war. Some, like Hunter Liggett, unfortunately forgotten. But this is really a story about the Doughboys and in that respect is equal to Stephen Ambrose's "Citizen Soldiers" and Rick Atkinson's "An Army at Dawn". Though the battle descriptions tend to be similar, this is more due to units being thrown over and over into frontal assaults against entrenched German defenses than any literary failure on the author's part. Hindsight is 20-20 and it is easy for us to be horrified by the carnage, but Lengel reminds us that not only did inexperienced American Doughboys confront a veteran enemy, but due to a failed supply system, they often did it hungry, sick and without sleep. Too often the military history of America has been a tale of a terrible price in blood paid until the lessons of survival and triumph could be learned. In this the boys of 1918 stand on equal terms with their brothers of 1775 and 1861, and as in those other eras, they learned and they triumphed.
As I read of Pershing's Phase 3 Offensive I was reminded of Joseph Balkoski's "Omaha Beach" and "Utah Beach". As the Doughboys of the 1st Division's 16th Infantry, the 29th Division's 116th and the 82nd Infantry Division assaulted the hills and ridges of the Meuse-Argonne I thought how 26 years later these same units (with the 82nd now morphed in the 82nd Airborne Division), filled with the G.I. sons of these very Doughboys, assaulted the beaches and hedgerows of Normandy. The fathers were certainly no less courageous than the sons and now, finally, their story is well-told.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Critical of Pershing, January 9, 2008

By 

1. "John Henninger" (Littleton, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918 (Hardcover)

Lengel seems to be very critical of Pershing and of what Brian Linn describes in his recent book of the "warrior," type of ideology in the American army, while Lengel praises Liggett who seems to be a "manager," according to Linn. Pershing ignored the advice of his European allies, who argued for a set piece attack or bit and hold strategy that favored a combined arms approach with infantry and artillery working together, instead the AEF relied upon the infantry and its "warrior" type spirit to overcome the German defenses. Because of this flawed doctrine the American infantry lost massive amounts of men in the closing months of 1918, but American commanders still led their men into useless offensives hoping that somehow the Germans would collaspse. This soon changed during the last two weeks of the war when Liggett took over and implemented European tactics in the AEF, and as a result the German defenses crumbled. The only weakness of this book is that Lengel ignores recent work by Mark Grotelueshen and Peter Owen which suggests that commanders at the lower level ignored Pershings doctrine of open warfare and practiced European type tactics. Nevertheless Lengel reminds us that the "warrior," spirit that Ralph Peters and Robert Kaplan praise is out of date in the era of modern warfare.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Generally quite good, January 14, 2008

By 

David W. Nicholas (Van Nuys, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918 (Hardcover)

I haven't read much about World War I over the years. For one thing, maneuver was in short supply in the war, and as a result nothing much happened in many of the battles, beyond a large number of deaths. For another, the American Army didn't participate until the last year of the conflict. I'm not opposed to reading stuff about other armies (notably Napoleon and the Eastern Front in World War II) but for some reason that has reduced my interest. And finally, trench warfare was incredibly depressing, and I have found it wearing to read books about it.

This current entry is a very good book about the battle of the Meuse-Argonne, the one truly American battle during the war. General Pershing argued with everyone who would listen on both sides of the Atlantic that Americans should lead America's armies, and that they should fight as one army rather than being parceled out among our allies. The result was a horrific battle where the Americans learned all of the lessons that their Allies learned three and a half years earlier, like not attacking German machineguns frontally, how to work around the flanks of enemy positions. Casualties abounded while American generals ignored what was going on, avoiding the front and fighting the war from dugouts far from the fighting.

The book recounts the course of the battle intelligently, following the action in considerable detail. The fighting is covered at a divisional, brigade, regimental, and even occasionally battalion level. Individual actions, such as Sgt. York's winning of the Medal of Honor, are covered at some length. Many of the individuals involved, from people everyone knows, like Douglas Macarthur and George Patton, all the way around to Hunter Liggett and Bullard, are covered, and each gets a capsule biography that places them in their proper context.

This is a really well-written book, intelligent and an interesting account of the only real American battle of the First World War. I would recommend this book to almost anyone interested in the War.