Squandered Victory: The American First Army at St. Mihiel

Hallas (The Devil's Anvil: The Assault on Pelelieu) here focuses on the American Expeditionary Force's first major offensive of WWI. The book's title suggests his sympathy to the still-controversial arguments in favor of exploiting the battle's initial successes, transforming the original limited 1918 operation in France into an all-out drive for the fortress city of Metz. Hallas gives full weight to opposing evidence stressing the difficulties of developing tactical victories on the Western Front. The work's principal strength is its vivid presentation, based on first-hand accounts from long-neglected sources, of the nature of frontline combat in the Great War's final stages. Whatever commander John Pershing's doughboys may have lacked in training and equipment, they made up in courage and aggressiveness, Hallas shows. At St. Mihiel no less than on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue. (Mar.)