The United States Army Second Division Northwest of Chateau Thierry in World War One (review)

This book, written in the late 1920s, is literally a day-by-day, hour-by-hour, study of the Second Division from its preliminary movements to the Belleau Woods area through the costly, month-long battle of its Marine Brigade to secure the ground. It includes a view from the German side of the struggle and concludes with an account of the division's relief and redeployment in early July 1918, just before the battle of Soissons.

The volume has not been historiographically updated and might be described as a contemporary staff ride study. It has many maps and illustrations and the narrative portions are built on after action reports, printed operational orders, official correspondence, and contemporary memoirs. The most interesting part of the book is a short biography of Thomason in which a cryptic account is given of the way his critical approach to writing the volume offended some AEF officers who demanded considerable revision. Claiming he would have no part in a whitewash, he left the project before it was completed.

This is a very expensive paperback. Battlefield buffs will find that it and the Battle Monuments Commission volume, American Battlefields in Europe, will serve them very well. Those looking for a more comprehensive account should look elsewhere.