When the Odds Were Even: The Vosges Mountains Campaign

Bonn's study of combat operations in the Vosges Mountains of France in late 1944 and early 1945 provides a rare opportunity to compare German and American armies in WW II. In this particular campaign, the two sides were more or less evenly matched in numbers of troops, weapons, supplies and support echelons. Bonn's scholarly work goes a long way toward demolishing the myth that German formations were, division for division, superior to their American counterparts. He ascribes the victory of Gen. Alexander Patch's Seventh Army over the Wehrmacht's Army Group G to superior training, organization and the flexibility of American combined-arms while executing sound tactical doctrine. He pays tribute to the battlefield performance of nonwhite units in the Vosges campaign. This account will reward serious students of operational warfare. Bonn is a serving infantry officer and former assistant professor of history at West Point. Illustrations. (Aug.)