Closing with the Enemy

How GIs Fought the War in Europe, 1944-1945

De: Michael D. Doubler

Narrado por: Mel Foster

Closing with the Enemy picks up where D-Day leaves off. From Normandy through the "breakout" in France to the German army's last gasp in the Battle of the Bulge, Michael D. Doubler deals with the deadly business of war - closing with the enemy, fighting and winning battles, taking and holding territory. His study provides a provocative reassessment of how American GIs accomplished these dangerous and costly tasks.

Doubler portrays a far more capable and successful American fighting force than previous historians - notably Russell Weigley, Martin Van Creveld, and S. L. A. Marshall - have depicted. True, the GIs weren't fully prepared or organized for a war in Europe and have often been viewed as inferior to their German opponent. But, Doubler argues that they were more than compensated for this by their ability to learn quickly from mistakes, to adapt in the face of unforeseen obstacles, and to innovate new tactics on the battlefield. This adaptability, Doubler contends, was far more crucial to the American effort than we've been led to believe.

Fueled by a fiercely democratic and entrepreneurial spirit, GI innovations emerged from every level within the ranks - from the novel employment of conventional weapons and small units to the rapid retraining of troops on the battlefield. Their most dramatic success, however, was with combined arms warfare - the coordinated use of infantry, tanks, artillery, air power, and engineers - in which they perfected the use of air support for ground operations and tank-infantry teams for breaking through enemy strongholds. Doubler argues that, without such ingenuity and imaginative leadership, it would have been impossible to defeat an enemy as well-trained and heavily fortified as the German army the GIs confronted.

©1994 University Press of Kansas (P)2010 Tantor

Reseñas de la Crítica

"This important book is a watershed in critical thinking.... Fluently written and beautifully detailed, it is essential for a complete understanding of American operations in World War II." ( Library Journal)

scholarly

it's a well researched and very informative book, but like many histories, it can be quite dry. It took me two attempts to finally get through the book.

superb detail needs large perspe ctive maps

Need maps for perspective. But a long great book. Many insights into the details and the soldiers superb listening

Great listen on US tactics in the ETO

Any additional comments?

I myself prefer the high level operational studies on WWII. This book was a nice change of pace from that genre for me and I enjoyed getting into the nitty gritty about how the average US infantryman fought the enemy.

Excellent

What made the experience of listening to Closing with the Enemy the most enjoyable?

This book focuses on how battle-events unfolded, and what consquences they had for tactics and doctrine. Something that is extremely rare even in the military history field.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I'm going to go with Napalm. Even though HE artillery fire had more overall impact on the story, Every time napalm was introduced to a scene, it was a blast.

What about Mel Foster’s performance did you like?

Good pronounciation. Did a decent job at pronouncing non-english words.

Any additional comments?

Put your players to 1.25xspeed. The narrator reads with excruciating slowness.

Day to Day Combat on the Ground

Finally a book which talks about how the army fought the war. But unlike most books which talk from 60,000 feet up, this book talks at ground level. It talks on combat strategy and how they adjusted their fighting approaches given the circumstances.

The book deals with fighting in the bocage, city fighting, river crossings, bunkers, etc. How they fought and solved problems. How ground, artillery, armor and air power learned to work together and how the process evolved over time. The book explains in detail the challenges and the conflicts with old thinking taught in training manuals that had to be adjusted or tossed out completely