• With Their Bare Hands

  • General Pershing, the 79th Division, and the Battle for Montfaucon
  • By: Gene Fax
  • Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
  • Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (17 ratings)

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With Their Bare Hands  By  cover art

With Their Bare Hands

By: Gene Fax
Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
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Publisher's summary

With Their Bare Hands traces the fate of the US 79th Division - men drafted off the streets of Baltimore, Washington, and Philadelphia - from their training camp in Maryland through the final years of World War I, focusing on their most famous engagement: the attack on Montfaucon, the most heavily fortified part of the German Line, during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in 1918.

Using the 79th as a window onto the American Army as a whole, Gene Fax examines its mistakes and triumphs, the tactics of the AEF commander-in-chief General John J. Pershing, and how the lessons it learned during the Great War helped it to fight World War II. Fax makes some startling judgments, on the role of future Army Chief-of-Staff, Colonel George C. Marshall; whether the Montfaucon battle - had it followed the plan - could have shortened the war; and if Pershing was justified in ordering his troops to attack right up to the moment of the Armistice.

Drawing upon original documents, including orders, field messages, and the letters and memoirs of the soldiers themselves, some of which have never been used before, Fax tells the engrossing story of the 79th Division's bloody involvement in the final months of World War I.

©2017 Gene Fax (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about With Their Bare Hands

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Authors, learn this lesson

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I'm so tired of authors giving 50% of the story as background. Worst offender was Bernard Cornwell, Bunker Hill. About 10% of that book was on Bunker Hill.

Would you recommend With Their Bare Hands to your friends? Why or why not?

Author starts, predictably, with AEF formation in the states. GET TO THE POINT!

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An American view of the great war

I liked this book alot, the pronouncation of some places were off and some dates but it was a very well written book and a fun listen.

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This book is crap

Extremely boring with very little insight into the actual soldier in the war. Wonder if the writer is even a veteran?

DG

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