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Full Version: US Analysis of the Battle of Caporetto, of 1917
Great War Forum > The War On Other Fronts > Away From The Western Front > Italy
206thCEF
From the US C & CSS, a student paper,a narrative of the events of the battle. Lessons for the defence and for attack are outlined in this paper.
Joe
http://cgsc.cdmhost.com/cgi-bin/showfile.e...ilename=572.pdf
bob lembke
Not very impressive. Written entirely from secondary sources, such as the Encyclopedia Brittanica, except for Ludendorff's memoirs. Repeats the humbug that the "new" German infiltration and storm tactics were developed by von Hutier on the Eastern Front for the Battle of Riga in 1917, while these had been developed on the West Front in 1915, and for the Battle of Riga von Hutier had storm detachments transferred from the West Front to perform these tactics.

Bob Lembke
206thCEF
Well Bob, I see you're not one to mince words and that's OK with me. But, you have to put yourself in the shoes of then Captain Maurice C. Bigelow US Army. As I can imagine Capt. Bigelow probably would have chosen some other subject for his paper, something along the line of Roosevelt's campaign in Cuba or the Philippine's campaign,or some more prestigious battles of the US Civil War. He had to write something on a distant and little-known, to him, battlefront, and he probably did his very best to come up with something that would get him a decent grade (no computer or internet then).
I suppose that all those officers,at the time, and those that came after them cannot all write like S.L.A, Marshall, Trevor Dupuy, William Shirer or Steven Ambrose and I could add maybe a few more here, but I think you understand my point.
Bob, I respect your point of view and that's the goal of this Forum, to make known all the stories concerning the first conflict and, all help in understanding this conflict should be welcome.
Regards
Joe
MartH
These are very interesting but shouldn't they be in the virtual library?
206thCEF
Well Mart, I thought that these documents would have a better chance of being read if they were in a topic.
Joe
MartH
Yes, but the proper place is the virtual library, where there is already references to this site at a high search, but lower level results of searches are very welcome too. There is a lot on this forum, and I believe links to on-line reference work should be in the virtual library unless you of course discuss the book and it's contents.

Maybe we should put a better index in the thread on this site in the the virtual library, or even a guide to search it!
206thCEF
Mart, I will leave the decision to the "directing staff".
Joe
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