United States Army in World War II
United States Army in World War II is the official history of the ground forces of the United States Army during World War II. The 78-volume work was originally published beginning in 1946.
Overview
The work describes and to a degree evaluates the ground operations of the Army in 21 volumes. Additional volumes address grand strategy; recruitment, organization, and training; the service forces; the technical services; and special studies; again almost exclusively those of the ground forces. Three additional volumes provide a pictorial account. Different authors or teams wrote most of the accounts, though some authors wrote more than one. Most of the authors were serving or retired officers though enlisted personnel and professional historians also contributed.The volumes devoted to operations are grouped by theater and campaign. Battles are described at a unit level appropriate to the size of the engagement. In some cases authors detail the actions of units as small as an infantry company, though most battles are presented at the battalion or regimental level. Many accounts of individual heroism are included, especially actions which resulted in the award of the Medal of Honor.
Each volume includes some photographs. Operations volumes include small maps within the text and larger fold-out maps attached inside the back cover. All operations volumes include bibliographical notes, a glossary, a list of code names, and a list of military map symbols. Some include additional features such as a table of equivalent U.S. and German, Italian, or Japanese ranks.
More than two-thirds of the volumes of the history are devoted to subjects other than actual operations. These provide information which is not appropriate for a purely operational history but is important for an understanding of the Army's activities as a whole during the war.
Contents
THE WAR DEPARTMENT| Title | Author | Year Published |
| Chief of Staff: Prewar Plans and Preparations | Mark Skinner Watson | 1950 |
| Washington Command Post: The Operations Division | Ray S. Cline | 1951 |
| Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare: 1941–1942 | Maurice Matloff and Edwin M. Snell | 1953 |
| Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare: 1943–1944 | Maurice Matloff | 1959 |
| Global Logistics and Strategy: 1940–1943 | Richard M. Leighton and Robert W. Coakley | 1955 |
| Global Logistics and Strategy: 1944–1945 | Robert W. Coakley and Richard M. Leighton | 1968 |
| The Army and Economic Mobilization | R. Elberton Smith | 1959 |
| The Army and Industrial Manpower | Byron Fairchild and Jonathan Grossman | 1959 |
THE ARMY GROUND FORCES
| Title | Author | Year Published |
| The Organization of Ground Combat Troops | Kent Roberts Greenfield, Robert R. Palmer, and Bell I. Wiley | 1947 |
| The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops | Robert R. Palmer, Bell I. Wiley, and William R. Keast | 1948 |
THE ARMY SERVICE FORCES
| Title | Author | Year Published |
| The Organization and Role of the Army Service Forces | John David Millett | 1954 |
THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE
| Title | Author | Year Published |
| The Framework of Hemisphere Defense | Stetson Conn and Byron Fairchild | 1960 |
| Guarding the United States and its Outposts | Stetson Conn, Rose C. Engelman, and Byron Fairchild | 1964 |
THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC
| Title | Author | Year Published |
| Strategy and Command: The First Two Years | Louis Morton | 1962 |
| The Fall of the Philippines | Louis Morton | 1953 |
| Guadalcanal: The First Offensive | Samuel Milner | 1949 |
| Victory in Papua | Samuel Milner | 1957 |
| CARTWHEEL: The Reduction of Rabaul | John Miller | 1959 |
| Seizure of the Gilberts and Marshalls | Philip A. Crowl and Edmund G. Love | 1955 |
| Campaign in the Marianas | Philip A. Crowl | 1960 |
| The Approach to the Philippines | Robert Ross Smith | 1953 |
| Leyte: The Return to the Philippines | M. Hamlin Cannon | 1954 |
| Triumph in the Philippines | Robert Ross Smith | 1963 |
| Okinawa: The Last Battle | Roy E. Appleman, James M. Burns, Russell A. Gugeler, and John Stevens | 1948 |
THE MEDITERRANEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS
| Title | Author | Year Published |
| Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West | George F. Howe | 1957 |
| Sicily and the Surrender of Italy | Albert N. Garland and Howard McGaw Smyth | 1965 |
| Salerno to Cassino | Martin Blumenson | 1969 |
| Cassino to the Alps | Ernest F. Fisher, Jr. | 1977 |
THE EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS
| Title | Author | Year Published |
| The Supreme Command | Forrest C. Pogue | 1954 |
| Cross-Channel Attack | Gordon A. Harrison | 1951 |
| Breakout and Pursuit | Martin Blumenson | 1961 |
| The Lorraine Campaign | Hugh M. Cole | 1950 |
| The Siegfried Line Campaign | Charles B. MacDonald | 1963 |
| The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge | Hugh M. Cole | 1965 |
| Riviera to the Rhine | Jeffrey J. Clarke and Robert Ross Smith | 1992 |
| The Last Offensive | Charles B. MacDonald | 1973 |
| Logistical Support of the Armies, Volume I | Roland G. Ruppenthal | 1953 |
| Logistical Support of the Armies, Volume II | Roland G. Ruppenthal | 1959 |
THE MIDDLE EAST THEATER
| Title | Author | Year Published |
| The Persian Corridor and Aid to Russia | Thomas Hubbard Vail Motter | 1952 |
THE CHINA-BURMA-INDIA THEATER
| Title | Author | Year Published |
| Stillwell’s Mission to China | Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland | 1953 |
| Stillwell’s Command Problems | Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland | 1956 |
| Time Runs Out in CBI | Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland | 1959 |
THE TECHNICAL SERVICES
| Title | Author | Year Published |
| The Chemical Warfare Service: Organizing for War | Leo P. Brophy and George J. B. Fisher | 1959 |
| The Chemical Warfare Service: From Laboratory to Field | Leo P. Brophy, Wyndham D. Miles, and Rexmond C. Cochrane | 1959 |
| The Chemical Warfare Service: Chemicals in Combat | Brooks E. Kleber and Dale Birdsell | 1966 |
| The Corps of Engineers: Troops and Equipment | Blanche D. Coll, Jean E. Keith, and Herbert H. Rosenthal | 1958 |
| The Corps of Engineers: Construction in the United States | Lenore Fine and Jesse A. Remington | 1972 |
| The Corps of Engineers: The War against Japan | Karl C. Dod | 1966 |
| The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany | Alfred M. Beck, Abe Bortz, Charles W. Lynch, Lida Mayo, and Ralph F. Weld | 1985 |
| The Medical Department: Hospitalization and Evacuation, Zone of the Interior | Clarence McKittrick Smith | 1956 |
| The Medical Department: Medical Service in the Mediterranean and Minor Theaters | Charles M. Wiltse | 1965 |
| The Medical Department: Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations | Graham A. Cosmas and Albert E. Cowdrey | 1992 |
| The Medical Department: Medical Service in the War against Japan | Mary Ellen Condon-Rall and Albert E. Cowdrey | 1998 |
| The Ordnance Department: Planning Munitions for War | Constance McLaughlin Green, Harry C. Thomson, and Peter C. Roots | 1955 |
| The Ordnance Department: Procurement and Supply | Harry C. Thomson and Lida Mayo | 1960 |
| The Ordnance Department: On Beachhead and Battlefront | Lida Mayo | 1968 |
| The Quartermaster Corps: Organization, Supply, and Services, Volume I | Erna Risch | 1953 |
| The Quartermaster Corps: Organization, Supply, and Services, Volume II | Erna Risch and Chester L. Kieffer | 1955 |
| The Quartermaster Corps: Operations in the War against Japan | Alvin P. Stauffer | 1956 |
| The Quartermaster Corps: Operations in the War against Germany | William F. Ross and Charles F. Romanus | 1965 |
| The Signal Corps: The Emergency | Dulany Terrett | 1956 |
| The Signal Corps: The Test | George Raynor Thompson, Dixie R. Harris, Pauline M. Oakes, and Dulany Terrett | 1957 |
| The Signal Corps: The Outcome | George Raynor Thompson and Dixie R. Harris | 1966 |
| The Transportation Corps: Responsibilities, Organization, and Operations | Chester Wardlow | 1951 |
| The Transportation Corps: Movements, Training, and Supply | Chester Wardlow | 1956 |
| The Transportation Corps: Operations Overseas | Joseph Bykofsky and Harold Larson | 1957 |
SPECIAL STUDIES
| Title | Author | Year Published |
| Chronology: 1941–1945 | Mary H. Williams | 1960 |
| Buying Aircraft: Matériel Procurement for the Army Air Forces | I. B. Holley | 1964 |
| Civil Affairs: Soldiers Become Governors | Harry L. Coles and Albert K. Weinberg | 1964 |
| The Employment of Negro Troops | Ulysses Lee | 1966 |
| Military Relations between the United States and Canada, 1939–1945 | Stanlye W. Dziuban | 1959 |
| Rearming the French | Marcel Vigneras | 1957 |
| Three Battles: Arnaville, Altuzzo, and Schmidt | Charles B. MacDonald and Sidney T. Mathews | 1952 |
| The Women's Army Corps | Mattie E. Treadwell | 1953 |
| Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb | Vincent C. Jones | 1985 |
PICTORIAL RECORD
| Title | Author | Year Published |
| The War against Germany and Italy: Mediterranean and Adjacent Areas | John C. Hatlem and Kenneth E. Hunter | 1951 |
| The War against Germany: Europe and Adjacent Areas | Kenneth E. Hunter | 1951 |
| The War against Japan | Kenneth E. Hunter and Margaret E. Tackley | 1952 |
Publication history
The works were first published by the Historical Division, Department of the Army, from March 28, 1950 called the Office of the Chief of Military History and from June 15, 1973, the Center of Military History. They are in a large format, 7¼” x 10”, with green cloth covers and no dust jackets. The cover has only the eagle insignia of the Army; the title, author, and other data are on the spine. Many volumes have been reprinted by the Center of Military History in the same format beginning in the 1980s, and all are available as PDF downloads.The operations-oriented volumes and some others were reprinted by The National Historical Society during the 1990s in a 50th Anniversary Commemorative Edition series. They are 7” x 9” with a hard cover whose face is a black-and-white photograph with the title superimposed. They omitted the original editions’ fold-out maps but instead printed them in two separate atlases.
Two volumes, ‘’Cross Channel Attack’’ and ‘’The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge’’, were reprinted in the 1990s by Konecky & Konecky in a large 8½” by 11” format. They, too, omitted the fold-out maps. Other publishing houses have also reprinted selected volumes.