Blanc Mont Ridge 1918
A highly illustrated account of the battle for Blanc Mont Ridge in 1918, where the US attackers broke the German line and sent them into headlong retreat in one of the major US victories of World War I.
The dominating Blanc Mont Ridge complex in the Champagne region of France was home to some of the most complex German defences on the Western Front. Its heights offered artillery observation that made even approaching the ridge virtually suicidal.
Pessimistic about the ability of depleted and demoralized French units to capture the position, Général Henri Gouraud was granted the use of two American divisions: the veteran 2nd “Indianhead” Division, including the 4th (Marine) Brigade, and the untested 36th “Arrowhead” Division of the Texas and Oklahoma National Guard.
This fully illustrated book describes this Allied offensive with American troops in the vanguard, and shows how despite the heavy losses it sustained to both manpower and supporting armour, they eventually forced the Germans to abandon most of the region in one of the largest withdrawals of the war.
A native of southeastern France, Romain V. Cansière has worked in the medicinal plant industry in France and South Africa. He currently works as a crop advisor for a cooperative of essential oil producers. Interested in the history of the US Marine Corps since his teenage years, Romain is the co-author of Tanks in Hell – A Marine Corps Tank Company on Tarawa, winner of the 2016 General Wallace M. Greene Jr. Award for distinguished non-fiction. He lives in Riez, France.
A retired geologist and geophysicist, Oscar E. (“Ed”) Gilbert has written for Osprey’s Warrior, Battle Orders, and Campaign series, with concentration the history of the US Marine Corps and state militias in the American Revolution and the War of 1812. He is the author of a four-volume history of Marine Corps tank battalions, and the co-author of Tanks in Hell and True for the Cause of Liberty. Ed divides his time between homes in Katy, Texas and in rural Texas.
Graham Turner is a leading historical artist, specializing in the medieval period. He has illustrated numerous titles for Osprey, covering a wide variety of subjects from the dress of the 10th-century armies of the Caliphates, through the action of bloody medieval battles, to the daily life of the British Redcoat of the late 18th century. The son of the illustrator Michael Turner, Graham lives and works in Buckinghamshire, UK.