Guard Wars: The 28th Infantry Division in World War II

An inventive study of relations between the National Guard and the Regular Army during World War II, Guard Wars follows the Pennsylvania National Guard's 28th Infantry Division from its peacetime status through training and into combat in Western Europe. The broader story, spanning the years 1939–1945, sheds light on the National Guard, the U.S. Army, and American identities and priorities during the war years. Michael E. Weaver carefully tracks the division's difficult transformation into a combat-ready unit and highlights General Omar Bradley's extraordinary capacity for leadership—which turned the Pennsylvanians from the least capable to one of the more capable units, a claim dearly tested in the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest. This absorbing and informative analysis chronicles the nation's response to the extreme demands of a world war, and the flexibility its leaders and soldiers displayed in the chaos of combat.

Table of Contents:
List of Maps Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: Background and Issues 2. Relations with the Army and State Identity 3. Readiness and Training: 1939–1941 4. Peacetime Maneuvers: 1939–1941 5. The Pennsylvania National Guard and American Society 6. Social Class, Recruiting, and Ideology 7. The October Purge 8. Stateside Training: 1942–1943 9. Training in Wales: 1943–1944 10. From Normandy to the West Wall 11. Battle of the Hürtgen Forest: A Leadership Failure 12. Battle of the Bulge: Stubbornness and Flexibility 13. Winter Battles 14. Conclusion Appendix 1: The Execution of Private Slovik Appendix 2: The Reestablishment of the Pennsylvania National Guard Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Michael E. Weaver is Associate Professor of Comparative Military History at the U.S. Air Force Air Command and Staff College.

Review :
"A significant contribution to understanding how the U.S. Army organized, trained, and prepared for war." Edward G. Miller, author of Nothing Less than Full Victory: Americans at War in Europe, 1944-1945 "Michael E. Weaver's Guard Wars does a fine job of bringing the Twenty-Eighth Infantry Division to life. The book begins by focusing on the National Guards' relationship with the regular army as well as the division's interaction with Pennsylvania society and institutions... Overall, Guard Wars is an insightful study of a National Guard division in World War Two. Weaver does not limit himself to the Twenty-Eighth Infantry Division's role in combat, but instead spends half of the book investigating the "Bloody Buckets" training and its influence on Pennsylvania society. The book is well researched and heavily cited." - Alex Lovelace, H-War, August 2012