Table of Contents

Prologue: A Genius for War Wrong War, Right War Day of the Doughboys The Innovation Revolution D-Day Disasters Trial and Error The Air-Ground Miracle An Imagining of Armor The King of Battle Warriors Epilogue: Fantastic Voyage

Promotional Information

"Jim Carafano's study of Army innovation for the European campaigns of World War II puts the focus back on the GIs and explores the creative genius of a Democratic Army." -- Allan R. Millett, National D-Day Museum "In GI Ingenuity James Carafano has provided a lively and instructive account of the problem-solving American soldier in all his glory. Well researched and well documented, this is an account of enduring value to students of warfare at the troop level." -- Lewis Sorley, author of A Better War and editor of Vietnam Chronicles

About the Author

James Jay Carafano is a fellow at the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies at The Heritage Foundation. He has served as an Assistant Professor of History at the U.S. Military Academy, a military historian at the U.S. Army Field Artillery School, and Director of Military Studies at the Army's Center of Military History. He has been a Fleet Professor at the U.S. Naval War College, a visiting professor at the National Defense University and Georgetown University, and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Before retiring as an Army Lt. Colonel, he served as Executive Editor of Joint Force Quarterly, the Defense Department's premiere professional military journal. Dr. Carafano has written Waltzing into the Cold War: The Struggle for Occupied Austria and After D-Day: Operation Cobra and the Normandy Breakout, a Military Book Club selection.

Reviews

Carafano investigates the battles that followed D-Day in Normandy through the prism of improvisation that came, in his opinion, to characterize the American GI. Nine chapters blend together military, technological, and social histories as a means to prove that the U.S. soldier had a unique genius to adjust to new combat conditions…. Carafano's knowledge shines when he recounts the battles, and enthusiasts will appreciate his asides…. Recommended. General, graduate, researcher, professional collections.
*Choice*

Although its subtitle ties GI Ingenuity to World War II, it presents those battlefield vignettes within a framework convincingly built on the lessons of World War I and even earlier conflicts. Specifically, several of Carafano's earliest threads extend all the way back to the 1830s and what he identifies as Prussian Gen. Carl von Clausewitz's indifference to technology…. In creating his own foundation for this excellent book, Carafano builds on Clausewitz's vision of general military genius…. The scope and creativity covered in GI Ingenuity go well beyond material solutions…. An important aspect of GI Ingenuity is the credit given to many of the Army's individual leaders, throughout the 20th century, who left their unique marks on the constructed edifice of GI ingenuity. Moreover, Carafano's individual highlights are followed by reasonable assessment of a continuing leadership legacy that is already being proven during the first decade of the 21st century.
*Army*

Military historian Carafano describes how the US Army (his old outfit) transmuted from an industrial-age to a postmodern military on the battlefields of Normandy in the summer of 1944. The soldiers drew on the inspiration of their fathers' way of war, he explains, added the ingenuity of the The Greatest Generation, and presaged the military of the 21st century.
*Reference & Research Book News*

For the serious student of World War II, GI Ingenuity: Improvisation, Technology and Winning World War Two, by James Jay Carafano, is a devotee's study of American combat adaptation and creativity. GIs in Iraq continue the tradition.
*Lowell Sun (Massachusetts)*