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Title: Carrying the War to the Enemy: American Operational Art to 1945
Subtitle: Campaigns and Commanders Series
Author: Michael R. Matheny
Narrator: Kirk Winkler
Format: Unabridged
Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
Language: English
Release date: 12-20-17
Publisher: University Press Audiobooks
Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:
Military commanders turn tactics into strategic victory by means of "operational art", the knowledge and creative imagination commanders and staff employ in designing, synchronizing, and conducting battles and major operations to achieve strategic goals. Until now, historians of military theory have generally agreed that modern operational art developed between the first and second world wars, not in the United States but in Germany and the Soviet Union, whose armies were supposedly the innovators and greatest practitioners of operational art. Some have even claimed that US forces struggled in World War II because their commanders had no systematic understanding of operational art.
Michael R. Matheny believes previous studies have not appreciated the evolution of US military thinking at the operational level. Although they may rightly point to the US Army's failure to modernize or develop a sophisticated combined arms doctrine during the interwar years, they focus too much on technology or tactical doctrine. In his revealing account, Matheny shows that it was at the operational level, particularly in mounting joint and combined operations, that senior American commanders excelled - and laid a foundation for their country's victory in World War II.
Examining in detail the development of American operational art as land, sea, and air power matured in the 20th century, he shows that, contrary to conventional wisdom, US war colleges educated and trained commanders during the interwar years specifically for the operational art they employed in World War II.
Published by University of Oklahoma Press.
"Matheny fills a vacuum in military historiography with this book, while reminding us that great victories are not won by accident." - Military History

Members Reviews:
Nuts and bolts on thinking
The work covers the development of Operational level thinking and planning in the US military, showing that it has a long history (back to the Civil War), but concentrating on the interwar and World War II periods in detail. I would regard int as essential reading for anyone who seriously studies American planning and operations for that period.

Highly Recommended, Mostly Concerns Amphibious Warfare
This is an excellent, well written, and one of a kind book on an unusual topic. Although it has been said that the US military neglected operational thought prior to and during World War II, the author instead shows that they excelled at joint operations, particularly amphibious warfare. He shows how the US developed war colleges where theory was developed, scenarios were wargamed, and the services learned to cooperate effectively. This cooperation was unique in the world at the time and was developed to suit America's unique position of "carrying the war to the enemy" - in places far from home. As a result, logistics were stressed in the US military much more so than in other nations. The author points out, for example, that German army staff organization stressed operational planning over logistics, which resulted in good battlefield performance that was often counteracted by disappointing and unexpected supply difficulties.
The flaws in the book are few - and mainly ones of omission.