History of the United States Army
The history of the United States Army dates back to 1774 and is based on British military traditions. The US Army was the main pillar of the territorial development and unification of the United States and developed into one of the leading ground forces in the world in the 20th century.
Prehistory to the end of the 18th century
The modern military era on North American territory began with the arrival of the first settlers in 1620. According to their origins, the armed men among the settlers oriented themselves to British military traditions, but had to adapt to new conditions. This included the fact that, unlike Europe, the east coast was sparsely populated and densely forested. In the event of a dispute, the Indians used the dense forest for ambushes instead of going into open field battles, as the settlers expected. Likewise, their warfare was not organized, apart from small alliances under a spontaneously chosen leader, neither hierarchies nor overall strategic concepts came about. However, the Indian tribes quickly learned to appreciate the value of the muskets, which they exchanged with the settlers for skins that were popular there.
Against the background of this recurring confrontation with the Indians, the white settlers adapted to the tactics of their opponents and also started setting up ambushes. They also benefited from the Indians' ignorance of guards and night watch.
Later, the settlers moved to defend themselves collectively by building forts along the boundaries consolidated by the settlement. The militia system, which in the British motherland after the violent internal consolidation by Oliver Cromwell and the turn to European prestige politics proved to be increasingly unsuitable, experienced a renaissance in North America because it was linked to a loose organization, the new tactics and its origins in the British Knighthood emphasized individual commitment and individual responsibility.
The word ranger also goes back to this time , because at the time of the Indian Wars (from approx. 1622) there were professional soldiers who were supposed to observe the troop movements of the Indians from observation posts and forts (from English to range , to German here for example: “Extend”, but also “measure”, “explore”). The function of today's US Army Rangers is also explained by this word, because in offensive missions the Rangers should serve as quick scouts and instigate skirmishes , just as today's troops are supposed to be fast and serve as an advance guard.
In 1747 the British Crown established the first standing unit on American soil, His Majesty's first Independent Company of American Rangers consisted entirely of men from the colonies. From their operations, this unit quickly learned from the French and from the tactics of the Indians , such as. B. the ambush or the fight in the forest, because these were not used before. They fought in their homeland in the war against the French .
Lineup
On June 14, 1775, after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War , the Continental Congress raised ten companies for land operations. The next day he appointed George Washington Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, which was supposed to provide a command structure for the previously unorganized militias and volunteers. For this purpose it was divided into six regional departments . The Continental Army faced an experienced, well-organized and equipped contingent of the British Crown with the support of Hessian mercenaries. The American forces succeeded in avoiding a devastating blow by the royal troops until the diplomatically won support gradually took hold. The Prussian General von Steuben improved the organization and training of the colonist troops, while the French Beaumarchais significantly improved the armament. Increased in this way, the Americans increasingly met the British in open field battle. Their position deteriorated due to supply difficulties and the dispersion of troops in the region, so that they lost the war.
The first regiment of the standing army was established on June 17, 1784. Until 1781 the army was led by a body (Board of War and Ordinance) before the establishment of a ministry, which was initially called the US Army War Department , proved more advantageous. By the time the British were finally defended against, 4,000 army members died.
In 1802, Thomas Jefferson founded the well-known United States Military Academy , located in West Point , New York . It was the first of its kind in the United States and was erected on one of the most strategically important outposts of the war. The US Military Academy produced many military and political leaders in every historical era in the country, including Ulysses Simpson Grant and Dwight Eisenhower .
Execution of American Indian policy
At the beginning of 1790, General Arthur St. Clair was entrusted with the reclamation of territory in what is now the US states of Indiana and Ohio and thus with the systematic expulsion of the Indians there . This took a total of five years, as St. Clair built additional fortifications and a permanent military infrastructure.
Overall, the Army drove Indians out of their settlement areas until 1891. In contrast, the US Army leads its tradition z. T. also from the Indians, such. B. the naming of their helicopters.
19th century
British-American War of 1812
In the aftermath of the War of Independence, the British Crown used its maritime power to demonstrate to the young North American nation that it was vulnerable to sea. Despite the Monroe Doctrine promulgated by US President James Monroe in 1802 , which proclaimed separate spheres of interest for Europe from those of the New World and mutual non- interference , the Royal Navy continued to recruit American seafarers, invaded American ships, and hindered US overseas trade.
On June 18, 1812 , the then President James Madison took these events as an opportunity to declare war on Great Britain with the aim of conquering eastern Canada . Just like the navy, the army was inferior to its British counterparts, but speculated on the surprise effect, the knowledge of the place and the stronger political will. Most of the fighting between the two nations took place on the border between the United States and present-day Canada and in the Chesapeake Bay area . The initially disorganized and poorly equipped Americans did not succeed in gaining a decisive victory over the British, although the army became more professional in the course of the war. For the first time played artillery units of the Army an important role in the battles. The goal of finally liberating North America from the now hated British was not achieved, but the planned British conquest of Baltimore and New Orleans (the latter with the help of the French ) was averted. A far more massive deployment of the British in North America was to be feared, however, so that the peace of Ghent was concluded. Almost 290,000 men had served in the war against the British, and 2,000 Army soldiers died.
Mexican-American War
By the 1840s, the Army had become a small but powerful ground force. During this time, the United States asserted territorial claims against Mexico after admitting Texas to the Union in 1845, which had declared itself independent in 1836 .
In the military confrontation with the southern neighbor, which lasted from 1846 to 1848, the Army conquered not only the remaining areas of Texas , but also the region of what is now the US state of New Mexico . It was the army's first deployment, which took place mainly on foreign territory. The distance from the previous state territory posed a huge logistical challenge for the still young armed force during the fighting and, after the surrender of the Mexicans, made the first military administration ever used by the USA necessary. In direct comparison, the Mexicans outnumbered them, but the Army had efficient artillery and superior tactics. The territorial harassment of the Navajo went hand in hand with the ongoing war, but lasted until 1853. Of 79,000 army soldiers who served, 1,700 died in combat and 11,601 from other causes.
American Civil War
The Confederate secession that began in 1861 tore the army apart, as well as the rest of the military and society in general in the United States. Many well-known and experienced army officers such as Lee and Grant , some of whom had served in comradeship for decades, competed against each other.
Due to the insufficient size of the parts of the divided national army, both sides had to build their armies from scratch for the civil war . Against the background that the Civil War was the first military conflict in the young industrial age , the conduct of war changed significantly on both sides. While technical improvements to the muzzle-loaders and artillery cannons brought users advantages in terms of reliability and hit rate, they posed a particular threat to certain branches of arms such as infantry and cavalry, which demanded their corresponding blood toll. The Battle of Shiloh therefore claimed more lives than the entire War of Independence. In addition, the United States Army , like its counterpart, for the first time relied on the massive transfer of troops by rail . Conscription supported both sides in building mass armies .
In the first industrial war of modern times, the two armies nevertheless competed beyond the value of their combat strength. A social and propaganda race began outside of the battlefield too , for example for greater tradition or a better social environment for the individual. The differences between Confederate and Union troops were small. After the victory of the northern states, the southern army was dissolved, and former members were partially integrated into the Union army.
In the Union, 2.128 million soldiers had served in the Army , 360,000 of them died. The Confederates kept their casualties less accurate, estimated at 200,000, death from illness and the like. Ä. included in each case. Their strength is said to have been between 750,000 and 1 million.
Spanish-American War
By the end of the 19th century, the internal consolidation of the United States was largely complete. Because of its economic potential, the United States developed into a great power , which led to tension with the crumbling Spanish empire . Since the mid-19th century, Spain has faced nationalist or Pan-American uprisings across Latin America . Driven by a mixture of economic hegemonic and imperialist interests and a Pan-American, humanitarian and idealistic concern, the United States declared war on the Kingdom of Spain in late April 1898 after several maritime confrontations and mutual provocations.
Still oriented towards the image of an army, which is a necessary evil in times of war, the army was poorly prepared for war, especially since it took place overseas ( Caribbean Sea , Pacific Ocean ). It therefore turned out to be fortunate for the land forces that the country's navy was much better equipped and therefore had to bear the brunt of the war.
From April 16, 1898, units of the army were moved to the coast. On June 20, almost 16,000 men under General Shafter went ashore in Daiquiri , Cuba , to set a course for Santiago . By the end of July 1898, almost 11,000 army soldiers had occupied the Philippines , the first scene of the Spanish-American conflict. Manila fell on August 13th. Under General Miles , almost 8,000 men landed near Guánica in Puerto Rico , whose second largest city, Ponce , fell to his troops three days later.
In the Spanish-American War, fewer than 400 people were killed in action and 5,000 died from other causes. 281,000 men had served in the Army .
From the military experience that the Army gained in the Spanish-American War, Secretary of War Elihu Root founded the Army War College on November 27, 1901 .
20th century
Short interventions phase
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Army was subjected to a modernization, which, however, only achieved a relative adjustment to the international standard, since the improvements were mainly of a technical nature. At the same time, a series of brief interventions for American interests was initiated, which would last until the 1930s. The Army did not take part in the so-called banana wars in the Caribbean, there the Marines took over the fight on land, but they did. a. on the border with Mexico, in China or on Samoa.
First World War
After the USA entered the First World War , a suitable mass army first had to be created because the army comprised only a few (XXX thousand) professional soldiers due to the widespread aversion to excessive central state power. The previous United States Army was expanded by the United States War Department to include conscripts and volunteers. This army was now officially called the National Army . The shortage of executives caused the rapid rise of many officers, who later became some of the famous military leaders of World War II .
American soldiers fought against the German army in France from 1917 . In 1918 the expeditionary force gradually grew to millions, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers being brought across the Atlantic every month. The Meuse-Argonne offensive in autumn 1918 was the greatest military success of the US troops under General John J. Pershing and broke through the German western front at Verdun . From November 1918 to May 1919 American soldiers occupied a zone in what is now Rhineland-Palatinate near the city of Trier . A total of 115,000 GIs died in World War I, most of them from illnesses such as the Spanish flu in their home training camps and in Europe. About 50,000 men were killed in the fighting in Europe. Above all, the material and personal preponderance of the army accelerated the victory of the Allied and Associated Powers.
In 1920 the National Army was dissolved and the US military capacities on land were reduced to that of the United States Army . All promotions granted from 1917 to 1920 were also reversed.
Second World War
In the period before the Second World War , the United States Army underwent extensive modernization at all levels from 1933 onwards, as it still operated in part in the schemes of the civil war.
In the wake of the growing tension in the USA with regard to the "War in Europe", the US Congress issued instructions in February 1941 to raise the Army of the United States , which, unlike the National Army, included the regular army and volunteers as well as the reserve which initially seemed new to the American strategists. From a legal point of view, the previous individual parts remained.
The military conquest of the Pacific islands in the course of island jumping was part of the remit of the US Marine Corps , while army soldiers secured the islands. The soldiers of the US Army fought mainly in Europe, from 1943 in Italy and from 1944 in France. The Commander in Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Forces , Dwight D. Eisenhower , was a member of the Army. Of the approximately 291,000 soldiers killed, almost 234,000 belonged to the Army. At its peak, the Army of the United States had over 8.3 million servicemen, a figure never matched.
This time, too, the Army reset all ranks to their pre-war status. She was also surprised by an explosion in her welfare budget, as veterans were able to make many pension claims after honorable discharge.
In Europe and North Africa, the intervention of the American army finally gave the Allied forces the military preponderance that, together with the collapse of the German Eastern Front, made the victory of the Allies possible.
The attitude of the American population to the size of the army changed significantly against the background of the looming Cold War and the negative spread of communism .
In the course of the war, the handling of operations and logistics by air had rapidly gained in importance. The aircraft enabled a previously impossible number of air landing operations , for example in Normandy or the Netherlands. The above-average reputation of the army's airborne units stems from this time. One consequence of the war was the outsourcing of large parts of the army's air force. The importance of the United States Army Air Corps increased so much that the federal government outsourced it to the Air Force in 1947.
Korean War
In the Korean War , a mass army was mobilized again, which from 1950 to 1953 in Korea under the military intervention by UN came under the leadership of the United States in favor of the South used. Since the demobilization of the mass army after the Second World War was well advanced at this point in time, the UN mission, which led the army, initially developed unfavorably for the army. After initial failures, in which only the massive deployment of the Marines prevented a catastrophe (inclusion and destruction of large Army contingents) when they appalled the troubled Army units, the sometimes very critical situation was stabilized and the North Korean troops up to the Chinese border will be pushed back. These circumstances cost the Army a lot of reputation in the American population and intensified the already existing competitive situation between the two armed forces. As a result of the intervention of the People's Republic of China in the conflict, the number of victims in the army increased to 30,000 soldiers by the time the armistice was reached, 27,000 of them in combat. More than two million men had served in the army.
Vietnam War
Long before the official outbreak of the Vietnam War in 1964, units of the Green Berets had been active in the area of operations as military advisers since 1956. When the number of soldiers present in Vietnam exceeded 16,000 in 1963, the appearance of a deliberate conflict between the Army no longer existed and the war in Southeast Asia began to escalate.
The US intervention in Vietnam turned into a debacle for the Army, as the units, consisting predominantly of conscripts, were sent into combat, the legitimacy of which was subject to increasing domestic doubts, and the Viet Cong confronted them with situations that they often encountered hadn't grown. The fight in the jungle against a well-trained and highly motivated enemy quickly revealed deficiencies in the operational concept, training and equipment, as the Army preferred the concept of classic large-scale operations with massive firepower to asymmetrical warfare, which had been successfully used in previous wars. Only in the course of the conflict began to operate on a larger scale with the same tactics as the Viet Cong, parallel to conventional army units .
In the course of the conflict, the US Army gained valuable experience in guerrilla warfare , which has since influenced the training of soldiers. In addition, the tactics of the FNL contributed to the establishment of various American special forces .
Despite the instructive experience in Vietnam, the ten-year conflict developed into a major trauma, especially for the heavily infantry army. At the instigation of several organizations and campaigns to which many soldiers had come together, politicians were forced to expand off-duty support for soldiers, which they initially only implemented reluctantly. In addition to ending the war, the main aspect was psychological support for the soldiers during and after the mission. In the course of time, these facilities were advertised more and more to provide comprehensive supplies for soldiers. From the era of the Vietnam War, the tendency of many members of the Army to see themselves as victims of politics and as misunderstood by American society stems from.
Despite all its determination, even the officer corps criticized the conduct of the war . It found that conscription was by no means necessary, on the contrary, it was more of a hindrance, which was reflected in the ratio of one officer to three crew soldiers.
The increased aversion, especially directed against the infantry, ensured a steady decline in the annual recruitment figures, until the opposite development set in after the (successfully waged) Second Gulf War.
Of the 58,000 American deaths in the Vietnam War, 31,000 Army soldiers died in combat and 7,200 from other causes.
Second Gulf War (Operation Desert Shield / Desert Storm)
In the Second Gulf War , the Army had the task of pushing Iraqi troops back into their own country in a coalition of 500,000 soldiers from a total of 30 participating nations , while Marines liberated Kuwait , which had previously been invaded by Iraq . After four days, the successful advance of the US Army was canceled because the American interest in overthrowing Saddam Hussein due to security concerns, such as B. the territorial breakup of Iraq along ethnic borders, dwindled. 224 Army soldiers died during this war. During this operation the system of Network Centric Warfare was used for the first time , the digitized networking and management of all units.
Somalia
In Somalia , the two Army special forces Rangers and Delta Force, together with the 10th US Mountain Rifle Division, were supposed to monitor the humanitarian actions of the UN as part of Operation Restore Hope after two divisions of the US Marines had withdrawn .
In the Battle of Mogadishu , the soldiers reached a bloody stalemate against a poorly equipped and trained tenfold superiority of clan militias before they had to withdraw. After the fight and meanwhile 31 dead, the political pressure on US President Clinton increased so much that he had to finally break off the American engagement in Somalia .
21st century
Transformation of the United States Army
After the breakup of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact , the military budget was cut drastically during the 1990s. After September 11, 2001 , the strategy of the United States Department of Defense had already changed from simple cuts, downsizing and downsizing to the so-called "transformation of the US Army". This doctrine focuses an army on fast, efficient combat that requires the relocation of massive army units, such as B. in the Second Gulf War, made redundant.
The Pentagon saw the necessity of a new type of warfare given by the predicted security situation of the 21st century. Four forms of military challenge are to be covered: traditional, i.e. H. interstate, unknown or irregular, post-catastrophic and disruptive. Overall, a calming of the global security situation is not in sight.
The strategic goal derived from this was recorded in the significant doctrine Relevant and Ready ... Today and Tomorrow : to be able to muster a sufficiently large military force at any time as early as possible and thus to be able to fulfill the mission (see also the section of the same name) of the Army .
The four cornerstones of the current transformation are seen in the following four factors:
- Ready combat force on the ground in support of the Combatant Commanders
- well trained and equipped soldiers - "to serve as warriors under adaptable superiors"
- Standard of living and welfare for all members of the Army
- an infrastructure that offers adequate strategic projection
An overly adaptable opponent, underfunding, excessive operating speeds and other excessive burdens on the Army as a whole are seen as risk factors for the transformation .
At the end of the transformation, which should be completed in 2007, the planning basis is said to have shifted from the ten divisions that still existed in 2006 to the targeted 42–43 brigades . In fact, the former no longer exist and their reintroduction is easily possible thanks to the modular structure.
Afghanistan
In response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, a US-led coalition intervened in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom to overthrow the Taliban government. The Army mostly involved special forces, as larger ground operations were left to Afghan allies. In the period that followed, American units had to repeatedly launch offensives against insurgents. Since 2006, most of the Army contingents have been spun off from Operation Enduring Freedom and placed under the separate NATO- led ISAF mission.
Almost 400 Army soldiers have died in Afghanistan so far (as of April 2008).
Iraq war
The doctrine described above was successfully tested during Operation Iraqi Freedom during the Iraq war . The number of soldiers involved was only a quarter of the strength of Desert Storm . The remaining forces worked together better than before due to the introduced mission tactics and significantly improved communication. The number of divisions, namely four, lost its informative value, as the otherwise rather small divisions of the US Army were assigned the largest possible number of troops by international comparison. One brigade was enough to take Baghdad until more arrived to secure it.
The political stabilization of the country is causing far greater problems for the US Army, which shows its more than 4,000 losses (as of April 2008) after the end of the official fighting compared to almost 60 dead during it. Above all, the inadequate knowledge of Arabic culture and insufficient training for peace missions are criticized.
War crimes
US Army soldiers have committed war crimes in several wars . The most sensational war crime of the Vietnam War was the My Lai massacre . During the third Iraq war, the Abu Ghuraib scandal became known. In Afghanistan, soldiers have been accused of executing entire groups of prisoners. In another case, soldiers are dying of thirst a group of captured Taliban in a locked truck - container have to answer. In September 2006, further allegations were raised: The LA Times had together with the NGO Crimes of War Project researched that 10 members of a Special Forces unit of the National Guard of Alabama tortured several people at their base Gardez in Afghanistan in early 2003, some of them to Death, and then any statements should have voted on it.
Some war crimes committed by the Army are also known from the Second World War . Members of the 45th Infantry Division shot dead B. 1943 in Sicily German and Italian prisoners of war.
In the Philippine-American War and Moro-American War , American troops committed numerous war crimes. There was systematic use of torture , hostage and prisoner shooting, the murder of civilians and the depopulation of entire regions.
References
literature
- Raymond K. Bluhm: US Army: A Complete History , Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 2005, ISBN 0-88363-113-X . (English)
- Harold Nelson: The Army , Universe, 2001, ISBN 0-88363-101-6 . (English)
- Richard W. Stewart (Ed.): American Military History , 2 volumes, Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, DC, 2005.
- David W. Hogan, Jr .: Centuries of Service - The US Army 1775-2004 , Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, DC, 2004.
Web links
Institutions
- Website of the US Army Institute for Military History (English)
- Website of the US Army Heritage and Education Center (English)
- Overview of the Army on specific aspects of military history (English)
- Website of the Army History Foundation (English)
Chronologies
- Chronology of the Army in bullet points (English)
- Overview of the history of the United States Army in Microsoft Encarta online (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ "In the fledgling years of Colonial America, the colonist found themselves in a strange new land that to them seemed vast, overwhelming, uncharted and unknown. These early Americans chose the bravest of their numbers to “Range” out into the new frontier and explore, map and report what they found. These were the first Rangers. ", According to usmountainranger.org
- ↑ Source to His Majesty's first Independent Company of American Rangers ( Memento of the original from March 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ “The June 14 date is when Congress adopted 'the American continental army' after reaching a consensus position in The Committee of the Whole. This procedure and the desire for secrecy account for the sparseness of the official journal entries for the day. "In: history.army.mil , quoted. according to: Robert Wright: The Continental Army , Center of Military History, Washington, DC 1983, page 23f. Accessed April 6, 2008.
- ↑ "The Congress then proceeded to the choice of a general, // by ballot, // When George Washington, Esq. was unanimously elected. ” Journals of Congress . Center for Military History . Accessed April 6, 2008, cited in: Ford, Worthington Chauncey (Ed.): Journals of the Continental Congress 1774–1789 . Volume II (May 10 - September 20, 1775). United States Government Printing Office , Washington DC 1905. page 91.
- ↑ Estimates of Confederate Numbers
- ↑ US Army modular redesign: CRS Report for Congress ( Memento of the original from March 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. originally dated February 2, 2006.
- ↑ Online database of American fallen soldiers ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Washington Post .
- ↑ Stefan Aust , Cordt Schnibben (Ed.): Irak - history of a modern war . Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 2004.
- ↑ Holger Kulick: Documentary filmmaker reports on massacres on US orders . In: Spiegel Online , June 12, 2002.
- ↑ Report ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. viewed on GMX.net on September 26, 2006.
- ↑ Kevin Sack, Craig Pyes: A Silence in the Afghan Mountains . In LA Times , September 24, 2006. Seen on 26 September, 2006.
- ↑ Frank Schumacher: The colonial war of the United States in the Philippines , pp 124 et seq.
