The Making of a Modern Army and its Operations in the Field

This is a dispatch from the front lines of the first modern war. Written by French officer René-Louis-Jules Radiguet in the midst of World War I, this book captures what the author witnessed and learned during years of brutal combat against the German forces. Originally intended to educate American military officers before America's entry into the conflict, it distills the hard lessons of 1914-1917 into a practical manual for those who would soon face the same challenges. Radiguet examines how the French army transformed to meet industrial warfare: new weapons demanded new tactics, new tactics demanded new training, and everything rested on the morale and resilience of soldiers pushed to their limits. But this is not merely a technical manual. Radiguet understood that machines win battles only through human will, and his analysis of leadership, unit cohesion, and the psychological toll of modern combat gives the book its lasting power. For readers interested in military history, this first-hand account from inside the trenches offers an invaluable window into how armies actually learned to fight the first world war.