Talk:Battle of Hamel

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I'll get back to this. The US troops involved were used against the wishes of Pershing and senior British commanders. The troops had been stationed with the Australians for training/experience purposes, and at the time they were placed the Australians were told not to deploy them in any actions. Monash and his lower commanders, mindful that the troops and their local commanders were extremely keen to participate 'wrote them in', and fielded (deflected and dogded) some pointed criticism from above. In the end my understanding is that they were used against Pershings clearly stated wishes. The US casualties seem a little high, Bean will have the numbers. The unit the US troops belonged to will be in Bean's history as well (he was very careful to document these things). My recollection is that the were New York based, but it's five or six years since I last read Bean. My understanding is that this wasn't the first occasion that US troops were in action in France, but it was among the first few occasions.Tban 03:40, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

They were from Illinois. Kscheffler 07:23, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Needs Work

I can't say that as it stands that this article is all that reliable. There's also some problems here with grammar and the general writing style.

One sentence that I feel should be removed is: "While it was a small-scale battle, it was the first where the Allies went on the offensive against the Germans after the years trench warfare, and showed how the deadlock could be broken." The allies went on the offensive numerous times thoughout the war, so why the author would think that this was "the first" is beyond me. Kscheffler 07:10, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree. It is inaccurate to say that this was the first offensive. It is not stretching things too far to suggest that the battle of Hamel marked the first truly successful offensive, however, and it is also accurate to suggest that the doctrines used here were to have far-reaching impacts. Johno 15:28, 29 December 2006 (UTC)