Army History Magazine
Spring 2025 Edition
July 2025
In the Spring 2025 issue of Army History, I am pleased to present two excellent articles, an in-depth look at a pair of extremely rare and nationally important Army artifacts, and a preview of a unique museum exhibit coming to the Airborne and Special Operations Museum, as well as our usual crop of book reviews. The first article, by Center of Military History historian Matthew Margis, examines the service of World War I National Guard soldier Francis Webster. Viewing his career through the lens of shifting national ideals, from the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era, Margis uses Webster’s service and sacrifice to showcase what it meant to be a citizen-soldier during a time of rapid social change. Margis argues that the lack of a unified training system for Guard soldiers, and the lack of funding for most militia units, put them at a disadvantage both socially and militarily. Often looked down upon by their Regular Army counterparts, and the public at large, Guard soldiers found an opportunity on the front lines in Europe to showcase their commitment and courage, forever changing what it meant to be a middle-class American, a citizen, and a soldier.
The second article, by Patrick O’Keefe, an active-duty Army major, examines the drive by Wehrmacht units of Army Group South during the initial days of Operation Barbarossa. Although the Soviets had vastly greater numbers, with technologically superior tanks, and were fighting on the defensive, Germany largely destroyed their mechanized forces in just over a week. O’Keefe shows how superior training, doctrine, and use of combined arms tactics allowed the German forces to overcome the odds and deal the Soviet forces of the Southwestern Front a crushing blow. The Soviets’ lack of effective combined arms often negated their numerical superiority leading to significant losses. O’Keefe contends that for the U.S. Army, a force facing significant reductions on the horizon, it should seek to leverage qualitative advantage over a quantitatively stronger opponent, and that the decisive battle offers the best alternative to the longer attritional style of warfare.
The Artifact Spotlight in this issue looks at a pair of pistols once owned by George Washington. Housed at the West Point Museum these pistols were given to Washington just after the winter at Valley Forge and have a very strong provenance. They will feature prominently during the museum’s commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. This issue’s Museum Feature provides a preview of an upcoming exhibit at the Airborne and Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Titled “Surviving the Devil’s Cauldron: The Enduring ‘Swaying Virgin’ of La Gleize,” this exhibit will honor the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives officers, also known as the “Monuments Men.” It will highlight a newly acquired replica of the statue of the Virgin Mary rescued by renowned American sculptor and Monuments Man, Capt. Walker K. Hancock. The exhibit will also feature artifacts and photographs from his military service.
As I occasionally like to do, I want to thank the small staff here for their continued dedication to Army History. I also want to further encourage our readers to send us submissions related to the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the U.S. Army.
Bryan J. Hockensmith
Managing Editor