Mitchell A. Yockelson delivers a comprehensive study of the first time American and British soldiers fought together as a coalition force - more than twenty years before D-Day. He follows the two divisions that comprised II Corps, the 27th and 30th, from the training camps of South Carolina to the bloody battlefields of Belgium and France. He shows how - despite cultural differences, General Pershing's misgivings, and the contrast between American eagerness and British exhaustion - the untested Yanks benefited from the experience of battle-toughened Tommies. Their combined forces contributed much to the Allied victory.

Organizing an Army -- Wanted: American troops -- Amalgamation -- The sunny South : training in the United States -- Organizing II Corps -- Goodbye, South Carolina : the final weeks of training -- Arrival -- Training overseas commences -- Division training -- We have found each other at last -- Visitors and inspectors -- Alone with the British -- Ypres -- Aftermath of battle -- Prelude to the big battle -- The Americans move forward -- The Americans enter the line -- Main operation, 29 September 1918 -- Attack by 30th Division -- Assessing the battle performance of the Americans -- Back to the front -- A change in the line -- Reflections on the Selle operation -- Brothers in arms -- Borrowed soldiers -- Staff, American II Corps, 29 September 1918 -- Order of battle, American 27th and 30th Divisions, 10 August-1 September 1918 -- Order of battle, Allied Army, 29 September 1918 -- Order of battle, German Army (Second and Eighteenth Armies), 29 September 1918, North and South -- Comparative strength of American and British Divisions, 1918.