Making the Difficult Routine

Lieutenant Colonel Brian North’s “Making the Difficult Routine” offers new insights into the history of the US Army in World War II. His study examines US Army forces in northwest Europe in the summer and fall of 1944, focusing on the striking number of changes in task organization at the corps and army levels made in this period of intense combat. North argues convincingly that the ability to make these changes was a critical element in the US Army’s combat effectiveness, finding that most of this success originated in the officer corps’ educational experience in the interwar period which gave them, among other things, a shared understanding of doctrine that made shifts in organization less disruptive. As Lieutenant Colonel North points out in his conclusion, the factors that allowed for rapid task organization in 1944 remain critical for the US Army today. 


This version of “Making the Difficult Routine” features an interactive case study of the 30th Infantry Division’s operations in 1944 as well as video and other multimedia elements.