What was John Pershing's impact on WW1 & how has he affected the world today

Question:Well, that pretty much sums everything up. Help please?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Well, that pretty much sums everything up. Help please?

When the AEF (American Expeditionary Force) first got to France, the Anglo-French heirarchy wanted (and did, at first) use the Americans as "fill-ins" to re-constitute French and British regiments that had been all but wiped out by using frontal assaults against enemy positions. The A-Fs broke up American battalions, and even companies to put Americans piece-meal into Anglo-French units.

The results were, once again, disatrous for the Allies. They just couldn't get it through their minds that the machine gun had recreated warfare. The idiots in charge of the Allied effort thought that if the officers were brave enough, they could somehow overcome overlapping fields of fire of the Maxim gun that could fire 10 rounds per SECOND!

Gen. John (Black Jack) Pershing took one look at what the High Command had done with "his" soldiers and countered those orders breaking apart American units. He pulled Americans off the field, and had his officers come up with new tactics to defeat the murderous fire of the Maxim gun.

Young lieutenants like George S. Patton (and others) came up with the "fix, fire, and advance" tactic that is still in use today. Companies are broken into squads that use teamwork to fire upon a gun position to keep the enemy down while other squads advance close enough to either use hand grenades or other devices to eliminate or capture the position.

Pershing also saw the futility of the beloved horse mounted cavalry and had units start using armored cars and the new tanks as vehicles instead of horses. He also saw the value of using airplanes for scouting instead of horses.

BTW, Pershing got his nickname of "Black Jack" when he commanded the 10th Cavalry, an all-N*gro Army unit that fought in the Southwest and in the Spanish-American War.

ABTW Yahoo is SO screwed up, they censored the Latin (and Spanish) word for "black" in my answer above. Grow up, Yahoo, you censoring, un-American pr*cks!

On WW1, very little impact, if any. Black Jack certainly has no bearing on the world today either.