Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-10-01
No Wonder Germany Quit
By MAJOR FRANK @. MAHIN
OF the Army Recruiting Station

I
The other evening 1 was perfectly
delighted to get a copy of the Ger
man official reports OF the first "a
hours of the st. Mihiel offensive.
Since l had commanded an assault
battalion that broke through them
the first morning 1 have always won
dered what the Boche were doing
that morning to stop US and what
their estimate of the situation really
was. AS. 1 have always maintained,
the attack came as a surprise to the
Boche- The reasons for my belief
were based on the statements of
prisoner officers with whom I talked.
and on the army intelligence report
we captured the first morning. The
intelligence report dated at Metz,
s p. m, September IL, stated that
we were preparing an attack which
would probably develope September
26, but could not come before Sep
tember "a. We took this report at
a. m, September ~, so we were
IL days ahead of their earliest ex-
pectations. If that doesn't consti-
tute a surprise, l don't know what
does. A number of war correspond
ents have written lengthy articles
proving that the st. Mihiel was not
q surprise. as the Boche knew it
was coming and were preparing to
evacuate, in fact were actually
evacuating the Salient when we at
tackled. l now know that they did
know the attack was coming, but
that they had not started to evacu-
ate. In their report they state that
when the first information of an
intended hostile attack on the. St.
Mihiel Salient reached the army de-
tachment, seven divisions were hold
ing the "a kilometer front in the
Salient. We at once asked for q
reinforcement of air forces, four as
sault divisions. two field artillery
regiments and 10 battalions of heavy
artillery, in order to prevent u deep
penetration before the evacuation
of the Salient was completed" They
also ordered the 107th Division to
relieve the 77th Division, as the lat
ter contained about 500 Alsace-Lor7
rainers who were deserting to the
enemy. That agrees with our pre-
vious knowledge, as we hit the nth
Division and truly found hundreds OF
Alsace -Lorrainers in it. All of this
took place the 27th or August, and
yet even the efficient German
military machine had done nothing
when the attack came on September
~. Not one thing had been evacu-
ated, although orders had been is
sued from time to time covering this
subject. But on September all
available reserve artillery, consisting
of nine battalions of heavy guns and
three batteries of field guns were
ordered up to the Michel Stellung
behind the left shoulder of the
salient on a line from Pont-a-Mous
sen to Thiaucourt. AS they looked
at the map the left shoulder was
what we called the right or eastern
shoulder That those guns got into
position we well knew. l can as
sure you from personal knowledge
an unlimited supply of ammunition
On Sept tember Z a plan was worked
out to shatter our offensive prepara-
tions by an attack, with limited OBJ
| jectives, upon the southern front OF
| the Salient, but on September 8 this
| plan was abandoned, as in the mean
| time it had become apparent that
we were going to attack on both
sides of the Salient On September
| 10 the order was issued to commence
the removal and destruction. of all
material in the Salient. Unfortu-
nately for the Boche, they thought
they had plenty of time, so on the
| 18th they started to prepare such
material as they thought could not
be removed, for destruction. Some
! of the unnounted batteries from
| near the town of st. Mihiel were
started back to their second posi-.
tions, and other batteries were tc
start that night, but didn't, as the
bombardment was in full swing be-
! fore they got started. Now it sc
happened that our attack was only
| to be pincers movement at the
shoulders of the Salient and not q
drive in from the point. AS a mat.
| ter of fact there was no attack al
| all around the town of ST. Mihiel
so the Withdrawal of couple
of batteries hau no effect on the
engagement. To quote again the re
port of Lieutenant General Fuchs
this was the situation when the
enemy's attack struck the army de
tachment by surprise on the nigh
/ of September 11-12." To- morrow
will tell you what we did to then
'on the morning of the 18th.