Evening star., 1924-09-11
BY FRANK H. SIMONDS.

BY FRANK II. SIMONDS.
Six years ago tomorrow, September
IL, at daylight, the first organized
army of the American expeditionary
force In France. commanded directly
by Gen. Pershing, who thus cele-
!. bratsd his birthday, engaged in what
was up to that moment the greatest
battle in American history, as it was
the first in the world war in which
our soldiers had fought wholly under
American direction. 80,
Prior to the battle of St.. Mihiel
Americans had fought in various en-
gagements, the 1st Corps at Cantigny,
the I'd at Belleau Wood and the LIST
and I'd, with six others, in the second
battle of the Marne, which Is known
But always hitherto they had been
under the general command of
French officers, and the appearance
OF our soldiers under American COM
mand was the double result of the
very great achievements of individual
divisions in the engagements in which
they had already participated and
the long and vigorous struggle Gen.
Pershing had carried on for the Gre
alton OF an American Army under COM
plete American command.
~ y
The battle Of st. Mihiel was, tech
n1cally, battle engaged for the re-
alization of limited objectives, to ac-
complish certain very definite results,
ana not, like the later Meuse- Ar
gonne, an attack to be continued
until the enemy in front was not only
beaten and driven from his immed :
ate positions, but crushed to an ex-
tent which made further resistance
impossible. In reality this st. Mihiel
engagement was no more than a de-
tail in the preparation for the Meuse-
Argonne, although 1t was in itself a
very considerable affair.
The purpose of the St Mihiel Of
fensive was to abolish the famous
st. Mihiel salient. in French mill
tary parlance, the hernia of the
East" This salient had been Gre
ated in September, 1914. as a detail
In the German offensive which culmi-
mated at the Marne. and 1t was q
German effort to drive a wedge be-
tween the Notifications OF Verdun
and Toul and isolate the French
armies fighting in Lorraine from the
bulk of the allied forces operating
west of the Meuse.
r
At first successful, this German
thrust had been ultimately checked,
and the disaster OF the Marne COM
PEELED the Germans to abandon it
and send all available reserves west
ward. AS il endured for the next
four years this salient was a blunt
nosed wedge, its base resting upon
the permanent fortifications of Metz.
extending across the marshy plain of
the Woevre, crossing the heights of
the Meuse and terminating in a small
ha hay 80 l..
Meuse
The high ground on the north side
Of the salient forbade successful at
tack, although the French tried 1t
in the bloody failure of Les Eparges
in the Winter of 1915. The south
side, in the main crossing swampy
plain from the forests north Of Pont-
a-MouSson was more vulnerable, but
had successfully defed a serious
French attack in the summer of 1915,
since when st. Mihiel had become a
quiet sector.
The military value of the salient
was twofold: Extending to the west
bank of the Meuse. it cut and domi-
mated the railway which comes down
the Meuse Valley from Commercy on
the Paris Nancy trunk line to Verdun
thus partially isolating the fortress
of Ferdun. a fact which had value
in the great struggle of 1915. In the
second place, the great Fort Camp des
Romans, above st. Mihiel. gave the
Germans direct vision of the Paris
Nancy trunk line itself, and forbade
to the French the use Of a portion
of this vital artery. necessitating a
long detour via Gondrecourt.
Pershing's army was assigned to
the reduction of the salient, first, be-
cause 1T would free his rear and
communications in the Meuse Valley
when he undertook his later offensive
in the Meuse-Argonne, and secondly,
because 1t offered an admirable field
in which to test the American Army,
a field in which failure would have
no serious consequences. while success
would harvest material. if necessarily
limited, advantages.
The Germans, already suffering
from the rapid dimunition of their
reserves and fearing an attack, had
begun to retire from the salient to
a new defense system across the base
of the salient and resting upon Metz,
but they had been slow in withdraw
ing, and the attack caught them
utterly unprepared. The actual de-
lenses were admirable. the ground
wholly favorable to the defenders,
and from the famous Mont Sec, a
small mountain rising out of the
Woevre Plain, they had a complete
sweep of the whole battlefield.
Pershing's plan of attack contem-
plated a frontal thrust against the
whole southern side Of the salient be-
tween the hills above the Moselle at
to the heights of
the Meuse, east of the latter river.
In the main the attack was over roll
ing, but relatively level country,
crossed by the Rupt de Mad Brook,
which flowed from the Heights of the
MeuSe to the Mnsella dottad