FIRST FIELD ARMY
The War Department received reports on May 21 which showed that the first of the field armies had been organized and was in service in France. The army, composed of two army corps, each made up of one regular army, one National Guard, and one National Army division, was placed under the temporary command of Major Gen. Hunter Liggett, the senior Major General then in foreign service. General Liggett was selected to command the first army corps organized in France, and this corps, with that temporarily commanded by Major Gen. Charles T. Menoher, made up the first field army, the total strength of which was almost 200,000 men. By June 14 the American forces in France had become so numerous that General Foch had informed General Pershing that it was desirable to maintain them as purely American units. This fact was communicated to the House Military Affairs Committee by the War Council at Washington. In accordance with this policy two full American divisions were engaged in the fighting in the Château-Thierry sector. The Secretary of War told the committee that General Foch was gradually decreasing the number of Americans brigaded with the French and British, and thereby increasing the American unit.
Official announcements made at Washington showed that approximately half a million soldiers had landed in France since the German drive began on March 21, 1918, and that Americans held no more than fifty miles of the whole western front. One element of Pershing's mobile forces, by direction of General Foch, guarded the way at the apex of the whole German wedge near Montdidier. Cantigny, which was captured by these forces, was very close to the point of maximum penetration achieved by the enemy after nearly three months of desperate fighting.
The total casualties sustained by the American Expeditionary Forces from the beginning of American participation in the war up to June 17, 1918, is shown in the following figures issued by the War Department at Washington:
| Deaths. | Total. |
| Killed in action | 881 |
| Lost at sea | 291 |
| Died of wounds | 364 |
| Accident and other causes | 422 |
| Died of disease | 1,234 |
| ——— | |
| Total deaths | 3,192 |
| Wounded | 4,547 |
| Missing, including prisoners | 346 |
| ——— | |
| Grand total | 8,085 |
First American Offensive a Success
Capture of Cantigny by General Pershing's Troops Described in Vivid Detail
By THOMAS M. JOHNSON
Correspondent with the American Army
This stirring narrative of the first attack and capture of enemy territory by the American forces in France was written by a staff correspondent of The New York Evening Sun. It constitutes a memorable chapter in our military history, not because of the size of the town captured, but because the event marks the beginning of offensive operations in Europe by the United States Army. The brave men who took Cantigny—at the apex of the German salient aimed at Amiens—continued to hold it against all counterattacks through the succeeding weeks. Under date of May 29, 1918, Mr. Johnson cabled from the front:
The Americans have made their first real attack of the war, and it is a complete success. Advancing up a wooded slope behind French tanks and protected by a perfect and annihilating barrage from French and American guns, our infantry at 7 o'clock Tuesday morning, May 28, stormed and captured the village of Cantigny, northwest of Montdidier, and the German defenses to the north and south, making an advance of a mile on a two-mile front.
The Americans went over in open formation at 6:45 o'clock, advancing at an easy walk and maintaining intervals as if on parade. The sun had just risen, and through streaky clouds all about tongues of red flame were darting from the muzzles of hundreds of massed guns, big and small, while the air itself quivered with the shock of explosions, mingled with the deafening yet purring roar that is called drum fire.
Cantigny itself was turned into a veritable hell, a pillar of fire and smoke, and into it went the crawling, sinister tanks followed by the American infantry in thin lines or little groups. For a while they were swallowed up in the great white and brown and black cloud that enveloped the village, then back to the American line came the first message: "We're here! Everything O. K.!"
Thus these troops of the New World made their first real entry into the war. Thus they did what they could to help in offsetting the new German effort. Compared with the giant struggle going on elsewhere it was just a little outburst, but we did our best with it and have succeeded.