Tons upon tons of ammunition fell into our hands in the woods. At one place twenty-two railroad cars loaded with large calibre ammunition had to be abandoned when an American shell had torn up the track to the north of them. But if the Germans had been unable to take with them their equipment, they had succeeded in driving ahead of them on the retreat almost all of the French male civilians between sixteen and forty-five years that had been used as German slaves for more than four years.
The Americans were welcomed as deliverers by those French civilians that remained in the town. They were found to be almost entirely ignorant of the most commonly known historical events of the war. Secretary of War Baker and Generals Pershing and Petain visited the town of St. Mihiel a few hours after it was captured. They were honoured with a spontaneous demonstration by the girls and aged women, who crowded about them to express thanks and pay homage for deliverance.
One of our bands began to play the "Marseillaise" and the old French civilians who, under German domination, had not heard the national anthem for four long years, broke down and wept. The mayor of the town told how the Germans had robbed it of millions of francs. First they had demanded and received one million five hundred thousand francs and later they collected five hundred thousand more in three instalments. In addition to these robberies, they had taken by "requisition" all the furniture and mattresses and civilian comforts that they could find. They took what they wanted and usually destroyed the rest. They had stripped the towns of all metal utensils, bells, statues, and water pipes.
The St. Mihiel salient thus went out of existence. The entire point in the blade of the dagger that had been thrust at the heart of France had been bitten off. Verdun with its rows upon rows of sacred dead was now liberated from the threat of envelopment from the right. The Allies were in possession of the dominating heights of the Meuse. The railroads connecting Commercy with Vigneulles, Thiaucourt and St. Mihiel were in our hands. Our lines had advanced close to that key of victory, the Briey iron basin to the north, and the German fortress of Metz lay under American guns.
The battle only lasted twenty-seven hours. In that space of time, a German force estimated at one hundred thousand had been vanquished, if not literally cut to pieces, American soldiers had wrested a hundred and fifty square miles of territory away from the Germans, captured fifteen thousand officers and men and hundreds of guns. General Pershing on September 14th made the following report:
"The dash and vigour of our troops, and of the valiant French divisions which fought shoulder to shoulder with them, is shown by the fact that the forces attacking on both faces of the salient effected a junction and secured the result desired within twenty-seven hours.
"Besides liberating more than 150 square miles of territory and taking 15,000 prisoners, we have captured a mass of material. Over 100 guns of all calibres and hundreds of machine guns and trench mortars have been taken.
"In spite of the fact that the enemy during his retreat burned large stores, a partial examination of the battlefield shows that great quantities of ammunition, telegraph material, railroad material, rolling stock, clothing, and equipment have been abandoned. Further evidence of the haste with which the enemy retreated is found in the uninjured bridges which he left behind.
"French pursuit, bombing and reconnaissance units, and British and Italian bombing units divided with our own air service the control of the air, and contributed materially to the successes of the operation."
And while this great battle was in progress, the Allied lines were advancing everywhere. In Flanders, in Picardy, on the Marne, in Champagne, in Lorraine, in Alsace, and in the Balkans the frontier of freedom was moving forward.