ARMY REACHED TOTAL OF 3,664
An official report shows that on the day the Armistice was signed more than twenty-five per cent of the male population of the United States between the ages of 19 and 31 years, were in military service, the army having reached a total of 3,664,000, with more than 2,000,000 of this number in Europe. As compared with an army strength of 189,674 in March 1917, one week before war was declared by the United States.
CHAPTER IV.
AMERICAN VICTORY AT ST. MIHIEL
First Major Action by All American Army—Stories to Folks at Home—Huns Carry Off Captive Women—Hell Has Cut Loose— Major Tells His Story—Enormous Numbers of Guns and Tanks— Over the Top at 5:30 A. M.—Texas and Oklahoma Troops Fight in True Ranger Style—Our Colored Boys Win Credit.
The first major action by an all American army was that which began before the St. Mihiel salient September 11, 1918. The Germans had occupied that salient almost four years, and had built it into what they believed to be an impregnable position. The Americans, under direct command of General Pershing, reduced it in a three days' advance.
The salient was a huge bulge, almost twenty miles in depth, turning southwest from Combres at the north base and Hattonville at the south and looping down around the towns of St. Mihiel and Ailly. It was powerfully held by masses of enemy troops.
General Pershing's army attacked from the west, south and east all the way from Bouzee to Norroy, and by September 13th had pushed it back to a straight line drawn from Combres to Hattonville. The French attacked at Ailly, the apex of the salient as it was on September 11.
The entire operation was conducted with rapidity and with irresistible energy. The dash and enthusiasm of the American soldiers astonished and delighted the French and British as completely as it staggered the Germans.