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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.

By September 13th the Americans had taken forty-seven towns and villages, reduced the German front from forty miles to twenty, captured the railway that connects Verdun with Commercy, opened the cities of Nancy and Toul to the allies, and with the French and British on the east, created a new battle front on a line running from Hattonville on the west to Pagny on the east—Pagny being a town on the Moselle river, at the German border.

The importance of this victory could hardly be overestimated. It opened the way to and was followed up by the demolition of the whole German line from the Swiss border to the North Sea, and hastened the great German retreat. In the action itself, September 11 to 13, about 15, Germans were taken prisoner by the Americans.

STORIES TO THE FOLKS BACK HOME

Sidelight stories of what happened in the St. Mihiel fight, mostly in letters written home by men who were in it, go far toward showing how completely the Germans were taken off their guard. Corp. Ray Fick of the 103d Infantry wrote home in this wise:

"We got into the woods and then kept on going until we reached a big city where there was a brewery, but they had set fire to the whole city before they left. We got some beer and wine just the same. It was a little stale, but it was fine. The Huns' warehouses were all fixed for the winter and the boys got cigars and cigarettes, but I was a little too late to get in on it.

"The whole thing was very interesting all the way through. The Huns sure did make themselves scarce in a hurry, but they kept many prisoners, a troop train and an ammunition train.

"Cigarettes are scarce and we look for smokes all the time. The Red Cross and the Salvation Army are the ones who look to our comforts. If any one wants to give, tell them the Red Cross and the Salvation Army are the ones to get it."

HUNS CARRY OFF CAPTIVE WOMEN

But Corporal Fick uncovers another Hun procedure that has no fun in it. While the Huns lost no time in getting away from there, they took care to carry off their captured women slaves.

"The women they have held captives for the last four years," he writes, "were driven ahead of them, but they were brought back by the Americans. Truckload after truckload passed us on the way, and they sure were happy to be free again."

"HELL HAS CUT LOOSE"

Another soldier wrote to his father telling about the first day of attack as he saw it:

"Hell has let loose. The woods are a mass of whistling shell and shrapnel. Every time the big twelves go off the flash lights up the entire camp like a flashlight picture, then the ground heaves and tumbles like old Lake Michigan does on a stormy day.

"The infantry have cleared the top and have gone on far in advance, almost outside of the range of fire. Our big objective has been wiped off the map and our men are preparing to keep right on going after them and backing up the doughboys who are doing such great work.

"I went up to the front last night on an ammunition caisson (which is the only way to get up there) and saw the thing commence. It started with one solitary gun of ours (a big one, too). Then the others joined in on the chorus, and it has been steady ever since.

"When the doughboys were told that they were going over the top at the zero hour, you never heard shouting to equal it; the Board of Trade on a Monday morning was just a whisper in comparison.

"Dad, that is the general feeling of our boys over here—always waiting to move up. I told a lad in one of the outfits that the artillery was right back of them and would blow them through to the objective if they did not make it, and he laughed and said, 'Hoboken by Christmas.' They were all in the best of mood and roaring to go."

These letters are good specimens of the thousands that have come over the sea. They not only give good sidelights on an event that will loom large in history, but they show the indomitable cheer and high spirit of our soldiers.

MAJOR TELLS HIS STORY

Concurrently with the action that originated at St. Mihiel on September 11, 1918, another great battle developed northwest of Verdun. It lasted about three weeks, and is graphically described by Lt. Col. B.M. Chipperfield (then a major) of the 23d Division. Lt. Col. Chipperfield was a participant in as well as an eyewitness of the whole engagement. Under date of September 29, 1918, the described it substantially as follows, in a letter to a friend at home:

"For several days preparations had been in progress for the action that began on Thursday, September 26th. The American troops were moved up by night, jamming the roads with their advancing columns and transport trains.

"Thousands and thousands of them," wrote Major Chipperfield, "trudged along without a light and in almost quiet.

ENORMOUS NUMBERS OF GUNS

"Tanks and cannon and guns of all sorts, every kind of vehicle, ambulance wagon, and transport passed in this continuous procession. It seemed that there was no end to it, and one could not help but admire the wonderful resources that had been gathered together by the United States to help perform its part in this great struggle for freedom.

"I think the greatest collection of guns that has ever been gathered together for participation in any conflict of the world was taken to the front where the attack was about to be made. It is estimated there were 6,000 of these guns, and the soldiers that were gathered together numbered hundreds of thousands.

"These guns and soldiers were conducted to their places so secretly and quietly that, although they marched many miles, the enemy did not even know a small part of the strength and could only speculate what it all meant.

UNDER ENFILADING FIRE

"In the arrangement of the plan of battle our division was on the extreme right. Across the river was a German stronghold. Here there were located a large quantity of artillery and many machine guns. Our officers understood that it was going to be a difficult advance, for a bridge had to be built across a creek, but everything in our division went like clockwork. It had all been planned in advance, and the plan was carried out exactly as made.

"It was arranged that at 11:30 o'clock on Thursday night the battle was to begin. Before that time I had reached my destination at the headquarters of the other division, and together with the rest of the headquarters staff we were in a favorable place to watch the commencement.

"At 11:25 it was silent as the grave, and the night was beautiful. Precisely at 11:30 from every conceivable direction the great bombardment commenced. In an instant the whole night was filled with a roar and thunder and reverberation of the cannon from, every quarter. The shriek and whistle and whine and clamor of the shells made a fearful chorus as they were hurled in the direction of the field occupied by our adversaries.

"From every quarter came the flash of the explosions, until the night was lighted as bright as day. Signal rockets rose from every portion and part of our lines and also from the enemy lines. It looked as though the heavens were ablaze and raining fire. It was a scene which has probably never been seen before upon any battlefield and may never be witnessed again.

"Apparently this fierce bombardment took the enemy entirely by surprise because our fire was so deadly and the extent so great that they could only make uncertain reply. They seemed to be stupefied.

"For six hours this terrific bombardment continued. It is estimated that each of the guns fired an average of three shots a minute and that 1,000,000 projectiles and charges of ammunition were used.

OVER THE TOP AT 5:30 A.m.

"As 5:30 approached the bombardment increased. The machine guns joined in the chorus and a curtain of steel and fire was placed in front of our troops and rained upon the guns and cannon of the enemy.

"After a brief period of this fire our men started over the top, and as they did so they swept the enemy before them in their irresistible rush. They advanced kilometer after kilometer. They could not be resisted or stayed at any stage of the attack.

"Soon the prisoners commenced to come in, and they told of the terrific effect that the great bombardment had upon the Germans. They said the bombardment was so terrible that it disrupted their plans so that they could not be carried out and that they could not resist the attack.

"Several times during the night I went out to witness the scene and as long as life lasts it will be remembered.

ON DEAD MAN'S HILL

"Once when two of our regiments came over a hill and saw the valley that lay before them being terrifically shelled by the cannon and assailed by hail from the machine guns, the whole column was seen to pause and a look of worry came over the faces of these men that for just an instant was pitiful. They knew that ahead of them lay death for many and it is not strange that for several seconds the lines were held up, but then a look of fierce determination and of courage took the place of the former expression and with a great resolve and courage, dash, and daring, the lines shot forward at a redoubled step and the determination to do or die was manifested in every action. "These machine guns were speedily put out of business, and then the attack would go on. That portion of the lines that the division of which I am a member was given for the purpose of the attack, it was thought would take the entire day, but our division was on its objective by early afternoon and had commenced to dig in, from which position they could defy the Germans with impunity. "While the attack was going on I went up to Dead Man's Hill. This hill is the last word in the destructiveness of war. "It is literally rent to atoms. Dugouts have been blown to pieces. Hundreds of thousands of men had been killed in the earlier battles before Verdun, and many of the bodies could not be reached for burial, the place was so torn up."

OTHER PERSONAL GLIMPSES

Many other personal glimpses of the fighting come from officers and men. One division was made up largely of Illinois regiments, among others the 3d Illinois Infantry, commanded by Col. John V. Clinnin. The position held by these troops was vital to the entire advance, and it required rapid action on the first day to reach the objective at the same time as the other units.

Menomme creek is a little stream which is not shown on maps. It runs eastward from the village of Septsarges to the Meuse. The stream holds vivid memories for the Illinois infantry. It was there that it met the most severe resistance, the Germans catching our men just as they were relieving other young soldiers. The men fought their way down to the creek. On the other side along the highway between Septsarge and Dannevoux the Germans had entrenched themselves and were shelling the road which the Americans had crossed. They were also using intrenched machine guns at the edge of the woods.

"I heard bullets whistling overhead," said a wounded soldier in a hospital. "We were lying near the edge of the creek at the timeand knew that a machine gun was shooting at us, so I just started outand got it."

"Our colonel was right up there with us getting into line." said Private Hiram E. Burnett. "One night when the shells were bursting all around and several men were wounded the colonel went over the top just like any of us."

The Bois des Forges has been a battle ground since the war began, with trenches in front and miles of barbed wire, machine gun nests and concrete pillboxes inside. A frontal attack on such a stronghold apparently meant suicide, but the Illinois men, led by Col. Sanborn and Col. Abel Davis, took it so neatly and quickly that they bagged nearly 1,000 soldiers, fifteen officers, twenty-six guns ranging from 105s down, 126 machine guns, twenty-one flatcars, two rolling kitchens, an ambulance and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

"We were looking for you in front," said a captured German officer. "We did not expect that you would come through the swamp and outflank us. We did not think that any Yankee outfit was so foxy."

"A GREAT SHOW"

"It was a great show when we crossed that river and rushed on through the woods, cleaning up machine gun nests," said Private Gray McKindy of Woodstock, "The machine guns in the woods started throwing bullets as soon as we reached the river. They thought they could stop us from going up the opposite hill, but we did it and got every gun there."

Private Kenneth W. Steiger was one of those who went in on the second night when his captain called for volunteers to make up a patrol. Steiger became separated from the others in the darkness and ran into a party of three Germans. Quickly covering them with his rifle he brought all three back.

Private Bernard Snyder returned with prisoners before dark on the first day. Making use of his ability to speak German, he induced a dozen Germans to lay down their arms, pick up stretchers and carry American wounded back five kilometers (three miles) to where ambulances were waiting.

A FIGHTING CHAPLAIN

Lieut. Jorgen R. Enger, the chaplain of a Kansas-Missouri outfit, carried the wounded for three days from the Montfaucon woods two miles to the ambulance. Searching in the woods in the darkness one night with shells bursting and bullets whistling he found a husky sergeant wounded in the foot and growing weaker and weaker from loss of blood. The chaplain shouldered the man and carried him back to a dressing station, saving his life.

"I didn't think a chaplain would do a thing like that," said the sergeant. "I would rather save you than save a general," replied the chaplain.

When not searching for wounded hidden in the tangle of under-brush the chaplain was busy helping the surgeons at a first aid dressing station.

"I never thought any clergyman would have the opportunities for doing good such as I am haying," he said when I saw him.

Col. Eugene Houghton, Wisconsin, who was a British major until America entered the war, distinguished himself by personally leading a unit of New York men. According to them he escaped death repeatedly as by a miracle.

"DESERT? NO, WANTED TO FIGHT"

Capt. Carl F. Laurer while assisting in the examination of German prisoners, was surprised when an American prisoner was brought before him. "Where do you belong?" asked the captain. "I am with an aerial squadron in the south of France" replied the prisoner. "I walked fourteen days to get here." "Did you desert?" asked Captain Lauer. "No," the man replied, "I want to fight. That is what I came to France for. When I get home the folks will ask what I did in the war and when I answer 'worked' they will say 'Why the devil didn't you fight?'" The boy's wish was gratified and he was sent forward.

"We have everything good and plenty—rations, ammunition and other things. It looks like a regular Sunday."

TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA TROOPS SHOW GREAT FIGHTING FORM

In this district, the 36th Division, made up of troops from Texas and Oklahoma, veterans and raw recruits together, showed splendid fighting form. They were under terrific shell fire day after day, but they met several murderous attacks firmly, and drove the boches back in brilliant counter attack, chasing them in true Ranger style. All these men showed the same spirit that animated Roosevelt's renowned Rough Riders in the war with Spain, so many of whom were Texas and Oklahoma men.

Reporting this fight, General Naulin, commanding the Corps of which the 2d and 36th Divisions were parts, said "the 36th Division, a recent formation not yet completely organized, was ordered into line on the night of October 6–7 to relieve, under conditions particularly delicate, the 2d Division, and to dislodge the enemy from the crest north of St. Etienne and throw him back to the Aisne. Although being under fire for the first time, the young soldiers of Maj. Gen. W. R. Smith, rivaling in combative spirit and tenacity the old and valiant regiment of General LeJeune, accomplished all the tasks set for them." Every American knows full well the bright record of the 2d Division of Infantry, the regulars of which were composed of the 5th and 6th Marines and the 9th and 23rd Infantry. These are the boys who stopped the Germans up in Belleau Wood when the boches were headed for Paris and cocksure of getting there, blandly unaware that they were goose-stepping toward an American knock-out.

OUR COLORED TROOPS WIN CREDIT

American negro troops had a considerable share in the last few months of fighting, and acquitted themselves in a highly creditable manner. They were great trench diggers and trench fighters, and their endurance on the march was a marvel to the allied armies. They were very popular with the French people, who were delighted with their good nature and their never-ceasing songs. Regular negro melodies these songs were, nearly all of them of the camp-meeting variety—and sung with that choral beauty which especially distinguishes all of their musical performances. The negro notion of war and indifference to death was instanced in the case where a white officer overheard one of them at the zero hour call out, "Good night ol' world! Good mawin,' Mistah Jesus!" as he went over the top.

"The colored boys," said Charles N. Wheeler, a distinguished correspondent with the American armies, "are great fighters, and are no better and no worse than any other group of American soldiers in France, whatever the blood strain. They do take pardonable pride in the fact that 'Mistah' Johnson, a colored boy, was the first American soldier in France to be decorated for extraordinary bravery under fire.

THEY CAN FIGHT AND SING

"The color line has about died out in the American army—in France. They play together, sing their songs together—the blacks and the white—and they go over the top together. They come back together, too, the wounded, and there is no thought of the color of a man's skin. They mix together on the convoy trains going up to the front, and all sing together, sharing each other's dangers and their joys. It is not an uncommon sight to see a crowd of white doughboys around a piano in some 'Y' or Red Cross hut, singing to beat the band, with a colored jass expert pounding the stuffing out of the piano. The white boys enjoy immensely the wit of the colored comrades, and many a bleak and drab day of privation and suffering is made a bit brighter by the humor that comes spontaneously to the lips of the 'bronze boys.'

"The children of France love them. I suppose that is because they wear American soldiers' uniforms. I have seen scores of white children holding the hands of colored boys and trudging along on the march with them or romping into their tents and sitting on their knees and just exuding the affection that all the children of France have for anything and everybody from the United States."