battle of Saint-Mihiel

Saint-Mihiel, battle of (1918), the first major offensive by the US army in WW I. Pershing had consistently resisted Allied attempts to feed his divisions into the front piecemeal, under foreign command, although he was prepared to commit them to meet genuine emergencies, like that on the Marne. The US First Army, with five French and fifteen US divisions, was activated on 10 August 1918. South of Verdun the German-held Saint-Mihiel salient followed the eastern bank of the Meuse, and in their four years of occupation the Germans had tunnelled extensively into the hilly and wooded terrain, creating a defensive system which, at the end of the 20th century, remains one of the best preserved on the western front. Pershing hoped to pinch out the salient and then, if German resistance faltered, to push on against the defences around Metz. Foch, the Allied C-in-C, persuaded him to adjust his aim, mounting the Saint-Mihiel offensive as a discrete operation before moving north to attack into the Argonne.

Pershing planned to use the US I and IV Corps to drive northwards from the southern flank of the salient while V Corps attacked its western flank. Two divisions of the French II Colonial Corps would advance across the nose of the salient to take Saint-Mihiel itself. The Americans were inexperienced and required considerable French tank and air support, but the determination of their assault would not be denied, and they secured all their objectives, taking 16, 000 prisoners and 443 guns for the loss of 7, 500 men. Pershing thought they could have gone on, though his staff doubted it.

— Richard Holmes