rican troops "delivered the goods."

HEALTH OF ARMY SURPRISING

Official reports to the war department show that the general health of
the American army during the war had been surprisingly good. The death
rate for all forces at home and abroad up to August 30th, 1918, was 5.
per 1,000 men per year, or little more than the civilian death rate for
men of the same age groups.

There were 316,000 cases of influenza among the troops in the United
States during the late summer and fall of 1918 and of 20,500 deaths,
between September 14th and November 8th, 19,800 were ascribed to the
epidemic.

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 complet