ed in small units with the French. Soon our regiments began
to reach the front under French Division Commanders. Then with the
formation of American divisions, we went into the line under French
corps commanders. Later still, American corps operated under French Army
Commanders. Finally, our forces augmented by additional divisions and
corps were organised into the First American Field Army.

Through these various stages of development, our forces had grown until
on August 10th they had reached the stage where they became practically
as independent an organisation as the British armies under Field Marshal
Sir Douglas Haig and the French armies under General Petain. From now on
the American Army was to be on a par with the French Army and the
British Army, all three of them under the sole direction of the Allied
Generalissimo, Marshal Ferdinand Foch.

The personnel of this, the greatest single army that ever fought beneath
the Stars and Stripes, is reproduced in the appendix. It might not be
amiss to point out that an American division numbers thirty thousand
men and that an American corps consists of six divisions and auxiliary
troops, such as air squadrons, tank sections, and heavy artillery, which
bring the strength of an American army corps to between 225,000 and
250,000 men. By the 1st of September, the United States of America had
five such army corps in the field, martialling a strength of about one
and one-half million bayonets. General Pershing was in command of this
group of armies which comprised the First American Field Army.

It was from these forces that General Pershing selected the strong units
which he personally commanded in the first major operation of the First
American Field Army as an independent unit in France. That operation was
the beginning of the Pershing push toward the Rhine--it was the Battle
of St. Mihiel.

It was a great achievement. It signalised the full development of our
forces from small emergency units that had reached the front less than a
year before, to the now powerful group of armies, fighting under their
own flag, their own generals, and their own staffs.

The important material results of the Battle of St. Mihiel are most
susceptible to civilian as well as military comprehension. The St.
Mihiel salient had long constituted a pet threat of the enemy. The
Germans called it a dagger pointed at the heart of eastern France. For
three years the enemy occupying it had successfull