ts that they could find.
They took what they wanted and usually destroyed the rest. They had
stripped the towns of all metal utensils, bells, statues, and water
pipes.

The St. Mihiel salient thus went out of existence. The entire point in
the blade of the dagger that had been thrust at the heart of France had
been bitten off. Verdun with its rows upon rows of sacred dead was now
liberated from the threat of envelopment from the right. The Allies were
in possession of the dominating heights of the Meuse. The railroads
connecting Commercy with Vigneulles, Thiaucourt and St. Mihiel were in
our hands. Our lines had advanced close to that key of victory, the
Briey iron basin to the north, and the German fortress of Metz lay under
American guns.

The battle only lasted twenty-seven hours. In that space of time, a
German force estimated at one hundred thousand had been vanquished, if
not literally cut to pieces, American soldiers had wrested a hundred and
fifty square miles of territory away from the Germans, captured fifteen
thousand officers and men and hundreds of guns. General Pershing on
September 14th made the following report:

"The dash and vigour of our troops, and of the valiant French
divisions which fought shoulder to shoulder with them, is shown by the
fact that the forces attacking on both faces of the salient effected a
junction and secured the result desired within twenty-seven hours.

"Besides liberating more than 150 square miles of territory and taking
15,000 prisoners, we have captured a mass of material. Over 100 guns
of all calibres and hundreds of machine guns and trench mortars have
been taken.

"In spite of the fact that the enemy during his retreat burned large
stores, a partial examination of the battlefield shows that great
quantities of ammunition, telegraph material, railroad material,
rolling stock, clothing, and equipment have been abandoned. Further
evidence of the haste with which the enemy retreated is found in the
uninjured bridges which he left behind.

"French pursuit, bombing and reconnaissance units, and British and
Italian bombing units divided with our own air service the control of
the air, and contributed materially to the successes of the operation."

And while this great battle was in progress, the Allied lines were
advancing everywhere. In Flanders, in Picardy, on the Marne, in
Champagne, in Lorraine, in Alsace, and in the Balkans the fro