ders.

In that operation, 152 square miles of territory and 72 villages were
captured outright. For the reduction of the German defenses and for the
creeping barrage preceding the American advance, more than 1,500,000
shells were fired by the artillery. Approximately 100,000 detail maps
and 40,000 photographs prepared largely from aerial observations, were
issued for the guidance of the artillery and the infantry. These maps
and photographs detailed all the natural and artificial defenses of the
entire salient. More than 5,000 miles of telephone wire was laid by
American engineers immediately preceding the attack, and as the
Americans advanced on the morning of the battle, September 12, 1918,
6,000 telephone instruments were connected with this wire. Ten thousand
men were engaged in operating the hastily constructed telephone system;
3,000 carrier pigeons supplemented this work.

During the battle American airplanes swept the skies clear of enemy
air-craft and signaled instructions to the artillery, besides attacking
the moving infantry, artillery and supply trains of the enemy. So sure
were the Americans of their success that moving-picture operators took
more than 10,000 feet of moving picture film showing the rout of the
Germans. Four thousand eight hundred trucks carried food, men and
munitions into the lines. Miles of American railroads, both of standard
and narrow gauge, carrying American-made equipment, assisted in the
transportation of men and supplies. Hospital facilities including 35
hospital trains, 16,000 beds in the advanced sector, and 55,000 other
beds back of the fighting line, were prepared. Less than ten per cent of
this hospital equipment was used.

As the direct consequence of this preparation, which far outstripped
anything that any other nation had attempted in a similar offensive, the
Americans with a remarkably small casualty list took 15,188 prisoners,
111 guns, many of them of large caliber, immense quantities of munitions
and other supplies, and inflicted heavy death losses upon the fleeing
Germans.

Two selective service laws operated as manhood conscription. The first
of these took men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one years
inclusive. June 5, 1917, was fixed as registration day. The total number
enrolled was 9,586,508. The first selective army drawn from this number
was 625,000 men.

The second selective service legislation embraced all citizens between
the ages of 18 and