IN THEIR OWN WORDS ...

... Newly captured prisoners began to give real information - a grand offensive was to be made [where] the Marne was only about 50 yards wide ... We had 600 yards of [this] front all to ourselves ... [When it began] it seemed [the Germans] expected their artillery to eliminate all resistance ... French Officers attached to our Brigade stated positively there was never a bombardment to equal it at Verdun.

At 3:30am the general fire ceased and their creeping barrage started - behind which at 40 yards only, mind you, they came - with more machine guns than I thought the German Army owned ...

The enemy had to battle their way through the first platoon on the river bank - then they took on the second platoon on the forward edge of the railway where we had a thousand times the best of it - but the [Germans] gradually wiped it out. My third platoon [took] their place in desperate hand to hand fighting, in which some got through only to be picked up by the fourth platoon which was deployed simultaneously with the third ... By the time they struck the fourth platoon they were all in and easy prey.

It's God's truth that one Company of American soldiers beat and routed a full regiment of picked shock troops of the German Army ... At ten o'clock ... the Germans were carrying back wounded and dead [from] the river bank and we in our exhaustion let them do it - they carried back all but six hundred which we counted later and fifty-two machine guns ... We had started with 251 men and 5 lieutenants ... I had left 51 men and 2 second lieutenants ...

The German View::

... All [German] divisions [along the Marne] achieved brilliant successes, with the exception of the one division on our right wing. This encountered American units! Here only did the Seventh Army, in the course of the first day of the offensive, confront serious difficulties. It met with the unexpectedly stubborn and active resistance of fresh American troops.

While the rest of the divisions of the Seventh Army succeeded in gaining ground and gaining tremendous booty, it proved impossible for us to move the right apex of our line, to the south of the Marne, into a position advantageous for the development of the ensuing fight. The check we thus received was one result of the stupendous fighting between our 10th Division of infantry and American troops ...

Erich von Ludendorff, Quartermaster General


I have never seen so many dead. I have never seen such a frightful spectacle of war. On the other bank the Americans, in close combat, had destroyed two of our companies. Lying down in the wheat, they had allowed our troops to approach and then annihilated them at a range of 30 to 50 yards. "The Americans kill everyone," was the cry of fear on July 15-a cry that caused our men to tremble for a long time.

Lieutenant Kurt Hesse, Adjutant, German 5th Grenadiers


THIS ACTION WAS THE LAST GERMAN OFFENSIVE OF WORLD WAR I

NOW IT WAS TIME FOR THE AMERICAN ARMY TO FIGHT AS AN INDEPENDENT UNIT; ITS FIRST MISSION WAS TO REDUCE THE ST. MIHIEL SALIENT

By 1916 the Germans had advanced from the Rhine to the town of St. Mihiel, about 140 miles due east of Paris. St. Mihiel was located along the base of a triangular front, which included considerable territory and which constituted a constant threat. Our objective was to throw the Germans back to the baseline of the triangle.

Dr. Wm. Hanson, 79th Division
Memoir, I WAS THERE


Thurs. Sept. 12th, 1918. Hiked through dark woods. No lights allowed; guided by holding on the pack of the man ahead. Stumbled through and under brush for about half-mile into an open field where we waited in a soaking rain until about 10 pm.

We then started on our hike to the St. Mihiel Front arriving on the crest of a hill about 1am. I saw a sight which I shall never forget. It was the zero hour. In one instant the entire front as far as the eye could reach in either direction was a sheet of flame while the heavy artillery made the earth quake. The barrage was so intense that for a time we could not make out whether the Americans or Germans were putting it over. After timing the interval between flash and report we knew that the heaviest artillery was less than a mile away and consequently it was ours.

Corporal Eugene Kennedy, 78th Division
Diary

Friday, Sept. 13th. A Great Day for the Americans. Our infantry is still pushing 'em back. Many prisoners are going by. We were at guns all morning, but had to stay in camp all afternoon. We are out of range and await orders to move up. Steady stream of men and material going up constantly. Two of our boys sneaked off and went up to the old Hun trenches and brought back lots of Hun souvenirs -- razors, glasses, pictures, equipment, etc.

Sgt. Edwin Gerth, 51st Artillery
Diary


I robbed every dead "Boche" I met where I thought I could get something, except at St. Mihiel where they were strewn like mown grass. I saw on this front without exaggeration, fifteen hundred on one field, also Yanks which were numberless. It was here we lost Paul J. Karney, our lieutenant of the second platoon, he was as fine a man as you could find in this A. E. F. He sure was a Prince, he was engaged to a Mount Holly girl, it sure did put a fighting spirit into us to see him get "picked off" . I helped to bury him under heavy shell fire and he lies buried in Vieville, 14 miles south of Metz. "Bump" O'Hara is buried here also. "Bump" was standing up straight and took off his helmet when a piece of shrapnel hit him across the forehead about one-half inch above his eyes. He never knew what hit him for he never regained consciousness.

Pvt. F. Rueppel, 311th Infantry, 78th Division
Letter