Show 1 l ae general qs stora sto L J of the A E cie fe fryy atit 11 in all 11 ll count by ake th sar fill awe 41 rv A in eri the SA world lenoral Cie in W bola or st S ja r pm t jon john I 1 J Pes hinc V continued first corps the Hight leth dl al tt the fth in spite of tile the en lund g I 1 and captured vaux lauxen en die bet wm guthe the enemy retired tie the night and the division took pursuit overcoming vigorous guard resistance until reaching north borth and west of beaumont I 1 I 1 the lie night of the ath its ita the division being rede next morning severity seventy seventh division was ef Hop j opposed posed on the eth north nod and Oc clies lies but on tile the oth its line bushed forward to the north of idd gad la bisack besace uy by night of th b the seventy seventh had villers entered by its patrols seventy eighth division on the stured les lea Ilet ites Arm olsea and t following lowing fal morning advanced than ban a mile to the north the bond division relieved the SY sev oth ath on this line and by the blushed bli shed itself north of bulson is tile the ambition amb itron of the first cl mine that our troops capture sedan which the hail fid lost in a decisive battle in jig suggested to general maestre t prescribed boundary line benr oar first and the french fourth night might be ignored in case we outrun the french to which he no DO objection but on the con almly approved reach each the objective tile the left lyof the first army would have ignored gna reil as sedan lay to them the est beyond belond that lin limit ift ID a of november 5 the first was as directed to bend its ener capture sedan assisted on its athe the fifth corps in the fifth corps exact intent of my orders rei in the first division erroneous g beyond the left boundary of th h corps and marching directly the lie sector of the first corps the lie late afternoon of the oth 0 mahout the night the troops iret first division carried out this ary ry forced march in one despite their tired condition lerable demable confusion resulted in 11 y second and seventy seventh s i and their advance was deroads i became blocked byrhl by th I 1 of the first dh division islon tin the ond and the first then begat for r the honorof honor of capturing sort art of these divisions had eni e zone of the french fourth d I 1 were waging a tight fight with the for or the possession of the south louth and west of sedan orning of november 7 bound found the tie forty second and the first s on en the heights overlooking under normal conditions the I 1 the ohner or officers cespon r this movement of the first directly across the sectors of er T divisions would not have ver overlooked looked erlo olied but the splendid that unit and tile the approach end of hostilities suggested kemys I 1 main line of comment waa now within range of the guns of the first army which en him 24 miles since novem his position on the western as 88 no longer tenable and he consideration of an e oil D november 9 marshal itoch foch conference ference on with german repress regarding the terms of the e sent telegraphic instruct kit all allied com commanders manders in m in which it might be inferred d WOR was uncertain regarding the of negotiations and wished to lehiy know that there would ther delay the following message received e B enemy disorganized by our ed attacks attack retreats along ure tire front 1 18 important to ordinate coordinate co elte edite our movements peal to tile the energy and tile the le of the comman commanders flers lit in 1 of I their armies to make de the results obtained no respite for enemy in response to this appeal Ined mediately lately issued and their B by the first army anny was un november 10 and 11 yet in n no sort of urging was nee our troops were dAt determined ermIneA ve B the enemy any respite ali ale e crossing of the mouse had ruled ned for th the whole aminy and i corpse got ot over during the the be loth alth th part of the anth nth division divit lon cros crossed sef on rafts 1 of Iou llly and others in n the 1110 e ninetieth division allen alien cond division was waa unable to 1 crossing at mouzon as aa tut but about a mile south of try y the engi engineers of tile the ill dl wl th exceptional rapidity and ew two bridges across over n 0 regiment passed the seventh Ly erith division now on the he S fifth corps corp only men bent tover i over I 1 the and alth thelow the low orth th of the river opposite its 1 I e flooded b by y heavy rains and t ope operations rations by the germans att aritt co corps from november 61 4 withdrawing its to points on the mouse between dun su aur r aleuse and verdun preparatory to a general attack which would have its as iti object the turning of the strong position in front of the fifth corps east of the mouse alcuse tho the first army advanced in conjunction with the second army which had been earnestly preparing for this moment ever sine since e its organization under the issued hy me november 5 for 0 the le advance of the first arid and second armies which received approval of marshal it in a personal note of november 8 the lie second army made ad advances vances along alone its en tirel i front in the direction of the brley iron basin during the last three days of hostilities attacking on the the thirty third division reached the bols dilar ville and captured Alar chevIlle but was forced to retire tho the twenty eighth division occupied n part of tile the bols des has bas as well its as farm the seventh divi slon elon took and held against counterattack hill the ninety second division captured tile the bole bols brehaut Freh Pre haut nut on 06 the ahe front of bf tile the first army the ninetieth division on oil the left of the third corps alnes Hl Ill nes had bad crossed the meuse on the oth ath and attacked on tile he meeting decided opposition throughout shout the day elements of the division entered stenny but were unable to clenn clean up the town while others after hard fighting in the nearby wood reached liti but t could not take bablon the fifth division ely captured and cleared the foret de Wo evre the thirty second division haan alaan reentered entered re the line on the ath as the right division of the third corps and made substantial progress on tile the the division moved I 1 forward until stopped by heavy flie fire from east of the river on other fronts fronta meanwhile other of our divisions were engaged on distant fronts in flanders our thirty seventh and nine Z 9 A Z A 4 ir ir aa u bringing Gri ngIng in a captured aviator ty fir st divisions dhigh had been sent to the french sixth army at A marshal fochs focha request entered the battle october 31 the Cruys hautem ridge was taken by the thirty seventh division farnsworth on the first lay day willie while the ninety first johnston advancing against intense fire seized the strongly defended wooded area in lis its front both divisions moved forward rapidly to the arver on the following day in pursuit of f the enemy despite resistance crossings crossing 9 of tile the river were effected by t the he thirty seventh november 2 and 3 the division being relieved the following day Au denarde was occupied by the ninety first division on the aril ar and tile the division was rell relieved evedon on the 3rd ard by the french both divisions s reentered re entered the line tor for the general ge attack of the french sixth army november 10 the thirty sev anth division was directed to relieve two french Irre fich divisions east of the Es the morning of the but these rheue divisions had been beed unable to cross and were relieved on the west bank despite severe losses the ille thirty seventh succeeded in again crossing the river and moved forward the following day advancing two and a halt half ralles miles eastward the ninety first division met slight opposition on onalle the letb and none on the morning of the alth reaching a line cast of boucle saint in the itte first army the fifth corps advance rapidly the morning of the alth elements of the eighty ninth division occupied Stena yand and established a line on the till hill I 1 to the north poun ly sur meuse was mopped I 1 up early in tho the morning and A occupied the second division advanced to td tile the ridge west of ns while the sev enty sevath division held its 10 v line hue of the in the third corps the morning of the alth the nineteenth division entered If nalon and the fifth and thir ty second divisions were preparing to attack tile the seventy ninth division of the french second colonial corps attacked against the cote do de romagne and advanced a u short distance the twenty lath division made flight gains and the eighty first division again took on the front of thit the second army my the ithe attack of 0 the thirty third division on tile the alth was held up the twenty eighth Ihl slon curried carried its line forward north of farin fann tile the seventh division ninda mado no attack alid the binl ty second division attacked but did not hold all its gains tile the line of the first army novem her 11 extended front froni fresnel fresnes en air to bont maughs the second army tine line ran from port sur sellie to fresneda fresnes en cn thus both american armies were now in position to curry carry out th ahn offensive its as directed by my lily orders november 5 6 which wits was what I 1 had planned and advocated when Sl urshal foch insisted that there should be a cover converging ging movement of all the armies west of the aleuse with bodan its as the objective of tile the american first army CHAPTER As the conference between een alar marshal foch and the german delegates proceeded arid and in anticipation of ad vices regarding the armistice telephone lines were kept constantly open between my lily headquarters and those of the first and second ar armies tales when word came to me ine at 0 a in november 11 that hostilities would cease at 11 a m directions to that effect act were sent to our armies immediately our troops had been advancing rapidly during tile the preceding two days find and although every effort was nas made to roach reach them promptly a few could not tie be overtaken before the prescribed hour A brief account of the conference with the german delegates wits was given to me a few days later by general ile he said the germans cattle came across the line by automobile the afternoon of november 7 and boarded a special railway conch coach sent by the french to meet them during the night tills this car and the marshals were placed side by side in 16 tile forest between and soissons Sols sons the emissaries were ushered into the marshals pr presence mence and after producing their credentials were asked the object of their visit they replied that they had come to discuss t the lie terms of an armistice the marshal then made it clear that tie he himself was not requesting an armistice and I 1 did not care to have one when asked if they wi wished an armistice they replied that they did the marshal said that if that was the case here were tile the terms a copy of which he handed them the severity of the demands seemed to surprise them and they appeared very much depressed they had no power to sign an armistice they said bald without the consent of the chancellor and after some little discussion they started an officer to the german capital with the terms they did not beem to object to turning over cannon but deplored the condition which union required them to surrender machine guns they finally succeeded in having this reduced to machine guns an the ground that they might have some left for riot duty in speaking of the danger of riots the delegates were asked why they did not send some of their reserve divisions to maintain order in the interior their reply was that they had no divisions in reserve as every division that they had was actually in line then they complained about the short time allowed for evacuation stating that the german army was in no condition to move either fp forward rivard or backward what america had done between september 26 20 and november 11 twenty two american and six french divisions with an approximate fighting strength string th of men on a front extending irom southeast of verdun dun to the argonne forest had engaged and decisively beaten forty three different german divisions with an estimated fighting strength of of the twenty two american divisions four had lit at different times during this period been in action on fronts other than our own the enemy suffered an estimated lo 10 loss s of over casualties in this battle and our first army I 1 ost about the total strength of the first army including french troops reached men rt t captured prisoners cannon machine guns and large quantities of material alje transportation and supply of divisions to and from art our front during his battle was a gigantic baak there were 20 american and seven french divisions besides hundreds of thousands of corps and army troops moved in and butof out of the american zone A total of men were evacuated abed to the r rear and more than replacements were received it ft need hardly tie restated thai our entry entry into the war gave the allies the lie preponderance of force vitally essary to outweigh alie tre mentions increase in tile strength of the germans on the western front due to the collapse of and the consequent release of german divisions employed against tier her from the military kowt of view we began to old the silica early in 1018 1918 when our divisions with training to take active part to in battle were sent bent to the inactive front to relieve french divI divisions alons that they might be used in the fighting line fine the assistance we gave the allies in combat begun began in may with tile the successful attack of one of our divisions at cant agny ahls was wai rull followed owed early in june by the entrance into battle of the two divisions that stopped the he gernian geriann advance on paris near cha thierry and by three others were put in n the defensive line in july two american divisions with one moro moroccan division formed the spearhead of tile the counterattack counter attack against tile the chateau thierry salient in which nine of our divisions participated tiel there wits was a total of ap proximately tely american troops engaged in this second battle of the alaene which involved very severe fighting arid and was not completed until the Gern germans ians wore were driven beyond the vesle in august in the middle of september an army of americans americana reduced the lie SL 81 salient the latter part of september our great oj alip meuse argonne was begun lasting 47 days of Inte intense itse and ending brilliantly for our first arid and second armies november 11 after wore more than american soldiers had participated tiel A time to forget hardships it was a time to forget tile the hardships and difficulties except to record them with the glorious history of our achievements in praise and thanks for the decisive victories of our arm les and in guidance for the future the following order was issued G 1 n I Q american forces general orders no france nov nav 12 1018 tile enemy has capitulated it Is fitting that ahat I 1 address myself in thanks directly to the off officers leers and soldiers odthe of the american expeditionary forces who by their heroic efforts have hae made possible this glorious result our armies hurriedly raised and hastily trained met a veteran enem enemy yand and by courage discipline and skill always defeated him without complaint you have endured incessant toll privation aad danger you have seen many of your comrades make tile the supreme sacrifice that freedom thay may live I 1 thank you for tile the patience and courage with which you have endured i I 1 congratulate you upon n the splendid fruits of victory which your heroism and the blood of our gallant dead are now presenting to our nation your deeds will live forever |