| Show S storm aloris of the A E fe 1 11 II 11 countries b by th north american 14 ePP allis allenc k or 14 bil mi iiii mt ra h reserved irv td includes the th scandinavian 21 la in whole or 01 in pirt part prohibited john 11 1 1 J 1 n pershing L service CHAPTER continued in the first corps the eightieth dl in via vision on on the ath to in spite of the en stand captured vaux en dieulot and Som sommauthe mauthe the enemy retired during the night and the division took up the pursuit overcoming vigorous rear guard resistance until reaching a tine line north and west nest of beaumont during the night of the ath its progress continued the division being relieved the next morning the seven seventy ty seven seventh th division was effectively opposed on the ath north and east cast of oches but on the bath its line was pushed forward to the north of stonne and la besace besabe by night of the ath the seventy seventh had reached tile the mouse meuse demilly and villers being entered by its patrols the seventy eighth division on the ath captured les petites Ar molses and on the following morning advanced more than a mile to the north the forty second division relieved the sev enty eighth on this line and by the eth established itself north of bulson Bi ilsoo it was the ambition of the first army and mine that our troops should capture sedan which the french had lost in a decisive battle in 1870 1 I suggested to general ministre hin istre that the prescribed boundary line hue between our first and the french fourth army might be ignored to in case we should outrun the french to which he offered no objection but on the contrary warmly approved to reach the objective the left boundary of the first army would have to be ignored as sedan lay to the northwest beyond that limit the afternoon of november 0 the first corps was directed to bend its energies to capture sedan assisted on its by the fifth corps A misconception in the fifth corps of tho ui exact intent of my orders resulted in the first division erroneously going beyond the left boundary of the fifth corps and marching directly across the sector of the first corps during the late afternoon of the oth and throughout the night the troops of the first division carried out this unnecessary cess aryl 1 forced march in fine spirit despite their tired condition considerable contusion confusion resulted lo 10 n the forty second and seventy seventh divisions and their advance was delayed as roads became blocked by th columns of the first division tin forty second and the first then begat a race for the honor of capturing sedan part of these divisions had entered the zone of tile the french fourth army and were waging a fight with the en enemy only tor for the possess possession lori of the heights south and west of sedan the morning of november 7 found men of the forty second and the first divisions on the heights overlooking the city under normal conditions the action of the officer or officers responsible for this movement of the first division directly across the sectors of two other divisions would not have been overlooked but the splendid record of that unit and tile the approach of the end of hostilities suggested leniency the main line of communications was now within range of the machine guns of the F first arst army which had driven him 21 24 miles since november 1 ills position on the western front was no longer tenable and he urged immediate consideration of a an a armistice late on november 9 marshal foch then in conference with german representatives senta tives regarding the terms of t the he armistice sent telegraphic telegraph le I 1 instructions c to all allied commanders in chief from which it might be inferred that he was uncertain regarding tile the outcome of negotiations and wished to let the enemy know that there aou would id be no further furt lier delay the follo following follower ig was the nies message sage received the enemy disorganized disorganize by our repented repeated attucks tacks nt retreats along tile the entire front it Is import n to coordinate co ordinate int and expedite ou our movements 1 I appeal to the energy find and the initiative of tile the commanders in chief cliplef of their armies to make decisive the r results obtained asu leafor no re respite s lt for enemy orders in response to this appeal were immediately issued and their execution by the first army was under way november 10 and 11 yet here again no sort of urging was necessary our troops were determined not to give the enemy tiny any respite already the crossing of tile the mouse meuse had been planned tor for the whole army and the fifth corpse got over during the night of the loth alth part of the eighty ninth division crossed on rafts just west of pouilly Pou llly and others in the rear of the ninetieth division allen alien the second division was unable to torce force a crossing at mouzon as planned but about a mile south of Ville villemontry montry the engineers of the division with exceptional rapidity and skill darew two bridges across over which one regiment passed the seventy seventh division now on oil the left of tile the fifth corps sent over patrols on the and bilth the lie low ground north of the river opposite its front being hooded by heavy rains and damming operations by the germans german s the first corps frum november 6 to 10 was withdrawing its divisions to points on the meuse between betwee n dun sur meuse and verdun preparatory to to a general attack which would have as its ha object the turning of 0 the strong position in front of the fifth corps east cast of the mouse meuse the first army advanced in conjunction with the second army which had been earnestly preparing for or this thin moment ever since its organization under ander the instructions issued by me e november 5 for or the advance of the first and second armies which received approval ot of marshal foch in a personal note of november 8 the second army made advances along alon g its entire front in the direction of the brley iron basin during the last three days of hostilities attacking attaching on the tile the thirty third division reached the bols BOIS dhar ville and captured Mar marcheville cheville but was forced to retire the twenty eighth division occupied a part of the bola bois des Handron villes ila ins as well as Marim bols farm the S seventh division took and held against counterattack hill the ninety second division captured the bols bois freihaut Fre haut on the front of the first army the ninetieth division on the left of the third corps hines Hl nesi had crossed the mouse meuse on the fth and attacked on the meeting decided oppose opposition tion throughout the day elements of the division entered stormy but were unable to clean up the town while others after hard fighting in the nearby wood reached but could not take baillon the fifth division ely captured jagetz jametz and cleared the foret do de the thirty second division haan re reentered entered the line on the lith ath as the right division of the third corps and made substantial progress on the the division moved forward until stopped by heavy ore from east of the thinie river on other fronts front meanwhile other of our divisions were engaged on distant fronts in flanders our thirty seventh and nine ty first divisions which had been sent to the french sixth army armi at marshal fochs focha request entered the alie battle october 31 the ridge was taken by the thirty seventh division farnsworth on the first lay day white while the ninety first johnston advancing against intense fire seized the strongly defended wooded area in its front both divisions moved forward rapidly to the lescaut river on the ole following day in pursuit of the enemy despite I 1 resistance crossings of the river were effected by the thirty seventh november 2 and 3 the division being re cleved th the L following day Au denarde was occupied by the ninety first division on the 2nd and and the division was relieved on the 3rd ard by th the french eFrench both divisions re ie reentered entered the line tor for the general attack of the french sixth army november 10 the thirty seventh division was directed to relieve two fiend divisions enst east of tile the Gs Es the morning of the 1001 but these divisions find and been unable to cross and were relieved on tile the west bank de spite severe losses the thirty seventh succeeded in again crossing the river and moved forward the following day advancing two and a halt half miles eastward tile the ninety first division met slight opposition on tile the and none on the morning of the alth reaching a line aas east it of boucle saint blaise in the first army the fifth corps advanced rapidly the morning of the lith E elements of tile the E eighty ninth division occupied stenny and established a line on the hill to the north ly sur meuse was mopped up early in the morning and Au treville occupied tile the second division advanced to the ridge west of Mou lins ns while the sev enty coty seventh division held its line of the in the third corps the morning of the alth the nineteenth division entered bunion and the r fifth mid and thir ty second divisions were 0 preparing to attack tile the seventy ninth division of the french second colonial corps attacked against the cote do de and advanced a short distance the twenty sixth division made slight gains and the eighty first division again took od oa the front of the second army the attack of the thirty third division on the 11 th was held up lap the twenty eighth division carried its line forward north of Marlin bols funn farm the seventh division n mude made no attack and the nine mo ty second division attacked but did not hold all its gains the line alne of the first army november ember 11 extended from fresnel fresnes en to pont maugis the second sei ond army line ran from port sur sellie to fresnel fresnes en thus both american armies were now in position to carry out th the offensive as directed by my orders november 5 which was what I 1 had planned and advocated when marshal roch foch insisted that there should be a cover emerging ging movement oi 0 nil all the armies west of the mouse meuse with meleres sedan as the object objective ivo of the american first army CHAPTER As the conference between marshal a foch and the german delegates proceeded and in anticipation of ad v vices fees regarding the armistice telephone tines were kept constantly open between my headquarters and those of the first and second armies when word came to me at 6 a in N november 11 hi that hostilities would cease at 11 a m directions to that effect were sent to our armies immell artely our troops had been advancing rapidly during the preceding two days dm 8 and although every effort was made to reach them promptly a few could no not t be overtaken before the prescribed hour A brief account of the conference w with ith the german delegates was given to me a few days later by general lie he said the germans came across the line by automobile the aft erldon of november 7 and boarded a special railway coach sent by the he french to meet them daring the night this car and the marshals were nere placed side by side aide in the forest between I 1 a and n d soissons Sols sons the emissaries were ushered into the marshals pr presence sence and after p producing ro their credentials were asked the object of their visit they replied that they had come to discuss t the terms of an armistice the marshal marsh I 1 then made it clear that he be himself was not requesting an armistice and did not care to have one when asked it if they wished an armistice they replied that they did the marshal said that if that was the case here were the terms a copy of which he handed them the severity of cf tile the demands seemed to surprise them and they appeared very much depressed they had no power to sign an armistice they said without the consent of the chancellor and after faw A V bringing GrI nging in a captured aviator some borne little discussion they started an officer to the german capital with the terms they did not seem to object to turn ing over cannon but deplored the condition required them to surrender machine guns guna they finally succeeded in having this reduced to machine guns on 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 1 to maintain order in the interior their reply was as that they had no divisions in reserve us every division that they had was ft as actually in line then they complained about the short tinie allowed tor for evacuation stating that the german army was in no con to move elther either forward or back ward nard what america had done between september 20 26 and november 11 twenty two american and six french divisions an all approximate lighting fighting strength of men on a front extending broin I 1 roin southeast of ver dun to the argonne forest hid hart engaged and decisively beaten forty three different german divisions with an estimated fighting strength of of the twenty two american div talons four had at different times dur ing this period been to ID action on fronts other than our own the enemy suffered an estimated loss of over casualties in this battle and our first army lost about the total strength of the F first arst army including french troops readied reached men it cap aured prisoners cannon machine hia chine guns and large quan titles of material the transportation and supply of divisions to and from our front during daring tills this battle was a gigantic task there were 20 american and seven french divisions besides hundreds of thou sands ands a of corps rod and army troops moved in and out of tile thu american zone A total of nien men were evacuated to the rear and more than replacements were re rived it need hardly be restated thill that our e entry into the war gave the allies the preponderance of force nc essary to outweigh the tremendous increase in the strength of the germans on the western front due to the collapse of russia and the con consequent frequent release of german divisions employed against her from the military point of view we began to aid the allies early in 1918 when our divisions with insufficient training to take active part in battle were sent to the inactive front to relieve french divisions that they might be used in the fighting line fine the assistance we gave the allies in combat began in may with the successful attack of one of our divisions at Cant cantieny cantigny igny this was followed early in june by the entrance into battle of the two divisions that stopped the german advance on paris near cha thierry and by three others th that t were put in the defensive line in july two american divisions with one moroccan division formed the spearhead of the counterattack counter attack against the chateau thierry salient in which nine of our divisions participated there was a total of approximately american troops engaged in this second battle of the marne which involved very severe fighting and was not completed until the germans were driven beyond the vesle in august in the middle of september an army of americans i reduced deduced the SL salient the latter part of september our great battle of the mouse meuse argonne was begun lasting through 47 days of intense fighting and ending brilliantly for our first and second armies november ui after more than american soldiers had participated A time to forget hardships tt it ft was as a time to forget the hardships and difficulties except to record them with the glorious history of our achievements in praise and thanks thank Is for the decisive victories of our armies and in guidance for the future the following order was issued a H n Q american expeditionary forces general orders no Fr france acce nov 12 1918 the enemy has capitulate capitula tet |
