Currently Browsing: This Week in Marne History
September 9 - 15
Saturday, 13 October 2007
St. Mihiel Offensive.
On 12 September in 1918 began the second great offensive in which the 3d Division took part in World War I, that of St. Mihiel. This offensive was also the first time that the newly organized American First Army, under the separate and independent control of the American Commander-in-Chief, played a major role in a large operation.
The pivot of the offensive was St. Mihiel, a German town on the east bank of the Meuse River. It anchored a triangular-shaped area stretching north 16 miles to the French-held city and fortress of Verdun (where a German offensive in 1916 had resulted in over 950,000 casualties) and east for 25 miles between the Meuse and Moselle Rivers. Between Verdun and St. Mihiel was a row of heights and more heights lay along the south between St. Mihiel and the Moselle. Fanning out between the two rows of heights was a low-lying plain cut by several small streams. Holding the salient was important to Germany, as it protected the German border, less than 30 miles away; guarded the strategic city of Metz; interrupted traffic on the main Paris-Nancy railroad; cut the Verdun-Toul railroad; and threatened Allied territory west of the Meuse. Equally, the St. Mihiel salient had to be reduced if the Allies were to push the Germans back to their own country.
The main attack was to be delivered by the American I and IV Corps along most of the south side of the salient; Pershing placed the 3d Division, still recovering from its exertions on the Marne, as IV Corps reserve supporting the IV Corps attack. French divisions would fight in the hinge area around St. Mihiel and the American V Corps would come across the Meuse from the northwest. Third Division support, however, was little needed. Within 48 hours of the start of the offensive all objectives had been attained. The Division Historian, MAJ Frederic Hemenway, said, “The ST. MIHIEL Salient disappeared, as if the censor had taken a gigantic brush and painted it out of existence with one stroke. The American Army, this new unknown quantity [four American divisions had never before been at the front] had performed an operation in four [hours] that many had been wishing to see done for four years.”
The objectives having been obtained, the 3d Division moved northwest past Verdun to get ready for its last great campaign of the War, the Meuse-Argonne offensive, when it would again have an honored place on the front line.
