The Great War - WW1
St Mihiel
In spite of the Kaiser's prolific words, the war continued. The final assault on the Hindenburg Line began at the end of September after a preliminary American operation against the St Mihiel salient, which had threatened Allied movements in Champagne since 1914.
Foch, the British, Allied Supreme Commander, gave the task to Pershing's US First Army. It was the first independent action undertaken by the Americans in the war. The attack was launched against the two sides of the salient on the 12th September, combined with an assault against the centre by French troops. The Germans were caught in the act of leisurely retirement from the salient, and were bundled out by the Americans in the space of 36 hours.
The clearing of the St Mihiel salient was followed by the decisive Allied offensive of the war, the centrepiece of which was the breaking of the Hindenburg Line with a drive by French and US troops along the Meuse valley towards Mezieres and a British thrust east of the Somme. By mid-October, after heavy fighting in which the Americans suffered severe losses in the Argonne forest, which was a rough, thickly wooded region in which the Germans had prepared a defensive zone 14 miles deep. The inexperienced Americans took heavy casualties, before they broke out into open country at the beginning of November. After the battle of the Argonne, the German Army was on the point of disintegration.