The Battle of Saint-Mihiel The Battle of Saint-Mihiel was the single most noteworthy battle fought in World War One and displayed how critical the role of artillery truly was. The battles dates ran from September 12th through the 15th in the year of 1918 and was commanded by General John J. Pershing who was also known as Black Jack. This battle marked the first official use of the words D-Day and H-Hour by the Americans. Perishing’s plan and main objective was to take control of a small city northeast of France called Metz. The attack commenced on Sept. 12th when American troops attacked the Germans position known as St. Mihiel salient, despite harsh weather conditions Pershing’s young Army proved to be successful as the German command decided …show more content…
Summerall is credited with using massed artillery fires in support of the infantry (p.45, ACAC, 1999). The initial assault on St. Mihiel began at 0100 in the morning on the 12th of September 1918. After the planned four- hour bombardment, which was characterized as neutralization fires using 168 guns, the purpose of the field artillery changed, and at 0500 on the same day light artillery pieces began using rolling fires in front of the infantry (p.24, ACAC, 1999). Gen. Summerall had adopted the method of advancing in echelons and leading each echelon with a barrage of artillery and put his plan into action during the fight for St. Mihiel (p.45, ACAC, 1999). Gen. Summerall’s tactics can still be seen today and is often used in a deliberate attack scenario where a forward observer will use decreasingly smaller rounds and the shifting of indirect fires while friendly elements approach an objective, often called “echelonment of fires”. In his report on the operation in St. Mihiel, the commanding officer of the 26th Infantry said “The artillery support [sic] up to and during the capture and consolidation of the 4th objective was very good. No difficulty was had in following the barrage which was excellent” (p.34-35, ACAC, 1999). The Battle of St. Mihiel is considered a success for the American Expeditionary Forces in France. Much of this is credited to General Pershing’s well-planned operation and a combined arms approach to the battle, which saw the use of field artillery, infantry, and air assets in conjunction with each