s, we had taken Nonsard and the
towns of Woinville and Buxieres had fallen into our hands.

On the west side of the salient the day had gone equally well for us.
The western claw of the pincers had pushed due east through the towns of
Spada and Lavigneville. Our men had swept on in the night through
Chaillon, we had taken St. Remy and had cleared the Foret de Montagne.
By midnight their advanced patrols had reached the western part of the
town of Vigneulles. In the meantime, our forces on the eastern side of
the salient were pushing westward toward this same town of Vigneulles.
At three o'clock in the morning the forces from the east were occupying
the eastern part of the town. The pincers had closed; the St. Mihiel
salient had been pinched off.

Our forces actually met at nine o'clock on the morning of September
13th. The junction was made at the town of Heudicourt to the south of
Vigneulles. We had pocketed all of the German forces to the south of
that town. Our centre had moved forward at nine o'clock the night before
and occupied St. Mihiel on the heels of the retreating Germans. But the
withdrawal was too late. Large numbers of them found themselves
completely surrounded in the forests between St. Mihiel on the south and
Heudicourt on the north.

We closed in during the afternoon and started to open the prize
package. Located in the area, encircled by our troops, was the Bois de
Versel, the Bois de Gaumont and the Bois de Woeuvre. Each one of these
little forests gave up its quota of prisoners, while much material and
rich booty of war fell into our hands.

The principal avenue that had been opened for the Germans to make a
possible withdrawal led through Vigneulles and before our pincers had
completely closed, the fleeing enemy had poured out through that gap at
the rate of several thousand an hour. The roads were blocked for miles
with their transportation, and when the American artillery turned its
attention to these thoroughfares, crowded with confused Germans, the
slaughter was terrific. For days after the battle our sanitation squads
were busy at their grewsome work.

In conception and execution the entire operation had been perfect.
Confusion had been visited upon the method-loving enemy from the
beginning. By reason of the disruption of their intercommunications,
faulty liaison had resulted and division had called to division in vain
for assistance, not knowing at the time that all of them were in equa