Meuse Argonne - The Battle of St. Mihiel

Battles of the First World War Podcast

Mike Cunha

History

4.8 • 812 Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2018

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On the 12th of September 1918, well over a half million American Doughboys of the AEF First Army went on the attack with their French allies. Less than forty-eight hours later the St. Mihiel Salient--long a painful thorn in the French Army’s side--had been completely destroyed.

St. Mihiel was the first independent offensive carried out by the American Expeditionary Force of World War One, and it was a solid success.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	After 17 months, an American army was fighting under its own flag.
0:10.8	General John J. Blackjack, Pershing.
0:15.2	American Expeditionary Force, Somiel, September 1918. Hey folks, welcome to the battlesles of the First World War podcast, episode 50, 50, Mers Argon, the Battle of Saint-Miel.
0:49.3	Quick admin note, big shout out to listener Reynauld, the latest patron of the BFWWP on Patreon.
0:59.3	Thank you so much.
1:01.6	Also, big shout out to my very good friend, Mikhail from Fontaine, France.
1:07.5	Mikhail very graciously recorded himself correctly pronouncing the names of several French villages
1:14.2	for me, and for that I'm very much in his debt. Thank you, sir. So any mistakes here are entirely mine.
1:25.1	Okay, on to the battle. Technically, the clearing of the Saint-Mail salient in September of
1:33.5	1918 can be treated as its own short campaign, but as General John J. Blackjack-Pershing
1:41.6	agreed to conduct this attack and then immediately reroute his soldiers up to the Meuse-Argon.
1:50.3	We're going to talk about it as part of the new battle here on the BFWP.
1:55.6	Somoiel will thus receive its own episode, and that way we get to cover another battle fought by the AEF in World
2:03.9	War I. Sommeo is a town on the River Meuse about 20 to 25 miles southeast of Verdun.
2:14.6	At the beginning of the Great War it had a population of around 25,000, I'm told.
2:20.8	During the four years of German occupation, the population dropped dramatically and never recovered.
2:29.0	Today, the Saint-Mille commune, meaning outlying villages villages are included, has a population of just over
2:36.1	5,000.
2:38.3	The town has a history dating back to the 700s, where a settling grew around a Benedictine
2:44.4	monastery.
2:46.1	If you're home and can do so, put your map applications on Saint-Miel and focus on the area to its northeast.
2:54.7	This will be our battle area. In the military world, the word salient is used to describe a bulge
	...

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