17 - Establishment of the American First Army and Saint-Mihiel

Summary

On July 10, 1918 General Foch issued a statement from his headquarters at Bombon that could have been written by Pershing. “The day when there are one million Americans in France, America cuts a figure in the war,” he proclaimed. “America has a right to an American army; the American army must be. The Allied cause moreover will be better served by having an American army under the orders of its one leader, than by an American army scattered all about.”

Pershing and his staff enthusiastically received Foch’s statement but they wanted more than an independent army. Operational objectives were equally important, and they sought Foch’s approval of an advance toward Metz which had been percolating within Pershing’s staff since September 1917. Foch, however, favored Allied attacks from the Argonne Forest to Arras rather than in Lorraine. Fox Conner, chief of operations at GHQ, spoke for Pershing’s staff on July 14 when he wrote the following: “A campaign limited to the front planned by General Foch carries with it no reasonable prospect of final victory during 1919. This final victory can only be had by reaching the vitals of Germany and by destroying her armed forces. Since her vitals are in Lorraine the simplest method is to take the most direct road to that region.”