Brought to you today by your television provider. On september 12th, 1918, the American Expeditionary force under the command of general john j. Pershing launched First Independent mission of world war i. We travel to northeastern france with a story from Mitchell Yockelson to learn about the battle of saintmihiel. A bulge in the we were front that the germans had occupied since 1914. To begin the story, here is a portion of a 1960 u. S. Army film. It gives a brief sketch of the operation. In late july 1918, general pershing created the First United States Army under his command and immediate steps were taken to concentrate American Forces at one point on the line. That point was san my hel saintmihiel. It enabled to harass forces. They assembled for the task of krrk it out of existence. Fifteen infantry were moved. By the end of the day, the first army was ready for its First Independent operation against the enemy. At dawn on the 12th in the driz lipping rain the attack was launched.