2.--Where American Divisions were in line, from our entry into the trenches until the Armistice 14 3.--Offensives of September, 1918. Relation of Meuse-Argonne Battle to the decisive Allied offensive movement 20 4.--Divisions in the First Stage of the Meuse-Argonne Battle, September 26th-October 1st 52 5.--Divisions in the Second Stage of the Meuse-Argonne Battle, October 1st-31st 194 6.--Lines reached by German and Allied Offensives, 1918 224 7.--In the Trough of the Aire 266 8.--The approach of the Center to the Whale-back 274 9.--Divisions east of the Meuse 348 10.--The Services of Supply: Showing Ports and Railroad Communications 378 11.--Divisions in the Third Stage of the Meuse-Argonne Battle, October 31st-November 11th 590 OUR GREATEST BATTLE I A CHANGE OF PLAN The original scope of Saint-Mihiel--A winter of preparation for a spring campaign--Which is cut down to two weeks--The tide turning for the Allies--The advantage of a general attack--And especially of numbers--The tactician's opportunity--Why the Meuse-Argonne--The whale-back of Buzancy--Striking for the Lille-Metz railway--All advantage with the defense--The audacity of the enterprise--The handicaps--A thankless task at best. We were in the fever of preparation for our Saint-Mihiel attack. Divisions summoned from the victorious fields of Château-Thierry, and divisions which had been scattered with the British and French armies, were gathering in our own sector in Lorraine. The French were to assist us with ample artillery and aviation in carrying out our first ambitious plan under our own command. After cutting the redoubtable salient, which had been a wedge in the Allied line for four years, we were to go through to Mars-la-Tour and Etain, threatening the fortress of Metz itself. This was to be the end of our 1918 campaign. Instead of wasting our energy in operations in mud and snow, we should spend the winter months in applying the lessons which we had learned in our first great battle as an army. Officers who had been proved unfit would be eliminated, and officers who had been proved fit would be promoted. All the freshly arrived divisions from home camps and all the personnel for handling the artillery, tanks, and other material of war which our home factories would then be producing in quantity, would be incorporated in a homogeneous organization.