Name: Harry J. Steinmann

Serial Number: 2111518

Race: White

Residence: 317 Emming St., Cincinnati, O.

Enlistment Division: National Army LB 4

Enlistment Location: Cincinnati, O.

Enlistment Date: 3 Oct 1917

Birth Place: Cincinnati, O.

Birth Date / Age: 23 5/12 Years Assigns

Comment: Co B 336 Machine Gun Battalion to Discharge Private, first class 9 March 1918; Corporal 1 Oct 1918. American Expeditionary Forces 24 Aug 1918 to 7 March 1919. Honorable discharge 21 March 1919. Volume #: 16

During the Battle of St. Mihiel, beginning September 12, 1918, Pershing commanded the American First Army, comprising seven divisions and more than 500,000 men, in the largest offensive operation ever undertaken by United States armed forces. This successful offensive was followed by the Battle of Argonne, lasting from September 27 to October 6, 1918, during which Pershing commanded more than one million American and French soldiers. In these two military operations, Allied forces recovered more than two hundred square miles of French territory from the German army.

By the time Germany signed the Armistice on November 11, 1918, the American Expeditionary Forces had evolved into a modern, combat-tested army recognized as one of the best in the world. The United States had sustained more than 320,000 casualties in the First World War, including over 53,000 killed in action, over 63,000 non-combat related deaths, mainly due to the influenza pandemic of 1918, and 204,000 wounded. In less than two years the United States had established new motorized and combat forces, equipped them with all types of ordnance including machine guns and tanks, and created an entirely new support organization capable of moving supplies thousands of miles in a timely manner. World War I provided the United States with valuable strategic lessons and an officer corps that would become the nucleus for mobilizing and commanding sixteen million American military personnel in World War II.

Harry John Steinmann