five o'clock
It was the final assault against the last of the German defenses in St. Mihiel . `` Forward ! '' came the cry , given after four hours of the greatest artillery barrage ever laid down . At five o'clock , on the morning of September 12th , seven American divisions in the front line advanced . They were assisted by tanks , manned by Americans and French , and there were groups of wire-cutters and other groups armed with bangalore torpedoes . `` These , '' says General Pershing , in his report , `` went through the successive bands of barbed wire that protected the enemy 's front line and support trenches , in irresistable waves on schedule time , breaking down all defenses of an enemy demoralized by the great volume of our artillery fire , and our sudden approach out of the fog . '' And forward , in their own modest and humble way , with this great army of liberation went Ned , Bob , and Jerry .