<p>With the Breguets in good repair, their performance was excellent. The 14B.2 could carry three times the bomb load of a DH-4 to a higher altitude, and operated smoothly at 10,000 ft (3,048 m) with a 600-lb (272-kg) bomb load. It had been flown to, and operated at, altitudes above 18,000 ft (5,486 m), with a load of 12 Michelin 90-mm bombs. It protected the pilot with an armored seat, and gave the gunner a brace of Lewis guns with six drums of .30-caliber ammunition. The tank held fuel for five hours of flight.
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<p>The 96th flew its first mission in France on 12 June, with the Breguets loaded with 500 lb (227 kg) of bombs each, and dropping from 12,000 ft (3,658 m). Their primary targets on that, and later missions, were railway yards. The observer acted as bombardier, and steered the pilot on the bomb run by pulling on the left or right rein attached to the pilot's arms to indicate the course correction. The crews had no electrically heated flying suits and no oxygen systems, yet they bombed routinely from altitudes of 10,000-15,000 ft (3,048-4,572 m) in the last months of 1918.
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<p>When the attack at St-Mihiel began on 15 September, the Germans already had begun to move back. The salient was reduced and all objectives met in a single day of fighting, with a few days after that left for mopping up and consolidating positions. The Germans were at the start of their last long retreat, and the war was nearing an end.
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<p>There was one more big push for the Americans, the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, moving northward between the river on their right and the heavily wooded Argonne forest on their left. Mitchell's air forces had released most of the French units, the Division Aérienne having been deployed elsewhere. Only the French night bombardment and corps observation squadrons remained on the scene. The total aircraft strength was 594 in commission out of 836 assigned.
