Soissons was taken by the 1st Division in July 1918. The Soissons victory was costly – 700 men were killed or wounded. (One of them, Private Francis Lupo of Cincinnati, was missing in action for 85 years, until his remains were discovered on the former battlefield in 2003). The 1st Division took part in the first offensive by an American army in the war, and helped to clear the Saint-Mihiel salient by fighting continuously from 11 to 13 September 1918. The last major World War I battle was fought in the Meuse-Argonne Forest. The division advanced a total of seven kilometers and defeated, in whole or part, eight German divisions. This victory was mainly due to the efforts of George C. Marshall, who began the war as the division's Deputy Chief of Staff before being elevated to G-3 for the entire AEF in July 1918. Combat operations ended with the implementation of the terms of the Armistice on 11 November 1918. At the time the division was at Sedan, the farthest American penetration of the war, and was the first to cross the Rhine into occupied Germany.