The story of the quick advance of the American marines was related in
detail by Wilbur Forrest in The New York Tribune as follows:
It is a narrative that stands for more, perhaps, than most of
those written in American history books. It is literally another
story of American minute men who abandoned the figurative
plowshares of peaceful training camps and rushed to the scene
of action. They met the enemy with weapons they knew how to
handle.
On May 30 the enemy reached the Marne east of Château-Thierry and
began a forceful advance along the north bank toward the city. The
same day American machine gunners received orders 100 kilometers
to the rear to jump into auto trucks and hurry into action.
They started almost immediately, and an all-night journey found
the battalion at 4 o'clock in the afternoon of the 31st on a hill
overlooking Château-Thierry. All around them French batteries were
firing full tilt. The enemy was advancing on the city.
Right here those American machine gunners got their first glimpse
of real war. German shells crashed into villages within plain view
and the little city below them was not being spared. The officers
chose a small nearby village as headquarters and the marines
waited for darkness before loading little black machine guns on
their shoulders and marching into Château-Thierry.