FORWARD WITH FOCH
American forces mingled with French troops on all sides of the German
salient when General Foch struck its western side. In proportion to the
combined number of French, British and Italian troops, they were not
many. For that reason their achievements stood out with greater
distinction; inferiority of numbers made their exploits conspicuous.
They were with the French south of Soissons, on the southwest corner of
the salient, west of Château-Thierry, along the Marne east of that town,
and east of Rheims, the latter outside the salient proper. They were
thus in the full swing of the Foch counteroffensive which finally was to
crumble the salient to extinction and bring them along its top at the
Vesle River.
No clearly defined picture can be drawn of their share in this advance.
Their operations blended too intimately with the French movements. Here
and there the situation in certain areas disclosed Americans to be
acting on their own initiative. But in the main it was a Franco-American
operation. The movements of each were interdependent. The advance of
both progressed with the uniformity of a curved chain dragged from each
end along a highway. There were dents and wrigglings in the chain at
times; but it moved on.
The advance lent a significance to the earlier operations of the
Americans northwest of Château-Thierry, when they straightened their
line by extending it to the outskirts of Torcy, capturing Belleau Wood,
Bouresches and Vaux. From this line, along a front of forty kilometers
to Soissons, the attack was made at 4.45 on the morning of July 18,
1918. The perspective is too long for its development to be described
with clearness. Only glimpses can be obtained of the American
participation at points where there were eyewitnesses.
What was clear was that in their initial effort the Americans carried
all before them. By the late afternoon they had proceeded so fast that
cavalry was thrown into action. By night American headquarters--a
movable fixture that day--were well inside territory held by the Germans
in the morning. The line, in short, before the day was over, had
advanced at varying depths, the most being ten kilometers, or a little
over six miles, and the day's captures by the Americans embraced a
number of towns, over 4,000 prisoners, fifty cannon, thousands of
machine guns, vast quantities of munitions and stores, and airplanes.
Foch's counterattack apparently did not at first contemplate an assault
on the southern arc of the salient formed by the Marne. But his success
in breaking into the western flank evidently encouraged him to extend
his operations to the south. Here American energies came into full play.
Early in the day on July 19, 1918, the Germans had premonitions of what
was to happen, and hastily prepared to withdraw from the positions they
had retained on the south bank. The previous day they had been clinging
in small numbers to the crook of the river near Jaulgonne, but southeast
of that place, on to Oeuilly, thousands held positions won in their
advance across the river, as already described. Hereabout, along the
Dormans line, they were eight kilometers south of the Marne. Between
Château-Thierry and Jaulgonne they had failed to hold the southern bank
and had to retreat. So from these points the ground was in the hands of
the Americans and French for offensive purposes, and they set about
attacking the German positions early on July 19, 1918, on the west,
south, and also east of Dormans. They signalized the attack with short
but intense artillery work, putting down a barrage along the river bank,
to prevent the Germans from retreating without paying a heavy price for
having ventured so far south.
"The advance proceeded well from the start," wrote one onlooker. "By 4
o'clock the Germans were as far east as six kilometers west of Dormans.
South of Dormans the enemy, with his retreat cut off, made a determined
but vain stand.
"By 6 o'clock detachments of Americans and French reached the river bank
in one place, and soon after a message was flashed to all the armies
that the Germans had been put back across the Marne.
"The German artillery gave the men very poor support, and the chief
fighting on their part was done with machine guns. The reason of the
lack of German artillery work is explained in a report of American
aviators that the Germans were busy all yesterday afternoon drawing back
their guns from the heights north of the river.
"While we were pushing north from Château-Thierry to Dormans the French,
with the Americans on their left, attacked the region of Oeuilly,
gaining that place and pushing the enemy back on Chatillon, north of the
river."
A further clearance was made by the Americans northwest of
Château-Thierry. One of their lines ran round Hill 204, which the
Germans had just evacuated, after holding it for five weeks. In
Franco-American hands the hill swung the line more to the east in the
track of the general advance. The movement in this direction caused the
withdrawal of German forces holding the northern part of
Château-Thierry. On July 21, 1918, the whole city was occupied by the
French and Americans. Strong positions were established on the north of
the river, bridges were thrown across, guns were brought up, and heavy
firing was directed over the river to prevent German bombers from
interfering with Franco-American troops crossing over. Jaulgonne was
presently occupied by American troops.
When the Americans crossed the Marne they discovered that the Germans
sought to deceive the Allied air bombers, who were seeking out bridges
and boats along the river and otherwise preventing the Germans from
crossing the stream.
The Americans found submerged boats and floats, held down by rocks, but
so arranged that they could be made accessible for use by the Germans
in short order for crossing. In some instances these floats spanned the
river and were held by cables, and it required only a short time to
float them.
The Germans did not get a chance to use their impromptu bridges, but the
French and Americans made use of the floats when they came in pursuit of
the enemy.
There was now a general advance from the north of the Marne, hitherto
securely held by the Germans. Some fifteen kilometers north of
Château-Thierry, behind a series of hills forming an almost continuous
ridge, the Germans had established artillery positions, and on the hill
itself their infantry waited, prepared for a stand, with machine guns.
The French and Americans advanced, their backs at last to the Marne,
despite the artillery fire from the hill to cover the slow retreat of
the Germans. The latter continued their backward movement with sullen
and stubborn rear-guard actions, leaving numbers of machine-gun nests in
the path of the Franco-American movement. At times the Americans
encountered the stiffest resistance, which took the form of
counterattacks rather than defensive retreats. A village in this sector
being reduced by the American guns, as its occupation by the Germans was
imminent, the enemy was thus forced into the open, where heavy
punishment was inflicted. The fighting was so fierce as almost to rob it
of the suggestion that it was a rear-guard action. Nevertheless, during
the intense struggle the work of moving stores was under way. With a
minimum artillery fire on both sides the Americans advanced their
skirmish line over yellow wheat fields, dotted with poppies, and through
clumps of wood. It was Indian fighting, modernized by machine-gun work.
Fighting in open order in this way brought the American line by July 22,
1918, to more than ten kilometers north of Château-Thierry, and beyond
Bezu-St. Germain.