Detail from the Memorial to the French Moroccan Division at Vimy Ridge. The theaters and battles in which the division played a role are recorded on the sides of the monument. © 2013, John M. Shea
1918La LorraineJanuary 8 - Flireythe SommeApril 26 - Villers-Bretonneux, Bois de Hangardthe AisneMay 30 - Vauxbuin, ChazelleJune 12 - AmblenyJuly 18 to 20 - Dommiers ChaudumSeptember 2 to 8 - Terny-Sorny, Moulin de Laffaux, AllemantNovember 11 - VictoryNovember 17 - Entree a Chateau-Salins
"On July 20th the enemy's resistance hardened. That day the Tenth Army remained pinned on the high ground west and southwest of Soissons. Its right alone gained some ground in the direction of Oulchy-le-Château. The Sixth Army, likewise, encountered serious difficulties between the Ourcq and the Marne and only effected a trifling advance. The Fifth Army, passing in its turn to the offensive, managed, with the support of two British divisions, to get slightly forward between Marvaux and Belval."
German commander Erich Ludendorff's Friedensturm, Peace Assault, the Champagne-Marne Offensive, left his forces occupying an enormous salient from Soissons and Reims to the Marne River. Commanding the French 10th Army, that included the 1st and 2nd American Divisions and the Moroccan Division, General Charles Mangin struck on the western side of the salient on July 18, advancing as much as 8 km on the first day. By the next day, German reinforcements slowed the Allied advance. The Sixth Army was commanded by General Jean Degoutte; the Fifth, which included the 2nd Italian Corps, by General Henri Berthelot, former head of the French military mission to Romania. Soissons was an important communications center.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 365, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
1918-07-20, 1918, July, Soissons, Marne
