Wall plaques commemorating the First and Second Battles of the Marne from the Dormans Chapel and Memorial, Dormans, France. © 2014 by John M. Shea
"With the enemy's drive across the Marne halted, Mangin's counter-attack on July 18 caught the Germans almost completely by surprise even though a deserter had warned them on the eleventh or twelfth about a large offensive southwest of Soissons. Striking first, Tenth Army advanced at 0435 without any artillery preparation. Preceded by tanks and a dense rolling barrage, Mangin's infantry advanced quickly and easily. The U.S. 2nd Division advanced eight kilometers, the deepest gain achieved by any unit on the first day, and the U.S. 1st Division interdicted the route at Buzancy from Château-Thierry to Soissons and thereby threatened the entire German position in the salient. By the end of the day Tenth and Sixth armies had achieved considerable success: Tenth Army captured 10,000 prisoners and 200 cannon, Sixth Army 2,000 prisoners and 50 cannon."
The 'enemy's drive across the Marne' was German commander Erich Ludendorff's Friedensturm, Peace Assault, the Champagne-Marne Offensive that left German forces with an enormous salient from Soissons and Reims to the Marne River. Commanding the French 10th Army, General Charles Mangin struck on the western side of the salient. General Jean Degoutte commanded the Sixth Army.
Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, pp. 470–471, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005
1918-07-18, July, 1918, Mangin, Soissons, Champagne-Marne Offensive, Mangin Second Marne
