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The department of the Marne in Champagne was some of the most contested land during the war, site of the initial German invasion, the Battle of the Marne, the First and Second Battles of Champagne, the Champagne-Marne Offensive, Rheims Cathedral, Épernay, Châlons, Vitry-le-Francois, Ste-Menehould, and Perthes-les-Hurlus (First Champagne).
A boy saves his choice seat in a tree, anticipating the great victory parade on Bastille Day, 1916. Illustration by Abel Faivre.
Shared headstone for the remains of Sergeant Emil Müller, died July 15, 1918, and driver Ernst Dolderer, died July 10, 1918, buried in Belleau German Cemetery, Belleau, France. © 2014 by John M. Shea
French and British headstones in Dormans National Cemetery, Dormans, France. From left to right Second Lieutenant J. Aitken, Royal Air Force, Jean LaGorce and Germain Bouchareisses, both of the 273rd French Infantry Regiment, and Sergeant S.W. Melbourne, RAF. The French infantrymen both died on July 15, 1918, the men of the RAF the following day, the first and second days of the German Champagne-Marne Offensive. © 2014 by John M. Shea
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, his wife Tsaritsa Alexandra, their four daughters and son, a portrait of the Russian imperial family in 'An Ambassador's Memoirs' by Maurice Paléologue, the last French Ambassador to the Russian Court.
"The actual command for the operation came very late. I was just sitting and working over it, when a perfectly strange grenadier was announced. With excitement but modestly he asked if it were true that Americans were stationed over there and that our attack was betrayed. I quieted him, but inquired carefully here and there what the general opinions on the attack might be. There was thorough confidence in the leaders; but there was an indefinite feeling that the affair would not succeed. 'The infantry has the right instinct,' veterans of the front used to say.. . . The enemy had taken several prisoners from us, among others an officer of photometry who, contrary to orders, had carried important maps with him. . . .The enemy fire increased each day. When on July 13th we moved to the places of preparation, thick clouds of gas lay on the wood of Jaulgonne. 'It will turn out all right,' was the general consolation." ((1), more)
"The celebration of Bastille Day on July 14 [1918] was the climax. The morning shone bright and clear. French airplanes filled the sky over the city. The streets were full of flowers. There was a smell of strawberries in the air.A brilliant military parade was deployed down the Champs Elysées. All Paris dressed in its best to crowd the wide sidewalks.Preceded by the Garde Republicain in their gleaming helmets, riding their fine horses, detachments from all the Allies, carrying their national colors and led by bands playing their national airs, marched in dress uniforms from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde. There were French Chasseurs Alpins in bérets and black tunics, British Lifeguards, Italian Bersaglieri in roostertail hats, Portuguese, an anti-Bolshevik unit of cossacks in astrakhan, representatives of the Bohemian and Slovak regiments that had thrown off the Austrian yoke, Poles, Romanians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Greeks in their stiff white kilts. The United States was represented by units of the 1st Division.Towards midnight American M.P.'s with a tense look on their faces darted out of their headquarters on the rue St. Anne. They went through hotels and nightspots rounding up officers and men on leave. All leaves were cancelled. The offensive had begun." ((2), more)
"At midnight on Sunday, July 14th, Paris was awakened by the sound of great guns. At first she thought it an air raid, but the blaze in the eastern sky showed that business was afoot on the battlefield. She waited for news with a solemn mind, for she knew that the last phase had begun of the struggle for her possession. The 'preparation' lasted till four o'clock; but before the dawn broke the Germans were aware of a new feature in the bombardment. The French guns were replying, and with amazing skill were searching out their batteries and assembly trenches, so that when zero hour came the attacking infantry in many parts of the line were already disorganized. Foch's intelligence service had done its work; he had profited by the enemy's bravado, and he read their plans like an open book.About 4 a.m., just at dawn, the German infantry crossed the parapets." ((3), more)
"By the evening of the first day, July 15, the German attack was brought to a standstill by the sudden and unexpected resistance of the French and American troops along the whole front from Château-Thierry to the east of Reims, where the 42nd Division (Rainbow) was in the line. On the 16th and 17th of July, the Germans tried by local attacks to gain some ground and better their positions." ((4), more)
"To the French and American Soldiers of the Army:We may be attacked from one moment to another. You all feel that a defensive battle was never engaged in under more favorable conditions. We are warned, and we are on our guard. We have received strong reënforcements of infantry and artillery. You will fight on ground which by your assiduous labor you have transformed into a formidable fortress, into a fortress which is invincible if the passages are well guarded.The bombardment will be terrible. You will endure it without weakness. The attack in a cloud of dust and gas will be fierce, but your positions and your armament are formidable.The strong and brave hearts of free men beat in your breasts. None will look behind, none will give way. Every man will have but one thought—'Kill them, kill them in abundance, until they have had enough.' And therefore your General tells you it will be a glorious day." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from an account of the immediate run-up to Germany's Champagne-Marne Offensive by Kurt Hesse, Grenadier Regiment No. 5, 36th Infantry Division. The attack would begin on July 15, 1918, and was Germany's last offensive of the war.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. VI, 1918, pp. 250–251, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(2) Germany had already mounted four offensives on the Western Front in 1918, the last ending on June 14. Through the following month The Allies expected a fifth at any time. The Champagne-Marne Offensive began at midnight, of Bastille Day, July 14.
Mr. Wilson's War by John Dos Passos, page 350, copyright © 1962, 2013 by John Dos Passos, publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
(3) British novelist John Buchan describing the beginning of Germany's Champagne-Marne Offensive on July 15, 1918, the last of Germany's five offensives of 1918, and its last offensive of the war. Since the end of the Noyon-Montdidier Offensive on June 14, the Allies had been awaiting, and preparing for, the next. The French had captured plans for the German offensive, and began the accurate counter-bombardment Buchan describes ten minutes before the German bombardment.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. VI, 1918, p. 244, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(4) The German's launched their fifth and final offensive of 1918, the Champagne-Marne Offensive, on July 15. German commander Erich Ludendorff called his offensive Friedensturm, Peace Assault, which would bring peace through victory. The United States did not yet have an Army in Europe; its units were incorporated into British and French forces. The Rainbow Division included units from twenty-six states and the District of Columbia.
The History of The A.E.F. by Shipley Thomas, page 123, copyright © 1920, by George H. Doran Company, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1920
(5) The official appeal of General Gouraud to the soldiers of his 4th Army on July 16, 1918. The German's had launched their fifth and final offensive of 1918, the Champagne-Marne Offensive, the prior day. German commander Erich Ludendorff called his offensive Friedensturm, Peace Assault, which would bring peace through victory. The United States did not yet have an Army in Europe; its units were incorporated into British and French forces. In his History of the A.E.F., Shipley Thomas dates this quotation to July 7.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. VI, 1918, pp. 243–244, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
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