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Wall plaques commemorating the First and Second Battles of the Marne from the Dormans Chapel and Memorial, Dormans, France. © 2014 by John M. Shea
The advance of July 19, 1918 in the Aisne-Marne Offensive. From The History of The A.E.F. by Shipley Thomas. © 1920
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
United States Navy Masters-at-Arms (shore patrolmen), R. Rapp on the left, pose in front of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, Italy. The two stand on the steps of the rightmost of three flagpoles in front of the cathedral. The main entry and arch would be immediately to the left, outside of the photograph. The Master-at-Arms is the equivalent of the Army's Military Police.
The dazzle ship HMS Justicia photographed from the USS St. Louis. Launched on July 9, 1914 as SS Statendam for the Holland America line, the ship was requisitioned by the British government and used as a troop transport. It sank on July 22, 1918 after a 24-hour fight with German submarines.
"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." ((1), more)
"At 4 o'clock in the morning of July 19, under cover of another rolling barrage, the Allies attacked along the whole front; but during the night the Germans had put in all the reserves in the area, and the resistance that morning was much stiffer than it had been the day before. Especially this was true in the northeast corner of the plateau. It was this corner that the Germans had to hold at all costs, for the loss of it meant to them the loss of Soissons . . ." ((2), more)
"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." ((3), more)
"July 21 [1918].Dear Folks—:I supposed Brummy has written you all about my getting bunged up. So there isnt anything for me to say. I hope that the cable didnt worry you very much but Capt. Bates thought it was best that you hear from me first rather than the newspapers. You see I'm the first American wounded in Italy and I suppose the papers say something about it.There is a peach of a hospital here and there are about 18 American nurses to take care of 4 patients. Everything is fine and I'm very comfortable and one of the best surgeons in Milan is looking after my wounds. There are a couple of pieces still in." ((4), more)
"Depredations of U-boats off Cape Cod were reported in 1918. In view of thousands along the beach, a German submarine shelled and burned a tugboat and sank three barges without warning. Of the 41 persons on board these craft, three men were wounded. Two hydroplanes from the Chatham aviation station, circling over the U-boat, caused her to submerge, only to reappear and resume firing.On July 22d, after a 24-hours' fight with submarines, the White Star liner Justicia sank off the Irish Coast. Four hundred of the passengers and crew were saved." ((5), more)
(1) 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
(2) 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. Soissons was an important communications center.
The History of The A.E.F. by Shipley Thomas, page 160, copyright © 1920, by George H. Doran Company, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1920
(3) 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
(4) Ernest Hemingway writing to his parents on July 21, 1918. An ambulance driver, Hemingway wrote one of the great novels of the war, A Farewell to Arms, in which an American ambulance driver is wounded on the Italian front, and falls in love with an English nurse at the hospital where he recovers. The driver is later caught up in the Italian retreat of the Battle of Caporetto. After the Caporetto disaster, the Italians held on the Piave River, defeating the Austro-Hungarians in the latter's last offensive of the war, the Battle of the Piave. Later in his letter, Heminway writes, 'It was a great victory and showed the world what wonderful fighters the Italians.'
World War I and America by A. Scott Berg, page 504, copyright © 2017 by Literary Classics of the United States, publisher: The Library of America, publication date: 2017
(5) Chatham, Massachusetts is the southeastern-most town on Cape Cod. Further north in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, Guglielmo Marconi built one of his first three wireless stations (the other two being in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia and Poldhu, England). SS Justicia was sailing from Belfast to New York when she was hit, first by UB-64 with four torpedoes, then by UB-124 the following morning. Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Justicia; July 19, 2018) dates the attacks on July 19 and 20, 1918.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 511, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
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