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Line on the Ourcq showing advance of the Allies in the Marne Salient from July 18 to July 27, 1918. From The History of The A.E.F. by Shipley Thomas.
Goodbye Girlie! On to France. An American soldier gives a woman a boost so she can kiss a departing soldier. A postcard from the Chicago Daily News, G. J. Kavanaugh War Postal Card Department.
Panorama of the Western theater of war 1914/15 from Compiègne to Arras, with the North Sea coast in the distance.
British troops building a road in Flanders, September 10.
Headstones from the Laventie German Military Cemetery, Laventie, France of territorial guard Alfred Schirmer and Corporal Albert Levy. Schirmer died on August 8, 1918, Levy on August 10, both likely in the Battle of Amiens. © 2013 by John M. Shea
"Moving out from Seringes, the Americans and their French allies reached Fismes on the Vesle River August 2, 1918, having advanced 25 miles in fifteen days and obliterated the Marne salient. On the same day a French division entered Soissons, making an advance of three miles. Thus was celebrated the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the War.These operations marked the close of the first phase of the battle. The Allies, in their brief offensive of two weeks' duration, had forced the enemy back 25 miles and captured 35,000 prisoners, 750 field guns and several thousand machine guns. The Marne salient had been practically wiped out and the army of von Boehm was demoralized. Gen. Foch now decided to strike at the Picardy salient further north." ((1), more)
"This last combat, in particular, had brought very advantageous results. Threatened in his positions on the left bank of the Avre, the enemy had withdrawn to the right bank, keeping only some outposts west of Mondidier (August 3d and 5th). If, in addition, it be borne in mind that the Germans facing the British Third Army were crossing to the east of the Ancre between Saint-Pierre and Dernancourt, and that in Flanders they were abandoning to the British Second Army a part of their positions south of the Lys, it will be realized what signs of exhaustion the enemy was showing in these first days of August, and under what favourable auspices the Franco-British attack in Picardy was being initiated." ((2), more)
"— The 4th. The American workers' delegates have been welcomed by the Parliamentary Socialist group. They are all opposed to the resumption of international negotiations. One of their Press agents declares: 'A short conflict would be followed by a short peace.' That phrase 'short conflict' is delightful!The truth is that, in the eyes of this journalist, the war began at the moment when America descended into the bloody arena." ((3), more)
"With the coming of darkness each day the front awoke. Some very heavy showers during five otherwise fine days made a lot of extra work. Patrolling was never so active. Long stretches of the railway line were examined in moonlight without any enemy being met. The track was surprisingly little knocked about. One patrol came in greatly excited after touching off one of several booby-traps that were found. Patrols penetrated farther each night. The river, its approaches and possible crossing-places were searched." ((4), more)
"The 28th Division, whose red 'Keystone' shoulder patch would soon be nicknamed the 'Bucket of Blood,' was teamed up with the 32d ('Gemutlichkeit') Division from Michigan and Wisconsin in attacking up the Château-Thierry—Fismes road. This road, though secondary to that running from Soissons to Château-Thierry, still constituted a substantial supply route for the German shock troops that Ludendorff was trying to maintain in the Aisne-Marne salient. The Americans of the 28th met only light resistance at first since the 32d Division had been carrying the bulk of the fighting. On August 6, however, the 28th Division arrived within sight of Fismes, most of which was already occupied by troops of the 32d Division." ((5), more)
(1) The Franco-American Aisne-Marne Offensive, begun on July 17, 1918, continued through August 6. Allied Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch's next blow would be the Battle of Amiens.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 450, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(2) The Franco-American Aisne-Marne Offensive, begun on July 17, 1918, continued through August 6. Allied Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch's next blow would be the Battle of Amiens.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 379, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
(3) Entry from the diary of Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government writing in Paris on August 4, 1918. The French had just begun their fifth year of the war. The Americans, despite having declared war in April 1917, had only entered the battle in any numbers in May, 1918.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 364, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(4) Excerpt from an entry for August 5, 6, or 7, 1918 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J. C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and fellow soldiers who served with him. The British were preparing for the Battle of Amiens which would open on August 8. 'The river' was the Ancre.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 505, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(5) The 28th 'Keystone' Division was drawn from the Pennsylvania National Guard. The keystone is still visible in Pennsylvania highway signs. It would be two days before the Americans secured Fismes, on the south side of the Vesle River, and moved to take Fismette on the north side. 'Gemutlichkeit' is the German word for coziness or comfortableness. The 32d Division drew on the large German population of the American upper midwest.
Yanks: The Epic Story of the American Army in World War I by John S.D. Eisenhower, page 170, copyright © 2001 John S.E. Eisenhower and Joanne Thompson Eisenhower, publisher: The Free Press, publication date: 2001
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