After personal investigation, and study of the area, Melville E. Stone, manager of the Associated Press, declared that in spite of heavy losses, the Americans engaged in the operations at and around Chateau-Thierry did three things: 1. They saved Paris. 2. They seriously injured the morale of the best German troops. 3. They set a standard for American troops that none others dared to tarnish. General Omar Bundy, commanding the Second Division, in General Order No. 41, issued July 10, said: You stood like a stone wall against the enemy advance on Paris.... You have engaged and defeated with great loss three German divisions, and have occupied the important strong-points of the Belleau Woods, Bouresches, and Vaux. You have taken about 1,400 prisoners, many machine guns and much other material. General Petain, Commander-in-Chief of the French Armies of the North and Northeast, issued a general order citing and commending the Marines, mentioning by name Brigadier General James G. Harbord, commanding the Fourth Brigade; Colonel Wendell C. Neville, commanding the Fifth Regiment; Colonel A. W. Catlin, commanding the Sixth Regiment, and Major Edward B. Cole, commanding the Sixth Machine Gun Battalion. Colonel Neville commanded the Fifth through all these operations, fighting with his men in Belleau Wood. When Colonel Catlin was wounded, he was, as I have stated, succeeded in command of the Sixth by Lieutenant Colonel Harry Lee, who continued to command that regiment to the end of the war. When, leading his machine-gunners, Major Edward B. Cole fell, mortally wounded, on June 10th, Captain Harlan E. Major took charge. A day or two later he was relieved by Captain George H. Osterhout, and on June 21st Major Littleton W. T. Waller, Jr., took command of the Sixth Machine-Gun Battalion. The real beginning of the great series of offensives which finally routed the German armies and brought complete victory to the Allies, was when Marshal Foch, on July 18, with picked troops made a vigorous thrust at the Germans near Soissons, with overwhelming success. The First and Second U. S. Divisions and the French Moroccan Division were employed as the spearhead of the main attack. At a single bound they broke through the enemy's infantry defenses, overran his artillery, and cut the German communications. The Second Division took Beaurepaire Farm and Vierzy in a rapid advance, and at the end of the second day was in front of Tigny, having captured 3,000 prisoners and 66 field-guns. "The story of your achievements," said General Harbord, "will be told in millions of homes in all Allied lands tonight."