The Story of the Great War, Volume 7: American Food and Ships; Palestine; Italy invaded; Great German Offensive; Americans in Picardy; Americans on the Marne; Foch's Counteroffensive.
History
The Story of the Great War, Volume 7: American Food and Ships; Palestine; Italy invaded; Great German Offensive; Americans in Picardy; Americans on the Marne; Foch's Counteroffensive.
World War, 1914-1918
During the night of June 1, 1918, operating between Soissons and
Château-Thierry, the Germans with strong forces and operating in a
five-mile front, made a gain of three miles over the previous day's
advance, occupying the towns of Longpont, Corcy, Faverolles, and
Troesnes. Later all these places but Faverolles were won back by the
French.
On the Marne the situation remained unchanged. The Germans were in
possession of the eastern half of Château-Thierry while the French
occupied the western half of the town.
Northwest of this place, in the Neuilly St. Front region, the French
made some headway, driving the Germans back on Passy-en-Valois and
capturing an elevation known as Hill 163.
The German push had now slowed down. They continued local attacks that
failed in every instance. The French held firm north of the Aisne, the
most important sector of the battle front. The problem confronting the
Germans was to link up the front in Picardy with that along the Aisne,
which would extend their positions at Amiens, but this they had failed
to accomplish. South of the Forest of Villers-Cotterets they had made
repeated efforts to extend their positions along the Marne and throw the
French back toward the Ourcq, but met only with defeat. It was along
this stretch of the line that the American troops, as noted elsewhere,
gave the French such valuable support.
In Flanders the situation of the German forces was much the same; they
were held in a wedge, the sides of which they could not break through,
one heel of the wedge being on high ground west of Kemmel and the other
on the ridge in the rear of Béthune.
In the Aisne fighting area Germans were also held in a wedge much larger
in extent, one heel of which was about Rheims, and the other west of
Soissons. From this position the Germans must sooner or later endeavor
to extricate themselves.
One of the most important factors in the battle, the mastery of the air,
had passed to the Allies. German troops attacking or on the march were
harried without respite by the Allies' pilots flying at tree-top level.
Day and night centers behind the German lines were bombed on a scale
hitherto undreamed of. In one day the French launched sixty-three tons
of bombs at important points on the German bases.
June 6, 1918, on the Picardy front, the Americans made an advance of two
and a half miles in the Château-Thierry sector. Details of the fighting
here will be found in another place. Between the Ourcq and the Marne,
French and American troops made an attack that resulted in the gain of
two-thirds of a mile in the neighborhood of Veuilly-la-Peterie and the
capture of nearly 300 prisoners.
The Franco-American forces continued to make gains with an advance in
the Chezy sector northwest of the line. The Germans, it appeared, were
in an exhausted condition and their resistance lacked spirit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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