U.S. Army Campaigns of World War I

THE MARNE, 15 JULY-6 AUGUST 1918

Stephen C. McGeorge and Mason W. Watson

U.S. Army Campaigns of World War I
CMH Pub 77-5, Paper
2018; 80 pages, illustrations, maps, further readings

The Marne, 15 July-6 August 1918 is the fifth installment of the U.S. Army Campaigns of World War I series, covering the American Expeditionary Forces' (AEF) participation in the Second Battle of the Marne in July and August 1918. Between March and July 1918, a series of four major German offensives had sought to break through the Allied lines. By mid-July, German troops had advanced to the edge of the Marne River, as close as they had been to Paris since September 1914, but fierce resistance from the Allies halted their forward momentum. Between 15 and 17 July, American divisions along the Marne and in Champagne played a decisive role in stopping the German advance, most notably alongside the French forces defending the strategically vital city of Reims. From 18 July to 6 August, American units took part in the Allied counteroffensives that pushed the Germans back from the Marne to the Vesle River. The narrative of this volume focuses on the American efforts on the critical Marne salient, where AEF divisions fought side by side for the first time, and Americans accounted for more than forty percent of the casualties sustained in the Second Battle of the Marne. Even after only a few months of experience in combat, the American contribution would play a pivotal role in the battle that decided the course of the First World War on the Western Front.

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