Existing comment:
On 6 April 1917, the United States entered World War I. With few regular forces, the task of training and transporting an effective army to fight in France was formidable. The U.S. Navy, acting swiftly to combat the German submarine menace, dispatched fighting ships and aircraft to European waters. Simultaneously, it began the organization of convoys for hundreds of thousands of troops to undertake the tremendous work of organizing the American Expeditionary Forces. General Pershing landed in France on 13 June 1917.
Beginning on 21 March 1918, the German armies launched a series of powerful attacks on the Western Front. On that date there were only 300,000 American soldiers in France, most of them but partially trained. The first offensive action by a U.S. Division came on 28 May when Cantigny was attacked and held despite violent enemy reaction.
Simultaneously, the Germans surged across the Aisne River and advanced rapidly toward the Marne. U.S. reinforcements, hurriedly brought into positions directly across the German path of advance toward Paris, stopped the attack. Then, on 6 June, U.S. troops, including a brigade of Marines, struck back, and in fierce combat lasting a month, recaptured Belleau Wood and the town of Vaux. The last great German offensive of the war came on 15 July along the Marne, east of Chateau-Thierry. It was promptly repulsed in a severe struggle in which American troops played a leading part. The immediate U.S. - French counter attack on 18 July at Soissons marked the turning point of the war. |