But in that time of dire need, two new factors entered the war. One was Foch as commander-in-chief; the other was the Americans.
Instead of being many, the Allied armies became one; American Pershing, British Haig, French Pétain, Italian Diaz, Belgian Albert, served under Foch, whom all the world knew as a brilliant strategist.
So far the American troops had been in training and held in reserve. But late in May newspapers had two news items. One announced, in glaring headlines, that the Germans had advanced ten miles, crossed two rivers, and taken twenty-five thousand prisoners; the other said, in small type, that the Americans had advanced their lines and taken the village of Cantigny and two hundred prisoners. A big advance and a little one. Ah! but in that day at Cantigny the Americans were tried and not found wanting.
The Germans, already talking of a “hard peace,� pushed forward on their “Victory Drive� toward Paris. Hundreds of square miles were taken, and thousands of prisoners and guns. They crossed the Marne River and reached Château-Thierry, only forty miles from Paris.
Had Foch and the Americans come too late?
Ah! now they moved, swiftly and successfully, both of them. Foch had let the Germans advance so as to make flank attacks. The Americans, given the post of honor at Château-Thierry, drove back the best of the Germans and carried positions deemed impregnable. Up and down the long battle line from the Alps to the North Sea, went the tidings: “The Americans have held the Germans. They are as good as our best. A million of them are here, and there are millions ready to come.�
The Germans made their last great offensive, a desperate drive on a sixty-mile front toward Paris. They were checked. They retreated. The Allies took the offensive.
During these stirring days, The Village could not wait the leisurely roundabout course of the mail rider and accept day-old papers as “news.� Some one rode every day to Redville and brought back the morning Dispatch and then the war news was read aloud in the post office.
There was a deep personal as well as patriotic interest now, for Village volunteers and drafted soldiers were overseas. All the community mourned with the Spencers when Jeff’s name was among the “missing� after Château-Thierry. They looked every day for news of him, but hope died as weeks and months passed and none came.
One September Saturday brought an overseas letter for Mrs. Mallett. Dick Osborne ran to deliver it, and then they waited for her to come as usual and share its tidings.