WHAT THE GERMANS EXPECTED FROM THEIR “FRIEDENSTURM.”
Once this result obtained, the Germans would then march on Paris, which would be unable to make a prolonged resistance. It was a re-staging of Von Moltke’s dream, four years after the first Battle of the Marne!
To carry out this ambitious scheme, the enemy concentrated all the means at their disposal in a supreme effort to snatch the victory. For a month formidable quantities of tanks, storm-troops and batteries of heavy and light artillery were concentrated. Ammunition depots were accumulated right up to the first lines, and huge quantities of bridge-building material collected. All these preparations were made at night, the minutest care and every possible precaution being taken to ensure secrecy.
Between Château-Thierry and Rheims the German aim was two-fold; firstly, to cross the Marne and march southwards towards Montmirail and the Petit Morin Valley, and secondly, to follow the river eastwards and attack Epernay. The objectives for the first day were Epernay and points five to six miles south of the Marne.
Before July 15, the enemy had seven divisions on the front of attack, to which seven others were now added. On the Mountain of Rheims and on the Marne, in the first line and in reserve, he had about thirty divisions all told, including several of the most famous, e.g. the 1st and 2nd Guards, 200th Chasseurs, etc.
On the Marne front the line of attack extended from Chartèves to Vrigny.