Despite the enemy’s minute precautions, the French were not taken unawares. Thanks to their Intelligence Department and Aerial Reconnoitring Service, the exact time and extent of the coming offensive were known.
The artillery preparation began about midnight, the hour of attack varying, from west to east, from 1.20 a.m., south of the Marne, to 4.20 a.m. at Chaumuzy.
GENERAL DE MITRY (in the centre).
During the night, the Germans had thrown bridges and pontoons across the river, the two largest (25 to 30 feet in width) between Treloup and Dormans, others in front of Courthiézy, Reuilly, Soilly, Chartèves, Mézy and Jaulgonne. In spite of the dense smoke screens, these bridges were promptly discovered by the Allied aviators who, bombing from a low altitude, destroyed several of them, men and convoys being thrown into the river. They also raked with machine-gun fire the German troops which debouched on the southern bank of the river. In one day (the 15th) French, British and American air-squadrons dropped over forty-four tons of explosives on the bridges, inflicting severe losses on the enemy. “Rarely has a river been so ably defended,” wrote the Berliner Tageblatt on July 17, and the defenders fully deserved this enemy admission.
Crossing the river before dawn, the Germans attacked the first-line divisions holding the southern bank, from Chartèves to Mareuil-le-Port. The American 3rd Division gallantly withstood the onslaught in the region of Chartèves, Jaulgonne and Fossoy and, after fierce fighting, forced the enemy back over the river, thereby helping to make the German offensive a failure. The French defended the positions of Courthiézy, Soilly, Chavenay, Nesle-le-Repons and Troissy with great stubbornness, disputing the German advance foot by foot.