THE OPPOSING FORCES DURING THE ALLIES’ COUNTER-OFFENSIVE OF JULY 18.
The 6th Army (General Degoutte), from the Ourcq to Château-Thierry, comprising the 2nd and 7th French Corps, and the 14th and 26th American Divisions.
This gave, in all, the equivalent of about twenty-one divisions (one American division being numerically equal to about two French divisions).
At dawn, on July 18, without preliminary bombardment, and preceded by hundreds of tanks and a formidable creeping barrage, the attack was loosed along a twenty-seven-mile front. The surprise was complete and the effect crushing. The enemy front was pierced, strongholds reduced and organised woods and farms captured, their garrisons surrendering in hundreds, while the agricultural detachments were taken at work in the fields.