THE FIGHT IN DETAIL
The German attack under the personal command of the Crown Prince launched on the morning of May 27 was mainly directed against the British 8th, 50th, 25th, and 21st Divisions and the French 6th Army, which occupied the front from Vauxaillon eastward to the Brimont region—from north of Soissons to the north and a little west of Rheims. Certain sectors at once gave way under the strong pressure—particularly in the Chambrettes. There was no mistaking this for the main offensive, although in the Lys salient, between Ypres and Arras in the north, and on both sides of the Somme and the Ardre in the centre, there were simultaneous artillery preparations of great violence. Toward the end of the day the weight of the enemy's attacks carried his troops across both the River Aisne and the Chemin des Dames. The line, however, remained unbroken, as the Allies retreated across the Aisne between Vailly and Berry-au-Bac, which are eighteen miles apart, and then gave way across the Vesle near Fismes.
On the 28th Franco-British troops proved the assault in the north to be abortive by quickly re-establishing their lines east of Dickebusch Lake and capturing a few prisoners. On the main field of battle in the south the Franco-British right deployed to the east covering the Brouillet-Savigny-Thillois line protecting Rheims. On the west they did the same, but with more elasticity, while the centre continued to give. On the 29th the acute angle of the German penetration, with its vertex covering Fismes, suddenly sprung to the shape of a bow. The line still held covering the Cathedral City, but on the west the defenders of Soissons were killing their last Germans, and in the south Savigny on the Ardre had been reached. At Savigny the line of advance was diverted westward until it embraced Fère-en-Tardennois and Vezilly. And still the retreating but unbroken Allies were deploying east and west as its pressure increased, or were taken prisoner when retreat became impossible.
On the 30th the enemy attempted to broaden his front northwest of Rheims and failed, but he succeeded in obliterating the salient south of Noyon, from the Oise Canal to Soissons, and on the 31st by an advance from a twenty-five-mile curved front he reached the Marne between Château-Thierry and Dormans on a contracted six-mile front. Here he met on the south bank the prepared defenses, and has been kept on the north bank ever since.
AMERICAN MARINES
In the enemy's attempts to broaden his front on the Marne salient, June 1 and 2, he managed to rectify the eastern side by reaching Sarcy and Olizy and by working along up the Marne a couple of miles east of Dormans. He also measurably consolidated his positions between the Oise Canal and Soissons, and south of the latter stretched the line into a segment with a five mile vertical as far south as, but not including, Château-Thierry on the Marne. This swing to the westward appears to have been a deliberate attempt to force Foch to meet shock with shock by throwing in his reserves, as the German advance had reached a point only forty miles from Paris.
OFFENSIVE OF JUNE 9, AIMED AT COMPIEGNE, AND BLOCKED BY THE FRENCH AFTER FIVE DAYS. LIGHT SHADED AREA WON BY GERMANS; DARK SHADED AREA AT BOTTOM WON BACK BY AMERICANS NEAR CHATEAU-THIERRY
This was unnecessary, however, for here, north of Château-Thierry, the enemy was to meet a new foe—the American marines. It is doubtful whether the extraordinary performance of this corps and its French supports between June 6 and June 12, when they bent back the lower part of the bow between La Feste-Milon and Château-Thierry—from Grandeles, Champillon, and Clerembant Wood to Bussiares and Bouresches—can be included in the second battle of the Marne or serves as a diversion to the later battle of the Oise, directed against Compiègne. At any rate, the ardor of the marines had the desired effect, for on the very day they began their work the inspired Berlin Vossische Zeitung said: "The German Supreme Command cannot well proceed now against the newly consolidated French front, which is richly provided with reserves, and bear the great losses which experience shows are entailed by such operations." Thus ended the second battle of the Marne, sometimes called the Aisne-Marne battle.