TRANSPORTS CARRYING AMERICAN TROOPS CONVOYED BY BATTLESHIPS
The German advance
246. The Crisis of the War. In their great drive the Germans always struck at the weakest point. They found this where the French and English armies were joined. They drove forward in mass formations or solid blocks. Thousands upon thousands were mowed down by the English and French guns, but on they came. Back, back the Allies fell, day after day, until the Germans reached the Marne again. The world held its breath. Each day the Germans were expected to break through, but each day the Allied troops retreated. Slowly they moved, fighting like demons and always holding at vital points.
American troops scattered along the front
America was eager to be of the greatest possible help in the grave danger to Paris and France. The Allies were short of reserves. General Pershing, putting his own honors second in the same generous way he had done at school, decided to scatter the Yankee troops all through the French and British lines, wherever they were needed.
Rushing troops to France
Germany had sneered at our nation because she thought our people were so devoted to dollars that we could not or would not fight. Now she began to learn how high the war spirit flamed in the soldiers we were preparing to send by millions to France. By the help of England's great fleet, we were able to send over more than a million men by the summer of 1918. The American troops then formed a united army, fighting under their own flag. They took over a hundred miles of the front, relieving tired Frenchmen. Another million arrived by November.
The Allied command gave Pershing command of the region between the Aisne and the Marne. The Germans thought the Americans untried, and expected to break through by using their best "shock troops."
The battle of Château-Thierry