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CHAMPAGNE-MARNE OPERATION

CHAMPAGNE-MARNE OPERATION (15–18 July 1918). In an effort to improve supply lines and distract the British from another offensive in Flanders during World War I, the German First, Seventh, and Third armies crossed the Marne River east of Château-Thierry, France, and advanced up the valley to Epernay. The attack was halted east of Reims on the first day by the Fourth French Army. Fourteen divisions crossed the Marne, but without artillery support, the attack soon bogged down. The Third, the Forty-second, and part of the Twenty-eighth American Divisions, consisting of approximately 85,000 soldiers, participated. The Thirty-eighth Infantry Regiment (Third Division) here won the sobriquet "Rock of the Marne."

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Coffman, Edward M. The War to End All Wars: The American Military Experience in World War I. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968.

Freidel, Frank. Over There: The Story of America's First Great Overseas Crusade. Boston: Little, Brown, 1964.

Girard L. McEntee/A. R.

See also Aisne-Marne Operation; Belleau Wood, Battle of; Meuse-Argonne Offensive.