The German losses in the great battle and retreat from the Marne were variously estimated at from 120,000 to 200,000.  General von Boehm avoided a first-class disaster, but his defeat was a serious one and had far-reaching moral consequences among the enemy.

It was estimated that from the beginning of their offensive in March, the German armies lost more than 1,000,000 men in killed, wounded and prisoners.  The Austrians in their ill-fated offensive of 1918 lost more than 250,000 men.

FOCH A MARSHAL OF FRANCE

On August 6 General Ferdinand Foch, commander-in-chief of the Allied forces, was elevated by the French council of ministers to the rank of a Marshal of France.  In presenting his name Premier Clemenceau said: 

“At the hour when the enemy, by a formidable offensive, counted on snatching the decision and imposing a German peace upon us, General Foch and his admirable troops vanquished him.  Paris is not in danger, Soissons and Chateau Thierry have been reconquered, and more than villages have been delivered.  The glorious Allied armies have thrown the enemy from the banks of the Marne to the Aisne.”

AMERICANS AT FISMES

The American troops covered themselves with glory at many points in the Allied drive, notably in the hand-to-hand fighting in the streets of Fismes on August 4, when they captured that German base.  The fighting was said to have been the bitterest of the whole war, the Prussian guards asking no quarter and being bayoneted or clubbed to death as they stood by their machine guns.

BRITISH VICTORY IN THE NORTH

On the Amiens front, in Picardy, the British Fourth Army, under General Rawlinson, and the French First Army, under General Debentry, stormed the German positions on August 8 on a front of over 20 miles, capturing 14,000 prisoners and 150 guns, and making an advance of over seven miles.

ALLIED GAINS IN PICARDY

Before the Germans had time to recover from the surprise of Marshal Foch’s attack on the Marne, and while they were still retreating to the Vesle, the Allies delivered another heavy blow, this time on the Albert-Montdidier front in Picardy.  Here the British and French suddenly attacked in force on the morning of August 8, stormed the enemy positions along a thirty-mile front and on the first day of the attack penetrated to a depth of seven miles.

For several days the enemy retreated, closely pursued by allied cavalry and tanks, which for the first time fought in a combination that proved irresistible.  The tanks used were of a new small variety, known as “whippets,” which rapidly wiped out the machine-gun nests with which the enemy sought to stem the tide of the victorious onrush.  Some American troops fought with the British in their advance and gained high praise from the Allied commanders.