Unity of command had been accomplished by that time at the urgent demand of the United States Government.  Foch had saved France and the world at the first battle of the Marne.  Being given supreme authority over all the allied forces, as soon as the arrival of American troops in great numbers had been thoroughly established, he was ready; and the offensive passed from German to allied hands.

The tremendous German drive, which Ludendorff had confidently promised the German people would bring a smashing and decisive victory, was stopped.  Retrocession began.  On the Marne again, in July, 1918, in the sector held by Americans an action began at Chateau Thierry which forced the German retreat that in a few weeks was to shake the heart of Germany, scare out Bulgaria, Austria and Turkey, in the early autumn bring Germany to a plea for peace, send Ludendorff himself into retirement, dethrone the Kaiser, do away with the imperial form of government, set up a republic, and create conditions that would quash for all time the power of Prussia to disturb a decent world.

Floyd Gibbons, correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, a noncombatant who wanted to see the combat he was there to report, was in that memorable action.  He lost his left eye there, and was otherwise severely shattered, but he got his story through.  His home paper some months afterward gave Gibbons well earned credit for that contribution to current history.  It said he “helped to put the Marines where they belong in the war’s history, for he was with them in their early exploits and fell in one of their battles.  Six thousand out of 8,000 engaged was their toll.  They fought with the French through Belleau Wood, heartening the brave, tired, discouraged poilus, and after they came out upon the other side the name of the battlefield was changed to the ’Wood of the American Marines.’  Mr. Gibbons says that when Marshal Foch began his great offensive, which in cosmic importance is second only to creation, he selected the units in which he had the most faith.  These units were chosen not because they were braver nor more sacrificial, but because they knew.  They were the Foreign Legion of France, two divisions of American Regulars, and the United States Marines.”

From that day there was no change in the favorable fortunes of war on the western front.

AMERICANS CAN FIGHT AND YELL

An eyewitness of the first days of the Chateau Thierry battle thus describes the capture of the Beauleau wood: 

“The Americans moved stealthily with fixed bayonet until they got into the edge of the woods and atop of the German machine gun-tiers.  Then the farm boys cheered, and the lumberjacks shouted, and the Indians yelled.  They were where they could mix it at close range with the Boche, and that was what they wanted.

“Their yells could be heard a mile away.  They were up against two of the Kaiser’s redoubtable divisions, the Two Hundredth Jaegers and the Two Hundred and Sixteenth reserve division.  They fought with vim and joy.