the gallant help which an American machine-gun battalion gave the French in covering the French retreat across the bridge at Chateau Thierry, before it was blown up, and foiling the German attempts to cross, and the German move towards Paris, were perhaps, writes a British military authority, “the most splendid service, from a military standpoint, the Americans rendered to the Allied Cause.  It was certainly the first occasion on which they really made themselves felt, and brought home to the Germans the quality of the opposition they were likely to encounter from the American Armies.”

As we approached Chateau Thierry, the fog had cleared away and the night was not dark.  On our railway journey to Metz a week earlier, we had seen the picturesque old place, with Hill 204 behind it, and the ruins of Vaux to the north-west, in daylight, from the south bank of the river.  Now daylight had gone, but as we neared the Marne, the high ground on the curving north bank, with its scattered lights and their twinkling reflections in the water, made still a dimly beautiful setting for the much injured but still living and busy town.  We crossed the temporary bridge into the crowded streets, and then as we had come a long way, we were glad to dip for tea and a twenty minutes’ break into an inn crowded with Americans.  Handsome, friendly fellows!  I wished devoutly that it were not so late, and Paris not so far away, that I might have spent a long evening in their company.  But we were all too soon on the road again for Meaux and Paris, passing slowly through the ruined streets of Vaux, with Bouresches and Belleau Wood to our right, and behind us the great main road from Soissons to Chateau Thierry, for the command of which in its northern sector, the American divisions under General Mangin, and in its southern portion those commanded by General Degoutte, had fought so stoutly last July.  Altogether seven American divisions, or close upon 200,000 men, were concerned in Foch’s counter-attack, which began on July 18th; and as General Pershing notes with just pride:  “The place of honour in the thrust towards Soissons on the 18th was given to our 1st and 2nd divisions, in company with chosen French divisions.  These two divisions captured 7,000 prisoners and over 100 guns.”

What one may call the “state entry” of America into the war had thus been made, and Germany had been given full warning of what this new element in the struggle must ultimately mean, were it given time to develop.  And during all these weeks of June and July, British and American ships, carrying American soldiers, came in a never-ending succession across the Atlantic.  An American Army of 5,000,000 men was in contemplation, and, “Why,” said the President at Baltimore in April, “limit it to 5,000,000?” While every day the British Navy kept its grim hold on the internal life of Germany, and every day was bringing the refreshed and reorganised British Army, now at the height of its striking power, nearer to the opening on August 8th of that mighty and continuous advance which ended the war.