[Sidenote:  The First takes Cantigny.]

[Sidenote:  Fighting qualities demonstrated.]

On April 26 the First Division had gone into the line in the Montdidier salient on the Picardy battle front.  Tactics had been suddenly revolutionized to those of open warfare, and our men, confident of the results of their training, were eager for the test.  On the morning of May 28 this division attacked the commanding German position in its front, taking with splendid dash the town of Cantigny and all other objectives, which were organized and held steadfastly against vicious counterattacks and galling artillery fire.  Although local, this brilliant action had an electrical effect, as it demonstrated our fighting qualities under extreme battle conditions, and also that the enemy’s troops were not altogether invincible.

[Sidenote:  The Third Division on the Marne.]

[Sidenote:  The Second wins Bouresches and Belleau Wood.]

The Germans’ Aisne offensive, which began on May 27, had advanced rapidly toward the River Marne and Paris, and the Allies faced a crisis equally as grave as that of the Picardy offensive in March.  Again every available man was placed at Marshal Foch’s disposal, and the Third Division, which had just come from its preliminary training in the trenches, was hurried to the Marne.  Its motorized machine-gun battalion preceded the other units and successfully held the bridgehead at the Marne, opposite Chateau-Thierry.  The Second Division, in reserve near Montdidier, was sent by motor trucks and other available transport to check the progress of the enemy toward Paris.  The Division attacked and retook the town and railroad station at Bouresches and sturdily held its ground against the enemy’s best guard divisions.  In the battle of Belleau Wood, which followed, our men proved their superiority and gained a strong tactical position, with far greater loss to the enemy than to ourselves.  On July 1, before the Second was relieved, it captured the village of Vaux with most splendid precision.

[Sidenote:  Second Corps is organized.]

Meanwhile our Second Corps, under Major General George W. Read, had been organized for the command of our divisions with the British, which were held back in training areas or assigned to second-line defenses.  Five of the ten divisions were withdrawn from the British area in June, three to relieve divisions in Lorraine and the Vosges and two to the Paris area to join the group of American divisions which stood between the city and any farther advance of the enemy in that direction.

[Sidenote:  The Forty-second and the Twenty-eighth.]

[Sidenote:  Brilliant work of the Third.]