battles of Château-Thierry/Belleau Wood

Château-Thierry/Belleau Wood, battles of (1918). In March 1918 the Germans launched the first of a series of offensives in the hope of winning the war before the Americans arrived in France in strength. The third of these offensives, BLÜCHER, was mounted along the Chemin des Dames, between Noyon and Soissons, on 27 May, and the Germans successfully crossed the river Aisne and reached the Marne. At Château-Thierry on 30 May machine-gunners of the US 3rd Division helped French troops check the German advance. Belleau Wood, taken in the offensive, was recaptured by the US 2nd Division, its attack led by the 4th Marine Brigade. It cost the USA over 9, 000 casualties, in part because of tactical inexperience. However, both victories, together with a third, won by the US 1st Division at Cantigny on 28-9 May, were of enormous psychological importance. The Germans revised their hitherto low opinion of the American Expeditionary Force, and Allied morale received a much-needed boost.

— Richard Holmes