Field Operations, Table of Contents. West of Reims, between May 27 and June 5, the Germans had launched another attack β the Aisne operation β and had driven in a salient extending toward the southwest, which had reached the Marne and had its approximate apex near Chateau-Thierry. They had thus established another salient east of that mentioned above. Between June 9 and 13, in order to connect the apices of these salients they had attempted to widen this salient to the west, in the Montdidier-Noyonoperation.
When, on July 15, the enemy began this his final offensive, the first phase of the second battle of the Marne β usually spoken of as the Champagne-Marne defensive β American troops were interspersed with the French on the front attacked. East of the 26th Division was the French 39th Division, with the 56th Brigade, 26th Division, in support, and beyond it was the American 3d Division holding the south bank of the Marne for 12 km. Continuing the line eastward was the French th Division, with the 55th Brigade, American 28th Division, in support.
The brunt of this offensive, so far as American troops were concerned, fell upon the 3d Division, while the French were attacked to the right of that division and in the Champagne sector. Some small units of the American 4th and 28th Divisions gained front line service with our troops or with the French, 1 the 26th Division had a moderate number of casualties, 5 and five of the battalions of the 42d Division and all of its artillery soon became engaged. The enemy had encouraged his soldiers to believe that the attack of July 15 would conclude the war, with a German peace.
Although he made. On the Champagne front the actual hour for the assault was known. After a violent artillery preparation by both explosive and gas shells lasting four hours in the Marne area, the German infantry attacked early in the morning of July Southwest of Reims and along the Marne to the east of Chateau-Thierry the Germans were at first somewhat successful, a penetration of 8 km.
The First Army Corps was created by an order dated January 15, On July 4, however, this corps, under control of the French Sixth Army, assumed tactical command of the American 2d and 26th and the French th Divisions, and of the front held by the two last mentioned. Corps headquarters were then at Chateau de Lagny. In the Champagne-Marne operation, tactical command of the First Corps consisted of the American 26th and the French th Divisions, and 2d then having been assigned to the Third Army Corps, preparatory to the offensive of July, With the creation of the First Corps its surgeon began so to organize his office that it would include departments corresponding to similar elements of the offices of the division surgeons, with a view to promoting coordination.
