"Every position must be held to the last man.
There must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall and believing in
the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight to the end. The safety
of our homes and the freedom of mankind depend alike upon the conduct of
each one of us at this critical moment." The value of Allied unity of
command now became apparent, for heavy French reinforcements were brought
up in time to help stave off the German drive on the Channel Ports.

But still the demand went up for more men and ships. "Scrap before
shipping every pound that takes tonnage and is not necessary to the
killing of Germans," wrote a French military authority. "Send the most
infantry by the shortest route to the hottest corner. No matter what flag
they fight under, so long as it is an Allied flag." On the 27th of May
the Germans caught Foch by surprise and launched a violent attack on the
Chemin des Dames, between Soissons and Berry-au-Bac. This formed the
third phase of their great offensive. In four days they pushed before
them the tired French divisions, sent into that sector to recuperate, a
distance of fifty kilometers and reached the Marne. Again, as in 1914,
Paris began to empty, fearful of capture. A statement sent to Wilson on
the 2d of June and signed by Clemenceau, Lloyd George, and Orlando, read
as follows: "There is great danger of the war being lost unless the
numerical inferiority of the Allies can be remedied as rapidly as
possible by the advent of American troops.... We are satisfied that
General Foch ... is not over-estimating the needs of the case." Such was
the peril of the Allies. But in the month of May 245,000 Americans had
been landed, and in the following month there were to be 278,000 more.

Previous to June, 1918, the participation of American troops in military
operations had been of comparative unimportance and less for tactical
purposes than as a part of their training. In October, 1917, the First
Division had been sent into trenches on the quiet Lorraine front and had
engaged in raids and counter-raids. Three other divisions, the Second, the
Forty-second, or "Rainbow," and the Twenty-sixth from New England,
followed, and by March, 1918, they were all described by Pershing as
"equal to any demands of battle action." On the 29th of April, the
last-named division was engaged in something more serious than a mere raid
at Seicheprey, near St. Mihiel; the number of prisoners lost indicated
la