at which crowned with laurel the American arms at Chateau-Thierry.
Here the American Marines and divisions comprising both volunteers and
selected soldiers, were thrown before the German tide of invasion like a
huge khaki-colored breakwater. Germany knew that a test of its empire
had come. To break the wall of American might it threw into the van of
the attack the Prussian Guard backed by the most formidable troops of
the German and Austrian empires. The object was to put the fear of the
Hun into the hearts of the Yankees, to overwhelm them, to drive straight
through them as the prow of a battleship shears through a heavy sea. If
America could be defeated, Germany's way to a speedy victory was at
hand. If America held--well, that way lay disaster.

And the Americans held. Not only did they hold but they counter-attacked
with such bloody consequences to the German army that Marshal Foch,
seizing the psychological moment for his carefully prepared
counter-offensive, gave the word for a general attack.

With Chateau-Thierry and the Marne as a hinge, the clamp of the Allies
closed upon the defeated Germans. From Switzerland to the North Sea the
drive went forward, operating as huge pincers cutting like chilled steel
through the Hindenburg and the Kriemhild lines. It was the beginning of
autocracy's end, the end of Der Tag of which Germany had dreamed.

The matchless Marines and the other American troops suffered a loss that
staggered America. It was a loss, however, that was well worth while.
The heroic young Americans who held the might of Germany helpless and
finally rolled them back defeated from the field of battle, and who paid
for that victory with their lives, made certain the speedy end of the
world's bloodiest war.

The story of the American army's effective operations in France from
Cantigny to the reduction of the St. Mihiel salient, is one long record
of victories. To the glory of American arms must be recorded the fact
that at no time and at no place in the World War did the American forces
retreat before the German hosts.

In the latter days of May, 1918, the Allied forces in France seemed near
defeat. The Germans were steadily driving toward Paris. They had swept
over the Chemin des Dames and the papers from day to day were
chronicling wonderful successes. The Chemin des Dames had been regarded
as impregnable, but the Germans passed it apparently without the
slightest difficulty. They were advancing on a