Kaiserschlacht

[Subdeacon Joe]

 

 

First Over There

lMarngch 2tSpo0n,sofiregcmdn hi201f8cce  · Simpson, NC  · 

103 years ago, on the morning of March 21, 1918, a storm of high-explosive shells from over 6,000 German guns struck the British lines across a 50-mile front in the valley of the Somme. The bombardment was so intense, an officer 40 miles away liked the roar to "a surf of ten thousand breakers on an uneven shore."

It was the opening fire of the first round of Kaiserschlacht, Germany's grand offensive, concentrating an attack by 64 German divisions against 2 dozen British divisions. The offensive was General Ludendorff's attempt to knock the Allies out of the war before American troops could arrive in sufficient numbers to tip the scales.

On the first day, German troops advanced over 4 miles and took over 20,000 prisoners. By the third day, they had punched 12 miles deep and were close enough to bombard Paris. Within a week, German forces captured over 90,000 Allied prisoners and pushed the Western Front 40 miles west.

It was in the face of this great crisis that General Pershing postponed his plan for an all-American portion of the front and offered French General Ferdinand Foch "all that I have," resulting in the US 1st Division being sent to the westernmost point of the German thrust, a small hilltop farming village named Cantigny. Two months later, the soldiers of the "Fighting First" would retake Cantigny from the German Army and hold it against seven German counterattacks, pushing the Western Front east again and winning for America its first battle of the World War.

[Trailrider #896]

French officer to a U.S. Marine officer, "Le Boche! Retreat!"  Replied the Marine, "Retreat, Hell! We just got here!"