It was July 18th: The decisive counter-offensive of the Second Battle of the Marne

On July 18, 1918, after containing the final German offensive launched a few days earlier in Champagne and on the Marne, the Allied armies launched a counter-offensive under the command of General Ferdinand Foch. In the Villers-Cotterêts region, French troops, supported by the first large-scale American contingents as well as British and Italian units, surprised the German forces. The attack marked a major turning point in the First World War: for the first time since the beginning of the conflict, the German army was forced to definitively relinquish the initiative on the Western Front.

Germany's last gamble

In the spring of 1918, Germany attempted to secure a decisive victory before American reinforcements became too numerous. Freed from the Eastern Front after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Bolshevik Russia, its divisions were transferred to France to launch a series of offensives. Beginning on July 15, Erich Ludendorff launched a new attack aimed at crossing the Marne, encircling Reims, and opening the road to Paris. But the French, warned of the enemy's preparations, organized a defense in depth. General Henri Gouraud's troops deliberately withdrew from the front line before halting the German assault with their artillery. After two days of fighting, the offensive failed, giving Foch the opportunity to seize the initiative.

The turning point of the war

On July 18, without artillery preparation to preserve the element of surprise, the Allied armies attacked between Soissons and Château-Thierry. General Charles Mangin led the assault with hundreds of Renault FT tanks, used in such large numbers for the first time, while American divisions actively participated in the breakthrough. The Germans retreated rapidly and gradually abandoned the salient they had captured in the spring. The Allied victory was confirmed in the following weeks, and the Second Battle of the Marne ended on August 6, 1918, with a decisive success. On August 8, during the Battle of Amiens, another setback led Ludendorff to call it "a day of mourning for the German army." From then on, the Kaiser's forces began a retreat that would lead, a few months later, to the armistice of November 11, 1918.