United States campaigns in World War I

No large American units were in the immediate vicinity of this action, although the 1st Division at Cantigny was subjected to artillery fire and diversionary raids.

In the four great offensives from 21 March to 13 June 1918 the Germans gained considerable ground, but failed to achieve a decisive advantage at any point on the front.

Their more than 600,000 casualties were irreplaceable, whereas the Allied loss of some 800,000 men was soon more than compensated for by new American units arriving at the front in ever-mounting numbers.

The first of the new drives was designed to capture Rheims, to make more secure the supply of the Merge salient, and to draw in Allied reserves.

Foch had time to draw up reserves, and Petain, the French commander, skillfully deployed his troops in defense-in-depth tactics.

The German people had built up great hopes for the success of this Friedensturm (peace offensive); its failure was a tremendous psychological blow to the whole nation.

In late August and early September the British Second and Fifth Armies, assisted by the American II Corps (27th and 30th Divisions), wiped out the Lys salient.

When the Germans began retiring in the sector south of the Lys in October to shorten their lines, King Albert's army group attacked along its entire front.

In mid-October Pershing dispatched two American divisions – the 37th and 91st – to the French Army of Belgium, at Foch's request, to give impetus to the drive to cross the Scheldt (Escaut) southwest of Ghent.

Two American soldiers storm a bunker past the bodies of two German soldiers during World War I. Digitally restored.
World War I Campaign Streamer.
US Marines in Belleau Wood, 1918.
Men of the 369th Infantry Regiment in action at Séchault on 29 September 1918 during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. [ 2 ]
U.S. soldiers of 2nd Division engaged in combat in the Argonne Forest.
The congestion of traffic on roads back of the American lines in the Argonne is, at certain places, so great that the streams of vehicles are not able to move faster than two miles an hour. This scene, in the ruins of Esnes, is typical.
Mr. Samuel Gompers , American labor leader, shaking hands with doughboys in the trenches in the sector held by the Americans on the Piave front, near Maserada sul Piave , Italy, October 1918.