June 13, 191 8 
and while there was 
yet a chance of the 
enemy's continuing 
his tide southward. 
Jaulgonne was 
the second and 
almost equally con- 
spicuous example of 
our advantage in 
the growing Ameri- 
can aid, though 
that aid is, as yet, 
• confined to com- 
paratively - small 
units. It was again 
the American 
machine ■ - gunners 
who, according to 
the French dis- 
patches, must prin- 
cipally be praised 
for the result. 
Just as the main 
road and crossing 
is by Chateau- 
Thierry, so the 
second road and 
crossing are at Jaul- 
gonne. There are 
«ven at Jaulgonne 
better geographical 
opportunities for 
crossing than at 
Chateau - Thierry. 
There is here a 
great b€4id of thb 
river northward, 
nearly 3,000 yards 
deep bv not much 
more than two and 
a half thou^nd 
across. The south- 
ern or defending 
side is flat, and 
dominated by 
abrupt and high 
hills upon the 
northern side, which 
Land & Water 
General Foch 
aid the crossing. The fire of the enemy from the north 
attempting the crossing can converge everywhere upon the 
flat floor below within the bend. This floor carries the 
main railway from Paris to the east, with the railway 
station in the middle of the plain on the edge of the 
southern rise. . 
The active force at the head of the body destined by the 
enemy to cross the river here was the 175th Regiment. I am 
inclined to believe that a crossing was scheduled to be made 
here at the same time as at Chateau-Thierry, although the 
attempt was made twenty-four hours afterwards on Monday, 
June 3rd. There could not have been time for a mere after- 
thought. Everything had been carefully prepared. The 
funny old suspension bridge at Jaulgonne (which many of 
my readers must have seen from the train on their way from 
Paris eastward) had, of course, been blown up. I have seen 
no account of this, but I take it for granted. 
Meanwhile, the enemy had come down to the water's edge 
with apparatus long prepared for the crossing of the Marne : 
Narrow bridges formed like extensible ladders, supported, 
by small floats, and taking two men abre^t. Their converg- 
ing fire from the heights round the bend, coupled with the 
smallness of the numbers that could be gathered for the mo- 
ment to oppose them, permitted the crossing of the river. 
No less than 22 of these light bridges were thrown across. 
About a battalion of the three battalions of the 175th of the 
German Line was poured into the horseshoe flat to form a 
bridge-head, behind which the mass of the army could follow, 
and the fortified front of this bridge-head was to be the 
station into which a company was put with half a dozen 
machine-guns, while the rest followed -on. The French 
counter-attack was organised at once. There was nothing 
ready but cavalry, which attempted to rush the station, 
and was badly checked by the machine-guns. A small body 
of French infantry, which was trying to get round the station 
by the right, was temp rarily held up by the enemy. But 
immediately afterwards a company of American machine- 
gunners arrived, both drew and mastered the fire of the Ger- 
mans in the station, and gave the opportunity for the French 
infafltry to work round by the right, and the bridge-head was 
destroyed. Of the 
thousand men or so 
who had already 
crossed, all but per- 
haps sixty or seventy 
disappeared. A few 
got away by swim- 
ming. Two boat-loads 
reached the northern 
shore without being 
sunk. One hundred 
surrendered near the 
statipn, and the at- 
tempt to estabMsh a 
bridge-head south of 
the Marne failed. 
This small action 
is exceedingly signifi- 
cant. It proves the 
long-prepared plan of 
crossing the Marne, 
the well - calculated 
moment, for it would 
be apparently im- 
possible for the Allies 
to bring up their men 
in strength in time to 
prevent such a cross- 
ing : above all, the 
great value of the 
comparatively small 
American units thus 
rapidly embrigaded 
with the French. 
The third example 
I have taken is three 
days later, and con- 
sists in the advance, 
not of American 
machine-gunners this 
time, but of American 
infantry, supported 
by machine-guns, at 
Torcy on Thursday, 
June 6th. On that 
day the whole Allied 
line advanced from 
Veuilly La Poterie to 
the outskirts of Chateau-Thierry. At Veuilly, on the extreme 
left, and on Hill 204, overlooking Chateau-Thierry on the 
extreme right, the work was entirely French, and does not, 
for the moment, concern me. But the work in the centre, 
in front of Torcy, was largely American, and there was here 
an advance down the slopes and through the small woods 
of nearly a mile. The moment has an historical significance 
as great as those of the crossings of the Marne, but of another 
kind. For the first time in this great campaign, American 
infantry in considerable numbers have engaged in an offensive 
action, and have gone forward. 
Postscript Tuesday morning, June izth. 
The dispatches of Monday night show that the enemy has 
succeeded in turning the main part of the Lassigny Massif, 
and thus mastering the principal natural obstacle between 
himself and the Oise River above Compiegne. He has been 
fighting on a front of some 12 divisions or more, and has 
been renewing that front at the rate of 5 or 6 divisions a day. 
He has therefore put in over 20 divisions in the first forty- 
eight hours— perhaps even 24 or 25. But we must remember 
that the frorit involves a much smaller proportion of his 
total available force than did the main offensive of two 
months ago, and that if he puts in his full 50 available divi- 
sions for this action alone he has materials for a very pro- 
longed effort, before the close of which he could recruit and 
send in aenin units alroarlv iisfd. 
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