that the Germans intended striking on the
following morning. The objectives of the offensive were the French
cities of Epernay and Chalons. The accomplishment of this effort would
have placed the Rheims salient in the hands of the enemy and brought the
German lines southward to positions straddling the Marne, down the
valley of which they would thus be able to launch another offensive on a
straight road to Paris.

The Germans needed considerable strength for this new effort. To muster
the shock divisions necessary for the attack, they had to weaken their
lines elsewhere. The first reserves that they drew for this offensive
were the Prussian Guard divisions which they had been holding in
readiness in back of the weak spot in their line in the
Villers-Cotterets Forest. Those divisions were hurriedly transported
across the base of the V-shaped salient and thrown into the attack to
the east and the southwest of Rheims.

The Germans found the Allied line prepared to receive them. Their
attacking waves were mowed down with terrific machine gun fire from
French and American gunners, while at the same time heavy artillery
barrages played upon the German back areas with deadly effect in the
massed ranks of the reserves. The fighting was particularly vicious. It
was destined to be the Germans' last action of a grand offensive nature
in the entire war.

On the line east of Rheims, the German assault was particularly strong
in one sector where it encountered the sturdy ranks of the Rainbow
Division of United States National Guardsmen, drawn from a dozen or more
different states in the Union. Regiments from Alabama and New York held
the front line. Iowa and Ohio were close in support. In the support
positions, sturdy youngsters from Illinois, Indiana, and Minnesota
manned the American artillery.

The French general commanding the sector had not considered it possible
that this comparatively small American force could withstand the first
onslaught of the Germans. He had made elaborate plans for a withdrawal
to high ground two or three miles southward, from which he hoped to be
able to resist the enemy to greater advantage. But all day long, through
the 15th and the 16th and the 17th of July, those American lines held,
and the advancing waves of German storm troops melted before our guns.
Anticipating a renewal of the attack on the next day, General Gouraud
issued an order on the evening of July 17th. It read:

"_To the French