Aisne. The Germans everywhere began their retreat and the war tide
had turned.

The German attack east of Rheims had been a failure from the start. The
Allied forces retired about two miles and then held firm. The country
there is flat and sandy and gave little shelter to the attacking forces
which lost terribly. In this sector, too, there were many American
troops, who behaved with distinguished bravery.

By this time nearly seven hundred thousand men of the American army were
on the battle line. They had been fighting here and there among the
French and English but on June 22d General March made the announcement
that five divisions of these troops had been transferred to the direct
command of General Pershing as a nucleus for an American army.

In glancing back at the great German drives which have now been
described, one is impressed by the terrific character of the fighting.
This struggle undoubtedly was the greatest exertion of military power in
the history of the world. Never before had such masses of munitions been
used; never before had scientific knowledge been so drawn on in the
service of war. Thousands of airplanes were patrolling the air,
sometimes scouting, sometimes dropping bombs on hostile troops or on
hostile stores, sometimes flying low, firing their machine guns into the
faces of marching troops. Thousands upon thousands of great guns were
sending enormous projectiles, which made great pits wherever they fell.
Swarms of machine guns were pouring their bullets like water from a hose
upon the charging soldiers.

One of the most noticeable artillery developments was the long-range gun
which off and on during this period was bombarding Paris. This
bombardment began on March 23d, when the nearest German line was more
than sixty-two miles away. For a time the story was regarded as pure
fiction, but it was soon established that the great nine-inch shells
which were dropping into the city every twenty minutes came from the
forests of St. Gobain, seven miles back of the French trenches near
Laon, and about seventy-five miles from Paris. This was another of those
futile bits of frightfulness in which the Germans reveled. Military
advantage gained by such a gun was almost nothing, and the expense of
every shot was out of all proportion to the damage inflicted. It only
roused intense indignation and stirred the Allies to greater
determination. The first day's casualties in Paris were ten killed and
fifteen