 With the collapse of Russia into revolution and civil war, the Germans now have an opportunity. They can begin shifting forces from the Eastern Front to the West. This is going to come to fruition with the launching of the German spring offensives. So the Germans are going to launch the offensive on 21 March 1918. The idea is that Ludendorff, who is the de facto head of the German Army, wants to launch a series of offensives designed to separate the Allies, at which point the French would have to sue for peace and the coming American troops would be rendered mute. The Germans are going to utilize a new technique that they have been developing called infiltration tactics. They are training your soldiers in rapid maneuver warfare to where instead of what had been a typical war one battle where you have a preparatory artillery barrage, perhaps several days, followed by a general advance all across the line looking to push the enemy out and just gain terrain. What infiltration does is these are highly trained infantry who are going to be advancing rapidly, bypassing initial strong points and then moving into the enemy's rear and then turning to disrupt their ability to react to the offensive and then follow on units will take the front line. Utilizing infiltration tactics, utilizing the buildup of forces, they are going to launch the first offensive, which is known as Michael. It is wildly successful. They come slamming across the junction point between the British and the French forces almost annihilating it and the British are going to be forced to fall back roughly 30 to 40 kilometers. It's a tremendous success for the Germans. Wundorf sees that he has achieved a significant thrust into the line, but the Germans suffer massive casualties in the attack but he's battered the British and he thinks we just need to keep going. So in early April he launches another assault in Flanders near Lice, this is known as Chojet. It's not as significant in terms of gains, but it is significant in that it so threatens the British that you have Hague making his famous fight with her back to the wall speech and they are going to launch the third attack, which is known as Blucher York or Blucher, along the Chemin de Doms in late May. This is a spectacular success. They shatter the French forces, pushing them back another 40 kilometers, driving a deep salient along the western front towards the Marne River. This is going to again throw the Allies into mass chaos. What Pershing is forced to do by the German Offensives is he is forced to commit troops before he's ready and more importantly before the American forces are ready, the American soldiers are ready. They have not completed their training. One of the first things that the Allies do in response to the German offensive is to agree upon a unified chain of command. One of the major problems that had been afflicting the Allies had been a lack of unity of effort. So what they decide is that they need to designate a senior commander. It is going to be the French General Ferdinand Fosch. Fosch is the French Chief of Staff, a well-known, well-respected senior commander within the French Army, but Fosch does not have command authority. The Allied Commander-in-Chief, Sir Douglas Hague for the British Expeditionary Force, Henri-Philippe Picten for the French Army, and John J. Pershing for the Americans. He's given authority to coordinate, but not command. He can insist, but he can't directly order because they maintain the right of appeal to their governments. After the Americans participate in helping the British and French blunt these initial German offenses in 1918, starting in late May, you'll start to see American forces employed in much larger units up to division strength at a place called Tantini, which is in northern France. And in that location, the American First Division conducts the first all-American offensive action of the war, meaning that they have their own specific part of the line and they conduct an attack that takes place on the 28th of May, 1988. The German Army has developed what they call a salient or a bulge in the French line that points westward into the French line. The First Division is sent into the line in mid-May to occupy a section of the French line while the French forces that are there are pulled out and they're sent further south for other offensive actions. And on the 28th of May, a regiment of the American First Division, the 28th Infantry Regiment, will attack at Tantini and they will capture the village in very heavy fighting, hand-to-hand in some places. And they will actually hold on to the sector there at Tantini in the face of incredible losses and they will resist several days of German counterattacks before the Germans essentially give up. And this action is really the first all-American offensive of the war in which the Americans have their own sector of the line. So that is a watershed moment in the war for the First Division and for the AEF in general in that they are demonstrating their ability to conduct a large-scale offensive action with all of the command and control and logistics that would support it. Immediately following that in early June, the Germans launched that other follow-on piece of the offensive around the city of Chateau-Terry, which is on the direct rail line east from Paris out to the French frontier in Metz. The Germans will reach the vicinity of the city of Chateau-Terry and the Marne River and they will begin crossing the Marne River. So this is a point of real danger for the French Army and elements of the AEF will move into combat in the area of Chateau-Terry along the Marne River in June of 1918. The first of these actions will kick off on about the 5th of June with the arrival of a brigade of the U.S. 2nd Division of U.S. Marines in the area of Bello Wood which is just to the west of Chateau-Terry, France. That's a sector of the line that was held by the Germans in their advance where they had basically stopped to refit and rest and prepare for the next phase of their attack towards Paris. The Marine Corps 5th and 6th Regiments of Marines which comprised the 4th Infantry Brigade of the 2nd U.S. Division which is an Army formation will be sent into the fight because they arrive from their training areas for the west and they're deemed ready for combat and will enter into the fight on the 5th of June 1918 around Bello and they will attack a number of villages around Bello Wood and Bello Wood itself and over the next two weeks will engage in vicious hand-to-hand fighting that virtually destroys the two regiments. But at the end of the fight, the Marines will hold Bello Wood. A few days after the fighting begins, an element of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division will move into line in the area of Chateau-Terry to continue the defense of the Marne River line against the Germans. So at this point you have north of the Marne River, you have the German forces pushing south and you have the French and the Americans patching together a defensive line around Chateau-Terry into its east along the Marne River. The 3rd Division will go into line east of Chateau-Terry but including the city of Chateau-Terry and a small element of the 7th Machine Gun Battalion of the 3rd Division will occupy positions in Chateau-Terry itself in the buildings south of the Marne River and they will defeat the German attacks toward the city and trying to capture the bridges over the Marne River. These actions combined will give the 3rd Division its nickname the Rock of the Marne and they will defend the Marne River throughout the rest of June and into July of 1918. The German offenses have begun to slow down and to halt by the beginning of June. Exhaustion is a major reason for this. German troops are combat weary. They've been at the front weather on the west or the east for four years now and much of their personnel is simply the dregs. Individuals who are exceptionally young or exceptionally old have been forced into uniform. That's really the reason why at the beginning of June the German offensive stops. Afterwards the Americans launch their assault at Bello Wood. The Germans will launch their final offensive on the western front on July 15th along the Marne River and that offensive is stopped almost immediately. Now there are a number of reasons for the Germans' exhaustion. One is simply long-term physical fatigue. Another is influenza and illness. It affects the German army quite significantly. Beginning in the late spring and early summer of 1918, you can see this in the German official records that dozens and then hundreds of German troops are out of combat at any given time simply because of illness. This also has to do as a result of malnutrition and of exhaustion. But German morale is also collapsing by this point. There's a sense that they are very unlikely to win the war. General Erich Ludendorff notices a number of occasions where attacking German forces simply break down even without significant resistance on the part of the western allies and they begin looting and refuse to obey their officers. So there is a definite sense of exhaustion. However, it's important to emphasize that the core of the German army remains very professional, remains very determined and they will remain very tough, very formidable in defense through the summer and autumn of 1918. Taking a tipping point, for roughly three months the Germans have the initiative. They are continuing to attack. They're battering the allied line, but at the same time they're also battering their own forces, decimating the German army on the western front. The moment is fast approaching where unless they achieve victory, the German army will not be able to maintain this anymore. And with the continued arrival of the Americans, the allies are only getting stronger.