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February 25, 1974

Dear Alice:

That German offensive that seemed so scary on July 15,1918, did not get very far.  On the first day it overran a stretch of territory about twelve miles wide and four or five times deep on the south side of the Marne. Next day we heard that the Germans were being held.  Another day passed, and it seemed likely that the Germans each night were moving men, guns and supplies scross the river for a renewal of their drive.  Maybe they were doing that, but on the 18th they found something else to think about.

On the night of July 17th, after I had gone to sleep, a guard came to our quarters and woke me.  He also woke Howard Douglas, a first lieutant of infantry who was our chief observer.  We were to report to the squardron office.  We dressed and went.  It was nearly midnight.  At the office we found Littauer, our adjutant Powers, and a colonel whose name I have forgotten.  He was American, but he came from the headquarters of General Mangin, the French commander of the allied army operating on the west face of the Chateau-Thierry salient. It was a mixed army of French and American units.  Normally orders to us would have been transmitted through a corps or divisional staff, but our squadron had not yhet been assigned to any such subordinate unit.  So the messenger had been sent to us directly.  He began by saying that the allies were about to launch an attack next morning onthe whold Chateau-Thierry salent. 

That was surprising as well as exciting.  The allies had been on the defensive ever since I had arived in France, and I had ^[[to think]] of that as the natural and normal state of affairs. But the Germans around Chateau-Thierry were in a pocket they had created. ^[[Their]] situation invited a flank attack, and no doubt Foch had long een itching to deliver it.  He had had to wait for the American buildup to give him the necessary manpower.  And now the German drive on the 15th had simply made them more vulnerable.  They had deepened, without widening, the pocket they were in.

One advantage of being an obsever was that you got such briefings as the Colonel gave us. To work intelligently an obsever had to be informed in advance about any offensive operation of his own division and those adjacent to it in line.  The colonel outlined to us th e whole plan of attack of Magin's Army. Most of the attacking