Where The Tide Turned

: Winning A Cause World War Stories

It is the general impression that the tide of victory set in with

Marshal Foch's splendid movement against the German flank on July 18th.

That movement, it is true, started the irresistible sweep of the wave

which was destined to engulf and destroy the hideous power of

Prussianism. But the tide which gathered and drove forward the waters

out of which that wave arose, had turned before. It turned with and

through the upreme valor of our marines and other American troops in

the first battle at Chateau-Thierry and at Belleau Wood, in the

first week of June.



The American force engaged was small, measured by the standard of

numbers to which we have become accustomed in this war, but the story

of their fighting will remain immortal and in its psychological and

strategic consequences the action will take rank, I believe, among the

decisive battles of the war.



I am not speaking from hearsay. I was in France during the week

preceding that battle, the most anxious and gloomy period, probably, of

the entire war. What I am about to relate is based either on

authoritative information gathered on the spot, or on my own

observations. In telling it, nothing is farther from my thoughts than