Second Battle of the Marne

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Date	15 July – 6 August 1918
Location	Marne River near Paris, France
Result	Allied victory

Combatants

France

United Kingdom

United States

German Empire

Casualties

168,000

Western Front
Frontiers – Liège – Antwerp – Great Retreat – Race to the Sea – Neuve Chapelle – 2nd Ypres – 2nd Artois – Hill 70 – 3rd Artois – Loos – Verdun – Hulluch – Somme – Arras – Vimy Ridge – 2nd Aisne – Messines – Passchendaele – Cambrai – Michael – Lys – 3rd Aisne – Belleau Wood – 2nd Marne – Château-Thierry – Hamel – Hundred Days

The Second Battle of the Marne, or Battle of Reims, was a major World War I battle fought from July 15 to August 5, 1918, near the Marne River. It was the last major German offensive in the Western Front, and failed when an Allied counter-attack led by French forces overwhelmed the Germans, inflicting severe casualties.

Following the failures of the Spring Offensive to end the war, Erich Ludendorff, Chief Quartermaster-General and virtual military ruler of Germany, believed that an attack through Flanders would give Germany a decisive victory over the BEF, the most potent Allied force on the Western Front at that time. To shield his intentions and draw Allied troops away from Belgium, Erich Ludendorff planned for a large diversionary attack along the Marne.

The battle began on July 15 when 23 German divisions of the First and Third armies, led by Mudra and Einem, assaulted the French Fourth Army under General Gouraud east of Reims. Meanwhile, 17 divisions of the German Seventh Army, under Boehm, aided by the Ninth Army under Eben, attacked the French Sixth Army led by Degoutte to the west of Reims. Ludendorff hoped to split the French in two.

85,000 American troops and large numbers of BEF soldiers joined the French for the battle. The German attack to the east of Reims was stopped on the first day, but the attack to the west broke through the French Sixth Army and advanced nine miles before the French Ninth Army, helped by American, British, and Italian troops, stalled the advance on July 17.

The German failure to break through prompted Ferdinand Foch, the Allied Supreme Commander, to authorize a major counter-offensive on July 18; 24 French divisions, joined by other Allied troops including 8 large US divisions, and 350 tanks attacked the recently formed German salient. The French were entirely successful, with Mangin's Tenth Army and Degoutte's Sixth Army advancing five miles on the first day alone. Berthelot's Fifth Army and Eben's Ninth Army launched additional attacks in the west. The Germans ordered a retreat on July 20 and were forced all the way back to the positions where they had started their Spring Offensives earlier in the year. The Allied counter-attack petered out on August 6 when well-entrenched German troops ground it to a halt.

The disastrous German defeat led to the cancellation of Ludendorff's planned invasion of Flanders and was the first step in a series of Allied victories that ended the war.