TheCodeBreakers
Initially the
Germans took the little villages of Mery and Courcelles, but on June 11,
General Charles Mangin counterattacked with five divisions and all the
elan the French could muster. He stopped the German advance cold and
then swept the gray tide out of the two villages. Again the Germans
heaved forward in a great effort. They failed with heavy losses. For the
first time that spring, Ludendorff suspended an operation before it had
achieved its goal. Mangin, wearing his gold-brocaded kepi, laughed
beneath the guns of victory. Foch, who realized that other German
assaults would come and that he would have to defend against them,
knew at last that he would some day take the offensive. He knew then
that the war was not lost, and could eventually be won. Within a few
weeks, the final German thrusts did come, but they had run out of
steam, and the French parried them. Soon the initiative passed to the
Allies, bolstered by the Americans, and their powerful counterstrokes
annaabi.ee 
