The Second Battle of the Marne (French: 2e Bataille de la Marne), or Battle of Reims (15 July to 6 August 1918) was the last major German Spring Offensive on the Western Front during World War I. It failed when an Allied counterattack 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 ...
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The Second Battle of the Marne (French: 2e Bataille de la Marne), or Battle of Reims (15 July to 6 August 1918) was the last major German Spring Offensive on the Western Front during World War I. It failed when an Allied counterattack 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 British Expeditionary Force (BEF), the most potent Allied force on the Western Front at that time. To shield his intentions and draw Allied troops away from Belgium, Ludendorff planned for a large diversionary attack along the Marne.
The battle began on 15 July when 23 German divisions of the First and Third armies, led by Bruno von Mudra and Karl von Einem, assaulted the French Fourth Army under Henri Gouraud east of Reims (the Fourth Battle of...
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