Blanc Mont Ridge 1918

A highly illustrated account of the battle for Blanc Mont Ridge in 1918, where the US attackers broke the German line and sent them into headlong retreat in one of the major US victories of World War I. The dominating Blanc Mont Ridge complex in the Champagne region of France was home to some of the most complex German defences on the Western Front. Its heights offered artillery observation that made even approaching the ridge virtually suicidal. Pessimistic about the ability of depleted and demoralized French units to capture the position, Gnral Henri Gouraud was granted the use of two American divisions: the veteran 2nd Indianhead Division, including the 4th (Marine) Brigade, and the untested 36th Arrowhead Division of the Texas and Oklahoma National Guard. This fully illustrated book describes this Allied offensive with American troops in the vanguard, and shows how despite the heavy losses it sustained to both manpower and supporting armour, they eventually forced the Germans to abandon most of the region in one of the largest withdrawals of the war.