"Lafayette, we are here!"

On this date in 1917, the first American troops arrive in France, at the Atlantic port of Saint-Nazaire. The Americans were derided by the veteran Brits and French as being too unexperienced, and General John J. Pershing, the commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), put his troops through a strict training program for the next four months. However, when the first American troops entered into combat on the Western Front in late October, they took heavy casualties from German attacks. This worried the Allied high command, who feared a disaster in the spring when the Germans would likely launch a massive offensive. This was realized on March 21, 1918, when the Germans launched Operation Michael, the beginning of their Spring Offensive. They initially attacked the railway junction at Amiens, capturing it after taking heavy casualties from British troops. The Germans then launched Operation Georgette, their drive to seize the Channel ports of Calais, Boulogne, and Dunkirk, on April 4. Although they suffered large losses here as well, by April 12 the Germans were in posession of Boulogne, thereby cutting off the other two major ports to the north. This was a huge blow to the Allies, as a large number of their munitions and other supplies came in from Britain through these ports. On March 27, the Germans launched Operation Blucher-Yorck, an assault towards Paris, between Soissons and Reims. This was a huge success, with almost the entire Allied front collapsing. The Germans were almost in Paris by June 1 when they encountered the American 2nd and 3rd Divisions at the Belleau Wood. In an extremely vicious and bloody battle, the Germans forced the US Marines in the wood to retreat, one of the few in the Marines' history. By June 4 the Germans were on the outskirts of Paris and were firing artillery on targets throughout the city. Although the Germans had by this point suffered extreme casualties during the offensive, they were determined to take Paris and drove into the city on June 8, marching down the Champs-Elysees.