The Second Battle of the Marne took place in July and August 1918 and saw Germany's last advance of the Spring Offensive rebuffed by a strong Allied counterattack. With hundreds of thousands of US troops landing in Europe each month and with hundreds of new tanks at their disposal, the Allied divisions - including French, British, US, Italian, Canadian, and Australian troops - pushed the German Army into what became a permanent retreat.
Dense forests and deep snow force armies onto narrow roads, and disrupting those roadways can shape the battle. In northern Finland today, soldiers are still training for that reality as they prepare for a potential future fight in the Arctic. Business Insider recently traveled to the snow-blanketed Lapland region and observed the Finnish Army's elite Jaeger Brigade in action as it led roughly 20 NATO soldiers through an annual Arctic warfare and cold-weather survival course.
Ministers in Germany and France shot back at US President Donald Trump on for his comments claiming that the US had "never needed" its European NATO allies despite it being the only NATO member in history to invoke the mutual defense clause Article 5 and alleging that non-US troops in Afghanistan had "stayed a little back" from the frontlines. Germany's Defense MinsterBoris Pistorius said Trump should apologize, while also implying that he was not exactly holding his breath.
The aim of the Allied commander in this part of the Western Front, Field Marshal Haig, was to break out of the Ypres salient and recapture key Belgian ports and a railway junction vital to the German Army. After unusually heavy and persistent rains, the battlefield turned into a horrific sea of mud and water-filled shell holes, which reduced the advance to just a few miles.
The First Battle of the Marne, fought between 6 and 10 September 1914, was a major and successful Allied counterattack against the German invasion of French territory the previous August. Often referred to as the 'Miracle of the Marne', the French and British armies rallied to exploit a split in the German lines and impose a strategic defeat on the enemy. Although it looked very likely at the end of August, France did not fall, and Paris was saved. The significance of the Battle of the Marne was that German hopes for a quick and decisive victory were shattered within six weeks of the conflict beginning.
It was still early in the morning when a rain of fire fell on the forts and trenches of Verdun. With 300 trainloads of ammunition, the Germans had been firing their artillery for hours on end. The thundering of cannons could be heard 150 kilometers (93 miles) away. The chief of the German General Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, had given the order to attack the French.
WWII began with most naval powers still believing the battleship ruled the seas. Fleets were built around heavily armored ships with massive guns meant to destroy enemy navies in decisive surface battles. By the war's end, that thinking had changed dramatically. Aircraft carriers could strike targets hundreds of miles away, while submarines choked off supply lines across entire oceans.
