Battle of Marne 1918, World War I was the Pivotal Battle, allied troops blunted the German advance and started the counter offensive that would win the war. It also shaped the legend and character of the modern American military-especially Marines and signaled the arrival of the United States as a modern Military power. General John J. Pershing also known as “Black Jack” fought under the French command, the Americans thrown into combat United States Army Third Infantry Division fought so ferociously they earned the name “Rock of the Marne”. General Pershing rejected the French and British demands to amalgamate his troops into their depleted armies. His idea was to form an independent American army before committing any U.S troops to battle and stuck to his position in spite of enormous diplomatic pressure from Allied politicians. In the month of August General Pershing opened his first Army headquarters and the following month September 12, about 500,000 Americans attacked the St. Mihiel salient and erased the bulge that was in the French lines. The Germans already made plans to abandon this. Technology for American soldiers was advancing slowly. Technology developments in the late 18th century made artillery and machine guns. This created a deadly zone of fire in front of the defenders. They were required to dig trenches and machine gun placements, this would in return protect the men from enemy shelling allowing them to fire back at the enemy without exposing themselves. More new weapons were introduced during the war; for example poison gas in 1915 and tanks 1916, everything became unpredictable. As the weapons advanced in the 19th century, World War I was apparently a little bit more advance than the previous wars. Life on the lines was overwhelming, the men found themselves living outside for days or weeks on end, with limited shelter from cold, wind, rain and snow in the winter or for the heat from the summer sun. There wasn’t much landscape from the artillery, the removed trees, buildings and churning up mud in some areas. Soldiers spent most of their time waiting around and in some quiet sectors there was not a lot of real fighting going on. Sort of an informal truce could develop between the two sides. There is a place in between the lines called “No Man’s Land”. This was an open space between two enemy lines that no soldier ever wanted to walk into because they fear of an attack. The climate in France and Belgium was quite we, so “No Man’s Land” soon became a mud bath, it was so thick that soldiers could disappear into the mud and never been seen again. While the trenches protected them from being exposed to enemy fire, there was a bit of hell with the trenches. Millions of rats invaded them as well. A pair of rodents could produce about 900 babies a year in a trench conditions. Attempts to kill them were futile. When the men was given the order to attack they had to climb out of the trenches with their heavy weapons and equipment. Depending on the weather that day, I couldn’t imagine how easy this would be for them. To act quickly to prevent themselves from being exposed. Never the less they had to push forward through enemy’s “Field of fire”. Jumping and crawling over barbed wires and trying to keep low to stay safe. The method of attack to reach the enemies front line was to go through there trenches and approach them with bayonets and attack them directly. This move were unsuccessful and victorious attacks were rare. The casualties were extremely high; killed and wounded. The attackers had the most casualties than the defenders did. The offenders by this point was exhausted from carrying the artillery and machines crawling under barbed wire to accomplish this attach. The defenders at this point have been in the same position for some time and are expecting the fight to come to them. Understanding why this is unsuccessful and successful attacks are rare. The defenders were ready. Both sides face the same problems with the trenches with rats and weather changes. When given the order they have to gather up what they have left all the energy and push though the fear and follow through.