"It is the last five percent of possible exertion that often wins the battle." Brigadier Gen. Hanson Ely's statement best exemplifies the efforts of his troops as part of the allied contingent at the Battle of Soissons, July 18-22, 1918. At a cost of more than twelve thousand soldiers and marines dead, wounded, and missing, American troops struck the Germans with such force that the Germans lost the initiative for the remainder of the war.
"""Soissons"," 1918" provides an intricately detailed account of this pivotal battle in which partly trained, inexperienced American soldiers and...