Over There with the Marines at Chateau Thierry

The young men of the American Expeditionary Forces arrived in France in 1918 with more enthusiasm than understanding of what awaited them. This is their story, rendered in the breathless, urgent prose of an era that still believed in heroes. Top Sergeant Phil Speed and his companion Timothy Turner ride toward the front lines near Chateau Thierry as the thunder of battle grows louder, and the reality of war begins to replace the patriotic fervor that had carried them across the Atlantic. The excitement fades. The cheering crowds thin. In its place comes something older and more primal: the silence of men preparing to face death. Ralphson, writing while the war's memory was still fresh, captures a pivotal moment in American history. These were the first American troops to engage the German army in significant numbers, young men from farms and factories suddenly thrust into the modern industrial slaughter. The book preserves not just the battles but the texture of that extraordinary year, when America discovered what it meant to send its sons to fight in a foreign land.