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The Final Stages of the War: the Russian Revolution 645 Northwest of that town they forced back, early in June, the picked troops of the kaiser sent against them. In these conflicts the American marines were especially conspicuous. 1164. The German Tide Turned. During the following weeks the Germans lost tens of thousands of men in minor engagements and, finally, on July 15, 1918, made a last great effort to take Rheims and force their way to Paris, but this drive was speedily turned into a retreat. During the following month the combined efforts of the French and Americans served to drive the Germans far back from the Marne and put an end to their hopes of advanc- ing on Paris. The French gen- eral Mangin warmly praised the valor of the Americans during these " splendid" days when it was his privilege to fight with them "for the de- liverance of the world." Then the British began an offensive on the Somme, east and south of Amiens. By the end of September the Germans had been pressed back to the old Hinden- burg line ; this was even pierced at some points, and the Allied troops were within a few miles of the Lorraine boundary. 1165. American Soldiers in the Last Phase. The American troops in France, numbering slightly over two million men before the armistice was signed, on November n, 1918, were scattered along the whole Western Front, and it is estimated that nearly one million four hundred thousand actually took part in the fearful struggle against the Germans. 1 It is impossible to mention 1 The United States proposed to have at least four million men in France by June 30, 1919. The limits of the draft were extended so as to include all able-bodied men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. From a painting by J. F. Bouchor GENERAL PERSHING