The Champagne-Marne Defensive occurred at a crucial moment in World War I and proved to be the turning point of the war. The Germans wanted to conduct a final offensive that would defeat the French Army and threaten Paris, causing the French to sue for peace. Fought on two fronts west and east of the strategic French city of Rheims, the Germans put the weight of their offensive on the eastern front where two German armies totaling twenty-five divisions would attempt to breakthrough the Allied lines. Defending that sector of the Allied lines were only two French divisions and one American division. That American division was the 42nd, the famous Rainbow Division, consisting of National Guardsmen from twenty-six different states. Untested and new, many in the American Expeditionary Force and French Fourth Army doubted their ability to hold back the German onslaught. However, these National Guardsmen, along with their French allies, not only held their ground, they also the handed the enemy a devastating defeat that proved crucial to the outcome of the war.
