Second Battle of the Marne, in WWI

choi

Jim Yardley, 马恩河之役，美军在现代战场上崭露头角. 纽约时报中文网, Nov 3, 2014
cn.nytimes.com/world/20141103/c03wwi-marne/en-us/

, which is translated from

Jim Yardley, Where the Americans Turned the Tide of World War I. New York Times, June 27, 2014
(“World War I was the first time an American army had fought in a European war”)

Note:
(a) Battle of the Marne
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Marne

(b) “the Second Battle of the Marne is considered the pivotal battle of the First World War, as Allied troops blunted the German advance and started the counteroffensive that would ultimately win the war. It also became the battle that helped shape the legend and character of the modern American military, especially the Marines, and signaled the arrival of the United States as a modern military power. * * * It marked the start of an era in which the United States would become the guarantor of security in Western Europe and eventually the world’s lone superpower.”
(i) In Second Battle of the Marne (July 15-Aug 6, 1918), allies (France, Italy, UK and US) first blunted a German offensive (“Spring Offensive,” Mar 21-July 18, 1918), followed by a counteroffensive after July 18. Allied then pursued Germans in Hundred Days Offensive (Aug 8- Nov 11, 1918 (the Armistice Day)).
(ii) American doughboys might have engaged on a small scale with allies counterparts against German, but Americans participated in major battles starting with Second Battle of the Marne (the Wiki page under that title has a table indicating US threw in eight divisions).

American Expeditionary Forces
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expeditionary_Forces
(American Army and Marine Corps troops played a key role in helping stop the German thrust towards Paris, during the Second Battle of the Marne)


(c) “Michael S Neiberg, a professor at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pa”
(i) United States Army War College is located at Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlisle,_Pennsylvania
(an exurb of Harrisburg, [capital of] Pennsylvania)
(ii) United States Army War College
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_War_College
(The Army War College is one of the three senior service colleges of the US Department of Defense, joined by the Naval War College [at Newport, Rhode Island] for the US Navy and Air War College [at Montgomery, Alabama] for the US Air Force)

choi

(d) “The battlefield on which the American Century arguably began is bucolic today. The Marne River flows placidly westward until it joins the Seine en route to Paris. The killing fields of World War I are now pastoral and immaculate, rolling green and yellow quilts of wheat and canola, or hillsides covered with the neatly manicured rows of vineyards in the Champagne region.”
(i)
(A) Marne (river)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marne_(river)
("The Celts of Gaul worshipped a goddess known as Dea Matrona ('divine mother goddess') who was associated with the Marne")
* View the map.
* Some therefore suggest Marne meant “mother.”

(B) Richard Stephen Charnock, Local Etymology; A derivative dictionary of geographical names. at page 176
books.google.com/books?id=I2BulY4WvsYC&pg=PA176&lpg=PA176&dq=marne+river+etymology&source=bl&ots=BcyNxDp_e3&sig=2e7FGb14u45Q7w1pDlOZVYlVCPc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xRJYVO3KDsXbsATdm4KACw&ved=0CDgQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=marne%20river%20etymology&f=false
("MARNE,  a river in France. Armstrong derives the name from Gael. marbh-an, 'the dead water.'  In Low L., however, this name is found written Matrona and Mæterna, and in A.S. Mæterne and Meaterne")
* For Armstrong, see Dr Robert Armstrong (1788-1867) - Gaelic Lexicographer. BBC, 2008
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/mak ... hist10_prog3a.shtml
(“he made his mark with his magnum opus, a Gaelic dictionary - the first ever published”)

He is noted for
RA Armstrong, A Gaelic Dictionary, in two parts — I. Gaelic and English, II. English and Gaelic — in which the words, in their different acceptations, are illustrated by quotations from the best Gaelic writers, London: James Duncan, 1825
* For “Low L.” see Late Latin
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Latin
(section 1.4 Low Latin)
* A. S. = Anglo-Saxon (“ABBREVIATIONS” at pages ix and x, at the beginning of the book)
(ii) Champagne (historical province)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champagne_(historical_province)

Quote:

"Most of Champagne [gives rise to] four departments: Ardennes, Aube, Haute-Marne, and Marne.

"The name Champagne comes from the Latin campania and referred to the similarities between the rolling hills of the province and the Italian countryside of Campania located south of Rome.

(A) Campania
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campania
(The name of Campania itself is derived from Latin, as the Romans knew the region as Campania felix, which translates into English as "fertile countryside")
(B) Both Champagne/Campania and English noun campaign comes from the same Latin word campania, which in turn was derived from Latin noun masculine campus open field, plain.

campaign (n; read etymology)
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/campaign

choi

(e) “Overlooking Château-Thierry is the monument commemorating the Americans who fought at the Marne. Outside the city are two American military cemeteries — the Aisne-Marne and the Oise-Aisne, both maintained by the United States government — which together have rows of white tombstones for more than 9,000 men and women who were sent off to a distant war and never came back.”

Château-Thierry
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau-Thierry

(f) “The United States entered World War I in 1917 with an untested force whose leader, General John J. Pershing, nicknamed ‘Black Jack,’ was opposed to fighting under a French command. He relented when the Germans began major offensives in the spring of 1918 to try to win the war before the Allies could gather strength from the arriving American forces. They [Germans] retook an important ridge position at the Chemin des Dames, and then blitzed another 40 or 50 miles to the banks of the Marne [that set the stage for Second Battle of the Marne].”
(i) Chemin des Dames
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemin_des_Dames
(literally, the "ladies' path;" It acquired the name in the 18th century, as it was the route taken by the two daughters of Louis XV, Adélaïde and Victoire, who were known as Ladies of France)
(ii) French English dictionary
* chemin (noun masculine): "path, way"
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chemin
* dame (noun feminine; Latin noun feminine domina lady; domina is feminine of dominus): “lady”
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dame
* des (contraction of de + les): "of the, from the"
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/des