CHATEAU-THIERRY (sha-to' tye-re'), FRANCE. As long as the history of the World War of 1914-18 lives the name of Château-Thierry will call to mind the most critical period of that vast conflict, the months of June and July, 1918, when the power of Germany spent itself in a last vain drive for Paris, and the Allies began the eastward march which was to end beyond the banks of the Rhine.
Château-Thierry lies on the River Marne, 47 miles in a straight line east and slightly north of Paris.
With Reims, 32 miles farther east on the Vesle River, and Soissons, 23 miles to the north on the Aisne, Chateau-Thierry forms a great triangle commanding the railway and river approaches to Paris.
Into this triangle the Germans had thrust their forces on May 27, taking Soissons and occupying Chateau-Thierry on June 1. How they were later caught on the north flank by the French and Ameri can troops, and forced to a hasty retreat, is told elsewhere. (See Marne River; World War of 1914-18.) The first telling stroke was delivered by the 7th machine gun battalion of the Third Division of the American army, which had been rushed in by motor cars to aid the weary French troops. It arrived in time to hold the Chateau-Thierry bridge over the Marne, and the word was cabled to all parts of the world that the Americans had saved Paris. The Marines and "regulars" of the Second Division three days later (June 6) began that brilliant action in Belleau Wood, northwest of ChAteau-Thierry, which brought them such great renown. After a lull of several weeks, American troops about Chateau Thierry entered in the general counter-attack which swept the Germans out of the triangle.
Château-Thierry today is a small city of about 12,000 people. Its inhabitants inherit from their ancestors a faculty for repairing the ravages of war, for ever since the 15th century their little town has been sacked and destroyed every hundred years or so. The poet La Fontaine was born there in 1621.
On the top of a nearby hill are the ruins of a castle, said to have been built by Charles Martel for the Frankish king Thierry IV, from which the town received its name.