]
During our periods of training in the trenches some of our divisions had
engaged the enemy in local combats, the most important of which was
Seicheprey by the Twenty-sixth on April 20, in the Toul sector, but none
had participated in action as a unit. The First Division, which had
passed through the preliminary stages of training, had gone to the
trenches for its first period of instruction at the end of October and
by March 21, when the German offensive in Picardy began, we had four
divisions with experience in the trenches, all of which were equal to
any demands of battle action. The crisis which this offensive developed
was such that our occupation of an American sector must be postponed.
[Sidenote: Pershing offers forces to Foch.]
On March 28 I placed at the disposal of Marshal Foch, who had been
agreed upon as Commander in Chief of the Allied Armies, all of our
forces to be used as he might decide. At his request the first division
was transferred from the Toul sector to a position in reserve at
Chaumont en Vexin. As German superiority in numbers required prompt
action, an agreement was reached at the Abbeville conference of the
Allied premiers and commanders and myself on May 2 by which British
shipping was to transport 10 American divisions to the British Army
area, where they were to be trained and equipped, and additional British
shipping was to be provided for as many divisions as possible for use
elsewhere.
[Sidenote: The First takes Cantigny.
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