<p><b>The riveting true story of America's first modern military battle, its first military victory during World War One, and its first steps onto the world stage</b><br><b></b><br><b></b>At first light on Tuesday, May 28th, 1918, waves of American riflemen from the U.S. Army's 1st Division climbed from their trenches, charged across the shell-scarred French dirt of no-man's-land, and captured the hilltop village of Cantigny from the grip of the German Army. Those who survived the enemy machine-gun fire and hand-to-hand fighting held on for the next two days and nights in shallow foxholes under the sting of mustard gas and crushing steel of artillery fire.</p><p>Thirteen months after the United States entered World War I, these 3,500 soldiers became the first &quot;doughboys&quot; to enter the fight. The operation, the first American attack ever supported by tanks, airplanes, and modern artillery, was ordered by the leader of America's forces in Europe, General John &quot;Black Jack&quot; Pershing, and planned by a young staff officer, Lieutenant Colonel George C. Marshall, who would fill the lead role in World War II twenty-six years later.</p><p>Drawing on the letters, diaries, and reports by the men themselves, Matthew J. Davenport's<i>First Over There</i> tells the inspiring, untold story of these soldiers and their journey to victory on the Western Front in the Battle of Cantigny. The first American battle of the &quot;war to end all wars&quot; would mark not only its first victory abroad, but the birth of its modern Army.</p>