Talk:Battle of Soissons (1918)

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This article deserves better treatment. This was a critical battle that turned the tide of war for good on the Western Front. Hopefully someone does due diligence for this article! According to the CBS Documentary "WWI: The Complete Story" (Episode: The Tide Turns) Soissons marked the big turning point. It was hailed as victory day in Britain and was followed by success at Amiens and the Meuse Argonne. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.7.186.2 (talk) 13:41, 22 July 2011 (UTC)

Uh, yes I would say so. In five days, both sides suffered over 100,000 casualties? That is a major battle if I ever saw one. I hope someone with knowledge on the subject could rewrite this article. StrangeApparition2011 (talk) 18:39, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

Better Treatment...Please!
As a WWI buff, it is shocking to see this battle receive so little attention on Wikipedia. I first learned about the Battle of Soissons, from watching the CBS documentary: "WWI: The Complete Story." Clearly the producers of this American-made documentary felt the battle was a turning point in the war (as they asserted in the program). Why does this topic get such shoddy treatment on Wikipedia? 12:46, 22 May 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 8.30.17.52 (talk)

Number of tanks on the German side.
It's unlikely that the Germans could have fielded 230 tanks. Only 20 A7V's were completed, no more than 10 being available at any one time. Only about 35 captured British Mark IVs were serviceable.24.108.28.165 (talk) 06:05, 15 July 2015 (UTC)


 * It's more than unlikely; it didn't happen. It's true that only 20 A7Vs were completed, but not that no more than 10 were available at any one time; fourteen were assigned at Villers-Bretonneux on April 24th. Quite how the figure of 230 has been arrived at is very difficult to to say. The total number of A7Vs plus the total number of captured British Mk IVs in German hands came to about half that figure, and the number operational about half of that. Could it be some confusion with the 255 Renault FTs fielded by the French? Whatever the cause, the claim is all the more surprising since the number of tanks deployed by the Germans in this battle was nil. Hengistmate (talk) 12:12, 1 October 2015 (UTC)

Battle order ?
Excuse my englisch, but I am old man By German order is 7 th Army inclusiv Why ? By Soissons fight only Corps Watter and Staabs with six divisions By allied Force is french 6 Armee not inclusive. the Germans cant have 230 tanks too --Kleombrotos (talk) 11:04, 5 March 2020 (UTC)

A welcome expansion, but . . . ?
Long overdue expansion of this topic. Soissons was by a number of criteria the real turning point of the War, and was acknowledged as such by senior military and political figures. Foch, Haig, Pershing, and the German chancellor von Hertling all said as much afterwards. So it's good that the record is put straight to some extent.

However: The article is now alarmingly Americanocentric (assuming that's the word). Building and Training the American Army, I'm sure, merits a mention here, and probably its own place on Wikipedia, but it's grossly overrepresented in the article as it now stands. I think if reasonable mention is made of the US troops' comparative inexperience, that will suffice. I'm trying very hard not to be partisan about this, but I find the level of detail when it comes to the US (as opposed to the other Allies) on the suffocating side.

I'm sorry that's the case, and this article is clearly well-researched and much-needed. I just think the emphasis is wrong. Comments welcome. Hengistmate (talk) 15:43, 5 March 2020 (UTC)

I agree with the comments above. Looking at the map, 31 French and 5 US divisions were involved in the battle. Reading the article, the battle seems to have been fought and won by US troops quite exclusively. In that condition, it's hard to understand why there were 8 more times French casualties (95,000) than US ones (12,000). --Potemkine (talk) 10:02, 22 December 2022 (UTC)