Sun Gan's action effect was surprisingly good, everyone was treated like heroes, even Pershing, who had just arrived at the front line, was full of smiles, and caught Sun Gan and praised him violently, and Sun Gan, who praised him, didn't expect him to be so powerful. However, in the face of Pershing's praise, Sun Qian would not feel uncomfortable, and after a little modesty, he left the stage to Pershing.

Sun Qian knew about Pershing's arrival. Pershing's idea of wanting to prove the U.S. military can be said to be immersed in his bones, and everything Pershing does is for the independence of the U.S. military, so although Sun Qian is ashamed of Pershing's disobedience, he actually admires his persistence. What's more, in another way of thinking, Sun Gan himself is not such a person, for the survival of the assault battalion, Sun Gan even dared to be stubborn.

Because of the prisoners captured by Sun Gan, the situation of the German army through the interrogation of the prisoners was clear. After receiving the information, the officers of Pershing and the 1st Red Division quickly made arrangements in combination with the previous aircraft reconnaissance. As for Sun Gan's assault battalion, it was not in the attack sequence, and Sun Gan did not want to waste his precious combat power on a frontal attack.

Of course, Sun Gan himself did not return to the camp, and such a good opportunity to learn battle command was rare for Sun Gan, so he came directly to the US military headquarters, regardless of the eyes of others, but just watched the deployment of everyone with his eyes. And the officers of the 1st Red Division didn't have much to say to Sun Gan, an "outsider" who had just made a meritorious service, not to mention that General Pershing only glanced at Sun Gan and didn't care about him, so the officers of the 1st Red Division naturally didn't see it.

In the second half of the night of May 27, the 1st Engineer Regiment, with the cooperation of the 18th Regiment, dug two new positions in front of the main American positions, one of which was clearly exposed, and was a false position in the hope of attracting German artillery shelling. The real forward position was another cleverly camouflaged trench, less than 300 metres from Kantigny.

At 4:45 p.m. on 28 May, Sumeral's artillery units fired in unison, and after 30 minutes of shelling, the outer artillery units also opened fire. Amid the rumbling of artillery, the infantry of the 28th Regiment marched to their starting positions, where they made a final check on their equipment and waited for the arrival of the attack at 6:45.

The artillery fire was ready to cease at 6.45 p.m. and was replaced by a gradual advance of 100 metres every two minutes, with the 28th Regiment charging immediately after this line of fire. Colonel Eli attacked in parallel with his three battalions, pointing to the village itself, to the north of the village, and to the south of the village. As the infantry stepped forward, the divisional machine gun regiment, the 16th regiment, and the 18th regiment's regimental machine gun companies also pressed forward one after another, suppressing the enemy with firepower, and in the next 48 hours, each American machine gun company fired an average of 100,000 rounds.

The U.S. military is progressing well. The German garrison in the Kantigeny area was the 82nd Reserve Infantry Division under the command of Lieutenant General von Ang, which had never encountered tanks before and was not armed with weapons such as anti-tank guns. So, when the American battalion in the middle appeared together with the French tanks, the defenses of the village of Cantagny immediately collapsed, many people turned around and ran, and the Germans who remained in the village were either killed or wounded.

At the same time, the other two battalions attacking the north and south of the village did not meet too much fierce resistance. Previously, the French had provided the 1st Division with a large number of additional flame@jets@weapons, which played an important role in the day's offensive, and in the face of the threat of flame@@flames, many Germans in their strongholds often chose to walk out with their hands held high rather than continue firing.

By 7:20 a.m., the 28th Regiment had achieved all its objectives and began to consolidate its established positions, occupying German trenches in anticipation of enemy counterattacks. The logistics team organized by Marshall sent a large amount of barbed wire in a timely manner, and the sappers set up field telephones to ensure smooth communication between the regimental headquarters and the division headquarters. The U.S. Expeditionary Force's maiden attack on the European continent was successful, capturing a new position 2,200 meters wide and 1,600 meters deep.

From an objective point of view, the rapid victory of the American army was partly due to the German army's poor preparation for this attack. When they reacted, they successively put in counterattack forces. German units in the vicinity launched their first exploratory assault after 8 o'clock, but were quickly repulsed by American fire. By 9:30 a.m., the Germans launched a second attack with more troops, which was finally stopped in the woodland outside the village of Kantigeny.

Although the 82nd Reserve Division was not suitable for such a difficult counterattack, Cantagny was of great importance to the next move of the Germans, and it was necessary to recapture it. After 10 o'clock, German reconnaissance planes flew over Cantagny and shells began to fall. The 271st and 272nd reserve regiments, which had just moved to the front from the rear and had not even reached the designated assembly area, immediately received an order to attack forward. Naturally, this hastily organized counterattack would not have too good results, but only increased the casualties of the German army in vain: many companies were reduced to 60~70 people.

At this point, only 300 of Eli's 3,900 men had died, while the Germans had lost 800 and 200 had been taken prisoner. Now, 2,500 men from the 18th and 26th regiments have come forward to help the 28th regiment consolidate its position. Marshall, who was also on the front line, called Division Commander Brad after his meeting with Eli: "Everything looks good. ”

In the afternoon, the Germans no longer rushed into the infantry, but intensified the artillery bombardment, which inflicted heavy casualties on the Americans, and in the worst case, an infantry company lost all its officers and reduced its strength by a third. By 18 o'clock, the German 272nd Regiment launched another massive counterattack, led by a battalion commanded by Major Herzberg. The counterattack was divided into three waves, the first wave included several demolition groups, but they were all knocked down on the way forward, and the rest were repulsed only after almost reaching the American positions. As for the next two waves, they were quickly repulsed.

The Germans inflicted even more intense artillery fire on the night, and the American and French artillery returned fire fiercely. The small village of Cantagny is littered with craters, and according to Lieutenant Colonel Bowen, commander of the 1st Machine Gun Regiment of the U.S. Army, "The trenches at Cantigni have been wiped out. Our fighting was fought almost entirely in the impact zone of shelling from both sides. ”

After dawn on 29 May, Lieutenant General von Ang's 82nd Division, supported by artillery of various calibers such as 77 mm, 105 mm, 150 mm and 210 mm, launched another counteroffensive. The Germans rushed three times, but were all repulsed. Towards the end of the day, Eli reported to his division commander: "The positions are still in hand. But someone must come and take our place this night, or I will never be able to report to you again. At that time, the 28th Regiment had an average of only two officers per battalion, and the smallest company had 12 men who could carry guns.

Fortunately, the Germans did not make up for the fatal blow this night. After nightfall, the 28th Regiment was able to calmly withdraw from its position and was taken over by the 16th Regiment. The Germans did not launch a new counterattack until the morning of May 30, but were repulsed by the fresh forces of the 16th Regiment. The counterattack was also the last attempt by the Germans to retake Cantagny, and the small French village was finally firmly in the hands of the Americans.

At the time of the offensive, the 28th Regiment had 122 officers and 3,752 enlisted men; By the time they withdrew from the battle, the number of casualties had reached 1,600, and the loss ratio was as high as 41%. At the cost of blood, the American Expeditionary Force won its maiden offensive at Cantagany, a victory that was so significant that it made the United States a powerful new member of the Entente camp and forever changed the German attack on Paris through it.