General Max von Boehn, commander of the German Seventh Army, succeeded in getting seven divisions across the Marne. In response Pétain sent a message to General Émile Fayolle, commander of the Group of Armies of the Reserve, ordering him to “suspend the Mangin operation in order to enable me to send your reserves into the battle south of the Marne.” The message also ordered the return of the American 2nd Division artillery to the American 2nd Division. Within 2 1/2 hours Foch brusquely rescinded the suspension of the Mangin operation declaring “there can be no question at all of slowing up and less so of stopping the Mangin preparations." Terrain Looking east from the Forêt de Retz, one would see an almost tree barren rolling plateau with waist-high wheat fields. Trench systems, which were the hallmark of World War I battlefields, were non-existent on this stretch of the front. The final objective, the road and rail network running south from Soissons in the Crise River valley, was about to the east and was hidden from view because of the sloping terrain. Cutting across the plateau were a series of four deep, swampy, formidable ravines; Missy, Ploisy, Chazelle-Lechelle, and Vierzy. Villages, consisting of buildings constructed of sturdy stone masonry, were within and near the edges of these ravines. Substantial caves had been carved out to quarry the stone for the villages. There were two main roads which stood between the final objective and the jump off point. The Soissons – Château-Thierry road ran due south, almost perpendicular, to the line of attack. The Soissons – Paris road ran southwest far from the American 1st Division jump-off point but crossing the American 2nd Division right at the jump-off point. These roadways were the principal lines of communication for the German troops in the Marne salient. The railroad ran south from Soissons in the Crise River valley paralleling the Soissons – Château-Thierry road. At Noyant-et-Aconin it split with one branch turning southwest to Paris in the 2nd Division zone of attack. A second branch continued south through Oulchy-le-Château to Château-Thierry and also served as a principal line of communication. The first major obstacle for the 1st Division was Missy Ravine, directly in the path of 2nd Brigade. This would allow 1st Brigade to make quicker progress until it had to contend with Chazelle Ravine further east. The 2nd Brigade would then have to