17 July 1918, Pétain approved Fayolle's recommendations and set 18 July 1918 as the attack date. 1st Division The American 1st Division was bivouacked in the Forêt de Compiegne on 16 July and spent the entire day under cover of the woods to avoid detection by German aircraft. On 17 July, the division moved to the area near Mortefontaine, approximately from their jump-off point. At 9:00pm the division began to move eastward through the forest along trails cratered with shell holes. Soon after, a thunderstorm began turning the trails into a quagmire. Compelled to march off the trail and aided only by flashes of lightning, the infantry moved forward hanging onto the equipment of the man ahead to maintain the column. 2nd Division Paquette's order of transfer included orders for the 2nd Field Artillery Brigade of the American 2nd Division to move to Betz during the night of 14/15 July. Brigadier General Albert J. Bowley went ahead of the brigade to Chantilly to confer with General Mangin who confirmed the orders. He then had Bowley send the brigade to a point in the Forêt de Retz. At the same time the division trains and transports were ordered to concentrate under cover in the vicinity of Lizy-sur-Ourcq. In his memoirs Major General James G. Harbord, commander of the American 2nd Division, complained he “found the 2nd Division entering another disorganizing secret mission … scattering its units with no information to the Division of their actual destination … Thus when the new Division Commander arrived he found a command short of artillery and trains, and no one in authority there who had any idea as to the purpose of the movements or when, if ever, the Division might expect to be brought together again”. On Tuesday night Harbord was informed by Berdoulat his division would be in the attack on Thursday at daybreak. With his division “scattered through the Aisne Department … our Division would arrive at Marcilly, where they would be met by an unknown with orders, but I knew nothing of where they were to go … had been completely removed from the knowledge and control of its responsible Commander, and deflected by truck and by marching through France to a destination uncommunicated to any authority responsible for its supply, its safety or its efficiency in an attack thirty hours away. General Berdoulat and his people were unable to say