Dave Porter's War Honors by Edward Stratemeyer

The great World War which had now raged so furiously for four years was rapidly approaching its climax. The Germans had been driven from the vicinity of Paris, they had suffered their great defeats on the Marne and at Verdun at the hands of the entente Allies, and now the American troops had beaten them back at Château Thierry and other points, while the Italians were hammering the Austrians mercilessly in the mountains of upper Italy.

In the meanwhile there had been naval battles in the North Sea and the Mediterranean, and the extraordinary submarine campaign of the Germans had proved to be more or less a failure.