 The measure passed by Congress created the rank of rear admiral and allowed nine rear admirals. Rear admirals were to rank with major generals in the army. On 18 July 1918, during World War I, three days after a German offensive near the Marne River in the Champagne region of France failed, Allied forces launched a major counterattack, ending the Second Battle of the Marne and decisively turning the tide of the war toward an Allied victory.