THROWN INTO THE BREACH WITH OTHER AMERICANS IN CHATEAU-THIERRY SECTOR, THEY HALTED GERMANS FIGHTING DESPERATELY FOR DAYS, MARINES CLEARED BELLEAU WOOD—CAPTURE OF BLANC MONT RIDGE, THE KEY TO RHEIMS—CROSSED THE MEUSE UNDER HEAVY FIRE THE MORNING OF THE ARMISTICE—IN GERMANY IN ARMY OF OCCUPATION.

Enter the Marines!

It was the evening of Memorial Day, May 30, 1918, that they were ordered to the most critical point in the battle lines. Paris was threatened more sorely than it had been since the Battle of the Marne. The Germans were only forty miles away. Hurdling the Chemin-des-Dames, taking Soissons, they had overcome the strongest French defenses, and were moving on at the rate of five or six miles a day. Capture of the city seemed imminent. Parisians by thousands were trekking to safer abodes. Archives were packed; preparations made to move government offices and set up a temporary capital in the southwest.

To the rescue came the Americans—the Second Division, which included the Marines; and elements of the Third and Twenty-eighth Divisions. "Move at 10 p. m. by bus to new area," was the order received by the Fifth and Sixth Marine Regiments, and the Sixth Machine-Gun Battalion. Seventy-five miles from the field, they had to travel in camions, not even the officers knowing their ultimate destination. But all were in happy mood, sure they were bound for the front.

The roads were crowded with French, men, women and children hurrying away from the battle lines, seeking safety. Only the Americans rode ahead—always forward. They had no tanks, gas-shells, or flame projectors. They were untried in open warfare and they had to go up against Germany's best troops. The French hesitated to risk all to them in the crisis.

"Let us fight in our own way," said General Harbord, "and we will stop them."

Permission was granted. In their own way they fought and won. Colonel (later Brigadier General) A. W. Catlin, who commanded the Sixth Regiment, showed his officers the map, indicating the points to be held, and the maps were passed around to the men so they would have all the information available. "I hold," said he, "that men like ours fight none the worse for knowing just what they are fighting for." One secret of Marine efficiency in combat is the comradeship between officers and men. "Theirs not to reason why" has no place in their vocabulary.

When they arrived, June 1st, the Marines were told to "dig in." As tools they used bayonets and the lids of their mess-gear. "Say, you'd be surprised to know just how much digging you can do under those circumstances," remarked Private Geiger afterwards as he lay wounded in a hospital. "Bullets and shrapnel came from everywhere. You'd work until it seemed you couldn't budge another inch, when a shell would hit right close and then you'd start digging with as much energy as if you had just begun."

At ten o'clock, on June 2nd, they were ordered to back up the overtaxed French. It was the second battalion of the Fifth Marines, and particularly the 55th Company, which bore the brunt of the assault at Les Mares Ferme, the point where the Germans came nearest Paris.

The 55th Company had orders to take position one and a half kilometers northeast of Marigny. The French, a few kilometers ahead, were reported falling back, and soon began filtering through. The enemy attack was launched at 5 p. m. against the French who had remained in front of Wise's battalion at Hill 165. The Germans swept down the wide wheat fields. The French, pressed back, fought as they retreated.

Neville's Fifth Marines opened up with a slashing barrage, mowing down the Germans. Trained marksmen, sharp-shooters, they calmly set their sights and aimed with the same precision they had shown upon the rifle ranges at Parris Island and Quantico. The French said they had never seen such marksmanship in the heat of battle. Incessantly their rifles cracked, and with their fire came the support of the artillery. The machine-guns, pouring forth a hail of bullets, also began to make inroads in the advancing lines. Caught in a seething wave of scattering shrapnel, machine-gun and rifle fire, the Germans found further advance would be suicide. The lines hesitated, then stopped. The enemy broke for cover, while the Marines raked the woods and ravines in which they had taken refuge.

Above, a French airplane was checking up on the artillery fire. Surprised at seeing men set their sights, adjust their range, and fire deliberately at an advancing foe, each man picking his target, not firing merely in the direction of the enemy, the aviator signaled "Bravo!" In the rear that word was echoed again and again. The German drive on Paris had been stopped.

The next few days were devoted to pushing forth outposts and testing the strength of the enemy. The fighting had changed. Mystified at running against a stone wall of defense just when they believed that their advance would be easiest, the Germans had halted, amazed. Put on the defensive, they strove desperately to hold their lines. Belleau Wood had been planted thickly with nest after nest of machine-guns. In that jungle of trees, matted underbrush, of rocks, of vines and heavy foliage, the Germans had placed themselves in positions they believed impregnable. Unless they could be routed and thrown back the breaking of the attack of June 2 would mean nothing. There would come another drive and another. The battle of Chateau-Thierry was not won and could not be won until Belleau Wood had been cleared of the enemy.

On June 6, the Americans began the assault on that wood and the strategic positions adjacent, the towns of Torcy and Bouresches being the objectives. At 5 p. m. the Marines attacked. It was a desperate task. Before they started, their officers cheered them. "Give 'em hell!" was the command Colonel Catlin is said to have given. They gave it to them, but paid a heavy price in blood. As the Marines advanced, the German artillery let loose a storm of fire. Men on every hand were killed or injured. Brave Berry was struck in the arm, but with the blood streaming from his sleeve, he kept on until exhausted. Just as daring Sibley's men reached the edge of the woods a sniper's bullet hit Colonel Catlin in the chest. Severely wounded, he was relieved in command by Lieutenant Colonel Harry Lee.

But the lines never halted or wavered. Fighting strictly according to American methods, a rush, a halt, a rush again, in four-wave formation, the rear waves taking over the work of those who had fallen before them, the Marines moved ever forward. Passing over the bodies of their dead comrades, they plunged ahead. They might be torn to bits, but behind them were more waves, and the attack went on.

"Men fell like flies," reported an officer writing from the field. Companies that had entered the battle 250 strong dwindled to fifty and sixty, with a sergeant in command; but the attack did not falter. At 9:45 o'clock that night Bouresches was taken by Lieutenant James F. Robertson and twenty-odd men of his platoon. They were soon joined by reinforcements. The enemy made counter attacks, but the Marines held the town. Leading his men through the machine-gun fire, Captain Donald Duncan, of the 96th Company, was killed.

In Belleau Wood the fighting had been literally from tree to tree, stronghold to stronghold; and it was a fight which must last for weeks before victory was complete. Every rocky formation was a German machine-gun nest, almost impossible to reach by artillery or grenades. There was only one way to wipe out these nests—by the bayonet. And by this method were they wiped out, for United States Marines, bare-chested, shouting their battle cry of "E-e-e-e-e y-a-a-h-h-h yip!" charged straight into the murderous fire from those guns and won! Out of those that charged, in more than one instance, only one would reach the stronghold. There, with his bayonet as his only weapon, he would kill or capture the defenders and then, swinging the gun about, turn it against remaining German positions.

Fighting in that forest of horror for eighteen days, the Marines on June 25 began the last rush for possession of the wood. Following a tremendous barrage, the struggle started. The barrage literally tore the woods to pieces, but could not wipe out all the nests. They had to be taken by the bayonet. But in the day that followed every foot of Belleau Wood was cleared of the enemy. On June 26th Major Shearer sent the message: "Woods now U. S. Marine Corps entirely."

In the terrific fighting in that month, the Marine Corps lost 1,062 men killed, and 3,615 wounded. Hundreds of Germans were captured. In the final assault, Major Shearer's command alone took 500 prisoners. General Pershing sent a telegram of commendation on June 9, and, visiting division headquarters, sent his personal greetings to the Marine Brigade, adding that Marshal Foch had especially charged him to give the Brigade his love and congratulations on its fine work.

Division General Degoutte, commanding the Sixth French Army, on June 30 issued a general order that, henceforth, in all official papers, Belleau Wood should be named, "Bois de la Brigade de Marine." It was thereafter known as the "Wood of the Marines."

General Pershing in his final report said:

The Second Division then in reserve northwest of Paris and preparing to relieve the First Division, was hastily diverted to the vicinity of Meaux on May 31, and, early on the morning of June 1st, was deployed across the Chateau-Thierry-Paris road near Montreuil-aux-Lions in a gap in the French line, where it stopped the German advance.

Praise and full credit are due the other troops in that sector—the Third Division whose machine-gun battalion held the bridge-head at the Marne, and whose Seventh Regiment fought for several days in Belleau Wood; the artillery and engineers who supported every advance; and all who were engaged in the Chateau-Thierry sector. Though the principal honors went to the Second Division and the Marines, all the Americans in that region fought well and nobly.

President Wilson said they "closed the gap the enemy had succeeded in opening for their advance on Paris," and, driving back the Germans, began "the rout that was to save Europe and the world." Mayors of the Meaux district, who, as they stated, were eye-witnesses of the American Army's deeds in stopping the enemy advance, formally expressed their admiration and gratitude, and Mayor Lugol, in transmitting the resolution, June 26th, wrote:

The civilian population of this part of the country will never forget that the beginning of this month of June, when their homes were threatened by the invader, the Second American Division victoriously stepped forth and succeeded in saving them from impending danger.

After personal investigation, and study of the area, Melville E. Stone, manager of the Associated Press, declared that in spite of heavy losses, the Americans engaged in the operations at and around Chateau-Thierry did three things:

1. They saved Paris.

2. They seriously injured the morale of the best German troops.

3. They set a standard for American troops that none others dared to tarnish.

General Omar Bundy, commanding the Second Division, in General Order No. 41, issued July 10, said:

You stood like a stone wall against the enemy advance on Paris.... You have engaged and defeated with great loss three German divisions, and have occupied the important strong-points of the Belleau Woods, Bouresches, and Vaux. You have taken about 1,400 prisoners, many machine guns and much other material.

General Petain, Commander-in-Chief of the French Armies of the North and Northeast, issued a general order citing and commending the Marines, mentioning by name Brigadier General James G. Harbord, commanding the Fourth Brigade; Colonel Wendell C. Neville, commanding the Fifth Regiment; Colonel A. W. Catlin, commanding the Sixth Regiment, and Major Edward B. Cole, commanding the Sixth Machine Gun Battalion. Colonel Neville commanded the Fifth through all these operations, fighting with his men in Belleau Wood. When Colonel Catlin was wounded, he was, as I have stated, succeeded in command of the Sixth by Lieutenant Colonel Harry Lee, who continued to command that regiment to the end of the war. When, leading his machine-gunners, Major Edward B. Cole fell, mortally wounded, on June 10th, Captain Harlan E. Major took charge. A day or two later he was relieved by Captain George H. Osterhout, and on June 21st Major Littleton W. T. Waller, Jr., took command of the Sixth Machine-Gun Battalion.

The real beginning of the great series of offensives which finally routed the German armies and brought complete victory to the Allies, was when Marshal Foch, on July 18, with picked troops made a vigorous thrust at the Germans near Soissons, with overwhelming success. The First and Second U. S. Divisions and the French Moroccan Division were employed as the spearhead of the main attack.

At a single bound they broke through the enemy's infantry defenses, overran his artillery, and cut the German communications. The Second Division took Beaurepaire Farm and Vierzy in a rapid advance, and at the end of the second day was in front of Tigny, having captured 3,000 prisoners and 66 field-guns. "The story of your achievements," said General Harbord, "will be told in millions of homes in all Allied lands tonight."

"Due to the magnificent dash and power displayed by our First and Second Divisions, the tide of war was definitely turned in favor of the Allies," said General Pershing. Soissons was relieved, and the Germans began a general withdrawal from the Marne. General Harbord was in command of the Second Division, Colonel Neville of the Marine Brigade; Colonel Logan Feland of the Fifth Regiment, Colonel Lee of the Sixth, and Major Waller of the Machine-Gun Battalion in this operation, known as the "Aisne-Marne offensive."

General John A. Lejeune, U. S. Marine Corps, on July 29, assumed command of the Second Division, which he commanded with marked distinction to the end of hostilities, during its service with the Army of Occupation in Germany, and until the Division, on its return to America in August, 1919, was demobilized.

Of the six Allied offensives designated as major operations on the Western Front in 1918, the Marines, with the other units of the Second Division, took part in three. In the battle for the St. Mihiel salient, the division on September 11th took up a line running from Remenauville to Limey, and on the morning of the 12th attacked. Overcoming the enemy resistance, they romped through to the Rupt de Mad, a small river, crossed it on stone bridges, occupied Thiaucourt, scaled the heights beyond and pushed on to a line running from the Xammes-Jaulny ridges to Bonvaux Forest. Then they rested, having occupied two days' objectives before 3 p. m. of the first day. The Division's casualties were about 1,000 men, 134 killed. It had captured eighty German officers, 3,200 men, 120 cannon and a vast amount of stores.

The taking of Blanc Mont Ridge, the key to Rheims, was one of the most effective blows struck by the Allies. Determined to break through the powerful German defenses in the Champagne, Marshal Foch asked for an American division. The Second was selected, and General Lejeune, on September 27th, was summoned to French headquarters.

Pointing to a large relief map of the battlefield, General Gouraud, who directed the operations, said to General Lejeune: "General, this position is the key of all the German defenses of this sector including the whole Rheims Massif. If this ridge can be taken the Germans will be obliged to retreat along the whole front 30 kilometers to the river Aisne. Do you think your division could effect its capture?"

Studying the map closely, General Lejeune said with quiet assurance that he was certain the Second Division could take it. He was directed to propose a plan for the assault, which would be begun in a few days. He did so. The battle of Blanc Mont Ridge was fought and won by the Second Division as a part of the French Fourth Army, and that signal victory was due largely to the military genius of Lejeune.

Setting forth on October 1st, the Americans that night relieved French troops in the front line near Somme-Py. Charging over desolated white chalky ground, scarred and shell-pocked by years of artillery fire—a maze of mine craters, deep trenches and concrete fortifications, the Second Division cleaned up Essen Hook, and captured Blanc Mont Ridge and St. Etienne—all in the days from October 3 to 9. "This victory," the official report stated, "freed Rheims and forced the entire German Army between that city and the Argonne Forest to retreat to the Aisne."

Writing to Marshal Foch, General Gouraud proposed a special citation of the Division, stating:

The Second Infantry Division, United States, brilliantly commanded by General Lejeune, played a glorious part in the operations of the Fourth Army in the Champaigne in October, 1918. On the 3d of October this Division drove forward and seized in a single assault the strongly entrenched German positions between Blanc Mont and Medeah Ferme, and again pressing forward to the outskirts of St. Etienne-a-Arnes, it made in the course of the day, an advance of about six kilometers.

It captured several thousand prisoners, many cannon and machine-guns, and a large quantity of other military material. This attack, combined with that of the French divisions on its left and right, resulted in the evacuation by the enemy of his positions on both sides of the River Suippe and his withdrawal from the Massif de Notre Dames des Champs.

Ordered to participate in the Argonne-Meuse operation, the Second Division marched ankle deep in mud more than a hundred kilometers, four days with but one day of rest. On November 1st, following a day of terrific barrage, the Division "jumped off" for its final operation of the war, which did not end until the morning of the armistice, when it was firmly established on the east bank of the Meuse. "It was so placed in the battle line," said the General Headquarters orders, "that its known ability might be used to overcome the critical part of the enemy's defense." The salient feature of the plan of attack was to drive a wedge through Landres-et-St. Georges to the vicinity of Fosse. If successful, this would break the backbone of the enemy and compel retreat beyond the Meuse. The Second Division accomplished the desired result on the first attack. "This decisive blow," said the official report, "broke the enemy's defense and opened the way for the rapid advance of the Army." The commander of the Fifth Army Corps wrote:

The Division's brilliant advance of more than nine kilometers, destroying the last stronghold on the Hindenburg line, capturing the Freya Stellung, and going more than nine kilometers against not only the permanent but the relieving forces in their front, may justly be regarded as one of the most remarkable achievements made by any troops in this war.

During the night of November 3rd, in a heavy rain the division passed forward through the forest eight kilometers in advance of adjoining regiments, and within two days again advanced and threw the enemy in its front across the Meuse. The next morning at 6 o'clock it attacked and seized the German defense position on the ridge southeast of Vaux-en-Dieulet. On the night of November 10th heroic deeds were done by heroic men. In the face of heavy artillery and withering machine-gun fire, the Second Engineers threw two bridges across the Meuse and the first and second battalions of the Fifth Marines crossed unflinchingly to the east bank and carried out their mission. "In the last battle of the war," said an order of the Second Division, "as in all others, in which this division has participated, it enforced its will on the enemy." Of this achievement the commanding general of the Fifth Army Corps said: "This feat will stand among the most memorable of the campaign."

"On the eleventh hour, the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year 1918," Brigadier General Neville, commanding the Marine Brigade, in an order reviewing its great record closed with these words: "Along the fronts of Verdun, the Marne, the Aisne, Lorraine, Champagne, and the Argonne, the units of the Fourth Brigade Marines have fought valiantly, bravely, decisively. It is a record of which you may all be proud."

Shortly after the armistice, General Lejeune was ordered to proceed to Germany. Stationed at Coblenz, for months his division was a part of the Army of Occupation. I had the honor of reviewing the division on the heights of Vallendar, near the junction of the Moselle and Rhine rivers, and to note that its discharge of duty in Germany was in keeping with the glorious record it had made in war. "Your brilliant exploits in battle," said General Pershing in a general order to the Second Division, "are paralleled by the splendid examples of soldierly bearing and discipline set by your officers and men while a part of the Army of Occupation."

The Marines and their comrades of the Second Division were received with distinguished honor upon their return to the United States, President Wilson reviewing the men as they passed the White House to receive the heart-felt applause of a grateful people. The Secretary of War in a letter to the Secretary of the Navy, upon their return, wrote: "The whole history of the Brigade in France is one of conspicuous service. Throughout the long contest the Marines, both by their valour and their tragic losses, heroically sustained, added an imperishable chapter to the history of America's participation in the World War." This mere outline of the outstanding fighting history of the Marines in France, tells only a small portion of what was done by the "Devil Dogs," as these Soldiers of the Sea were called by the Germans. Overseas the largest army concentration camp was Pontanezen at Brest. It was placed under the command of Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler, who organized, trained and carried over the Thirteenth Regiment of Marines. Approximately 1,600,000 men passed through that camp. It was one of the biggest jobs in France and General Butler performed the difficult duty with ability and satisfaction. The citation for an Army Distinguished Service Medal said of him: "He has commanded with ability and energy Pontanezen Camp at Brest during the time in which it has developed into the largest embarkation camp in the world. Confronted with problems of extraordinary magnitude in supervision, the reception, entertainment, and departure of the large numbers of officers and soldiers passing through this camp, he has solved all with conspicuous success, performing services of the highest character for the American Expeditionary Forces." After his return to America General Butler was made commandant of the chief Marine training camp at Quantico, Va.

Thirty thousand Marines were sent overseas to join the American Expeditionary Forces. When, in May, 1917, I tendered the Marines for service with the land forces abroad, there was objection on the part of some high ranking officers of the Army. But Secretary Baker, with the breadth that characterized him in the conduct of the war, accepted the tender, and the Fifth Regiment, under command of Colonel (afterwards Brigadier General) Charles A. Doyen, sailed on June 14 with the first expedition sent to France. The Sixth Regiment and Sixth Machine Gun Battalion followed later, and the Fourth Brigade of Marines was organized in October, as a part of the Second Division, which General Doyen commanded until relieved by Major General Omar Bundy, on November 8. General Doyen continued at the head of the brigade until ill health compelled him to relinquish his command on May 9, 1918.

The fighting ability which distinguished the Marines in France was the natural result of training and experience, the "spirit of the corps" with which they were instilled. When war was declared there were only 511 officers, commissioned and warrant, and 13,214 enlisted men in the Marine Corps, which eventually contained 2,174 commissioned and 288 warrant officers, 65,666 enlisted regulars, 6,704 reserves and 269 female reservists—a total strength of 75,101.

Recruiting, training, equipment and supply of this large force was a task without parallel in the history of the Corps. It was conducted with an energy and ability that reflected the utmost credit upon Marine Corps Headquarters—Major General George Barnett, Commandant; the Assistant Commandants, first General John A. Lejeune, afterwards Brigadier General Charles G. Long; Brigadier General Charles H. Lauchheimer, Adjutant and Inspector; Brigadier General George Richards, Paymaster; Brigadier General Charles L. McCawley, Quartermaster; and others on duty at posts and in the field.

What they did in France was only one phase of the operations of the Marines. They were employed in practically every area in which the Navy operated—on battleships in the North Sea, on cruisers in the Asiatic; in Haiti, Santo Domingo and Cuba, and the isles of the Pacific. In fact, they claim the honor of firing the first shot of the war in the far distant island of Guam, where a Marine fired on a motor-launch which was trying to get to the German ship Cormoran with the news of the declaration of war before an American naval officer could reach that vessel and demand its surrender. That was the only German vessel in our territorial waters which we did not get. Her crew blew her up, and a number of her officers and men went down with the vessel.

Wherever they were, these Soldiers of the Sea, upon whom Uncle Sam has called so often when he had a duty to perform anywhere in the world—these men who, in many conflicts, have been the "first to land and first to fight"—served well and added fresh laurels to those so often won in the long history of the Corps. They may be pardoned for singing with a will their marching song: