MARINES STOPPED DRIVE ON PARIS
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.
[Illustration: LEADERS OF THE MARINES
Upper row: Major General John A. Lejeune, Brigadier Generals Wendell C.
Neville, and Logan Feland.
Lower row: Brigadier Generals Smedley D. Butler, A. W. Catlin, Harry
Lee.]
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.
[Illustration:
Reproduced by permission of the Ladies' Home
Journal from the painting by Frank E. Schoonover
THE MARINES IN BELLEAU WOOD]
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:
If the Army and the Navy ever look on Heaven's scenes,
They will find the streets are guarded by United States Marines.