A DRIVE BY THE MARINES
American operations in the salient now took a more active turn to the
northwest of Château-Thierry in the vicinity of Neuilly, where the
Germans had already clashed with their new antagonists. There the
Americans were linked with the French on a line that rested on
Neuilly-la-Poterie, and ran through Champillon, Lucy-le-Bocage, and to
the south of Triangle, and then meandered in an irregular course to
Château-Thierry. From this line came a forward movement on June 6, 1918,
directed east of Neuilly toward Torcy, Belleau, and Bouresches. The next
day the line stood south of the village of Torcy, south of the village
of Belleau, with the wood of Belleau partly in American possession, and
through Bouresches, then south to the highway east of Thiolet, and
thence to Château-Thierry. This advance represented an extension of the
American line over a front of about six miles to a depth of nearly two
and a half miles.
The brunt of the fighting was borne by United States Marines. It was a
sustained action, extending for thirty-six hours. It held the center of
the war stage; on no other part of the fighting fronts were there any
measurable activities that produced like successes against German arms.
The movement, which aimed to drive the German lines farther back from
their Paris objective also had its significance in that its second stage
was directed by American commanders and undertaken solely by American
troops. Most of the fighting by Americans on the western front had been
carried out under French commanders. The American units detailed to the
Somme, for example, reported to the French command, who assigned them
with French soldiers where they were most needed. The commander of the
unit to which the marines belonged wanted full control of his own sector
in the Château-Thierry region. The request was granted, and the result
showed that an American unit, acting on its own initiative, could acquit
itself equal to the best-trained German unit.
The first assault on the enemy lines was made at dawn, when the American
marines swept forward, with the French attacking on their left, and
gained over a mile on a four-mile front. By 8 o'clock they had gained
all their first objectives and held all the important high ground
northwest of Château-Thierry. They captured 100 prisoners, among them
thirty-five mounted Uhlans, and ten machine guns.
The enemy had augmented his line recently, the Americans having pressed
him so hard that he was forced to throw three new divisions of his best
troops into the breach. Against them the Americans advanced in a solid
phalanx, singing and whistling "Yankee Doodle," and cheering. No barrage
preceded them, although there had been some advance artillery
preparations. On certain parts of the line the resistance was weak; but
in other instances our marines ran into German machine-gun nests which,
in some cases, succeeded in inflicting considerable casualties. But they
did not stop the Americans. Marines with hand grenades and rifles
charged the machine guns, wiping out the nests, and in one instance
capturing a gun and its crew.
[Illustration: Where the American marines stopped the German advance on
the Marne.]
From the new line gained by the first attack, a second American advance
was made at five in the evening, and by night it reached Torcy and
Bouresches. The next morning, June 7, 1918, the Americans were holding
Torcy in the face of repeated counterattacks and pushing back the
Germans through the streets of Bouresches. Torcy was not part of the
American objective, but the eager marines swept into the village by
their own momentum.
The hardest fighting took place in the wood of Belleau, to the east of
Torcy and between that village and Bouresches.
The wood of Belleau into which the marines penetrated with such ardor
proved a hornets' nest. It was ambushed with machine guns, which
hampered the American advance and caused many casualties. There were
about twenty of them in the plateau formed by the wood. The Americans
vainly tried to demolish them by rifles, mortars, and hand grenades.
Finally, despite the streams of bullets, they surrounded the plateau,
cut off the Germans in it, and went ahead, capturing a hill beyond the
wood and inflicting heavy losses on the Germans as they withdrew.
The tireless and undaunted marines then moved on Bouresches. It was a
night attack, marked by volleys of machine-gun fire which they poured
into the enemy stationed in the village. Bayonets were freely used
whenever the Germans attempted to make a stand in the streets. The path
of the Americans was not easy. They drove the Germans out in the face of
heavy artillery fire, including gas shells, but several times they were
balked by machine guns operated by Germans from house roofs. At last a
lieutenant, with what was left of a platoon, penetrated into the town
under heavy German fire and cleared it of infantry. He held it for
thirty minutes, until two companies of Americans came to his aid. They
spent an hour routing out the German machine gunners with rifles and
hand grenades, when the ammunition began to run low. A runner was
dispatched for supplies and another lieutenant hastened to the rescue
with a truck load of ammunition. On the road to Bouresches he was the
target of a heavy fire from Germans who had hidden behind the advancing
Americans; but he succeeded in getting the truck into the town and
distributing the sorely needed ammunition.
The American position created by the capture of Bouresches ran from that
village to Le Thiolet and guarded the highway from Château-Thierry to
Paris. On June 8, 1918, the Germans vainly attacked this position. They
also tried to retake Bouresches without success. They could not advance
beyond the railroad tracks to the north of the town, where they had
intrenched themselves after being driven out by the marines.
The Germans started a night bombardment on the position, to which the
Americans did not respond until the enemy's movements revealed that an
attack on Le Thiolet was intended. A heavy American barrage was
thereupon laid down, which cut the communications of the attacking
force and hampered its reenforcements. The Americans were in shallow
trenches, hastily prepared, but well equipped with machine guns, which
poured a concentrated fire on the enemy when he advanced within 600
yards. Under that fire he continued for 200 yards and then stopped.
Undismayed by this repulse, the enemy sent another body of troops to
attack the American positions south of the highway, where, on the edge
of a wood, the Americans had posted many machine guns. The gunners
allowed the Germans to advance a certain distance and then rained their
fire upon them. More than a hundred German dead covered one small field
swept by the American bullets. The enemy was halted and driven back by a
rush of Americans from their trenches in the face of a hail of bullets
showered upon them from behind the German lines. This rear fire marked
both the attack and repulse, but did not deter the Americans.
It now came the turn of the marines occupying Bouresches to beat off a
German attack aiming at its recapture. The trio of counterassaults
appeared to have been designed so that the third should be the grand
finale, or a culminating surprise for the Americans. The latter were
alert, having been forewarned, and were reenforced by a number of
machine guns. These they placed on the top of the embankment along which
the railroad track ran. The slaughter of the Germans was ruthless when
they ventured to cross the track. None returned who got past the
embankment; they were either killed or captured. The attack was
repeated, but each attempt to retake Bouresches failed.
The Americans with their machine guns paid the Germans back in their own
coin. One of the chief obstacles to the Americans' progress was the
German fire from such guns. Bouresches when taken was found dotted with
positions for them in strong locations and they had to be demolished by
mortars. The Germans appeared to rely more on their machine guns to
arrest the American advance than on any other weapon of offense. When
not fixed in locations they were portable, being mounted on carriages
and pushed along by their operators. The Germans also used a light field
mortar, mounted on a two-wheel truck, in the same way.
The three days' fighting produced the usual crop of striking incidents.
One marine who was taking back a prisoner ran into two German officers
and ten men. He fought them single-handed with his rifle and bayonet,
killed both the officers and wounded seven of the men. Another sergeant
was about to take a prisoner when the German threw himself on the ground
and discharged his revolver at the American after calling "comrade," the
sergeant shot him, as he did four others who also had surrendered, but
refused to put up their hands. In Torcy twenty-five Americans engaged
and drove out 200 Germans, and then withdrew to the main line on the
outskirts of the town. A corporal in a company of marines, all of whose
officers, including the sergeants, had been killed or wounded, took the
command and led his men to their objective.
The élan of the Americans in the whole adventure was expressed by a
private who was among the first to rush into Torcy:
"I never saw such wonderful spirit. Not one of our fellows hesitated in
the face of the rain of the machine-gun fire, which it seemed impossible
to get through. Every German seemed to have a machine gun. They fought
like wild cats, but the Americans were too much for them."