The Battle of Belleau Wood (1–26 June 1918) was a major battle that occurred during the German spring offensive in World War I, near the Marne River in France. The battle was fought by the U.S. 2nd (under the command of Major General Omar Bundy) and 3rd Divisions along with French and British forces against an assortment of German units including elements from the 237th, 10th, 197th, 87th, and 28th Divisions.
In United States Marines Corps lore dating back to the battle, the nickname Teufel Hunden ("Devil Dogs") originated. It was a made-up phrase from an American war correspondent, however, and no German ever called marines that name or any variation of that name.
Background
In March 1918, with nearly 50 additional divisions freed by the Russian surrender on the Eastern Front, the German Army launched a series of attacks on the Western Front, hoping to defeat the Allies before U.S. forces could be fully deployed. A third offensive launched in May against the French between Soissons and Reims, known as the Third Battle of the Aisne, saw the Germans reach the north bank of the Marne River at Château-Thierry, 95 kilometres (59 mi) from Paris, on 27 May. On 31 May, the 7th Machine Gun Battalion of the U.S. 3rd Division supported the Senegalese Tirailleurs in holding the German advance at Château-Thierry, in hard house-to-house fighting, and the German advance turned right towards Vaux and Belleau Wood.
On 1 June, Château-Thierry and Vaux fell, and German troops moved into Belleau Wood. Under General Jean Degoutte’s French 21st Corps, the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division—which included a brigade of U.S. marines—was brought up along the Paris-Metz highway. The 9th Infantry Regiment was placed between the highway and the Marne, while the 6th Marine Regiment was deployed to their left. The 5th Marine and 23rd Infantry regiments were placed in reserve. Just as German offensive came to an end, French general Jean Degoutte ordered American forces to take the Bois de Belleau, a small patch of forest near the southwestern extremity of the German salient.
Battle
On the evening of 1 June, German forces punched a hole in the French lines to the left of the Marines' position. In response, the U.S. reserve—consisting of the 23rd Infantry Regiment under Colonel Paul B. Malone, the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines under Major Julius S. Turrill, and an element of the Marine 6th Machine Gun Battalion—conducted a forced march over 10 km (6.2 mi) to plug the gap in the line, which they achieved by dawn. By the night of 2 June, the U.S. forces held a 20 kilometres (12 mi) front line north of the Paris-Metz Highway running through grain fields and scattered woods, from Triangle Farm west to Lucy and then north to Hill 142. The German line opposite ran from Vaux to Bouresches to Belleau.
German advance halted at Belleau Wood
German commanders ordered an advance on Marigny and Lucy through Belleau Wood as part of a major offensive, in which other German troops would cross the Marne River. The commander of the Marine Brigade, Army General James Harbord, countermanding a French order to dig trenches further to the rear, ordered the Marines to "hold where they stand". With bayonets, the Marines dug shallow fighting positions from which they could shoot from the prone position. In the afternoon of 3 June, German infantry attacked the Marine positions through the grain fields with bayonets fixed. The Marines waited until the Germans were within 100 yd (91 m) before opening deadly rifle fire which mowed down waves of German infantry and forced the survivors to retreat into the woods.
Having suffered heavy casualties, the Germans dug in along a defensive line from Hill 204, just east of Vaux, to Le Thiolet on the Paris-Metz Highway and northward through Belleau Wood to Torcy. Marine Captain Lloyd W. Williams of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines uttered the now-famous retort "Retreat, hell! We just got here." Williams' battalion commander, Major Frederic Wise, later claimed to have said the famous words.
On 4 June, Major General Bundy, commanding the 2nd Division, took command of the American sector of the front. Over the next two days, the Marines repelled the continuous German assaults. The 167th French Division arrived, giving Bundy a chance to consolidate his 2,000 yards (1,800 m) of front. Bundy's 3rd Brigade, led by General Edward Mann Lewis, held the southern sector of the line, while the Marine brigade held the north of the line from Triangle Farm.
Attack on Hill 142
At 03:45 on 6 June, the Allies launched an attack on the German forces, who were preparing their own strike. The French 167th Division attacked to the left of the American line, while the Marines (with two Army battalions of the 2nd Engineers attached) attacked Hill 142 to prevent flanking fire against the French. As part of the second phase, the 2nd Division was to capture the ridge overlooking Torcy and Belleau Wood, as well as occupying Belleau Wood. However, the Marines failed to scout the woods. As a consequence, they missed a regiment of German infantry dug in, with a network of machine gun nests and artillery.
At dawn, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, commanded by Major Julius S. Turrill, was to attack Hill 142, but only two companies were in position. The Marines advanced in waves with bayonets fixed across an open wheat field that was swept with German machine gun and artillery fire, and many Marines were cut down. Captain Crowther commanding the 67th Company was killed almost immediately. Captain Hamilton and the 49th Company fought from wood to wood, fighting the entrenched Germans and overrunning their objective by 6 yards (5.5 m). At this point, Hamilton had lost all five junior officers, while the 67th had only one commissioned officer alive. Hamilton reorganized the two companies, establishing strong points and a defensive line.
In the German counter-attack, Gunnery Sergeant Ernest A. Janson—who was serving under the name Charles Hoffman—repelled an advance of 12 German soldiers, killing two with his bayonet before the others fled; for this action he became the first Marine to receive the Medal of Honor in World War I. Also cited for advancing through enemy fire during the counter-attack was Marine Gunner Henry Hulbert who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
The rest of the battalion now arrived and went into action. Turrill's flanks lay unprotected, and the Marines were rapidly exhausting their ammunition. By the afternoon, however, the Marines had captured Hill 142, at a cost of nine officers and most of the battalion's 325 men.
Marines attack Belleau Wood
On the night of 4 June, the intelligence officer for the 6th Marines, Lieutenant William A. Eddy, and two men stole through German lines to gather information about German forces. They gathered valuable information showing the Germans were consolidating machine gun positions and bringing in artillery. While this activity indicated an attack was not immediately likely, their increasing strength was creating a base of attack that raised concern about them breaking through to Paris.
At 17:00 on 6 June, the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines (3/5), commanded by Major Benjamin S. Berry, and the 3rd Battalion 6th Marines (3/6), commanded by Major Berton W. Sibley on their right, advanced from the west into Belleau Wood as part of the second phase of the Allied offensive. Again, the Marines had to advance through a waist-high wheat field into machine gun fire. One of the most famous quotations in Marine Corps history came during the initial step-off for the battle when First Sergeant Dan Daly, a recipient of two Medals of Honor who had served in the Philippines, Santo Domingo, Haiti, Peking, and Vera Cruz, prompted his men of the 73rd Machine Gun Company forward with the words: "Come on, you sons of bitches. Do you want to live forever?"
The first waves of Marines, advancing in well-disciplined lines, were slaughtered; Major Berry was wounded in the forearm during the advance. On his right, the Marines of Major Sibley's 3/6 Battalion swept into the southern end of Belleau Wood and encountered heavy machine gun fire, sharpshooters, and barbed wire. Marines and German infantrymen were soon engaged in hand-to-hand fighting. The casualties sustained on this day were the highest in Marine Corps history up to that time. Some 31 officers and 1,056 men of the Marine brigade were casualties. However, the Marines now had a foothold in Belleau Wood.
Fighting in Belleau Wood
The battle was now deadlocked. At midnight on 7–8 June, a German attack was stopped cold and an American counter-attack in the morning of 8 June was similarly defeated. Sibley's battalion, having sustained nearly 400 casualties, was relieved by the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines. Major Shearer took over the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines from the wounded Berry. On 9 June, an enormous American and French barrage devastated Belleau Wood, turning the formerly attractive hunting preserve into a jungle of shattered trees. The Germans counter-fired into Lucy and Bouresches and reorganized their defenses inside Belleau Wood. 2nd Engineers (both battalions), continued to support the two Marine regiments in the wood, often fighting as infantry when the need arose. One Marine captain remarked after the war, "Boy, they dig trenches and mend roads all night, and they fight all day!"
In the morning of 10 June, Major Hughes' 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, together with elements of the 6th Machine Gun Battalion, attacked north into the wood. Although this attack initially seemed to be succeeding, it was also stopped by machine gun fire. The commander of the 6th Machine Gun Battalion, Major Cole, was mortally wounded. Captain Harlan Major, the senior captain present with the battalion took command. The Germans used great quantities of mustard gas. Next, Wise's 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines was ordered to attack the woods from the west, while Hughes continued his advance from the south.
At 04:00 on 11 June, Wise's men advanced through a thick morning mist towards Belleau Wood, supported by the 23rd and 77th companies of the 6th Machine Gun Battalion, and elements of the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Engineers and were cut to pieces by heavy fire. Platoons were isolated and destroyed by interlocked machine gun fire. It was discovered that the battalion had advanced in the wrong direction. Rather than moving northeast, they had moved directly across the wood's narrow waist. However, they smashed the German southern defensive lines. A German private, whose company had 30 men left out of 120, wrote "We have Americans opposite us who are terribly reckless fellows."
On 14 June, the U.S. Army's 23rd Infantry Regiment took over the eastern edge of the wood to allow the Marines to concentrate their forces farther north. On 15 June, after 10 days of heavy fighting, General Bundy convinced French General Denis Auguste Duchene, commanding general of the Sixth French Army, to attach the U.S. Army's 7th Infantry Regiment to his division so the Marine battalions could be withdrawn to rest, refit, and receive replacements. That night, the 7th U.S. Infantry began relieving battalions of the 5th Marines and 6th Marines in the northern part of Belleau Wood, extending to the remainder of the wood toward Bouresches over the next two days. The Army battalions continued to grind away at the German defenses over the next six days, with one unit pushing a kilometer to capture a crossroads south of Torcy-en-Valois. Beginning the night of 21 June, the Marines began to replace the 7th Infantry throughout Belleau Wood. A Marine private observed, "We went back to Belleau Wood and found the Seventh Infantry almost wiped out... but they were still fighting the best they could."
Overall, the woods were attacked by the Marines a total of six times before they could successfully expel the Germans. They fought off parts of five divisions of Germans, often reduced to using only their bayonets or fists in hand-to-hand combat.
On 26 June, the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, under command of Major Maurice E. Shearer, supported by two companies of the 4th Machine Gun Battalion and the 15th Company of the 6th Machine Gun Battalion, made an attack on Belleau Wood, which finally cleared that forest of Germans. On that day, Major Shearer submitted a report simply stating, "Woods now U.S. Marine Corps entirely", ending one of the bloodiest and most ferocious battles U.S. forces would fight in the war.