Belleau Wood
France – June 1918
In the spring of 1918 the German Army launched a massive offensive across the Western Front, pushing toward Paris in a final attempt to end the war before American forces could fully arrive. By early June German troops had advanced to the edge of the Bois de Belleau, a dense hunting preserve overlooking the road to Château-Thierry along the Marne River.
To stop the advance, elements of the U.S. 2nd Division were rushed into the sector. Among them was the 4th Marine Brigade, consisting of the 5th and 6th Marine Regiments and the 6th Machine Gun Battalion.
On 6 June 1918, Marines were ordered to attack across open wheat fields toward the woods. German forces had fortified the tree line with trenches and Maxim machine guns, which swept the fields with devastating fire. As the Marines advanced, entire ranks were cut down, yet the line continued forward.
Officers and non-commissioned officers led from the front, rallying the men and pushing the assault closer to the woods. Once inside the forest, the battle turned into brutal close combat fought with rifles, grenades, bayonets, and entrenching tools among shattered trees and shell craters.
The fighting continued for nearly three weeks. The Marines attacked repeatedly, clearing one German strongpoint after another until the woods were finally secured on 26 June 1918.
The cost was staggering. Thousands of Marines were killed or wounded in the battle. Yet the stand at Belleau Wood halted the German advance toward Paris and demonstrated that the newly arrived American forces would fight with determination and aggression.
French troops, impressed by the tenacity of the Marines, later renamed the forest Bois de la Brigade de Marine in their honor.
