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WITH THE HELP
OF GOD
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From the Library of

RALPH EMERSON FORBES
1866-1937

;;.SACHUSETTS BOSTON LIBRARY

"WITH THE HELP OF GOD AND A
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"WITH THE HELP OF GOD
AND A FEW MARINES"

BRIGADIER GENERAL A. W. CATLIN,

U. S. M. C.

WITH THE COLLABORATION OF

WALTER A. DYER

AUTHOR OF "HERROT, DOG OF BELGIUM," ETC

ILLUSTRATED

Gaeden City New York

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY

1919

DOUBLEDAY, PaGE & COMPANY

translation into foreign languages »

including the Scandinavian

UNIV. OF MASSACHUSETTS
{ AT BOSTON - LIBRARY

CONTENTS

PAGE

Introduction , , . . . ix

PART I

' MARINES TO THE FRONT I
CHAPTER

I. What Is A Marine? 3

II. To France! ^5

III. In the Trenches 29

IV. Over the Top 44

V. The Drive That Menaced Paris 61

PART II

fighting to save PARIS

VI. Going In 79

VIL Carrying On 9i

VIII. "Give 'Em Hell, Boys!" 106

IX. In Belleau Wood and Bouresches 123

X. Pushing Through ^3^

XI. "They Fought Like Fiends'* ........ 161

XII. "Le Bois de LA Brigade de Marine" 171

XIII. At Soissons and After 183

PART III
soldiers of the sea

XIV. The Story of the Marine Corps 237

XV. Vera Cruz AND THE Outbreak of War 251

XVI. The Making of a Marine 267

XVII. Some Reflections on the War 293

APPENDIX

I. Historical Sketch 3^9

II. The Marines' Hymn .323

III. Major Evans's Letter 324

IV. Cited for Valour in Action 34^

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

HALF-TONE
Belleau Wood . • • ... • . ."•• . . . Fronttspiec/

FACING
PAGE

The Gas Alarm ". . . • 48

Six Seconds Later 4^

"Out there in No Man's Land the Hun took bloody toll of our

Marines, but he paid the price" S^

This section of a French war map General Catlin carried in his

map book during the first stages of the Battle of Belleau Wood 84

" Berry's men started through that wheat, but they met with stub-
born resistance" IH

"There were guns at the street corners, behind barricades, and even

on the housetops, but the Marines kept on" 124

There were machine gun nests everywhere" . . . . . . 128

They picked the German gunners out of the trees like squirrels" 128

Soldiers of the Sea 246

LIST OF DIAGRAMS IN THE TEXT

PAGE

This map shows the western side and southern extremity of the
salient created by the German drive of May, 1918 ..... 69

The territory between the two heavy lines was won back in June,
1918 71

Showing the line from which the French fell back and the first posi-
tion taken up by the Marines before Belleau Wood .... 88

Showing the second position taken by the American forces before
Belleau Wood on the night of June 4th 102

Showing the Allied line as advanced to the north on the morning of
Junesth I03

The final position ©f the line after the Battle of Belleau Wood • 178

• •

Vll

«<

INTRODUCTION

When the Crown Prince of Germany started his
drive down across the Chemin des Dames in the
latter days of May, 191 8, and penetrated as far as
the Marne at Chateau-Thierry, Paris itself, only
thirty-five miles away, was threatened as it had not
been since Von Kluck was checked by JofFre in the
first Battle of the Marne. The Allies had weakened
their lines in this sector to stop the earher drive in
the Somme country to the northwest and the Ger-
mans took the weary French completely by surprise.
With a tremendous weight of men, machine guns,
and gas shells, they hacked their way through in a
blunt, irresistible wedge, till the French, outnum-
bered, spent, demoralized, and with their resisting
power diminished to the vanishing point, were
forced to give way before the terrific onrush of

force.

At the point nearest Paris the danger was acute.
It seemed as though nothings human could prevent
the German from attaining his objective. A cry
for help arose. An American division was rushed
to the front and thrown into the fray. Half of this
division was composed of Marines, who were given

X INTRODUCTION

the post of honour and danger at the centre. Most
of them, though serving under seasoned officers, had
seen but little of the action of battle. Could they
stem the tide that threatened to engulf the capital
of France? They were virtually untried, and they
were called upon to whip the flower of the Kaiser^s
army, flushed with victory and enjoying all the
advantage of momentum.

When the history of the Great War is written, it
will be no easy task to assign to each of the titanic
battles its proper place in the scale of importance,
but if justice is done, the Battle of Belleau Wood
will take its place beside that of Thermopylae and
the other crucial battles of world history. Here a
mere handful of determined, devoted men, as num-
bers are reckoned to-day, turned the awful tide, and
they were soldiers and Marines of the United States
of America.

We shall need the perspective of time to judge
of these things aright, but in the light of the present
it is not too much to say that this melee in the woods,
this bitter struggle for a bit of ground smaller than
Central Park, marked the turning point of this
whole war. For if the Marines had not driven the
Germans out of Belleau Wood it must have gone
hard with the Allies in that sector. The Germans
would, in all probability, have been enabled in an-
other day or two to bring up their reserves and their
heavier guns, and nothing but a miracle could have
saved Paris. It was the American who held that
Metz-to-Paris road, and no less a personage than

INTRODUCTION xi

Premier Clemenceau is authority for the statement
that the United States Marines were unquestionably
the saviours of the city. When the engagement was
over and the Germans had been driven back, General
Degoutte, commanding the Sixth Army of France,
signed a special order changing the name of the Bois
de Belleau to the Bois de la Brigade de Marine.

The Marines were called upon to do the impos-
sible, and because there is no such word in their
code, they did it. They left in that w^ood some of
the best blood of America, but, outnumbered and in-
experienced as they were, they fought that last-
stand fight to a finish and they stopped the Hun.

There is a reason for all this, and the people back
home ought to know something about it. Time was
when the Marine was looked upon as a mere handy
man for the Navy, a sort of web-footed policeman
who was neither soldier nor sailor. That time has
long since passed, but even to-day the average
American has but a vague idea of what a Marine is.
Something has made the U. S. Marine a name to
conjure with in the four quarters of the globe, has
won for him the soubriquet of Teufelhund from the
Boche himself. Personnel, training, tradition, and
experience have all had a part in it, and that im-
ponderable but all-powerful quality which we call
esprit de corps. The Marine is a trained athlete, a
picked man, a he creature with muscles and a jaw,
whose motto is "kill or be killed," and who believes
with all his soul that no man on earth can lick him.
And it comes pretty near to being so. He is own

xii INTRODUCTION

brother to the British Marine, of whom Kiphng
wrote :

"An' after I met 'im all over the world, a-doin' all kinds

of things,
Like landin' 'isself with a Gatlin' gun to talk to them

'eathen kings;
'E sleeps in an 'ammick instead of a cot, an' 'e drills with

the deck on a slew,
An' 'e sweats like a Jolly — 'Er Majesty's Jolly — soldier

^an' sailor too!
For there isn't a job on the top o' the earth the beggar

don't knov7, nor do —
You can leave 'im at night on a bald man's 'ead, to paddle

'is own canoe —

'E's a sort of a bloomin' cosmopolouse — soldier an' sailor

too."

General Catlin has told a graphic, eye-witness
story of the Battle of Belleau Wood, but he has
done much more than this. He has given us an in-
sight into the making of a Marine, and the Amer-
ican who can read the whole story of it without a
soul-searching thrill of patriotic pride is no American

at all.

Of General Catlin himself, who, as Colonel of the
Sixth Regiment of Marines, commanded the forces
at Belleau Wood, I feel that something should be
said, though it would be the worst of taste to tack
a fulsome eulogy to the narrative of a man so thor-
oughly straightforward and modest as he. His men
idolize him, and perhaps that tells the whole story.

Brif^adier General Albertus Wright Cathn is a

INTRODUCTION xVn

Marine of the Marines. Born in Gowanda, N. Y.,
December i, 1868, he was appointed to the Naval
Academy from Minnesota in May, 1886. He grad-
uated from Annapolis with the Class of 1890. His
two-years* cruise as midshipman followed. The
Marines seemed to offer the best chance for active
service at that time and upon his return from the
cruise he applied for a commission in the Corps.
On July I, 1892, he was made a Second Lieutenant
of Marines.

He was commissioned First Lieutenant in April,
1893, and served with that rank during the Spanish
War, being the officer of Marines on the battleship
Maine when she was sunk in Havana Harbour.

He was commissioned Captain in 1899 and Major
in 1905. Active service followed, including the
occupation of Vera Cruz in 1914, when he was in
command of the Marines that were landed from the
fleet. In 191 5 he became Lieutenant Colonel. Dur-
ing 1 91 6 he studied at Fort Leavenworth and at the
National War College, receiving his Colonel's com-
mission in the same year. He graduated from the
War College in May, 191 7.

At the outbreak of the Great War he was placed
in charge of the Marine training camp at Quantico,
Va., and went to France as Colonel of the newly
formed Sixth Regiment of. Marines. He led the
Marines in the attack on Belleau Wood on June 6,
191 8, and there he received the bullet wound through
the right lung that placed him temporarily on the
sick list. As a result of his masterly leadership in

xiv INTRODUCTION

that stirring and critical engagement he was com-
missioned Brigadier General in July and was deco-
rated with the French Legion of Honour and the
Croix de Guerre.

General Catlin himself has something to say about
American football and its relation to the American
fighting spirit. I will only add that he captained
his team at Annapolis and played left halfback
there for three years. Later he played on the Navy
team during his two-years* midshipman cruise and
again with the Columbia Athletic Club in Washing-
ton. I think I can see him ploughing through the
Army line in those days as vividly as I see him
leading the boys at Belleau Wood. It may be that we
should revise the Duke of Wellington's statement
that Waterloo was won on the cricket fields of
Eton and Harrow; one is tempted to suggest that
Paris was saved on the gridiron at Franklin Field.

It was my privilege to spend some days with him
in Hot Springs, Va., where he was recuperating.
He is a young man of fifty, powerful of build, and
of medium height, with iron-grey hair, an eye as
clear and frank as a child's, and a face about as
weak and effeminate as Plymouth Rock. It is largely
jaw. His is the genial nature of a man who fights
when he has to fight and at no other time. Direct-
ness is an outstanding quality of his, and I was
much impressed by the remarkable accuracy of his
memory and his grasp of military situations.

He was wearing without ostentation the silver
star of his rank on his shoulder and the wound and

INTRODUCTION xv

service chevrons on his sleeves. On his breast were
the coloured ribbon bands, two of them, indicating
the actions in which he has taken part in various
wars and minor expeditions. He wore the khaki
service uniform, and in his blouse, perilously near
the heart, were two neatly mended holes, one in
front and one in back, where the German sniper's
bullet had drilled him. **A sort of souvenir," said
he, smiHng.

One day he showed me quite casually a cablegram
announcing that he had been awarded the French
Croix de Guerre and the decoration of the Legion of
Honour. I beheve he was the first American general
officer to receive these honours for heroism in action.
Later I obtained a copy of his citation, which was
translated as follows:

Colonel A. W. Catlin: Field Officer who, on June 6,
1918, was placed in charge of a delicate operation, par-
ticularly difficult of execution, and made an undoubted
success of it; combines the finest military qualities with a
noble spirit of devotion and self-sacrifice; when severely
wounded by a bullet during the action, asked the officer
with him, as he fell, if he had really been wounded facing
the enemy and if his men were continuing to progress.

The following is a copy of General Bundy's letter
recommending Colonel Catlin's promotion:

As former commander of the Second Division, of which
the Marine Brigade forms a part, I recommend Colonel
Catlin, Sixth Regiment Marines, for promotion to the
grade of Brigadier General in the Marine Corps. Colonel

xvi INTRODUCTION

Catlin has commanded his regiment with unceasing in-
dustry and great abihty in all phases of open and trench
warfare. He was wounded while gallantly leading a part
of it against the enemy north of Chateau-Thierry. He
is entitled to promotion in recognition of his splendid
service on the field of battle.

It is not necessary to dilate upon what these things
mean, nor how they affected me. As for General
Catlin, I believe he is prouder of the bronze insignia
of the Marines than of all the others together.

He saw the things he writes about; of them he
was no inconsiderable part. He led the boys at
Beiieau Wood, and no one man did more than he
to save Paris. That, I think, is what makes his
story a historical document of the first importance
as well as a narrative of thrilling interest. For the
rest, I need only to call attention to his pride in his
men and his organization, and the stalwart patriotism
of the soldier that runs through It all.

"With the help of God and a few Marines" Is a
phrase that has been attributed to nearly every
naval hero from John Paul Jones to Admiral Dewey,
and it fits. It describes a hundred instances in
which the honour of the United States has been
upheld beyond the seas; it somehow expresses the
very spirit of the Corps; and It tells in a nutshell
the story of the fight in Belleau Wood and the
saving of Paris from the Hun.

W. A. D.

PART I

MARINES TO THE FRONT!

"WITH THE HELP OF GOD
AND A FEW MARINES"

CHAPTER 1
What Is a Marine ?

SINCE tt appears that I am fated for an interval
to lay aside the sword and take up the less
congenial pen, I should prefer to begin at
once with the thing that is uppermost in my mind —
the story of the United States Marines in France.
So fresh in my memory are those days in the trenches
and the dark, moonless nights, pregnant with we
knew not what possibilities, when the boys stole
over the top on their first patrol duties. How
eagerly, how anxiously we watched them, as a
mother watches the first steps of her child, to dis-
cover whether they would face the music and do
the job as a Marine should. We knew they would,
but still we watched, and when they came back
with what they went for, we breathed deep and
faced the next task with confidence.

It was in those days that good American blood
was spilt out there in No Man's Land, in the midst
of the barbed wire and the lurking menace. We

4 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

looked upon our dead, and had the Hun known,
he might well have trembled then.

I recall so vividly those busy days in camp, and
the spirit that seemed to be loosed when the great
call came; the long, forced ride on camions through
the little, smiling villages, where the good French
people lined the streets, waving American flags and
throwing flowers at us; the tense, electrical feeling in
the air when at last we knew that we were face to
face^ with the victorious Prussian, and the awful,
earnest, exultant moment when we went in to fight.
And, waking or sleeping, I can still see before me
the dark threat of Belleau Wood, as full of menace
as a tiger's foot, dangerous as a live wire, poisonous
with gas, bristling with machine guns, alive with
snipers, scornfully beckoning us to come on and be
slain, waiting for us like a dragon in its den. Our
brains told us to fear it, but our wills heard but one
command, to clean it out, and I can still see before
my very eyes those waves in the poppy-spattered
wheat-field as the steady lines of our Marines went in.

Those are the things that surge to the tip of my
pen, but I have first, I feel, another duty to perform.
I must tell something of the men who did this glorious
thing and of the spirit that drove them on.

A fight is a fight, and few red-blooded men can
resist the thrill of it, but it is not my purpose to
glorify a fight nor to sing the Song of Hate. The
Marine fights because fighting is the immediate and
essential means to an end. He trusts implicitly
the judgment of his superiors that the end justifies

AND A FEW MARINES 5

the means, not with the blind trust of the docile
German, but from a well grounded and well under-
stood principle. For a hundred years and more the
Marines have been called upon when there was a
critical need for action, and they have learned to
take the need for granted and to act forthwith.
They have never been deceived and they never hesi-
tate. That is part of their creed.

It is because they have a creed that this narrative
is written. Perhaps it is a creed that all men might
follow with profit; we like to think so. The Ameri-
can Marine fights as well as any man on earth, and
his fighting is worth writing about if any fighting
is, but it is the thing back of his fighting that counts.
There are significant, fundamental things that mean
more in the philosophy of human and national life
than even the taking of a stronghold and the block-
ing of an advance.

Who are these Marines? A bare thousand of
them challenged death in Belleau Wood with the
same spirit that drove on the Six Hundred at Bala-
klava. What sort of man did this thing? Where
did he come from? What made him fit to go in
with the first and bear the brunt while the rest of
America was getting ready to make war on Germany?

In the first place, the Marines were ready, as no
other group of American fighting men, with the
exception of the Engineers, was ready. I think I
can say this truthfully and without disparagement
to any other branch of the service. Our problems
were perhaps not so serious as those of the Army.

6 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

I know something of their difficulties, for we were
billeted close to the Ninth and 23rd Infantry in
France during the spring of 1918. The Marines,
though the Corps had been greatly expanded, had
smaller numbers to handle, and we believe that
our system of training was more highly perfected.
^ Also, we had a certain advantage in personnel,
both in men and new officers, as I shall show later

on.

At the outbreak of the war the Army organiza-
tion underwent radical changes. Not only were
new regiments formed, but the numbers were
changed from i,cxx) to 3,600 men to a regiment.
The old regiments were broken up so that the
seasoned soldiers might serve as nuclei for the new
ones, and they had to be spread out so thin that
there were only about 300 of them to a regiment,
or some 8 per cent. Moreover, it was thought best
to hold the National Guard regiments together, so
that the regular Army had to depend for its enlarge-
ment upon volunteer enlistments and a forced re-
cruiting campaign. When this did not suffice, the
Army was compelled to fill its ranks with volunteers
— not picked men — from the draft. This created a
tremendous problem in the matter of training, the
majority of the regular Army being nothing more
than raw recruits, and it is no discredit to them
that they did not turn at once into efficient troops.

As will be seen later, the larger part of our expe-
ditionary force of Marines was also composed of
new men, but their training began at once under

AND A FEW MARINES 7

more favourable auspices. At Quantico, and later
in France, they were drilled without let-up by ex-
perienced officers of the Marines. Then came par-
ticipation in trench warfare, and one year after the
United States had declared war, every one of those
rookies had been converted into a died-in-the-wool
Marine, while the Army was still making soldiers.

I make these statements in no spirit of criticism
or invidious comparison, but simply to show, if I
can, why the Marines were the ones chosen to go
in first. Whatever the reason, they were ready first.
It is part of the history of which they are so proud
that they have nearly always been sent in first,
because it is a fundamental part of their creed to
be always ready. Their mottoes are ** First to
Fight" and "Semper Fidelis."

These are days of enormous armies and organiza-
tion on a tremendous scale, but small numbers do
unquestionably make possible a closer human re-
lationship, and that, in our experience, means in-
creased confidence, a more effective discipline, and
esprit de corps. The Marines have always been,
comparatively speaking, an organization of small
numbers; those who have read of their world-wide
achievements in the past perhaps do not realize how
small. Previous to the Spanish War the entire
Corps was but half the size^of a modern regiment,
and the forces which so often brought order out of
chaos in turbulent lands and put to rout armies of
rapacious revolutionaries were few in numbers
though mighty, like a squad of New York policemen

8 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

quelling a riot. Americans have come to take it as
a matter of course that a Marine should be able to
do the work of ten ordinary men, and the Marines
have come to that belief, too.

Numbering only i,8oo at the outbreak of the
Spanish War, the Marine Corps was steadily en-
larged until, in 191 8, there were nearly 60,000
Marines in the service or in training. Though still
a small unit, as modern military figures go, it will
be seen that the Corps has been obHged to absorb
a large percentage of increase, most of it since the
United States joined in the Great War, and it may
be well to note that, as it stands to-day, the Corps
is more than twice the size of the United States
Army at the outbreak of the Spanish War. And
this increase has been accompHshed without any de-
preciation in personnel. The Marines, all through
their forced war-time recruiting, have maintained
their high standards and have consistently rejected
all apphcants who were not of the first calibre.

With these comparatively small numbers, and
with this effort to maintain the highest standard
in personnel, the Marines have directed every effort
toward securing mobility, which, with us, is a syno-
nym for readiness. The things we have to do usu-
ally have to be done quickly if at all, and our ar-
rangements are such that when the call comes we
have nothing whatever to do but go ahead. Until
we had to make special preparations for the war
work in France, we had no regimental or company
organizations. Every man was a member of the

AND A FEW MARINES 9

Marine Corps and of nothing else, and he was pre-
pared to serve under any of the officers. There was
never any delay due to the fiUing up of a company
quota. When a job needed to be done the available
officers were chosen and the available men assem-
bled, and off they went as a complete unit. If
there was trouble abroad, a naval vessel was sent,
and on its decks were always the Marines, ready to
land and serve as engineers, electricians, artillery,
infantry, or even cavalry, or as Uncle Sam's police-
men. If a call came that required the reserves,
officers were summoned by wire to Philadelphia and
the required number of men from Norfolk, Ports-
mouth, Boston, New York, Washington, or wherever
they might chance to be. Their kits were always
ready and they arrived as quickly as the trains
could bring them. Meanwhile, the quartermaster's
department in Philadelphia, fully equipped for all
emergencies, was rushing the necessary supplies
aboard ship, and by the time the men had assem-
bled— in twenty-four hours perhaps — the whole
expedition was ready to start for the ends of the
earth and it was simply up to the captain of the
ship.

This sort of mobility and preparedness is an es-
sential part of the very spirit and tradition of the
Corps, bred into the Marine from the start and
understood by him as merely a part of the day's
work. It rather distinguishes this branch of the
service from all others. In no others has it been
required to quite the same degree. And does it not

lo WITH THE HELP OF GOD

explain, in part at least, why the Marines were
ready with the first over there in France?

As to the individual soldier, there is more than
one sort of preparedness, and we like to think that
that of the Marine is the most effective kind. The
German soldier had been prepared for years. He
knew his number and his place in the ranks. He
was taught what to do with the implements of war.
But he was prepared for just one thing — the kind
of onslaught that his overlords thought was all
there would be to the war. He was prepared for
the thing they had carefully figured out would hap-
pen; they considered it not worth their while to pre-
pare the poor tool for anything else.

The United States Marine, on the other hand, is
prepared, so far as it is humanly possible to prepare
a man, for anything that may happen. He is ready
for the unforeseen emergency.

Discipline is no less a fundamental plank in the
Marine platform than is preparedness. There is a
sense in which the Marines are not the best dis-
ciplined soldiers in the world. As mechanical, in-
sentient automatons, moving with clock-like pre-
cision, they must hand the palm to the Boches.
The discipline of the Marines, however, is thorough,
and we make no apology for it. Respect for officers
and absolute, unquestioning obedience to orders is
taught from the beginning, but we proceed on the
principle that we are dealing with intelligent men.
We believe in leaving something to their own in-
itiative and resourcefulness, and the theory has

AND A FEW MARINES ii

panned out on a hundred occasions. When we or-
dered the Marines to go into Belleau Wood, there
was no question of obedience. No German could
have responded more steadily or promptly. But we
did not send them in blindfolded. Every man was
told by his officers just what we were up against and
what was expected of him as an individual, and they
fought the better for it. As it turned out, that fight
called for nothing so much as star individual play,
and no machine that can work only when in perfect
gear could have done what those Marines did in
the Bois de Belleau.

That is what I mean when I speak of discipline.
It is the discipHne of the trained football team,
which would go to pieces if the signals were not
followed, but which would do but sluggish work if
each man were not on his toes to snatch up the
fumbled ball and dash around the end without
interference.

I don't know that there is much to be said about
the discipline of the Marines in a technical sense.
It differs but little from the discipline of the Army
and Navy. The regulations are practically the same.
Yet there is one point of difference which perhaps
explains our success with the men. With our smaller
detachments, the officers come into closer touch with
the men, and a better mutual understanding makes
for a more effective discipline. Furthermore, the
system by which the working detachments are or-
ganized, with no previously established companies
or platoons, brings each of the officers from time

12 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

to time in close contact with a larger number of the
men than is possible under the Army system. What-
ever the cause, I know that on more than one occa-
sion both Army and Navy officers have of their
own accord pointed to the Marines as models for
their own men in the matter of discipline.

There is a special training which the Marine re-
cruits must undergo that explains much regarding
the quality and effectiveness of the finished product.
Of the details of that training I will speak more at
length in another place. They are taught to shoot
straight and to obey commands with a snap and
vigour that few other military organizations ever
attain. To this system of training we owe much,
for when the Marines went in at Belleau Wood,
but a short year after most of them had enlisted,
they were acknowledged to be one of the sharpest
shooting, hardest fighting brigades in France.

There is among the Marines, to a noteworthy
degree, readiness and mobility, there is intensive
training, and there is discipline. There is also the
tradition and history of the Corps of which every
Marine is proud. It means something to us, that
history. We have a reputation to live up to, and
we do not mean to lower our record or bring disgrace
to our insignia. I shall speak in some detail of that
history later on. It is an honourable one, and about
it has grown up a tradition that amounts to a sort
of faith. In so many fights, big and little, the
Marines have come through w^th flying colours,
with the job cleanly done, that they never expect

AND A FEW MARINES 13

to do otherwise. The Marine has learned to believe
in his organization and in himself. He acknowledges
no man his superior in a fight, and meeting odds is
but the thing he is trained for.

Since the United States of America became a
world power, the United States Marine has been
Uncle Sam's advance scout. He has been called
**the can-opener of the Army." He comes as near
to being an international policeman as any man on
earth.

The Washington Times in an editorial once gave
a fairly accurate description of the Corps. "Kip-
ling," it said, "is the only man who could sing the
song of the American Marines quite worthily.
They are the men who have done about all the
fighting under the American flag since the Civil
War, save in the little conflict with Spain. Under
all skies and climates, they are always at the point
where they are needed; the skirmish line, the police
patrol of our Government, the guardians of Na-
tional dignity and American citizens wherever there
may be threat of trouble. The young American
with an ambition for real adventure, with wish to
see and learn the art of war, has in recent years
been commended to the Marines. If there is trouble,
it means Marines to the front, first to get orders,
first in motion, first ashore, first to fire. There is
no finer body of fighting men in all the world, none
more thoroughly seasoned or widely experienced."

A Colonel of the British Army, a real student of
military afl'airs, once made this assertion: "The

14 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

best equipped body of its size in the world is the
United States Marine Corps; the second best is the
Canadian Northwest Mounted Police, and the third
best the Pennsylvania State Constabulary/' And
Admiral Dewey said, "No finer military organiza-
tion exists in the world."

Esprit de corps — that is the thing that has come
out of all this training and tradition. It is a difficult
thing to weigh, to describe, to analyze, for it belongs
in the realm of the spiritual. We only know that it
exists, that it is woven into the very warp and woof
of our Corps, that it is an invaluable quality for the
fighting man.

They tell the story of some distinguished visitors
who were passing along the cots in a military hos-
pital in France. On one of these cots lay a man,
quite still, with his face buried in the pillow. Some-
thing about him caused one of the visitors to re-
mark, "I think this must be an American soldier.''
From the depths of the pillow came a muffled voice
— **Hell, no; Vm 2l Marine!"

CHAPTER II
To France!

WHEN the United States declared war on
Germany, a thrill went through the Marine
Corps, for we were fighting men all and
we learned that Marines were to be rushed over to
France to take their stand on the Frontier of Lib-
erty beside the battle-scarred veterans of France
and Great Britain. War-time recruiting began at
once and hundreds of promising applicants thronged
our doors. We weeded them out — sifted them down
unmercifully, and the best of them we packed off
to Paris Island, S. C, and Mare Island, Cal., to be
made into Marines. An overseas training camp was
established at Quantico, Va., and I went down to
take charge. There we received the graduates from
the regular training stations as fast as they could
be turned out, and through the summer and fall of
1917 we drilled 'em and we drilled 'em, until they
were fit to go up against any foe on earth. We
taught them to shoot straight and to use the bayonet,
we had them mopping up trenches and cutting wire,
we hardened them with hikes and we got them to
handle machine guns like baby carriages. We filled
them full to bursting with the spirit of the Corps

i6 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

and then we shipped them across to France to fight.
And did they fight? You shall see.

The Marine is traditionally proud, and I cannot
truthfully say that we take any drastic measures
to suppress that pride. He is proud of his record
of being ready first and first on the job. But he
knows his equal when he sees him, and the Marine
is never backward with a word of praise for the
fellow who is able to leap into the breach before
hin? and get into the fighting first.

The first Americans to draw the blood of the Beast
were the Engineers, and to them we accord our
meed of honour. We know what they are like, for
we, too, have to turn our hands quickly to the task
that comes uppermost and do it with the will and
the skill of men. The world now knows what that
little force of Engineers did, how they got to the
front before the Kaiser and his followers fully
reaHzed that the great western republic had come
into the war against them, how the sight of those
sturdy Yankees brought hope to overwrought France,
how they buckled down to their appointed task,
one of the most difficult in the whole military
regime, and how, when the need arose, they threw
down their tools and picked up arms and proceeded
to kill Germans. I hope some day a book will be
written about the Engineers, as this one is being
vvritten about the Marines.

The Engineers were the first to land on French
soil, but the Marines were a close second. After
General Pershing and his staff had gone to Paris,

AND A FEW MARINES 17

the first regular fighting troops from this country
to be landed in France consisted of four regiments
of Army regulars and one of Marines.

Two months after war was declared the Marines
were ready. In June, 1917, Colonel C. A. Doyen,
in command of the Fifth Regiment of Marines,
landed in France at St. Nazarre, near Brest, at the
northern extremity of the Bay of Biscay. Of this
first regiment to go to France, two battalions were
from Philadelphia, and one was made up of our
Quantico boys.

One battalion of the Fifth was left at St. Nazarre
under Major Westcott for provost duty, remaining
there for several months. Others were sent on
provost duty to other parts of France; one company
remained till the end of the war. But it is important
service, nevertheless. Until January, 191 8, the
Marines did all the provost work for the American
forces, for they were best equipped for just that
sort of thing. They acted as military police in
various places, policed the villages and cafes, had
charge of American camps and debarkation ports,
guarded the lines of communication and the various
bases, and helped to keep in hand the flood of in-
coming troops.

Not all of the Fifth, however, was assigned to
provost duty. Some of thern went at once to a
training area about 150 miles east of Paris, where
they went into regular training with French troops
as part of the First Division. Five full companies
were able to complete this training.

1 8 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

In July we sent over a base battalion for the
Fifth, 1,000 men under Lieutenant-Colonel Bearss.
They went to Bordeaux for provost duty and until
January, 1918, Bearss was Base Commander at
Bordeaux.

In September the Sixth was ready. We sent over
one battalion in September and I followed with the
supply. Headquarters Company, and machine gun
company in October. Doyen was made Brigadier
General and took over the Fifth and Sixth as a
brigade. Colonel Neville going over in December to
take command of the Fifth.

I must tell something about this Sixth Regiment
of mine. In the first place it must be borne in
mind that it was an aggregation as new and untried
as any regiment of the National Army, but what
stuiF we had in it! The officers, from captain up,
and fifty or so of the non-commissioned officers
were old-time Marines, but the junior officers and
all of the privates were new men. But they were
not hke most rookies. They were of superior qual-
ity throughout, and they had been through the in-
tensive training of the Marine Corps. By the time
they were through with the training on PVench soil
I doubt if any Army officer could have discovered
the slightest trace of newness about them. They
acted Uke veterans; they thought Hke veterans; and
all because of that training and the material they
were to start with.

If we had had time and opportunity to pick our
men individually from the whole of the United

AND A FEW MARINES 19

States I doubt whether we should have done much
better. They were as fine a bunch of upstanding
American athletes as you would care to meet, and
they had brains as well as brawn. Sixty per cent
of the entire regiment — mark this — sixty per cent
of them were college men. Two-thirds of one en-
tire company came straight from the University of
Minnesota.

More than that, we had the pick of the men from
the military colleges, because we were the first to
pick. Of our young lieutenants a large number
were college athletes. There was Lagore of Yale;
Bastien of Minnesota, an All-America end; Moore
and Murphy of Princeton; Maynard of the Uni-
versity of Washington; Overton, the Yale runner,
who was killed in the offensive last summer, and a
dozen others who won fame on the gridiron, track,
and diamond while the United States was yet at
peace. When you read of what these men did in
Belleau Wood and Bouresches, remember who they
were, and perhaps their exploits will seem less un-
believable.

The Turk will fight like a fiend; the Moro's trade
is slaying; it was Fuzzy Wuzzy who broke a British
square; the Boche will move in mass formation into
the face of death like a ferry-boat entering its slip;
but when the final show-down comes, when the last
ounce of strength and nerve is called for, when mind
and hand must act like lightning together, I will
take my chances with an educated man, a free-born
American with a trained mind. Unquestionably, the

20 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

intelligent, educated man makes, in the long run,
the best soldier. There is no place for the mere
brute in modern warfare. It is a contest of brains
as well as of brawn, and the best brains win. The
American colleges doubtless supposed that they
were turning men into scholars; when the test came
they found they had been training soldiers.

We sent over one battalion of the Sixth in Sep-
tember; most of the others went across in October
and November. The crossing was no easy matter,
for the transport service was still inadequate, and the
Marines had to depend upon the over-worked and
over-crowded naval transportation. They disem-
barked at St. Nazarre and one battalion under Major
John A. Hughes was left there to assist the Engi-
neers and stevedores in the effort to bring order out
of chaos in that swarming port. Another battalion
was landed at Brest in November, under Major
Sibley, and was sent on to Bordeaux, where they
worked with the Engineers on the railroads, docks,
etc. I arrived in October with my staff, a machine
gun company, and the Headquarters Company, and
proceeded to Bordeaux, where I had charge of the
camps in that vicinity. The last battalion, under
Major Holcomb, came in February, completing the
Sixth Regiment of Marines.

How the boys took to the new life in France, and
how things looked to them over there, may be gath-
ered in part from the following letter from a Marine
private to his father:

AND A FEW MARINES 21

Somewhere in France.

Dear Father: —

Write to Quantico and tell Nelson Springer to take
salt water soap with him when he crosses. He will ap-
preciate the advice. That is the one thing which both-
ered me on the trip across. I didn't worry about U-boats
nor the fact that I had to sleep under a life-boat on the
deck, completely dressed and burdened with a life belt
and a canteen filled with fresh water. Nor has the fact
annoyed me the least bit that I never took my clothes
ofF after we started for France. But having to wash in
salt water, and none too much at that, was the nearest
approach to a hardship I experienced. There is nothing
so sticky as the after effect of a salt-water face wash.

I am still yearning for a wash like the one I had on
the train when we pulled out of Washington. The Red
Cross girls fed us sandwiches and coffee. Those girls
got up in the middle of the night to feed us, and they
looked so clean and cheerful. I haven't seen anything
half so clean since we left them, but we have managed
to multiply their good cheer.

Of course, all of us didn't, for in spite of the excellent
weather many of the men were seasick, and who could be
cheerful then? There were a good many "abandon ship
drills," but they were most humane about leaving us
alone at night. The food was about what we got at
Quantico, but we had to stand in line half the day to get
a look in. After eating we would stand in another slowly
moving line to wash the mess gear. I used bread to clean
mine and found it served the purpose admirably. Lines
of men wound all over the ship, a large part of them
below decks. Only the fittest survived, and you may
guess that I didn't miss a meal.

22 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

Old women and children dressed in black seem to be
the chief inhabitants of Paris. I was surprised to hear
the newsies crying "New York Herald," much the same
as our news butchers do. In fact, Paris is quite American-
ized. We bought nuts and apples from the natives as
we marched out of the city, eating them on the hike.

I know where I am camping even if I cannot tell it,
for we visited a few miles from here when we all came
abroad. We are quarantined, for some unknown reason,
in a field. The scenery is beautiful but it rains most of
the*^ time, which keeps us busy making drain ditches
around our shelter-halves or "pup tents."

We are not allowed to give our washing to the French
women whom we can see washing at the spring holes
in the next field, nor can we make any purchases over the
fence, so Fm saving a lot of money. Occasionally I try
my French on the children who sit on the fence all day
long and watch us. They think it very funny. They are
great pals and make the most comical little playmates
imaginable.

One of the most humorous features of our life here is
that every one of the boys seems to think he is making
history. Although we have had no chance to see action,
if peace were declared to-morrow we would have enough
to talk about the rest of our lives. It is strange how im-
portant that phrase, "the rest of our lives," has become.

Dad, I want to tell you that Fm mighty glad Fm in
France. Some of the things Fve told you may sound
like hardships, but they're not. It's all a part of the
game. Every little detail in the life of the camp seems
shadowed by some adventure — something new in store
for us. The routine and the food are much the same as
they were in America, but it all seems so different.

AND A FEW MARINES 23

My tent mate has lifted the poncho on the open end
of the tent. The inference is that he will soon come in
and then all my time will be taken by seeing that he
does not touch my side of the tent roof, for if he does it
will start leaking. In some miraculous way we manage
to keep the four-by-six-foot spot under the tent fairly
dry. He is taking ofF his shoes so that the mud won't
get on the blankets.

It is a matter of great speculation when we will be re-
leased from our restriction to camp, but we all hope to get
our luck back soon.

Love to all,

Dick.

During the latter part of 1917 we had Marines
doing provost duty all over France — at Havre,
Tours, and a dozen other places, and even at South-
ampton, England. On January ist the Marines
were relieved of all provost duty by the 41st Division
of Infantry — National Guardsmen. We were then
assembled in a training area near Bourmont in the
Verdun region, some fifty miles back of the lines.
The Fifth was billeted in four little French towns
and the Sixth in five. Here, for over two months,
we engaged in the hardest kind of intensive train-
ing under French tutelage, a battalion of the
77th French Infantry being sent to us for that
purpose.

Three English-speaking French officers were at-
tached to each regiment in an advisory capacity, to
instruct us in the elaborate system of trench orders
and all the other details of trench fighting as devel-

24 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

oped in this war. They were splendid men and very
helpful.

A series of trenches was dug near the town where
the French troops were billeted, and part of our
training included from four to six hours' work in
these trenches several days each week. They were
located eight miles from the nearest American town
and thirteen from the farthest, so that our boys had
to march sixteen to twenty-six miles a day, with a
full pack, including intrenching tools, in addition to
the hard work in the trenches. And this was not
all. Our men were subject to hurry calls at any
time of the night or day. There were forced marches
to the trenches, occupation and relief at night,
patrol work, sham raids, gas and raid signals, and
all the rest of it. They were drilled constantly in
trench organization, signal systems, and all the
details of trench warfare as it existed at the front.
And all this in addition to the routine drill of the
Marines.

It was winter, cold and often stormy, but the
weather made no difference. The training went for-
ward every day, and manoeuvres were executed in
snowstorms. I can't say the boys liked it. Who
would? But they learned their lessons with sur-
prising aptitude and became as hard as nails.

And it was some satisfaction to learn that we
had won official approval. While we were in the
training area General Pershing came to inspect the
brigade, and his comment was, **I only wish I had
500,000 of these Marines!"

AND A FEW MARINES 25

I believe we had an easier time of it at that than
the Army units that were billeted near us, for we
were in rather better shape when we started in.
All the more credit is due the Infantry, perhaps,
because its units got into shape at all under such
difficulties.

It was farming country where we were billeted,
with little towns and villages scattered all over the
map. In France the farmers do not live in isolated
farmhouses as they do in this country. Their homes
are in the villages and their farms outside. It would
have been pretty country under some circum-
stances, and the towns picturesque, but this was
the dreary winter season and the villages looked a
bit forlorn. The pinch of war was everywhere in
evidence. The inhabitants were chiefly old people
and children, the younger men being with the Army
and the younger women and girls having gone away
to work in the munition plants. I fancy our boys
brought a bit of colour and the joy of life into some
of those desolate lives. I know they were sorry to
see us go. At least, we left those villages cleaner
and more comfortable than when we went into them,
for we had religiously policed them and cleaned the
streets.

One thing that struck me while in this training
area was the remarkable efficiency of the French
Forestry Department. Our food was furnished by
the supply service of the American Army in France,
but our fuel we had to cut for ourselves. This was
arranged for by the French Government, and for-

26 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

esters and district officers were sent down to super-
vise the work. Not a tree was cut that the foresters
had not marked, and not a twig was allowed to be
wasted. There was none of that slap-dash, extrava-
gant lumbering such as we Americans have so fool-
ishly indulged in, but a careful, scientific selection
of such timber as might be cut without robbing the
forests. It was merely a matter of beneficial thin-
ning out, and when this war is over, France will
still have intact and flourishing such of her forests
as the shells have spared. Necessity has taught her
this; must we in America wait for the pinch of
necessity ?

In spite of exposure and not infrequent exhaus-
tion, the health of our men was remarkably good
during this training period. And I don't think they
were unhappy. They were too busy for that. Nor
did we have any trouble with drink or other forms
of vice, partly because of the lack of opportunity
and partly because of the strict regulations. And
I do not think there will be much trouble of this
sort in the American armies so long as General
Pershing is at the helm. He is a man of inflexible
determination, is Pershing, and he made up his mind
at the outset that his soldiers should lose none of
their effectiveness through drink or the results of
vice. And he is succeeding as no other commander
has ever succeeded in the history of the world. He
has succeeded to such an extent that even the
British have sent over a commission to find out how
he accomplished it. And I am convinced that the

AND A FEW MARINES 27

average American soldier will return from the in-
sidious perils of military life a cleaner and better
man than when he went over. Americans can hardly
overestimate the importance of this achievement.
It is a thing for us, as a civilized nation, to be proud
of and to thank God for.

During this tedious prehminary period of training
the spirit of our Marines was, indeed, remarkable.
It remained so all through the trench life that fol-
lowed and through the bitter fighting that came
after that. Cheerfulness is an outstanding quality
of the American everywhere in France, and that
has helped the AlHed morale materially. As testi-
mony, let me quote Private Horace W. Grey, of
Tecumseh, Mich., who, some months later, lay in
the Brooklyn Naval Hospital, cheerfully contem-
plating a stump where his left leg had been. Grey
was hit by fragments of a high explosive shell that
had first struck a rock, his company having just
moved up into the battle line at Chateau-Thierry.

"I must speak of the high morale of the Marines,**
said he. **To me it is the most wonderful thing of
all. There is never a gloomy moment. If some man
should seem a little moody his companions make a
special effort to kid him along until the sky grows
brighter. No matter whether they were in box cars,
the trenches, or battered Belleau Wood, they were
always in buoyant spirits.

"You should have seen the little trumpeters. I
remember time and again in the trenches when one
of these youngsters would yell out shrilly as a shell

28 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

came near, * Shoot the other barrel, Fritz; that one
missed. Your aim is rotten/ The Marines fight
calmly. They take their time and keep cool."

It was not long, indeed, before our cheerful
leathernecks got into the fighting, and from the
first it was fighting of a daring, brilliant order. For
the training period came to an end ere long and our
two regiments of Marines found themselves facing
the Boche across No Man's Land.

CHAPTER III
In the Trenches

WE REMAINED in the training area until
March 15th and were then moved up into
the Hne. The First Division was already
in. It was composed entirely of Regular Infantry
and it was that division that later saw action around
Cantigny.

In March three more divisions were moved up —
the 42nd, 26th, and ours. We belonged to the Sec-
ond Division of the American Expeditionary Force,
the 9th and 23 rd Infantry comprising the Third
Brigade and the Fifth and Sixth Marines, together
with the Sixth Machine Gun Battalion under Major
Edward B. Cole, comprising the Fourth Brigade.
The division was commanded by Major General
Omar Bundy of the Army.

Our officers' school at Quantico, with its one-year
course, had not yet turned out enough officers for us
and Army Reserve Lieutenants who had put in
their application had been assigned to us. They
became practically Marines in short order, some of
them being killed or wounded in the subsequent
fighting.

We operated under a French Brigade Commander
and all our orders were in French. All our reports

30 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

were at first made to this French officer and we
had nothing to do with the tactical plans. We were
still in training under French tutelage and remained
so until May. As I have said, we had three French
advisory officers assigned to each regiment — one
Captain and two Lieutenants — who acted as liaison
officers and kept us in touch with the French troops.
Of gallant Captain Tribot-Laspierre, who was with
me from the first until I fell at Belleau Wood, I
shail have something to say later on.

We were sent to a sector on the heights of the
Meuse southeast of Verdun. With my command I
was placed in charge of a section of the trenches
there. When we first went in the regiments of the
Second Division were sandwiched in between French
regiments, but after about a month the two regi-
ments of Marines were brought together, side by
side, as a brigade under General Doyen.

We went up by train after dark, five trains to each
regiment. The German airplanes must have ob-
served signs of activity, for the enemy began shelling
the railhead. They were too late, however, for most
of the men had detrained and moved away. One
shell, however, did ruin the Fifth Regiment band.
None of the men were hurt but the bass drum was
a total wreck.

Just as we arrived at the front at midnight, a
shell burst in the midst of a four-mule team. The
mules were all killed and the driver was blown clean
across the road, but he picked himself up uninjured.
Again the human casualties were zero.

AND A FEW MARINES 31

At first one battalion of each of the two regi-
ments of Marines went into the trenches, relieving
two French battalions, while the rest were held in
reserve. Soon afterward a second battalion of the
Sixth moved up at night to take a position in line.

The supports were located in secondary trenches
about two miles back of the lines; the reserves lived
in shacks and barracks above ground from three
to five miles back. Some of the hardest and most
dangerous work fell to the lot of the supporting
units. They were kept digging trenches all the time,
often under fire, and that is no child's play. Some
of it was night work, and even so there were not
infrequent casualties in these working parties. Our
first blood was spilt in the supporting trenches when
a shell killed two and wounded three men of the
S^nd Company, Sixth Regiment. Such unhappy
events we later became accustomed to, but I fancy
there were some of our youths who, when the news
of these first deaths went about, felt the sensation
of a temporary quake inside, but it served only as
an incentive to further effort. We knew we were in
the war then, in deadly earnest, and our men drew
together and faced the music with a grim determina-
tion that boded ill for the unlucky Boches who
might chance to appear within range of their rifles.
You may be a perfect gentleman by inheritance
and training, but the sight of a dead comrade's
upturned face makes you want to kill.

The first battalions in the trenches were relieved
in eight days. After that the rule was twenty days

32 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

in and twenty out. The relieved men went to the
rear to bathe and rest and have their clothes steamed,
but they were soon back digging trenches again.
There was Httle respite. Digging trenches, I need
hardly remark, is a strong man's job. It leaves the
limbs weary and the back aching. There is about it
none of the glamour of battle, but the men knew it
was the way to whip the Hun. One boy wrote home
that he had been reported for the first time for having
a rusty rifle. ** But,'' he added, '' my pick and shovel
were clean and bright." Very likely that same boy,
who had been toiling hke a day labourer, caked with
dirt and sweat, had a short year before been sitting
languidly in a college classroom, clad in flossy flan-
nels, bluffing his way through a course in Greek or
Political Economy. You can make even ditch-diggers,
and first-rate ones, out of rah-rah boys, if you can in-
still into them the all-pervasive spirit of the Marines.

Speaking of this trench digging, the little old mayor
of one of the villages back of our lines was heard to
remark that the war would have to last at least two
years more to give the Americans a chance to finish
their trench system.

The front line trenches at this point ran along a
ridge overlooking a plain and cut here and there by
ravines. Behind us the country was wooded. Both
before and behind the line there were numerous little
towns and villages, or what had once been such, a
mile or two apart. Two or three of these, located
directly in front of our position, were used as advance
posts for observation.

AND A FEW MARINES 33

Through our loopholes we looked out upon a for-
lorn, desolate, uninhabited country. It had passed
through severe fighting in 191 5, and the Germans
were still shelling the woods and towns every day in
the hope of getting some of our observers. The
woods were splintered on every hand, the stone
buildings in the villages were all knocked to pieces, and
some of the open fields looked like freshly ploughed
land. The whole countryside was pock-marked
with craters. It was like a Dore vision of the end of
the world — an abomination of desolation. Mankind
and all his works appeared to have been destroyed
by some devastating fire of the angry gods. It
recalled burning words of Dante, Milton, Poe,
Browning — ^these Hues from "Childe Roland to the
Dark Tower Came":

I think I never saw

Such starved, ignoble nature.

As for the grass, it grew as scant as hair
In leprosy.

Then came some palsied oak, a cleft in him
Like a distorted mouth that splits its rim

Gaping at death, and dies while it recoils.

Yet if one could but close one's eyes to all this
ghastly havoc of war, it was beautiful country, with
rolHng contours, a wide prospect, and wooded ridges.
Spring came while we;^were there. The woods took
on their cloak of green, and the verdant ravines,
though deadly enough in all conscience, seemed to

34 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

thrust themselves out into the desert plain as though
trying to inject life into death. We witnessed there
Nature's eternal struggle to heal her wounds.

I realize that it is not altogether easy for the civilian
back home to get an accurate and vivid picture of
the trenches. We occupied what is known as a
"sub-sector" of the trenches that had been dug by
the French. A "sub-sector" consists of a "centre of
resistance," which is usually occupied by a battalion,
and is made up of "strong points" which are occu-
pied by companies. The line itself is made up of
"combat groups," whose strength is according to
the character of the ground. Sometimes a "combat
group" consists of a non-commissioned officer and
three men; sometimes there are as many as twelve
men. At least half of these are alert all the time.

The trenches are not lined with men, the groups
being posted at intervals of from 50 to 150 yards.
At each of these posts there are men constantly on
Watch at loopholes in the parapet. In quiet times
there is no one in the trench between these posts,
and no one in the ravines, where poisonous gases
may hang. The trench is not on a straight line and
the whole front is covered by machine guns in such
a way that a cross-fire is possible at every point.
The heavier guns are placed back of the line near the
support trenches, in camouflaged positions.

The support trench, which must not be confused
with the position of the supporting troops farther
back, is located perhaps 50 to 200 yards behind the
front line and is occupied by front-line troops. It is

AND A FEW MARINES 35

connected with the front trench by zigzag connect-
ing trenches. From it a main supply trench, some
two miles long, runs directly back to the rear.

We had no listening posts here, owing to the width
of No Man's Land at this point, but we had advance
observation posts in the two villages on our front,
and to these ran connecting trenches or boyaux.

The front trench where we were was merely a
ditch with vertical sides, six feet deep and perhaps
three feet wide or less. The main trench to the rear
was wider, to permit of the passage of troops. At
the best places in the front trench firing steps were
cut in the front wall. Dugouts for the men not on
watch were built into the earth from the rear side of
the trench. They were of different sizes, some being
large enough to accommodate thirty or forty men,
while others were big enough for only three or four.
Most of them were suppHed with two entrances, so
as to leave a means of exit in case of a cave-in.

Our unit had its own telephone and observation
system and our signal corps men were on the jump
all the time to keep it in working order. The lines
were cut by shells sometimes fifteen or twenty times
during the course of a day. And we had to be careful
how we used our wires, for the Germans were able
to steal most of our messages by means of powerful
induction coils. Where we were only 100 yards
from the enemy, I believe they were able to catch
every word we sent along our wires, and our only
safeguard was a frequent change of code.

We were in a so-called quiet sector, but quiet was

36 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

only a comparative term over there. The German
artillery was active most of the time and ours re-
plied in kind. I got my first taste of a near-by
shell on the second day. I had gone down to the
front trench with Captain Laspierre and we were
returning through the woods together, when we
heard the shrill whistle of a shell. I had already
become somewhat accustomed to that whistle and
then the bang of the more or less distant explosion,
and it did not occur to me that this sound was any
different, but the French captain's ears were in
better tune. " Down ! " he cried, and we jumped into
a shallow ditch and lay flat. The shell struck a bare
fifty feet aw^ay and burst, and the fragments rained
all around us.

The French captain and I threw ourselves into
the ditch five times that day while traversing half a
mile. Some aviator must have signalled to the
German gunners that we were there. Afterward I
got so that I could quickly distinguish between the
high-pitched whistle of the high velocity and the
snarling shriek of the trench mortar shell. And after
identifying one of the latter, one usually had between
two and three seconds in which to seek the shelter
of Mother Earth. Major Hughes told me that he
didn't in the least mind the song of the big shells,
but he did object to having tin boilers shot at him.

Every day the Germans shelled our batteries,
crossroads, and camps. We were supported by
French artillery at first; later American artillery
came into position behind us. The 75 's were placed

AND A FEW MARINES 37

about three-quarters of a mile back of the trenches
and the 150*5 about two miles. They not only
replied to the enemy fire but spent a good deal of
time and ammunition at first in registering for barrage
fire.

Boche airplanes came over nearly every day. At
first, when the trees were bare, they could observe
all our movements unless we executed them at night
or under cover. Later on the foliage in the woods
furnished us with some protection.

These trenches had originally been dug by French
Colonial troops. It had been a quiet sector for two
years and the trenches had not been kept in as good
shape as in some places. The officers' dug-outs
were in good condition, but the trenches themselves
were rather bad and we had plenty of work to do
to clean them out. In some spots the mud was knee-
deep, and the trench dug-outs were wet. This meant
discomfort and — vermin.

For the trenches are not inhabited by men alone.
There were cooties and there were rats. The cootie,
which is the soldier's name for a minute but very
persistent member of the louse family, does not
furnish a pleasant topic for conversation, but in the
old trenches he is omnipresent and not at all shy
and retiring in disposition. He attacks the just and
the unjust, the clean and the unclean, and he is no
respecter of persons. Hence the haste to bathe and
get one's clothes steamed upon being relieved of
trench duty. The cootie is as troublesome as shrap-
nel and he loves Red Cross knitting.

38 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

And the rats. They played over the men while
they slept in the dug-outs. They lived and multi-
plied and made merry throughout the length of the
trenches. They got at the reserve rations, some-
times gnawing clean through the men's packs. They
were immigrants, we believed, from Germany.

There are regiments, I understand, which keep
terriers for the killing of rats in the trenches. We
had no terrier, but the Fifth had a mascot that was
nearly as good. It was an ant bear, a sort of raccoon,
which some Marine had brought from Haiti. And
it did murder rats.

Dogs are used in France for various military pur-
poses, as sentinels, couriers, ambulance assistants,
etc. We had no trained dogs with our outfit, but our
men were not entirely dogless. The machine gun
company of the Sixth had a dog from Haiti, and one
battalion owned a German shepherd dog that had
been presented to it. One of the officers kept one
of the rare and interesting sheepdogs of the Pyrenees.

Since I have broached the subject of dogs, let me
insert a good dog story, for it has become part of the
story of the Marines in France. It appeared in this
form in the July 4th issue of the Stars and StrtpeSy
the daily newspaper published by the American
Expeditionary Force in France:

"This is the story of Verdun Belle, a trench dog who
adopted a young leatherneck; of how she followed him to
the edge of the battle around Chateau-Thierry, and was
waiting for him when they carried him out. It is a true
story.

AND A FEW MARINES 39

"Belle is a setter bitch, shabby white, with great splotch-
es of chocolate brown in her coat. Her ears are brown and
silken. Her ancestry is dubious. She is under size, and
would not stand a chance among the haughtier breeds
they show in splendour at Madison Square Garden back
home. But the Marines think there never was a dog
like her since the world began.

"No one in the regiment knows whence she came, nor
why, when she joined the outfit in a sector near Verdun,
she singled out one of the privates as her very own and
attached herself to him for the duration of the war. The
young Marine would talk long and earnestly to her, and
every one swore that Belle could 'compree' English.

"She used to curl up at his feet when he slept, or follow
silently to keep him company at the listening post. She
would sit hopefully in front of him whenever he settled
down with his laden mess-kit, which the cooks always
heaped extra high in honour of Belle.

"Belle was as used to war as the most weather-beaten
poilu. The tremble of the ground did not disturb her and
the whining whirr of the shells overhead only made her
twitch and wrinkle her nose in her sleep. She was trench
broken. You could have put a plate of savoury pork
chops on the parapet and nothing would have induced
her to go up after them.

"She weathered many a gas attack. Her master con-
trived a protection for her by cutting down and twisting
a French gas mask. At first this sack over her nose irri-
tated her tremendously, but once, when she was trying
to claw it off with her forepaws, she got a whifF of the
poisoned air. Then a great light dawned on Belle, and
after that, at the first alerte, she would race for her mask.
You could not have taken it from her until her master's
pat on her back told her everything was all right.

40 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

"In the middle of May, Belle presented a proud but
not particularly astonished regiment with nine confused
and wriggling puppies, black and white or, like their
mother, brown and white, and possessed of incredible
appetites. Seven of these were alive and kicking when,
not so very many days ago, the order came for the regi-
ment to pull up stakes and speed across France to help
stem the German tide north of the troubled Marne.

"In the rush and hubbub of marching orders, Belle
and her brood were forgotten by every one but the young
Marine. It never once entered his head to leave her or
the pups behind. Somewhere he found a market basket
and tumbled the litter into that. He could carry the
pups, he explained, and the mother dog would trot at his
heels.

"Now the amount of hardware a Marine is expected
to carry on the march is carefully calculated to the maxi-
mum strength of the average soldier, yet this leatherneck
found extra muscle somewhere for his precious basket.
If it came to the worst, he thought, he could jettison his
pack. It was not very clear in his mind what he would
do with his charges during a battle, but he trusted to luck
and Verdun Belle.

"For 40 kilometres he carried his burden along the
parched French highway. No one wanted to kid him
out of it nor could have if they would. When there fol-
lowed a long advance by camion, he yielded his place to
the basket of wriggling pups while he himself hung on
the tail-board.

"But then there was more hiking and the basket
proved too much. It seemed that the battle line was
somewhere far off. Solemnly, the young Marine killed
four of the puppies, discarded the basket, and slipped the
other three into his shirt.

AND A FEW MARINES 41

"Thus he trudged on his way, carrying those three,
pouched in forest green, as a kangaroo carries its young,
while the mother-dog trotted trustingly behind.

''One night he found that one of the black and white
pups was dead. The road, by this time, was black with
hurrying troops, lumbering lorries jostling the line of ad-
vancing ambulances, dust-grey columns of soldiers, mov-
ing on as far ahead and as far behind as the eye could see.
Passing silently in the other direction was the desolate
procession of refugees from the invaded countryside.
Now and then a herd of cows or a cluster of fugitives
from some desolated village, trundling their most cher-
ished possessions in wheelbarrows and baby-carts, would
cause an eddy in the traflEc.

" Somewhere in this congestion and confusion Belle was
lost. In the morning there was no sign of her and the
young Marine did not know what to do. He begged a cup
of milk from an old Frenchwoman and with the eye-
dropper from his kit he tried to feed the two pups. It
did not work very well. Faintly the veering wind brought
down the valley from far ahead the sound of the cannon.
Soon he would be in the thick of it and there was no
Belle to care for the pups.

"Two ambulances of a field hospital were passing in
the unending caravan. A lieutenant who looked human
was in the front seat of one of them, a sergeant beside him.
The leatherneck ran up to them, blurted out his story,
gazed at them imploringly, and thrust the puppies into
their hands. 1 .

" *Take good care of them,' he said. *I don't suppose
Fll ever see them again.'

"And he was gone. A little later in the day that field
hospital was pitching its tents and setting up its kitchens
and tables in a deserted farm. Amid all the hurry of

42 WITH TPIE HELP OF GOD

preparation for the big job ahead they found time to
worry about those pups. The problem was food. Corned
willy was tried and found wanting.

"Finally, the first sergeant hunted up a farm-bred pri-
vate, and the two of them spent that evening chasing four
nervous and distrustful cows around a pasture, trying
vainly to capture enough milk to provide subsistence for
the new additions to the personnel.

"Next morning the problem was still unsolved. But
it was solved that evening.

v"For that evening a fresh contingent of Marines
trooped by the farm, and in their wake — tired, anxious,
but undiscouraged — ^was Verdun Belle. Ten kilometres
back, two days before, she had lost her master, and, until
she could find him again, she evidently had thought that
any Marine was better than none.

"The troops did not halt at the farm, but Belle did.
At the gates she stopped dead in her tracks, drew in her
lolling tongue, sniffed inquiringly the evening air, and like
a flash — a white streak along the drive — she raced to the
distant tree where, on a pile of discarded dressings in the
shade, the pups were sleeping.

"All the corps men stopped work and stood around and
marvelled. For the onlooker it was such a family reunion
as warms the heart. For the worried mess sergeant it
was a great relief. For the pups it was a mess call, clear
and unmistakable.

"So, with renewed faith in her heart and only one
worry left in her mind, Verdun Belle and her puppies
settled down to detached service with this field hospital.
When, next day, the reach of the artillery made it ad-
, visable that it should move down the valley to the shelter
of a fine hillside chateau, you may be sure that room was
made in the first ambulance for the three casuals.

AND A FEW MARINES 43

"In a grove of trees beside the house, the tents of the
personnel were pitched and the cots of the expected pa-
tients ranged side by side. The wounded came — came
hour after hour In a steady stream, and the boys of the
hospital worked on them night and day. They could not
possibly keep track of all the cases, but there was one
who did. Always a mistress of the art of keeping out
from under foot, very quietly Belle hung around and
investigated each ambulance that turned in from the
main road and backed up with its load of pain to the door
of the receiving room.

"Then one evening they lifted out a young Marine,
listless in the half stupour of shell shock. To the busy
workers he was just Case Number Such-and-Such, but
there was no need to tell any one who saw the wild jubi-
lance of the dog that Belle had found her own again at

last.

"The first consciousness he had of his new surroundings
was the feel of her rough, pink tongue licking the dust
from his face. And those who passed that way on Sunday
last found two cots shoved together in the kindly shade
of a spreading tree. On one the mother-dog lay con-
tented with her puppies. Fast asleep on the other, his
arm thrown out so that the grimy hand could clutch one
silken ear, lay the young Marine.

" Before long they would have to ship him to the evac-
uation hospital, on from there to the base hospital, on
and on and on. It was not very clear to any one how
another separation could be prevented. It was a per-
plexing question. But they knew in their hearts they
could safely leave the answer to some one else. They
could leave it to Verdun Belle."

CHAPTER IV,
Over the Top

OUTSIDE of the artillery fire and repelling a
few minor German raids, nothing very ex-
citing happened at first. Then w^e began
Sending patrols every night into No Man's Land,
and the real danger and uncertainty of trench war-
fare began for our Marines — and the longed-for
chance for action.

These patrols were divided into two classes — wire
patrols, which went over the top to cut German wire
entanglements and to look after the condition of
ours, and reconnoitring patrols which stole out in
search of information. Neither of these was a raid-
ing party, though a German prisoner or two was
always welcome.

The reconnoitring patrols were sent out with a
definite route to follow and a definite time schedule.
This schedule was handed to the artillery, which was
ready with a barrage in case an enemy raid was sig-
nalled. Obviously, it was important for the patrol
to stick to its route and schedule so as to be in no
danger from our own barrage.

The average patrol numbered not less than twenty-
five men under a commissioned officer. The German
patrols were usually a bit larger — about forty men.

AND A FEW MARINES 45

There was always the possibility of running upon an
enemy patrol, and that meant quick action and a
bloody fight.

Perhaps it requires more nerve to steal out in the
night in this way, creeping over the top and skulking
along Indian fashion, with no way of knowing how
many Germans may be in the path, than to advance
into battle in regular formation in broad daylight.
But our Marines took to it as though it were the
best game ever invented, and I have no doubt it
helped to fit them for what came later.

Clashes with German patrols were frequent. They
became a part of the night's work, these unearthly
encounters in the dread dark, and our Marines
learned to take the hazard and fight the unseen.
Quietly they would steal over the top like boys
embarking on some exciting game, and then compara-
tive silence would reign in the trenches while we
waited for the patrol to come back. It was filled
with suspense, that waiting, for the crack of a rifle
out there in No Man's Land, or the bursting of a
grenade might mean the snuffing out of another
young American life, and another Marine reported
dead or missing. Often there was a pitched battle
beneath the stars, and when the boys came in again
they had a tale to tell of fleeing Germans or dead foes
hanging on the wire.

I remember one occasion in which a party of thirty
men of the Fifth went over into No Man's Land in
the dead of night on their stealthy, dangerous mission.
One of the Army Reserve Lieutenants, a Plattsburgh

46 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

graduate named A. L. Sundeval, attached to the
1 8th Company, was in command of the patrol.
Deploying as much as was safe in the darkness, they
made their way over the shell holes and entangle-
ments until suddenly the thirty ran head on into a
large German patrol numbering at least a hundred
men. But the Marine does not count his enemy's
numbers. Without a moment's hesitation battle
was joined there in the darkness, which was made
even more intense by occasional flares and star shells
in the distance. Rifles cracked and spat fire, and
now and then a grunt told of an American bayonet
that had found its sheath in a German body. The
conflict ebbed and flowed out there between two
inactive armies, with no one to watch its progress,
but our Marines fought the Boches to a standstill,
and when the enemy at last turned and disappeared
in the darkness they carried with them a new respect
for the fighting of the devil hounds and left behind
their slain.

When It was all over, and the boys came back.
Lieutenant Sundeval was lying motionless on the
ground and two men were reported missing. A gun-
nery sergeant of the l8th Company named Winchen-
baugh, a loyal son of Poland, picked up the dying
Lieutenant and brought him in under fire. For
that he received the Croix de Guerre and was recom-
mended for the Distinguished Service Cross.

Such were the adventures of our patrols out there
in the wire-entangled waste of No Man's Land when
the night was black and every man carried his life

AND A FEW MARINES 47

in his hands. Great battles and the movements of
huge armies under illustrious generals crowd the
reports of such deeds from the newspapers, but they
are the deeds of brave men, fighting and dying in
France for the great cause. And out there in No
Man's Land the Hun took bloody toll of our Marines,
but he paid the price.

More spectacular than the patrol work, perhaps,
were the raids which were made on the enemy's
trenches for the purpose of securing prisoners and
direct information. The Germans were also addicted
to the habit of raiding, and we had some lively times
repelling their raids. They were seldom successful.
On one occasion they attempted a raid on a bat-
talion of the Fifth during relief, and left behind them
two prisoners and three dead.

As the days went by and our men stiffened to their
work, there were stirring events for the Marines.
They became more skilful in their night patrol
work, bolder in their raids, more stubborn in their
resistance of the enemy's dashes.

I have spoken of the little demolished villages in
front of our lines which we used as advance observa-
tion posts. The squads in these outposts were prac-
tically isolated part of the time. Each advance post
was reached by a single connecting trench or boyau
which was wide open to the enemy's fire and could
be used only under cover of darkness. The Germans
shelled these villages every day and the men were
obliged to make dugouts. They did most of their sleep-
ing in the daytime and remained watchful all night.

48 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

In one of these posts we had fifty men under one
officer, Lieutenant Perkinson. No Man's Land at
this point was about three quarters of a mile wide,
but it was not a safe spot night or day. Eternal
watchfulness was the price of life.

One night, at 11.30, we heard the roar of the bar-
rage and the rattle of machine guns and learned that
a raid was being made on this post. The story of
that raid, as it was afterward told me, was dramatic.
The German patrols had succeeded in cutting all but
, the last line of wire without being detected. It was
a night of velvet blackness and our men were on the
alert. Out of the stillness of No Man's Land — for
there is a sort of comparative stillness there — there
came to the ears of our listeners the sharp snap of
wire cutters near at hand. The Germans were at
work on the last line of barbed wire.

The word was quickly passed along and the auto-
matic rifles blazed out. The Germans replied with
such vigour and volume that our men at once recog-
nized it for a raid in force. They were clearly out-
numbered, though it was impossible for them to tell
just how great their peril was. They kept their
automatics going, but the Germans refused to be
beaten back. Help was imperatively needed.

Lieutenant Perkinson ordered his men to signal to
our artillery for a barrage, but the rockets had become
damp and refused to go ofF. The situation was
serious for that little band of Marines. Then two
men — Privates Sleeth and Hullinger — volunteered
to go back to the first line trench for a fresh supply

-^i

Photograph from the Coinmittee on Public Information

THE GAS ALARM

Photograph from the Committee on Public Information

SIX SECONDS LATER
' On the whole, I am inclined to think that the gas was the worst evil we
had to encounter, and we learned to dread the deadly smell of mustard"

AND A FEW MARINES 49

of rockets. Sleeth was a ten-second sprinter, and
the two started back by the shell-torn road, as the
winding boyau offered too great an impediment to
speed and was not much safer at night.

When our rifles spoke, the Germans knew there
was no further need for stealth and they signalled
back to their gunners for a barrage to prevent rein-
forcements from being sent to our men. As our two
runners started out on their dash up the slope, this
barrage was being methodically laid down right across
the boyau and the strip of ground lying between our
front line trench and the advance post. The runners
had to make their way directly through this curtain
of shell fire and return the same way.

Now an artillery barrage is a pretty effective
check to advancing troops, but a single man may
hope, with luck, to get through with a whole skin.
The German shells were dropped frequently and
accurately at a range of about 3,000 yards, falling
to earth about twenty to thirty feet apart. This
is too close for comfort, and a man's only hope is to
get through in the interval between two shots from
the same guns.

Our runners had their wits about them and they
made their calculations. Both of them got through
by a miracle, though HulHnger fell exhausted when
he reached the shelter of the trench. The sprinter
came loping back to us with ail armful of rockets,
beating the barrage on his return. Picture to your-
self that wild midnight dash through a hell of burst-
ing shells, and you will have some idea of the sort of

50 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

deeds our new Marines were proving themselves
capable of.

As it turned out, those rockets were not needed,
after all, for Lieutenant Perkinson and his men beat
the Germans back without the aid of a barrage. It
was the incessant argument of their rifles that per-
suaded the Boches to retire from their ill-starred
venture. It was pitch-dark, and the men could see
neither their victims nor the sights on their rifles.
But they knew how to shoot low and to fire at a
sound or a flash, and their fire proved effective.
The Germans evidently did not like this form of
death in the dark, for it was not long before they had
had enough. They threw over a volley of grenades
and departed. The German barrage kept up for
half an hour longer, as if for spite, and then quieted
down.

About daylight small patrols were sent out to in-
vestigate. They found two dead Huns, besides
spots of blood and other signs of numerous casualties.
They also picked up about 500 hand grenades, fifty
big two-handed wire cutters, and a quantity of
tubes of liquid fire which the Germans had dropped
in their hasty retreat. Their little undertaking had
proved a bit costly for them, but the fight might
easily have gone the other way, for they had suc-
ceeded in cutting half through the last entanglement
and were close upon our post when they were detect-
ed. From the evidence gathered it was estimated
that they must have outnumbered the fifty Ameri-
cans more than two to one.

AND A FEW MARINES 51

As for the Marines in that action, not one was
killed and only one man wounded, and he by shrapnel
at the beginning of the German barrage. He
received seven separate wounds, but he crawled to
his position and stuck there throughout the engage-
ment. Lieutenant Perkinson received the Croix de
Guerre for that night's work, and so did the two
runners.

There was one other little affair which had its
heroic moments. In another of the little towns at
the foot of the hill, where the hnes were about i,ocx>
yards apart, we kept two platoons — 100 men. One
night a combination patrol started out from this
post, consisting of equal numbers of French and
Americans, the latter under Lieutenant Burr. Again
it was midnight and dark as a pocket. They had
got about 200 yards outside the Hnes when they ran
headlong into a party of Germans who were evidently
planning a raid on the advance post. The Germans,
not knowing just what they were up against, turned
and fled.

In about two minutes a signal went up and a
German barrage was laid down between the Allied
patrol and the town. Eight batteries of four guns
each poured in a perfect torrent of explosive shells
and the retreat of our men was effectively cut off.
As the barrage crept nearer they scuttled for shell
holes and ditches and lay there waiting for the storm
to subside.

Next morning four dead Germans were found near
the town, killed by their own barrage. One Marine

52 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

was killed that night — Corporal Toth. They found
him the following day, sitting in a ditch with a
machine gun bullet in his head.

And so we left our dead in No Man's Land, and we
loved the Hun no more for that.

On the whole, I am inclined to think that the gas
was the worst evil we had to encounter, and we
learned to dread the deadly smell of mustard. One
whole company of the Sixth got it once and got it
bad. It was the 74th, under Captain Miller, which
was in reserve, living in barracks in a ravine back
of the lines. One morning an intense bombardment
of this camp broke loose, and between 4 and 6 a. m.
over 2,ocx) gas shells fell. Thirty-nine of our men
were killed during that bombardment or died from
the effects of it, and others were seriously gassed.
They were caught before reveille, as they supposed in
a safe retreat, and the damage was done before a
warning could be given and the masks adjusted.
One of the first shells went through the roof of a hut
where sixty men were sleeping, and most of the
thirty-nine killed were in that platoon.

On the same dav the Germans bombarded another
camp with gas and inflicted casualties. The Boche
must certainly be given credit for knowing how to
use gas and for his cleverness in getting it over with-
out warning. Later gas was mixed with explosives
and you couldn't tell a gas shell from any other by
the sound or look of it.

During those days and nights in the trenches the
Ouartermaster's outfit had as hard a time of it as

AND A FEW MARINES 53

any of us. Hard work and little glory was their lot,
but they stood to their task like men and the boys
in front were fed. The supply company was located
three miles in the rear and every twenty-four hours
the commissary detachments had to get adequate
supplies to the battalion dumps at the front whether
the roads were shelled or not. It all had to be done
at night and the weather had no place in the calcu-
lations. Food was taken to the front line every
night by the battalion Quartermaster and his men
on mule carts, pack mules, etc., as well as timber,
wire, camouflage, and all the other material and
paraphernalia of trench warfare. The Germans had
the roads registered and dropped shells on them at
intervals during the night. The time schedule of
the supply trains was changed frequently, but even
so the shells not infrequently got them, and the
casualties steadily increased. But night after night
they had to keep going through the peril of it, and
there is none of the excitement and uplift of battle
in driving mules at night.

We remained in this sub-sector one month and
then traded positions with a French regiment. This
placed the Sixth next to the Fifth and brought our
brigade of Marines together in the region of Les
Eparges. At this new position of the Sixth the woods
jutted farther out upon the plain, and at one point
the opposing trenches were only 150 yards apart.
Here we had listening posts in the old French trench
just outside our first line of wire.

I had been living more or less comfortably in an

54 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

old dugout back of our former line. Now I moved
my Post of Command to a point near a high hill
overlooking the new lines. This hill was the site of
an ancient Roman camp of which the earthworks
were still visible. A grass-grown mound ten feet
high ran across the hill, telling of military under-
takings of a by-gone day. My new post was con-
sequently named P. C. Rome.

It was here that I experienced my second personal
encounter with Boche shells. About ten o'clock one
nfiorning, soon after I had taken up my post there,
the Germans began bombarding the camp of the
headquarters company near at hand, killing three
men and wounding two. Rafales of twenty shells
were fired into the camp at intervals of twenty
minutes all day, but fortunately for me none of them
struck the Post of Command.

During the month that we remained in this posi-
tion, the Sixth had no actual contact with the Ger-
mans, though the French had twice been raided there
just before we came. Patrol work, however, wenn
steadily on. One night an unlucky patrol stumbled
into a cleverly placed trip wire which exploded
grenades when it was struck and caught the men in
the legs. Several were wounded, including Lieuten-
ant Wallace, one of my battalion intelligence officers.

That same night one of our companies was gassed,
but we knew more about gas and gas masks by that
time. A few gas shells fell near the Post of Command,
and I had my mask on. Toward morning I heard
a bird singing in a tree near by. It struck me that

AND A FEW MARINES 55

if there wasn't enough gas in the air to kill a bird,
it wouldn't kill me, and I took off the mask.

A gas mask, by the way, is a thing one is anxious
to take off at the first opportunity. It is a hot and
stifling thing and seems to impede the faculties.
The wearer takes in the air through his mouth, after
it has been sucked through the purifying chemicals.
His nose is not trusted and is clamped shut. Im-
agine yourself fighting with a clothespin on your nose
and a bag over your mouth and you may be able to
get some notion of what a gas mask is like. And at
that it is preferable to one whiflP of the deadly fumes.

Spring advanced and May came. Verdure over-
spread the old Roman camp on the hill. Wild
flowers burst into bloom and birds sang in the woods.
I remember coming upon a hillside that was white and
fragrant with a great mass of lily-of-the-valley. On
the plain below the shell-ploughed farms clothed them-
selves in green sprinkled with wild flowers. At
another time and under other circumstances it
would have been a peaceful, restful scene.

It was on one of these bright days in May that we
assembled in a wooded spot back of the lines at 10
o'clock in the morning to witness the decoration of
our heroes. There under the trees those of our men
who had won especial honour received from a grateful
and appreciative Ally their hard-earned recognition
— ^the coveted Croix de Guerre.

The recipients, numbering about twenty-five
American Marines and about the same number of
French soldiers in that sector, were drawn up inside

56 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

a hollow square composed of two companies of
French troops and two of Marines. A French band
rendered martial music and a number of high French
officials filed in. It was an impressive ceremony.
One by one the citations were read, giving a resume
of each man's deeds of valour and service, there was
a burst of bugle notes, and the Cross was pinned on
and the Gallic salutation administered by General
Tenant of the French Army. In that simple cere-
mony and in the knowledge of what it meant, our
men found their reward for all the perils and labours
they had undergone in No Man's Land and the
trenches.

Early in May, shortly before we left the trenches.
General Doyen, on account of ill health, was relieved
of his command of the brigade by Brigadier General
Harbord of the Army. Of course we were a bit dis-
appointed not to have a Marine officer at our head,
but|there was no Brigadier General of Marines in
France at that time, and it was advisable to have an
officer of that rank in command of the brigade. But
every Marine in the brigade knew that a better man
could not have been assigned to the post. General
Harbord had been General Pershing's Chief of Staff;
the very best had been sent to us, and that we
appreciated.

General Harbord was a splendid soldier. I had
known him as a member of my class at the War
College. He was first of all a man of action, and
from the time he took over our force in the trenches
things were always on the move. He was a glutton

l-rom ine painting oy ^. J. I^t ooLj

"Out there in No Man's Land the Hun took bloody toll of our Marines,

but he paid the price"

AND A FEW MARINES 57

for work himself and was always inspecting some-
thing or somebody. There were no idle units under
him. And he exhibited that ideal combination of
discipline and the democratic attitude which we like
to think is typically American. He was popular
with the men, talked with them often, and obviously
had their interests at heart. Marines to him were
something more than cannon fodder, and the men
knew it and worked their hardest for him. It is
impossible to overestimate the value of such officers
with our boys in France.

Though not a Marine himself. General Harbord
fully understood and appreciated the traditions of
our Corps, and it was said of him that he became as
pro-Marine as any Marine. He told us that when he
took over the command. General Pershing said to
him, "You are to have charge of the finest body of
troops in France, and if they fail to live up to that
reputation I shall know whom to blame." That they
did live up to their reputation necessarily throws not
a little credit upon their commander.

I speak of these things because General Harbord
was our commanding officer during all the stirring
days that followed. Our orders all came from him
and he handled the brigade of Marines at Belleau
Wood and Bouresches. After that action he was
made a Major General, and he deserved it.

I cannot refrain from adding a few words here
regarding General Doyen, the first commander of
our brigade, for he has given his life to the service as
truly as if he had been killed by a German bullet.

58 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

He was born in Concord, N. H., on September 3,
1859, and was admitted to the Naval Academy as
midshipman in June, 1876. He graduated with the
Class of 1 88 1 and received his commission as Second
Lieutenant in the Marine Corps in 1883. He saw
service in all parts of the world with the Atlantic
and Pacific Fleets. He was made First Lieutenant
in 1889, Captain in 1898, and Major in 1900, when
he was assigned to the command of the Marines of
the Atlantic Fleet. In 1905 he became a Lieutenant
Colonel and took command of the Marines then in
the Philippines. He received his Colonel's commis-
sion in 1909 and went to the Philippines again in
1913. In 191 5 he was assigned to the command of
the Marine Barracks at Washington, D. C.

When the United States went into the war. Colonel
Doyen was the officer selected to command the first
brigade of Marines to be sent to France. Under
him our two regiments underwent the months of
vigorous training on French soil that fitted them for
the service which they saw later. Full credit should
be given him for that. When we went into the
trenches he was relieved of his command because of
ill health. He was made a Brigadier General to
date from March 26, 19 17.

On his return to this country he was placed m
command of the Marine Barracks and Overseas
Training Station at Quantico, Va., and died there
of influenza on October 6, 191 8. His death was a
great loss to the service. He was a fine type of
officer, one of the most distinguished in our Corps,

AND A FEW MARINES 59

and embodied all of those traditions of which we are
so proud.

It was while we were in the trenches, in that
"quiet" sector, that the terrible, heart-sickening
drive of the Germans in Picardy was going on.
Rheims was threatened, and the Boches plunged
steadily on toward Amiens, across the Somme,
through Peronne, and down to Montdidier. It was
almost more than flesh and blood could stand to lie
there in our dugouts and learn what was going on to
the northwest. Every man of us knew all about it,
for we picked up the German and French communi-
ques by wireless. The former were the most dis-
quieting, for, with characteristic exaggeration, they
told of tremendous victories and whole armies taken
prisoner. We did not know then, as we know now,
that the German invariably lies in his communiques.
The French and British do not lie, though they are
often obliged, for military reasons, to conceal the
precise extent of their losses during important actions.

Naturally we began to grow restless. Why could
we take no part in this crucial action ? Why weren't
the American Marines called upon to help stem the
fiery tide that seemed to be sweeping so irresistibly
onward? We learned that the First Division had
been sent in at Cantigny, and this did not add to our
contentment. For a month we looked for orders to
move, but none came.

At last, in the second week of May, the orders
came. We were to proceed to a rest area on May
14th, after having been in the trenches exactly two

6o WITH THE HELP OF GOD

months. We rejoiced, for the order meant a rest
from trench digging, relief from the nightly peril of
No Man's Land, a fond farewell to the mud and rats
and cooties. But it meant more than that; it meant
the likelihood of our being prepared for action on the
battle line. We felt that our initiation had been
completed, that at last we belonged, that we were
now an intrinsic part of the AlHed armies in France
that were fighting so desperately in the common
cause of human justice and liberty.

A new ardour seemed to possess the men when the
news of that order went the rounds. Eagerly we
climbed out of the damp and narrow trenches, fought
one more battle with the cooties, and looked for the
last time on "the misty mid-region of Wier" which
was No Man's Land. And behind us we left slain
comrades; that we did not forget.

CHAPTER V
The Drive that Menaced Paris

ON MAY 14th we were withdrawn to a rest
area in the rear of the Hnes where we re-
mained for five days. Then we were ordered
to still another one to the northwest of Paris. We
skirted the city on our way, but none of the men were
given leave and we were obliged to sigh regretfully
and pass on.

In this second rest area we remained till the end
of May. We rested, or at least it seemed like rest to
the boys who were weary with the nerve-racking
grind of trench work, but General Harbord did not
believe in idleness. There was constant police work
and constant drilling. And there we reformed our
units for the task ahead of us, and overhauled our
equipment.

It may perhaps be interesting to enumerate some
of the things which a regiment of Marines in France
has to carry about with it and keep in condition.
Each man, of course, had his personal effects, weigh-
ing in all about sixty pounds, which he was obliged
to carry when travelling in heavy marching order.
There was the Colonel's automobile and fifty-nine
riding horses for the officers, all of which had to be

kept in perfect condition by the men. The auto-

62 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

mobile went to the front, but the horses were not
much in evidence in the front Hnes.

Our medical service was attached to the division.
It was taken from the Navy force and included nine
medical officers and forty enlisted men. That they
had plenty to do will be evident later.

Each regiment had three motor cycles with side
cars for messenger service, though in the press of
battle runners had to be depended upon. Then
there was all the paraphernalia of telephone and
signal service, the ammunition, and all the adjuncts
of fighting. The baggage wagons, ration wagons,
water carts, ammunition wagons, rolling kitchens,
etc., were all drawn by mules, as was our comple-
ment of machine guns. We used the heavy Hotch-
kiss. There were 332 mules, in all, attached to our
regiment, and they, of course, had to be cared for.

And then there was Lizzie. She was a Ford car
presented by Miss Elizabeth Pearce of New York
to the Marine Corps for service with the Sixth Regi-
ment. She was equipped as an ambulance and was
used as such in Bordeaux, when our camp was five
miles outside the city. When we joined the rest of
the Second Division, the regular ambulance service
of the division supplied all our needs in that direction.

But don't think for a moment that Lizzie was dis-

•

carded. I believe there was no more useful member
in the whole regiment. She was first pressed into
service as a mail carrier to and from Division Head-
quarters. When we got to the trenches I hardly
know what she was not used for. She was the rapid

AND A FEW MARINES 63

transit system for the regiment in the front lines.
Up there in the trench sector she met with a bad
accident. Somehow she got smashed up in a ditch
and the ambulance top was lost. She looked like a
total wreck, but the good old engine still ran. The
boys got her out of the ditch, cleaned up the wreck-
age, and converted her into a sort of open delivery
truck. And all through those weeks in the trenches
she rendered invaluable service.

I don't know how thoroughly she was overhauled
during our rest period, but I believe she made no
complaint of neglect. When at last we got to the
fighting front, Lizzie came through with the supply
train on June 4th. She was used almost constantly,
especially after June 6th, to carry ammunition and
food to the front lines, and the boys had many an
occasion to rise up and call her blessed. She proved
to be, in a way, our guardian angel.

She was still in commission the last I knew. One
wheel wabbled and she was full of shrapnel holes, but
still she ran. And the men had painted a large Croix
de Guerre on the side of her hood.

Already Lizzie has inspired the muse of at least
one poet. The following verses, written by Wallace
Irwin for the Marines, are printed here with the
author's permission.

Elizabeth Ford

We carried her over the sea, we did.

And taught her to hep, hep, hep —
A cute little jinny, all noisy and tinny.

But full of Americap pep.

64 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

Recruited into the Corps she was —

She came of her own accord.
We flew at her spanker the globe and the anchor

And named her EHzabeth Ford.

^Cute little 'Lizabeth, dear little 'Lizaheth,

Bonnie Elizabeth Ford!
She was short and squat, but her nose was sot

For the Hindenburg line — 0 Lord!
She hated a Hun like a son-of-a-gun^

The Kaiser she plumb abhorred.
Did chunky Elizabeth, hunky Elizabethy

Spunky Elizabeth Ford,

We took her along on our hikes, we did.

And a wonderful boat was she.
She'd carry physicians, food or munitions.

Generals, water, or tea.
She could climb a bank like a first-rate tank

And deliver the goods aboard —
When we touch our steel Kellies to " Semper Fidelis,"

Remember Elizabeth Ford.

'Cute little *Lizabeth, dear little 'Lizabeth,

Bonnie Elizabeth Ford.
She took her rests in machine gun nests

And on bullet-swept roads she chored.
Where the Devil Hounds were first on the grounds

0} a section of France restored —
Why, there was Elizabeth, chunky Elizabeth,

Spunky Elizabeth Ford!

But 'twas on the day at those murder-woods
Which the Yankees pronounce Belloo;

AND A FEW MARINES 65

We were sent to knock silly the hopes of Prince Willie

And turn *em around d. q.
We prayed for munitions and cleared our throats

With a waterless click — good Lord ! —
When out of a crater with bent radiator

Climbed faithful Elizabeth Ford!

'Cute little 'Lizabeth, dear little 'Lizaheth,

Bonnie Elizabeth Ford.
With a cylinder-skip she had made the trip,

Water-and-cartridge-stored.
With her hood a wreck and a broken neck

She cracked like a rotten board.
Hunky Elizabeth, chunky Elizabeth,

Spunky Elizabeth Ford.

When they towed her out of the town next day

Said Corporal Bill, "Look there!
I know of one hero who shouldn't draw zero

When they're passin' the Croix de Guerre.
Who fed the guns that's startin' the Huns

Plumb back to Canal du Nord?"
So his Cross— and he'd won it!— he tied to the bonnet

Of faithful Elizabeth Ford.

'Cute little 'Lizabethy dear little 'Lizabeth,

Bonnie Elizabeth Ford!
Where shrapnel has mauled her we've now overhauled her.

Her wheels and her gears restored.
Her record's clean, she's a true Marine

And we're sending the Dutch War Lord
A note by Elizabeth, chunky Elizabeth,

Spunky Elizabeth Ford!

66 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

In the rest area we were rather more pleasantly
located than in our previous training area. At
least it seemed so, for the dreary winter weather was
over and spring was at its height. The little villages
in which we were billeted looked very pretty, with
their gardens and neat houses, and we tried to keep
them so. Part of our police work consisted in
raking the streets and roads by hand and keeping
the whole place shipshape.

Unquestionably the men were benefited by the
change. Complete relaxation, however, was out of
the question, for we knew how things were going with
our Allies and we lived from day to day expecting,
and hoping for, the call that came at last.

Before telling of our response to that call, of how
we went to the hard-pressed front and joined battle
with the victorious Hun, it might be well to set the
stage by reviewing the military situation as it then
existed.

It will be recalled that the first spring drive of the
Germans started on March 21st, 191 8. Across the
Somme it swept, engulfing the plains of Picardy in
a huge wedge, and carrying discouragement to the
hearts of the Allied nations. Foch was at the helm
at last, but he seemed unable to check the advance.
Amiens was threatened, and there were wild specu-
lations of a rush to the sea and the separation of the
French from the British. Men asked where the
Allied army of manoeuvre could be, and Foch
answered not.

Over there in the trenches we realized these things

AND A FEW MARINES (^i

and we were anxious and restless. So was every-
body. I now believe that General Foch was the
wisest and most patient man in France. He bided
his time, and at last the onsweeping tide spent its
force and the Allied lines were reformed. The drive
was checked and counter-attacks began. The First
Division of the American Army was sent in, and it
will be remembered that it was American troops of
that division that stormed and captured Cantigny,
northwest of Montdidier, on May 28th. The Ma-
rines, you may well believe, envied those lucky troops,
but our turn was to come soon enough.

The Hun, however, had by no means expended all
his long stored strength. The drive in Picardy
having reached its limit, and the Ypres and Arras
barriers holding in the north, it was inevitable that
Ludendorff should feel out another spot to break
through farther south. His railroad and concentra-^
tion facilities were excellent and the Crown Prince
was begging for a chance to retrieve his vast failure
at Verdun.

The line northwest of Rhelms was the logical
point, but Foch, though he probably saw this, was
still obliged to concentrate his army of manoeuvre
in Picardy, and the weary forces in the Champagne
were unable to withstand the power of the new drive.
This had been a quiet portion of the line for a year
and was not strongly held. The French, weakened
and surprised, were forced to fall back.

The German struck hard and suddenly. The new
drive started on May 27th, while we were in the

68 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

rest area, and it was with consternation that we
watched the ease with which the enemy carried the
Chemin des Dames and the Aisne near fortified
Soissons. Both natural and human barriers seemed
to crumble before them.

Possibly Foch was for the moment outgeneralled,
being deceived by feints to the north. Perhaps it
was all a part of his far-sighted plan to let the enemy
wear himself down by extreme efforts. At any rate,
on they came, sweeping everything before them,
demoralizing the French army opposed to them, and
heading straight for the Paris of their dreams. We
realized that with a sinking of the heart; Paris real-
ized it; everybody realized it; but what was to be
done ? The Metz-to-Paris road was definitely threat-
ened, but what barrier was there to throw across
their path? And we, lying in our pleasant billets,
could only curse and wait.

With forty divisions, including some 400,000 of
their best troops, and with the greatest auxiliary
force of tanks, machine guns, and poison gas pro-
jectors ever mobilized, they rolled on for thirty miles,
in spite of enormous losses, advancing at the rate
of six or eight miles a day, capturing men and guns
by the wholesale, and occupying 650 square miles of
territory. There were simply not enough French
and British there to stop them. The Allies resisted
heroically, but they were forced to yield to the un-
answerable argument of superior weight. And where
was that American aid that the French people had
been building their failing hopes upon?

AND A FEW MARINES

State of M3es.

5 K>

An unfathomable gloom and depression settled
over weary France — the numbness of utter despair.
An uncanny sense of
disaster and impend-
ing doom oppressed
us all. It was a
dark moment for the
Allied cause.

Held at Rheims
and west of Soissons,
the Germans thrust a
U-shaped salient clear
down to the Marne,
its rounded apex rest-
ing on a contracted
six-mile front between
Chateau-Thierry and
Dormans, but thirty-
five scant miles from
Paris.

Then the harried
soldiers of France arose in their might for a last grim
stand. The name of the Marne was a rallying cry
for them. "They shall not pass," they muttered
between gritted teeth, and they did not pass. There
behind the prepared defences of the Marne the
French line held at last, and ^the German hordes,
having outrun their artillery, ^ met with a check.
Oh, the glory of that stand! It will live in the
hearts of the French people forever.

But the Hun was not through. He had plenty

DIAGRAM I

This map shows the western side and southern
extremity of the salient created by the German
drive of May, 1918. Chateau-Thierry, on the
Marne, is only thirty-five miles from Paris. The
heavily shaded section northwest of Chateau-
Thierry is the groimd won back by the American
Second Division after June 6th-

70 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

of men to bring up, plenty of guns. They might
still have turned the trick if the unexpected had not
happened to upset their calculations. On June ist
and 2nd the Germans made a determined effort to
broaden the point of the salient northwest of Cha-
teau-Thierry and to find a weak spot to break
through, and it was here that they met with a new
and by them entirely unforeseen element of resis-
tance. The Yanks had come at last.

There was a weak spot there, a gap to be plugged,
one of the most dangerous points on the whole front.
Very likely Foch was not yet quite ready to use the
American troops, but the emergency was acute.
The Second Division of the American Army was
thrown in in a final effort to defend the Metz-to-Paris
road and save the city.

The Germans, who had become accustomed to the
weakening resistance of the French, did not know
what to make of it at first. But they soon learned
the taste of American mettle and metal. They were
stopped in their overwhelming rush, and stopped for
good. Between June 6th and 12th they were fought
to a standstill on that narrow front, the best of the
Kaiser's vanguard troops, flushed with victory as
they were. And not only stopped; the bow of the
salient between La Feste-Milon and Chateau-Thierry
was actually bent back.

Unquestionably, Paris had been in deadly peril.
There had seemed little chance of preventing the
Germans from sweeping around west of Chateau-
Thierry and across the Marne. But they couldn't

AND A FEW MARINES 71

do it. The United'States Marines wouldn't let them.
We plugged that gap, we held that line, and the
German was stopped then and there.

As the inspired Berlin Vossische Zeitung put it,
"The German Supreme Command cannot well

DIAGRAM 2

,The territory between the two heavy lines was won back in June, 1918, by American
soldiers and Marines of the Second Division. The Bois de BeUeau lies in the center of
the map, west of Bouresches and northeast of Lucy-le-Bocage. "

proceed now against the newly consolidated French
front, which is richly provided with reserves, and

bear the great losses which experience shows are
entailed by such operations.'' The chief of the
reserves with which the French were so "richly pro-
vided" were two regiments of American Marines.
That was the military situation in early June, 191 8.
How the Marines turned the tide of battle there is
the tale I have to tell.

72 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

Meanwhile, however, there were preliminary ac-
tions which should be mentioned, for there were
Americans, though not Marines, who stood shoulder
to shoulder with the heroic French when they made
their glorious stand at Chateau-Thierry.

The first contingent of Americans to arrive at this
crucial moment was a unit of machine gunners —
one battalion of the Third Division with forty-eight
guns. On May 31st, when the capture of the town
of Chateau-Thierry by the Germans was imminent,
they arrived in the nick of time.

This was, as a matter of fact, one of the tensest
and most critical moments of the war, for if the
Germans had broken through at Chateau-Thierry
and had thrown their vanguard across the Marne, it
is difficult to see how anything could have stopped
them before they reached the defences of Paris. The
delay occasioned by the stubborn resistance of the
French and Americans at Chateau-Thierry gave us
a chance to organize the defensive strategy which
culminated in the battle of Belleau Wood and the
thrusting back of the German hordes.

The city of Chateau-Thierry is built on both banks
of the Marne, and by the time the Americans arrived
the Germans had beaten down the French defence
north of the town, had pushed their way in, and had
established positions on the northern bank of the
river. They dominated the bridges with their guns,
and the battered French, forming for a last desperate
stand on the southern bank, had but a slight chance
of preventing a crossing in force.

AND A FEW MARINES 73

The Germans believed they were going to push
straight through to Paris. They came in ever increas-
ing numbers, gaily goose-stepping down the roads
to Chateau-Thierry, in columns of fours, with their
rifles on their shoulders, singing. There were many
on both sides who said, "Well, the war is over."
It looked like a mere matter of marching to the
Germans.

At the bridgeheads they paused to form for the
final assault that was to sweep the French out of the
town — and they paused a moment too long. From
the southeast a small but irresistible whirlwind blew
into Chateau-Thierry — a sort of Kansas cyclone —
and it hit the bewildered Boche square in the face.

When the Germans were reported to be in the
outskirts of the town a hurried and despairing call
for help went out — any help at all, so that it came
quickly. Some 100 kilometres to the rear was sta-
tioned an American machine gun battalion that was
ready and eager for battle but was waiting for the
fuller organization of the Third Division. But this
was no time for waiting. The battalion was ordered
in without support and made a speedy all-night trip
to the front on motor lorries.

These boys had never faced German shell fire
before; they were stiff and cramped after their long
night ride; but the smell of powder and the roar of
combat were like wine to them and they jumped into
the thick of the fray like veterans. Joining a bat-
talion of French Colonials, they entered the town and
rushed to the threatened bank of the river.

74 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

There were dash and fury in that American charge,
but there was coolness, too. Under a galling fire
to which they were unaccustomed they brought up
their guns and organized their defence positions at
the bridges with mathematical precision.

Then came the Germans, a long, grey flood of
them, streaming down to the bridges. The Ameri-
cans opened upon them a fire so furious and accurate
that the advancing columns hesitated, wavered, and
then halted behind the barrier of their fallen com-
rades. Then they came on again.

On the bridges and in the streets of Chateau-
Thierry there raged a wild, demoniacal tempest of
machine gun and rifle fire. The enemy, infuriated
by this resistance, fought desperately to brush the
offensive Yankees from their path. Our boys fell
by the dozens beside their guns, but there was always
some one to leap into the breach and keep the stream
of bullets pouring into the ranks of the thwarted
Huns. They held the southern bank of the Marne
against the onslaught; they cleared the bridges; and
at last they destroyed them, and the Germans could
not pass. They repulsed the enemy at every point
and they helped the French to keep their vow.

Never have men fought with greater heroism, dash,
and gallantry under the American flag than did
those machine gunners of the lone battalion at
Chateau-Thierry. They fell, dead and wounded,
many of them, but not one was taken prisoner,
though they captured a number of Germans as well
as machine guns.

AND A FEW MARINES 75

The Germans held the northern part of the town
until the Allied offensive of July i8th and 19th, when
they withdrew before Franco-American pressure,
but they never once gained a foothold in the part of
the city lying to the south of the Marne.

We Marines have a special interest in that engage-
ment, apart from the fact that it was an American
exploit. The officer in command of that battalion
of machine gunners happened to be a Major of
Marines, who had been sent to them for training.
He was, in fact, the son of our own beloved General
Waller, who was himself unable to go to France, hav-
ing been in command of the Advance Base Brigade
at Philadelphia since the affair in Haiti.

When our own Second Division went in, after the
manner which I shall presently describe, it was the
23rd Infantry which saw the first action. On June
1st they beat off two determined German attacks
on the Marne. The enemy had concentrated large
forces before Veuilly Wood and began a mass attack,
seeking to penetrate the wood. The advancing Ger-
man phalanx was mowed down by our machine guns
and the attack was broken up before it reached the
American line. Then, by a magnificent counter-
attack, the Hun was hurled back.

An enemy battalion which crept across the Marne
to the left bank above Jaulgonne was counter-
attacked by French and Americans and was thrown
back to the other bank with losses. After that the
Allies held the Marne.

I have mentioned these engagements in order that

76 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

full justice may be done, for I have no wish to dim
the glory of the Infantry by dwelling solely on the
achievements of the Marines. The Marines won
glory enough in the days that followed, and it is
their story that I shall now narrate.

PART II

FIGHTING TO SAVE PARIS

CHAPTER VI
Going In

AT LAST the great call came. We left our
rest area on the morning of May 31st and
took our places in the battle line on the
afternoon of June ist. And the hours between were
packed with action.

The drive into Picardy had been stopped, it will
be remembered, and the First Division had been
fighting there. We were located not much over
fifty miles from Montdidier, and we were fully ex-
pecting to be sent up back of Cantigny to relieve the
First Division. We did, in fact, receive orders to
be ready to leave for the Beauvais district on the
morning of May 31st, and on the morning of the
30th we sent our billeting officers up there to arrange
our quarters.

Then came the sudden, acute crisis at Chateau-
Thierry, and the plans of the High Command were
hastily changed. When the orders failed to come
we suspected what it meant. We had been reading
the Paris papers and we knew the situation. I be-
lieve there was not a man in my regiment whose
hopes were not raised by the delay in the orders.
Our Marines were in fine shape for action, and they

8o WITH THE HELP OF GOD

were eager to get in where the fighting promised to
be hottest and the danger most threatening.

All day long on May 30th we waited for those
orders, and General Bundy reported that the division
was ready. In the afternoon we received orders to
be ready to leave at 6 o'clock on camions which
would be provided. No word came from Division
Headquarters, however, to indicate where we were
going. We hoped and waited.

Six o'clock approached and no camions appeared.
Then the orders were changed to 10 o'clock. Night
fell, and still no camions. Indefinite orders came
to be ready to leave at any time on short notice.
The battalions were assembled and inspected and the
men bivouacked in battaHon groups.

All night they slept there in the open, on the
ground. It was not until 4 o'clock on the morning
of the 31st that the first camion arrived. They were
big, powerful motor trucks, these camions, all French
machines, with seats at the sides and with canvas
covers like those of prairie schooners. The French
had enough of them to move a quarter of a
million troops. Many of them had Chinese drivers.

They came in convoys of fifty or so for each bat-
talion, and they were quickly loaded. About thirty
men were packed into each camion, each man with
his rifle and sixty-pound pack. At 5.30 they started.
The Marines were taken by battalions as they came,
the first to go being a battalion of the Fifth under
Lieutenant Colonel Wise.

There was a French officer in charge of each bat-

AND A FEW MARINES 8i

talion. He rode in an automobile and took the
battalion officers with him. I waited until the last
squad of the Sixth had started, and then followed in
my own car. For the entire division there was a
steady stream of motor trucks pouring out from that
region from 5.30 till nearly 10 a. m.

We were some seventy-five miles from our destina-
tion and many of the units made it a longer trip than
that. On the whole the roads were good, but the
journey had its exciting incidents. Most of those
camions had been working for seventy-two hours at
a stretch, carrying troops, and the drivers were worn
out. Some of them fell asleep at their wheels and
several ran off the road into the ditch.

As to our men, they were fresh and eager after
their night on the hard ground. We must have
seemed an extraordinary spectacle to the inhabitants
of the country through which we passed, the inter-
minable caravan of motor lorries filled with merry
men in khaki, and the long train of artillery, machine
guns, supply wagons, mules, and automobiles. They
seemed to know what it meant, for they cheered us
lustily on our way.

We skirted Paris, about nine miles to the south
of us, and passed through pretty villages, in many
of which the people were out in full force, waving
small American flags and throwing flowers into the
camions. It was more like an enormous bridal pro-
cession than a column of fighters going to face a
terrible death.

The division started first for Meaux, and until we

82 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

arrived there we had no idea of whither we were
bound or what we were to do. I arrived in Meaux
about 8.30 that evening, after a hard all-day run,
the troops having already passed through the town
on their way to the front. I remained in Division
Headquarters for half an hour, getting instructions,

maps, etc.

Then followed a series of misadventures that tried
my soul. From Meaux my first orders were to pro-
ceed north, but those orders were changed twice
during the night. About 10 o'clock a French staflF
officer stopped my car and told me that the troops
had been shunted off. I started in a new direction
and was switched again to Montreuil-aux-Lions. I
was a lost Colonel, hunting around in the dark for his
command, and hunting with an anxiety that, in this
crisis, approached panic.

There is no use in trying to conceal the fact that
it was a sorry mix-up. The French were on the run,
and the staff came pretty close to being up in the air.
Orders were given and countermanded in the effort
to get the reinforcements to the spot where they
were most needed, while a dozen spots looked equally
dangerous. It must have been a terrible night for
those upon whose shoulders rested the responsibility
of saving their beloved Paris.

After leaving Meaux I overtook a stream of our
camions and met a number coming back. Some-
times there was a jam in the road that delayed the
advance for ten minutes, due to some break-down of
the overworked motors. Some of our troops were

AND A FEW MARINES 83

badly held up, or were lost in trying to find another
way around. My regimental band didn't get to the
front for two whole days.

I also began to meet sorry-looking little bands of
refugees in the midst of all this traffic, wandering
like lost souls in a chaos of confusion. I wondered,
as I looked into their sad, resigned faces, whether
they saw any hope or comfort in this long train of
soldiers and guns. For the most part everything
and everybody seemed to be hurrying away from
the battle line except the Americans.

At Montreuil, about four miles back from the
front, some of the troops left the camions and went
into billets, but many of them got no sleep before
daylight on June ist, the very day we went into the
line. And remember that the night before they had
slept on the ground with the expectation of being
called at any moment.

Our Marines rode on those camions from nineteen
to thirty hours, according to their luck in reaching
their destination. Some got lost and had to hike
with their sixty-pound packs. When they arrived
they were grey with dust and hollow-eyed with
fatigue. They looked more like miners emerging
from an all-night shift than like fresh troops ready
to plunge into battle.

About midnight the first and luckiest battalion
halted about seven kilometres back of where they
were to go in. They expected orders to advance
at once, but they got a little rest. There behind the
lines, within sound of the booming guns, the men

84 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

bivouacked, each with his poncho and one blanket,
and waited for the day.

About noon on June ist a battalion of the Fifth
came trudging wearily in. They had been landed
at the wrong place and had been obliged to march
all the forenoon. Two battalions of the Sixth were
delayed. Major Holcomb's battalion coming up in
the afternoon just in time to be deployed into line
from the trucks. Our supply train did not arrive
till two days later.

' Well, we all got there, but not much rest was
allowed to the weary. A French staff officer had
told me that we wouldn't be expected to go in until
June 2nd, but General Harbord had determined to
waste no time. If the need was urgent, delay might
be fatal. And the Marines, he said, were always

ready.

I think the French hesitated to trust us too far in
this crisis. We were without tanks, gas shells, or
flame projectors. We were untried in open warfare.
But General Harbord begged to be allowed to tackle

the job.

"Let us fight in our own way,'* said he, ''and

we'll stop them."

The situation was acute; there seemed to be no
alternative. General Harbord was given free rein,
and in that moment we passed out from our French
tutelage and acted as an American army fighting
side by side with our hard-pressed Allies. The
Battle of Belleau Wood was fought by American
troops, under American officers, supported by Amer-

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The author carried this section of a French war map
during the first stages of the Battle of Belleau Wood. It
shows the pencil marks indicating the position of the lines,
which are given in the following diagrams. He used this
in explaining orders to the battalion officers under him.

AND A FEW MARINES 85

ican guns, in a typically American manner. And
the battle was won.

Orders came from General Harbord to move two
battalions into line at once. I sent them up in the
camions on the Metz-to-Paris road to within half a
mile of the line of battle. From there they went in
on foot. I went up with the camions and got there
with the first of them. The Germans had some field
guns — 77's — ^trained on the road, but luckily they
did not shell our trucks.

I say we sent them up in camions, but that is not
wholly correct. Two battalions marched four miles
from Montreuil to the line, but we managed to gather
together about twenty-five lorries to carry most of the
others.

It is easy enough to figure out how little genuine
rest those men had had for over two days and
nights, and how much fatiguing labour. And for two
days more they had no food but their reserve rations
of hardtack and bacon. (Each Marine carries reserve
rations for two days in his pack — one pound of
bread and three-fourths of a pound of bacon per day.)
It came pretty close to hardship, but I heard no one
complain.

Private John C. Geiger of Jasper, Fla., told about
it later in the hospital. "The Dutchmen were about
fifteen hundred yards away when we came on the
scene,'* said he. "We got orders to dig in. We
used the lids of our mess gear and bayonet for tools.

"Say, you'd be surprised to know just how much
digging you can do under those circumstances.

86 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

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/*

The enemy artillery and machine gun fire annoyed
Geiger, but the thing that made him cross was the
irregularity of the meals, especially when an order
came to move just as they were sitting down to the
first warm meal in several days. "When you missed
ohow, then you missed something," said he, looking
mournful at the recollection.

They say the German soldiers fight blindly, with
only such knowledge of their objectives as is abso-
lutely necessary to send them forward. We believe
in giving our men thorough orientation and a realiza-
tion of just what is expected of them and what they
are up against. I showed the battalion commanders
my map, indicating the points to be held, and
through them passed on to the men all the infor-
mation available. I hold that men like ours fight
none the worse for knowing just what they are
fighting for.

The men were told that the orders were to hold the
line at all costs, for at first we were to assume a
defensive position. Unquestionably they realized
what that meant. They knew that there were few
if any troops in their rear, for they had just come
that way. They knew that only their thin, deter-
mined line lay between Paris and awful destruction,
and in that knowledge they fought.

AND A FEW MARINES 87

There was no distinct line where we went in — no
trenches or prepared defences. We were merely
ordered to take up a definite position in support of
the French who were struggling in front with the
advancing Germans. The latter were thrusting
down columns wherever the resistance was weakest,
forging ahead at the rate of six or seven miles a day,
and the French line was not holding. Stragglers
were coming through all the time, many of them at
a loss as to the location of their units.

It was a tragedy, a heart-breaking, world-shaking
tragedy, this defeat and demorahzation of the heroic
French troops who had fought so brilliantly for
three years in defence of their native land. Pity
swelled our hearts as we watched them stagger back
to the rear, a bruised and broken remnant, with utter
despair written upon their war-weary faces. To
them the war was lost, life held no hope. We wanted
to take them by the hand and say, "Brother, at last
we have come." And when we took our places in
the line of defence before Belleau Wood it was with
the grim determination to avenge to the death the
bitterness which had been shot into the hearts of
those suffering men.

And oh, the peril to Paris and to the cause of
liberty and justice that lay in that ebbing tide!
If the world was staggered by the news of it, think
what it must have meant to us who were there to
witness it. Already we could hear the savage
breakers snarling against the wreck-strewn reef that
was our advance line. The storm was approaching.

WITH THE HELP OF GOD

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CVr r^ELLEAU

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tWTZ,

and it was borne in upon us that the war was lost if
we did not hold.

Our first position can best be understood by con-
sulting the diagram. The curving line which was

assigned to our divi-
sion ran from the
Metz-to-Paris Road
at La Thiolet in a
generally northwest-
erly direction along
the Bois des Clerem-
bauts, through Tri-
angle Farm, skirting
the southern end of
the Bois de Belleau,
to the town of Lucy
de Bocage; thence to
Hill 142 and through
Les Mares Farm to-
ward the Bois de Veuilly. At the extreme left
were the French and the 23 rd Infantry. From
Les Mares to Hill 142 the line was held by a battalion
of the Fifth under Lieutenant Colonel Wise. From
Hill 142 the First Battalion of the Sixth under Major
Shearer took the line down past Lucy to a point just
south of Belleau Wood. There it was joined by the
Second Battalion of the Sixth — Holcomb's — ^which
extended down to the Metz-to-Paris Road, where
it was met by the Ninth Infantry. The Sixth
Machine Gun Battalion was distributed along the line.
The Marines thus held a line extending from Les

DIAGRAM 3

Showing' the Knc from which the French fell
back and the first position taken up by the
Marines before Belleau Wood. Each square
is one kilometre across..

AND A FEW MARINES 89

Mares Farm, past Belleau Wood, to the road, a front
of seven kilometres in all. The Third Battalion of
the Sixth — Sibley's — ^was in support position in the
woods south of Lucy, about a mile and a half back
of the line, where it remained that night and the
next day. The other two battalions of the Fifth
were also in reserve.

As our men went into line there was a very light
artillery fire from the German guns, which seemed
to indicate a lack of information on the part of the
enemy as to the significance of the movement. It did
not bother us much. The men were ordered to dig
in and they made for themselves such shallow rifle
pits and shelter trenches as were necessary for pro-
tection in a temporary line.

There were three French regiments in front of the
Sixth at that time and one in front of the battalion
of the Fifth that went in. I went to Lucy, and there
I found a battalion of French troops and the Colonel
of the sector. He realized the desperate straits the
French troops were in and his mute appeal, as he
gazed questioningly into my eyes, was a prayer that
the Americans might show the stuff of men and hold
fast against the awful tide that threatened to engulf
all that life held dear to him.

On that first night two companies of Engineers,
which had been sent to us by General Bundy from Di-
vision Headquarters, reported to me. Their ojBicers
found me in my temporary quarters in a corner of the
woods at 3 A. M. They were of great assistance to
us in preparing our positions, both then and later. In

90 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

the line the men made themselves as comfortable as
they could for the night and feasted on bread and
bacon.

The Ninth Regiment, as I have said, was given a
position on our right at the Metz-to-Paris Road. On
our left was a regiment of French troops. The 23 rd
Infantry arrived late, and so was sent in at the left
of the French, though later they moved over.

It was in this line that we lay on the night of June
1st, waiting for the morrow.

CHAPTER VII
Carrying On

I ESTABLISHED my first Post of Command in
a corner of the woods near Lucy-le-Bocage, but
this soon proved to be too exposed a position
as German shells began to burst in the neighbourhood,
and on June 2nd I moved my P. C. over to La Voie
du Chatel, a little village west of Lucy and south of
Champillon. Here I established headquarters in an
old stone house, and from here I had an excellent
view of the battle ground. Later on, however, when
the line was shortened, I moved again still farther
south to the wooded cover of Mont Blanche, and
Colonel Neville of the Fifth moved to my old P. C.
When Major Holcomb first went in he took
quarters in an old stone farmhouse not far from his
part of the line, but a shell hit that farmhouse early
in the game and killed five men, and Holcomb took
to the woods for greater security.

On June 2nd, after a night that could not have
been entirely restful, our men awoke to the realiza-
tion that the French were filtering through. The
Germans kept up their steady push and the French
continued to fall back. It became more and more
clearly evident that we had come not a moment too
soon and that we had been cast for a rdle at the

92 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

centre of a seething stage. There could be no doubt
of the fact that the United States Marines must
build a dike against that onsweeping flood of destruc-
tion or nobody would.

All that day we waited for the crash which did
not come until late afternoon. Fatigue and hunger
were forgotten in the excitement of the moment, and
when the crash came the Marines were ready.

The attack was launched against the French who
had remained in front of Wise's battalion of the
Fifth at Hill 165. It started about 5 o'clock in the
afternoon and came from the north and northeast.
It was a beautiful, clear day, and from my post of
observation at La Voie du Chatel I could watch the
whole of it.

The Germans swept down an open slope in platoon
waves, across wide wheat fields bright with poppies
that gleamed like splashes of blood in the afternoon
sun. The French met the attack and then fell
steadily back. First I saw the French coming back
through the wheat, fighting as they came. Then
the Germans, in two columns, steady as machines.
To me as a military man it was a beautiful sight.
I could not but admire the precision and steadiness
of those waves of men in grey with the sun glinting
on their helmets. On they came, never wavering,
never faltering, apparently irresistible.

But they were not irresistible. Back of the French
was a force they had not reckoned on, a force as
steady and confident as themselves. It was that
battalion of the Fifth Marines on our left.

AND A FEW MARINES 93

At the right moment the Americans opened up
with a slashing barrage. Shrapnel, machine gun,
and rifle fire was poured into those advancing lines.
It was terrible in its effectiveness. The French told
us that they had never seen such marksmanship
practised in the heat of battle. If the German ad-
vance had looked beautiful to me, that metal curtain
that our Marines rang down on the scene was even
more so.

The German lines did not break; they were broken.
The Boches fell by the scores there among the wheat
and the poppies.

They hesitated, they halted, they withdrew a
space. Then they came on again. They were
brave men; we must grant them that. Three times
they tried to reform and break through that barrage,
but they had to stop at last. The United States
Marines had stopped them. Thus repulsed with
heavy losses they retired, but our fire was relentless;
it followed them to their death. They broke
and ran for cover, though their first line hung on till
dark, north of Champillon.

Then, mercilessly, methodically, we shelled the
woods where they had taken refuge. A French
aviator who sailed overhead saw one entire battalion
annihilated there, and signalled back " Bravo T*
to our gunners.

It was a terrible slaughter; the mere thought of
such wholesale killing is enough to curdle Christian
blood. But we had whipped the Hun. We had
turned that part of his advance into a rout. We

94 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

had tasted his blood and we had not forgotten the
blood of our own who had been slain. We had won
our first fight there where fighting meant so much,
and it would not have been human to refrain from
cheering when it was over. And the men who had
done it, that battalion of the Fifth Marines, were the
ones who had walked all the way to Belleau Wood
two days before, when their camions broke down.

Here is the story of that encounter as told by one
of our Marines in a letter home:

VThe Boches were coming with seven-league boots
when General Harbord threw a line of Americans across
the front and ordered us to hold.

" *Get the devils,* yelled Captain Blanchfield (now
dead).

"A minute later the Boches tore out of the woods, a
machine gun to every ten of them. A rain of good Amer-
ican lead from good American riflemen met them. We
saw them stop. Surprised? Why, they never dreamed
of anything like It. We kept pounding and they turned
and raced back for the wood. The German drive got its
first shock.

"We lay in the open, digging In with bayonets and
firing while the Boche was frantically passing back word
that a cog in the wheel had slipped. They still never
dreamed of Americans, we later learned from prisoners."

This is the way one of our machine gunners, a
Toledo boy, described his part in the action:

"I got your Dutchmen for you with a machine gun,
lots of 'em, not over three hundred yards away, and one
with a pistol for good luck. He bayoneted my bunkie and

AND A FEW MARINES 95

he won't do it again. He's a good Fritz now. They
couldn't kill me, but it was almost as bad. I've still got
both my hands and legs, but my head is all to the bad
even yet.

"Up to this time we had been under some pretty se-
vere barrages, but this time we must have gotten under
Fritz's skin because it started to rain shells of every
calibre from one-pounders to the big *Sea Bags,' or nine-
inch howitzers. ^

"It lasted just an even hour and then Fritz came at
us with blood in his eye. I estimated them at about 500
and they were in fairly compact masses. We waited
until they got close, oh, very close. In fact, we let them
think they were going to have a lead pipe cinch.

"Oh, it was too easy; just like a bunch of cattle coming
to slaughter.

"I always thought it was rather a fearful thing to take
a human life, but I felt a savage thrill of joy and I could
hardly wait for the Germans to get close enough. And
they came arrogant, confident in their power, to within
300 yards.

"Curiously the infantry, which had been steady up to
this time, paused as though waiting for us of the 'devil's
snare drums' to take up the great work. And we did!
Rat-tat-tat-tat full into them, and low down, oh! But
it was good to jam down on the trigger, to feel her kick,
to look out ahead, hand on the controlling wheel, and see
the Heinies fall like wheat under the mower. They were
brave enough, but they didn't stand a chance. The poor
devils didn't know they were facing the Marines —
Americans.

"That hour paid in full all the weary hours of drill
and hike, all the nerve-racking minutes passed under
Fritz's barrage, and avenged the staring eyes and mangled

96 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

bodies of our dead buddies. There weren't many of them
got back to tell the tale of the American's 'cowardice.'

"It was on the afternoon of this day that I got mine.
I had helped carry a wounded man back to the dressing
station and was coming back up the road. I heard it (the
shell) whistle and knew it was going to hit close. (You
can tell by the whistle when they are going to hit.)

"I jumped into a hole and the shell hit it at the same
time. A blinding, deafening roar, and a sensation of
hurtling through space, and then oblivion — until several
days ago. I have one faint recollection of bleeding ter-
ribly at the nose and ears, and the soft hands of an angel
working over me, and then darkness again.

"The Red Cross, especially those organizations near
the front, are beyond comparison. How they must have
taken care of me and hundreds worse. I haven't words
with which to express my praise.

"How do I feel? Sometimes I'm all right and again
I'm not. I have spells in which everything leaves me for
hours at a time and I can't tell for the life of me what I
did during that time. And when I go in the sun I get
dizzy and bleed at the nose and my head feeb like scram-
bled eggs most of the time."

On the night of June 2nd the French retreat be-
came general. They passed through to the rear in
large numbers, both stragglers and organized units,
and we suddenly realized that our line, which had
been placed here for support, had become, through
the fortunes of battle, the front. The United States
Marines stood face to face with the oncoming hordes

of Attila.

Not for a moment did a sense of panic follow that

AND A FEW MARINES ' 97

realization. Not a man thought of such a thing as
joining the retreating French. There arose, rather,
a sort of feeling of exultation, that now at last there
was men*s work to be done, the work of Marines in
a tight place. All through the training at Quantico
and before, all through the toilsome weeks in the
trenches, they had been living for this chance, and
now it had come. As to the officers, well, we had the
whole history of the Corps behind us, and what a
Marine has he holds; he kills or gets killed; he does
not surrender; he does not retreat.

The retiring French made a gap in our line which
we closed by putting in three reserve companies next
to the battalion of the Fifth, so that the Sixth held
a wide front of nearly seven kilometres, with one
company in reserve. And we determined at all costs
to hold that line.

There is no gain in mincing matters; the French
were thoroughly demoralized. And they had good
reason to be. They had been fighting interminably,
pounded by guns, poisoned with gas, and borne
back and broken by superior numbers. They were
ordered to make a last stand, to counter-attack on
the morning of June 3rd, but the units were disor-
ganized; the officers simply couldn't get their men
together. All that forenoon a distracted French
officer stood near my Post of Command trying to stem
the ebbing tide and to corral, enough men to re-
organize. That afternoon they did make a heroic
though feeble attempt to counter-attack, but they
were driven back, and fell in behind our lines.

98 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

During the 3rd there came a little relief in the form
of motor trucks loaded with extra rations, but we
had no way of cooking them. The men had to get
along as best they could with bread, cold bacon, and
"monkey" or tinned , beef. Their only drinking
water was in their canteens, and the source of supply
was a mile or more away. In the midst of all this
grim, tense seriousness there was something irresis-
tibly ludicrous in the sight of our tireless runners
hurrying back and forth all covered over with tin-
ware, as they went for the precious water.

In the afternoon our mule-drawn supply train
reached Montreuil with Major Manney of the Sixth
and Major Puryear of the Fifth in command. They
had realized the acuteness of the crisis and had
accomplished the impossible. They had driven
those mules fifty-five miles in twenty-two hours,
without sleep or rest. They came, and with them
came blessed Lizzie, back-firing and steaming, but
ready to leap over the shell-torn roads to carry aid
and comfort to the men at the front. The rolling
kitchens were moved up to within two miles of the
line, and from the 4th on we did our own cooking
and every night sent at least one hot meal and hot
coffee to the men.

It took about all night on June 3rd to get our
lines well established and ready for the next on-
slaught. We pushed outposts into the smaller woods
near Belleau and improved our defences and our
gun positions. And that night the French liaison
officers were withdrawn and the front line — that

AND A FEW MARINES 99

narrow but vital section of the Frontier of Liberty
— ^was turned over to the United States Marines.
Thenceforth we were to fight on our own.

Unquestionably the Germans were tremendously
surprised by the unexpected resistance they had met.
They couldn't have known who we were, for they
had taken no steps to shell our Hnes and they took
no prisoners who would reveal our identity. But
they did know now that some sort of effective rein-
forcements had been brought up. They had been
driving the French at will and now they were stopped.

As a matter of fact, the Germans had become too
confident; perhaps Foch.had counted on that. Rela-
tively speaking, they were loafing on the job when
we came up. It had all been so easy, and now they
were only waiting to bring up more men and enough
guns to start the final drive and administer the coup
de grace.

They waited a day or two too long, for we were
able to establish our lines without great hindrance,
and on the 3rd American artillery had been brought
up to support our division. Infantry action has
accomplished wonders in this war on both sides, but
however brilliant their performance, foot soldiers
are not enough to check a big drive or carry through
a big offensive. It was becoming more and more a
war of artillery, and the Boche made his fatal mistake
when he gave us a chance to bring up our guns.

Three regiments of artillery came to our support
in this crisis — all Americans. The Twelfth and
Fifteenth operated 75 's; the Seventeenth was sup-

loo WITH THE HELP OF GOD

plied with heavies — French 155's. They took up
their positions the day they came in, the light guns
about a mile or a mile and a half back of the lines,
some of them near my Post of Command. The
heavies were about three miles back. All were
camouflaged, but the Hghter guns were well within
the range of the enemy's observation and their
positions were frequently changed. As will be seen
later, these guns were unable to do fully effective
work at first, but in the end, after the Marines had
gojt the enemy on the run and had felt out all his
positions, they drove the last Germans from Belleau
Wood. To the Marines, in those last gruelling days,
their help meant everything.

By the 4th, the Germans seemed to have gained an
inkling of what was in front of them, for their shell
fire increased materially, and for two days the bom-
bardment was terrific. There was the constant roar
of heavy guns, punctuated by the explosions of
bursting shells. They had evidently succeeded in
bringing up some of their 150's, and they appeared
to be preparing the ground for an advance.

During the 3rd and 4th our casualties from shell
fire numbered over 200 — twenty dead and 195
wounded. The casualties were heaviest in the woods
at the rear where our reserves were located. Possibly
the Germans did not yet realize that we were actually
holding the front line. They shelled all the cross-
roads, to get our supplies and moving troops and to
cut our communications. They shelled Lucy heavi-
ly, then a battahon P. C. The shells fell so thickly in

AND A FEW MARINES loi

the town that you could scoop] up handfuls of
shrapnel bullets in the streets — round pellets about
the size of marbles. On the 4th, too, they began
using gas, so that the men were obliged to fret away
the hours in their stifling masks.

By this time our lines were pretty well consolidated
and formed a long row of shallow rifle pits and shelter
trenches where the men had dug themselves in.
The men in reserve, warned by the shrapnel fire,
had also dug in. I went down to inspect them on the
4th. Each man had dug a hole six feet long, two
and a half feet wide, and three feet deep. Even the
battalion commander had his hole. They looked
shallow and open enough, but they did help; they
offered good protection against flying shell splinters —
against everything, in fact, except a direct hit.
Under cover of darkness the men crept out to stretch
their limbs, but they spent most of the dajrtime
sleeping in their holes.

They were arranged in rows like graves in a Potter's
Field or a soldiers' cemetery. The men, in fact,
jocosely referred to them as their graves. When I
saw them each was filled with the motionless form of
a sleeping man. It was a gruesome sight.

We were not quite satisfied with the disposition
of our forces, and on the night of the 4th we reformed
our line, and the front held so thinly by the Marines
was greatly shortened.

On the left, Wise's battalion of the Fifth was
relieved by the French, who had now somewhat
recovered and took over the line as far as Hill 142.

I02

WITH THE HELP OF GOD

The First Battalion of the Sixth was also withdrawn
to support, and Major Berry's battalion of the Fifth
was sent in there to hold the line from Hill 142 to
Lucy, a shorter Hne than that held by the Sixth's

battalion. Holcomb
moved over with his
battalion of the Sixth,
until his left rested on
Lucy, joining Berry
there, and the 23 rd
Infantry was brought
around to Holcomb's
new right at Triangle
Farm, where it held
the line from Triangle
to the road, making
contact with the
Ninth Infantry there.
The centre, therefore, was still held by Marines,
though on a much shorter front than before, there
being two of our battalions now in the line — Berry's
of the Fifth and Holcomb's of th^ Sixth — supported
on the left by the French and on the right by the
23rd Infantry. These new lines were successfully
consolidated and we faced the future with confidence
and a more effective formation.

To the north of our lines and to the west of Belleau
Wood the Germans still held too many strong points
for our comfort. The shell fire from Hill 165 was
particularly troublesome, and it was decided that an
attack was necessary to put these guns out of action.

DIAGRAM 4

Showing the second [position [taken [by the
American forces before Belleau wood on the
night of June 4th.

AND A FEW MARINES 103

About 3 o'clock on the morning of June 5th a
joint attack was made by a French battalion and
Berry's battalion of the Fifth. The enemy was
taken by surprise and was driven back toward Torcy.
Many of his guns
were put out of ac-
tion and he was
thrust back about a
kilometre and a half
to the north. I did
not see that attack,
and so I cannot de-
scribe it, but it was a
brilliant action, and
it resulted in our es-
tabhshing a new line
which the French held
on the north. Berry's

men digging in along the western side of Belleau
Wood.

It was on the 5th that, owing to the likelihood of
early action, I moved my P. C. again, leaving Mont
Blanche and returning to the neighbourhood of Lucy.
By this move to an apparently more dangerous loca-
tion it is probable that my life was saved, for a
German shell reduced to a heap of ruins the room
I had occupied at Blanche Farm very soon after I
vacated it.

We now stood facing the dark, sullen mystery of
Belleau Wood, Berry on the west and Holcomb on
the south. It was a mystery, for we knew not what

DIAGRAM s

Showing the Allied line as advanced to the
north on the fmorning of June 5th, after the
successful Franco- American attack on Hill 165

I04 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

terrible destruction the Hun might be preparing for
us within its baleful borders, nor at what moment
it might be launched in all its fury against us. That
the wood was strongly held we knew, and so we
waited.

It was rolling country, with small woods scattered
all about and farm land between. From many of
the little hills a good view could be obtained of a
considerable expanse of beautiful, pastoral landscape.
'Of these woods Belleau was the largest, being about
two kilometres from north to south and something
oyer a kilometre from east to west. A kilometre is
about three fifths of a mile. It was, therefore, not
a large forest, but it loomed up before us like a heavy,
menacing frown in the landscape. It was a typical
piece of well kept French woodland, which the
foresters had thinned and cared for so that the timber
was of fairly uniform size and the underbrush fairly
well cleaned out inside. At the edges there was some
undergrowth and smaller trees and saplings. The
timber was not large but grew very thickly. The
trees were rather tall. I should say they would not
average more than five or six inches in diameter, but
they were set so closely that when our men got in
they found they could see not more than fifteen or
twenty feet through the wood, except where ax or
shell fire had made small clearings. Belleau Wood
stood on high, rocky ground and hid innumerable
gullies and boulder heaps.

We were nearer to the woods on the south than on
the west, and on both sides open wheat fields lay

AND A FEW MARINES 105

between our lines and the forest. From without it
appeared almost impenetrable, and there were those
open spaces to cross. Behind us lay the smaller
woods where our own reserves were waiting.

The character of the terrain and the impossibility
of gaining any information of the enemy's movements
by direct observation added materially to the tense-
ness of the situation. It is hard to lie and wait for
your antagonist to strike the first blow, but thus far
we had received no orders save to act on the defensive
and hold the line.

All through June 5th we waited, with nothing of
moment occurring save increasing artillery fire on
both sides. The sound of it was at times deafening.
To this day I do not know why the Germans did not
attempt a sortie — ^whether they felt so secure in their
position that they could afford to wait for over-
whelming reinforcements, or whether the resistance
and then the offensive dash of the Fifth Marines had
frightened them into caution.

As a matter of history, they never did come out,
for on the following day the Marines went in.

CHAPTER VIII
'Give 'Em Hell, Boys!

THE morning of June 6th found us holding
the shortened Hne that I have just described,
with Berry's battahon of the Fifth and Hol-
cqmb's of the Sixth in front and Sibley's of the Sixth
in immediate support. That something v^as going
on within those threatening woods we knew, for our
intelligence men were not idle. Every day my regi-
mental intelligence officer rendered a report of the
enemy's movements to the Divisional Intelligence
Department and also to me, and I reported in turn
to Brigade Headquarters. The report on this morn-
ing was to the effect that the Germans were organiz-
ing in the woods and were consolidating their machine
gun positions, so that a sortie in force seemed not
unlikely.

As a matter of fact, we had been prepared for
something of the sort for nearly two days. On the
night of the 4th Lieutenant Eddy, the intelligence
officer of the Sixth, with two men stole through the
German lines and penetrated the enemy country
almost as far as Torcy. They lay in a clover field
near the road and watched the Germans filing past
them. They listened to the talk and observed what

was going into the woods.

106

AND A FEW MARINES 107

It was a risky thing to do, but they brought back
valuable information. This Lieutenant Eddy was
a dare-devil, anyway, and loved nothing better than
to stalk German sentries in Indian fashion and steal
close to their lines. While we were in the trenches
he did some remarkable work with the patrols. He
was the son of a missionary, I believe, born and
raised in Asia Minor, and was an American college
graduate. How he came by his extraordinarily
adventurous spirit, I don't know, but he certainly
had it. The Marine service has always attracted
men of that type.

As I say, we were looking for a sortie, but none
came, and in the afternoon we were ordered to at-
tack at 5 P. M. The Germans must be driven out of
Belleau Wood.

There were sound strategic reasons for this remark-
able order. In the first place, pressure had to be
relieved northwest of Chateau-Thierry before that
position could be made secure. Belleau Wood now
formed a dangerous salient in our curving line, and
to straighten that line from the advanced position
at the northwest down to Triangle Farm, it was
necessary to take in the town of Bouresches and at
least a part of the wood.

In the second place, Belleau Wood was too strong
a natural fortress to be allowed to remain in the hands
of a powerful enemy on our immediate front. It
was strongly garrisoned with infantry and machine
gunners, and the big guns were coming up. For
the Germans it formed a base of attack that threat-

io8 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

ened our whole line to the south. So long as they
held it ^ sudden thrust was possible at any time, and
such a thrust might mean untold disaster, probabl}^
the quick advance on Paris. For us it was an effec-
tive barricade. The Allies could not advance with
that thorn in their side.

Obviously, Belleau Wood had to be taken, and that
right quickly, whether we were to act successfully on
the defensive or on the offensive. It would have
been suicidal to wait for the German attack. An
assumption of the offensive was the only solution.
And so it turned out that the United States Marines,
who had been called up to support the French in
defence, were ordered to attack, and to attack an
enemy position of the strongest kind. That we
were expected to succeed speaks volumes for the
confidence that we had won.

Belleau Wood is longer than it is wide, and the
easiest way to take it was from west to east. Other-
wise we would have been plunging against the
enemy's deepest strength.

Holcomb's battalion was ordered to hold the line,
while Sibley's was to come up, pass through it, and
make the attack on the southern section of the woods,
starting in on the western side. The objectives for
the first attack mentioned in the orders were the
eastern edge of the woods and Bouresches. Berry's
battalion was to attack from the west on Sibley's left.

The second prearranged objective was another sec-
tion of the woods and a line over the high ground
south of Torcy. The French and the rest of the

AND A FEW MARINES 109

Fifth were to push on toward the north, with Torcy
and the rest of the woods as the ultimate objective.
As will be seen, a part of these objectives were at-
tained promptly and decisively, while others were
delayed.

The orders to attack at 5 o'clock were written at
Brigade Headquarters, about three kilometres in the
rear, at 2 P. M. At 3.45 a copy was handed to me by
Lieutenant Williams, General Harbord's aide, who
came up by motorcycle.

I was supposed to direct Berry's movements,
though he had also received the orders from his own
Regimental Headquarters. I telephoned at once to
Berry's P. C. at Lucy, but his battalion was beyond
reach and he was himself in the woods in their rear,
a mile away. It had been impossible, on account
of the heavy sheUing, to run a telephone out to him.
I sent runners, but I was sure they couldn't reach
him before the attack would have to be made.

I must confess that this situation caused me con-
siderable anxietv. I don t know whose fault it was,
but the communications were far from perfect. It
looked as though we would have to attack without
proper cooperation, and as a matter of fact, that is
what we did. I was fully aware of the difficulties of
the situation, especially for Berry. He had 400
yards of open wheat field to cross in the face of a
galling fire, and I did not believe he could ever reach
the woods. It looked as though Sibley's battalion
would have to bear the brunt of the action.

No one knows how many Germans were in those

no WITH THE HELP OF GOD

woods. I have seen the estimate placed at i,ooo,
but there were certainly more than that. It had
been impossible to get patrols into the woods, but we
knew they were full of machine guns and that the
enemy had trench mortars there. We captured five
of their minnenwerfers later. So far as we knew,
there might have been any number of men in there,
but we had to attack just the same, and with but a
handful. Sibley and Berry had a thousand men
each, but only half of these could be used for the
first rush, and as Berry's position was problematical,
it was Sibley's stupendous task to lead his 500
through the southern end of the wood clear to the
eastern border if the attack was not to be a total
failure. Even to a Marine it seemed hardly men
enough.

The men knew in a general way what was expected
of them and what they were up against, but I think
only the officers realized the almost impossible task
that lay before them. I knew, and the knowledge
left me little comfort. But I had perfect confidence
in the men; that never faltered. That they might
break never once entered my head. They might be
wiped out, I knew, but they would never break.

It was a clear, bright day. At that season of the
year it did not get dark till about 8.30, so we had
three hours of daylight ahead of us.

As soon as I received the orders I got Holcomb and
Sibley together at the former's headquarters, some
500 yards back of the line. With map in hand, I
explained the situation to them without trying to

AND A FEW MARINES m

gloss over any of its difficulties and gave them their
orders. I found them ready. As we stood there,
Sibley's battalion was filing by into a ravine, getting
into position. The two Majors passed on the oral
orders to the company commanders.

With Captain Laspierre I went on to Lucy, and
from there to a point where I could observe the
action. Perhaps I exposed myself unduly, but I was
anxious about Berry and it seemed necessary for me
to get as near his command as possible and to keep an
eye on the whole proceeding.

As I went through Lucy, I passed around the left
of Sibley's men, now waiting in the shelter trenches,
ready to go over the top. They were equipped for
action. When Marines go into line they travel in
heavy marching order, but when they go in to fight
it is in light marching order, with no extra clothing or
any blankets. They carry twenty-odd pounds then.
They all had their rifles and ammunition, and some
of the men were equipped with hand or rifle grenades.
The machine guns were in position, both those of
the machine gun company of the Sixth and those of
two companies of the machine gun battalion attached
to the brigade. They were just back of the front
hne. Each company had eight automatic rifles and
eight in reserve; all were used.

The men seemed cool, in good spirits, and ready
for the word to start. They were talking quietly
among themselves. I spoke to several as I passed.
Some one has asked me what I said, what final word
of inspiration I gave those men about to face sudden

112 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

death. I am no speech maker. If the truth must
be told, I think what I said was, "Give 'em Hell,
boys!" It was the sort of thing the Marine under-
stands. And that is about what they did.

On my left I passed some of Berry's men, the right
end of his battalion. They, too, seemed to be ready
and waiting for the leash to be slipped.

Our artillery fired for half an hour, shelling the
woods, but there was no artillery preparation in the
proper sense of the term. They had no definite
locations and were obliged to shell at random in a
sort of hit-or-miss fire. It must have been largely
miss. The German artillery, on the other hand,
increased its fire as Sibley's men went into line.

Before us stood the frowning wood, with its splin-
tered trunks and shell-shattered branches, and with
the little jungle of undergrowth at the edge filled
with threat and menace. It was a moment of fore-
boding fit to shake nerves of steel, like entering a
dark room filled with assassins.

No orders as to the adjustment of rifle sights had
been given, as the range was point blank. Watches
had been synchronized and no further orders were
given. As the hands touched the zero hour there was
a single shout, and at exactly 5 o'clock the whole line
leaped up simultaneously and started forward,
Berry's 500 and Sibley's 500, with the others in
support.

Instantly the beast in the wood bared his claws.
The Boches were ready and let loose a sickening
machine sun and rifle fire into the teeth of which

AND A FEW MARINES 113

the Marines advanced. The German artillery in
the woods increased the fury of its fire, and the
big guns at Belleau and Torcy, a mile and a half
away, pounded our advancing lines.

On Berry's front there was the open wheat field,
400 yards or more wide — ^winter wheat, still green
but tall and headed out. Other cover there was none.
On Sibley's left there was open grass land perhaps
200 yards wide; his right was close to the woods.
Owing to the poor communications, the two bat-
talions engaged in what were virtually independent
actions, and, as I had feared. Berry got the worst end
of it. He had to face that wide open space, swept
by machine gun fire, with a flanking fire from the
direction of Torcy.

My eyes were on what Sibley's men were doing,
and I only knew in a general way what was happen-
ing to the battalion of the Fifth. But Floyd Gib-
bons, the correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, was
with Berry and saw it all. He was, in fact, seriously
wounded himself, and has lost an eye as a result.
Gibbons says that the platoons started in good order
and advanced steadily into the field between clumps
of woods. It was flat country with no protection of
any sort except the bending wheat. The enemy
opened up at once and it seemed, he says, as if the
air were full of red-hot nails. The losses were
terrific. Men fell on every hand there in the open,
leaving great gaps in the line. Berry was wounded
in the arm, but pressed on with the blood running
down his sleeve.

114 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

Into a veritable hell of hissing bullets, into that
death-dealing torrent, with heads bent as though
facing a March gale, the shattered lines of Marines
pushed on. The headed wheat bowed and waved
in that metal cloud-burst like meadow grass in a
summer breeze. The advancing lines wavered,
and the voice of a Sergeant was heard above the
uproar:

"Come on, you ! Do you want to

live forever?'*

The ripping fire grew hotter. The machine guns
at the edge of the woods were now a bare hundred
yards away, and the enemy gunners could scarcely
miss their targets. It was more than flesh and blood
could stand. Our men were forced to throw them-
selves flat on the ground or be annihilated, and there
they remained in that terrible hail till darkness made
it possible for them to withdraw to their original
position.

Berry's men did not win that first encounter in
the attack on Belleau Wood, but it was not their
fault. Never did men advance more gallantly in
the face of certain death; never did men deserve
greater honour for valour.

Sibley, meanwhile, was having better luck. I
watched his men go in and it was one of the most
beautiful sights I have ever witnessed. The bat-
talion pivoted on its right, the left sweeping across
the open ground in four waves, as steadily and cor-
rectly as though on parade. There were two com-
panies of them, deployed in four skirmish lines, the

AND A FEW MARINES 115

men placed five yards apart and the waves fifteen
to twenty yards behind each other.

I say they went in as if on parade, and that is
literally true. There was no yell and wild rush, but
a deliberate forward march, with the Hnes at right
dress. They walked at the regulation pace, because
a man is of little use in a hand-to-hand bayonet
struggle after a hundred yards dash. My hands
were clenched and all my muscles taut as I watched
that cool, intrepid, masterful defiance of the German
spite. And still there was no sign of wavering or
breaking.

Oh, it took courage and steady nerves to do that in
the face of the enemy's machine gun fire. Men fell
there in the open, but the advance kept steadily on
to the woods. It was then that discipHne and
training counted. Their minds were concentrated
not on the enemy's fire but on the thing they had
to do and the necessity for doing it right. They
were listening for orders and obeying them. In this
frame of mind the soldier can perhaps walk with even
more coolness and determination than he can run.
In any case it was an admirable exhibition of military
precision and it gladdened their Colonel's heart.

The Marines have a war cry that they can use to
advantage when there is need of it. It is a blood-
curdling yell calculated to carry terror to the heart
of the waiting Hun. I am told that there were wild
yells in the woods that night, when the Marines
charged the machine gun nests, but there was no
yelling when they went in. Some one has reported

ii6 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

that they advanced on those woods crying,
"Remember the Lusitania!" If they did so, I
failed to hear it. Somehow that doesn*t sound like
the sort of thing the Marine says under the condi-
tions. So far as I could observe not a sound was
uttered throughout the length of those four lines.
The men were saving their breath for what was to
follow.

I am afraid I have given but a poor picture of that
splendid advance. There was nothing dashing about
it like a cavalry charge, but it was one of the finest
things I have ever seen men do. They were men
who had never before been called upon to attack a
strongly held enemy position. Before them were
the dense woods effectively sheltering armed and
highly trained opponents of unknown strength.
Within its depths the machine guns snarled and
rattled and spat forth a leaden death. It was like
some mythical monster belching smoke and fire
from its lair. And straight against it marched the
United States Marines, with heads up and the light
of battle in their eyes.

Well, they made it. They reached the woods with-
out breaking. They had the advantage of slightly
better cover than Berry's men and the defensive
positions at the lower end of the woods had not been
so well organized by the Germans as those on the
western side. The first wave reached the low growth
at the edge of the woods and plunged in. Then the
second wave followed, and the third and the fourth,
and disappeared from view.

AND A FEW MARINES 117

Some months later Private W. H. Smith, recover-
ing from his wounds in the Naval Hospital in
Brooklyn, told the story of that charge:

"There wasn't a bit of hesitation from any man. All
went forward in an even line. You had no heart for
fear at all. Fight — fight and get the Germans was your
only thought. Personal danger didn't concern you in
the least and you didn't care.

"There were about sixty of us who got ahead of the
rest of the company. We just couldn't stop despite the
orders of our leaders. We reached the edge of the small
wooded area and there encountered some of the Hun
infantry.

"Then it became a matter of shooting at mere human
targets. We fixed our rifle sights at 300 yards and aiming
through the peep kept picking off the Germans. And a
man went down at nearly every shot.

"But the Germans soon detected us and we became
the objects of their heavy fire. We received emphatic
orders at this time to come back but made the half mile
through the woods, hardly losing a man on the way."

I had no field telephone and felt obliged to see
what was going on. I took my stand on a little rise
of ground protected by a low line of bushes about
3CX) yards from the woods. It was near a road where
Holcomb's left had been in contact with Berry's
right. The shelter trenches did not cross the road.
From this point of vantage I watched the advance
through my glasses.

Bullets rained all around me, the machine gun
crews near me forming a target for the Germans.

ii8 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

There was a great racket of rifle and machine gun
fire and bursting shrapnel and high explosives, like
the continuous roll of some demoniacal drum, with the
bass note of the heavy guns that were shelling Lucy.

I saw a number of our brave lads fall in that
advance. The German machine gunners aimed low
to sweep the ground, catching most of the men in
the legs. And those who fell lay right in the line of
fire and many of them were killed there on the
ground. Those who were able to stand and keep
going had the best chance. Some of them went
through the whole fight with leg wounds received
druing the first ten minutes.

I am able to tell something of what went on in the
woods that night, but my own participation in the
conflict ended abruptly right there, and before con-
tinuing the narrative I may as well give a brief
account of what happened to me.

Just about the time Sibley's men struck the woods
a sniper's bullet hit me in the chest. It felt exactly
as though some one had struck me heavily with a
sledge. It swung me clear around and toppled me
over on the ground. When I tried to get up I
found that my right side was paralysed.

Beside me stood Captain Tribot-Laspierre, that
splendid fellow who stuck to me through thick and
thin. He had been begging me to get back to a
safer place, but I was obstinate and he never once
thought of leaving me. When I fell he came out of
his cover and rushed to my side. He is a little man
and I am not, but he dragged me head first back to

AND A FEW MARINES 119

the shelter trench some twenty or twenty-five feet
away. My Hfe has been spared and I owe much to
that Frenchman.

I have heard of men getting wounded who said
that it felt Hke a red-hot iron being jammed through
them before the world turned black. None of these
things happened to me. I suffered but little pain
and I never for a moment lost consciousness. Nor
did any thought of death occur to me, though I
knew I had been hit in a vital spot. I was merely
annoyed at my inability to move and carry on.

The bullet went clean through my right lung, in
at the front and out at the back, drilling a hole
straight through me. I am inclined to think that it
was fired by a sniper in the trees at some distance
to the left, who was trying to pot our machine
gunners. I believe it was a chance shot and not
the result of good marksmanship, for the bullet
must have come some 600 yards.

Experts have made a study of the action of rifle
bullets, and have discovered that a bullet fired at
short range — less than 500 or 600 yards — twists in
such a manner that when it strikes an obstacle it
wabbles. If my bullet had been shot from near at
hand it would have torn a piece out of my back as
big as my hst. On the other hand, a spent bullet
is already wabbling, and would have made a big
hole in the front of my chest and perhaps would not
have gone clear through. That is why I believe that
my bullet came from a sniper about 600 yards away,
and I am thankful that it did.

I20 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

Captain Laspierre laid me down in the bottom of a
three-foot trench and there I remained for an hour
and a half. He opened my coat and shirt, but there
was little he could do. Most of the bleeding was
internal.

My runners were near at hand, and I had the
Captain send a message by one of them to Lucy,
whence the news of my wound could be telephoned
back to the Post of Command, where Lieutenant
Colonel Lee and my adjutant. Major Evans, were
located. Lee jumped for the automobile and drove
to Lucy; from there he came on foot to where I was'
and I turned over the command of the regiment
to him.

In about three quarters of an hour Dr. Farwell,
the regimental surgeon, came from Lucy and admin-
istered first aid treatment. These trips all had to
be made under heavy fire.

As I lay there before turning the orders of the day
over to Lee, I was chiefly conscious of my anxiety
over the outcome of the battle. My mind was as
active as ever, and it was torture to lie there and not
be able to see or do anything. I received reports
from Sibley by runners, telling of his progress, and
these I read to Lee when he came.

Dr. Farwell brought stretcher bearers with him,
but I was kept there in the trench for a while because
of the heavy artillery fire. Gas shells began to burst
near us, and they put my gas mask on me. I never
knew before how uncomfortable one of those things
could be. It is hard enough for a man to breathe

AND A FEW MARINES 121

with a lung full of blood without having one of those
smothering masks clapped over his face.

Fortunately, my interest was so firmly fixed on
the fortunes of battle that I had but Httle time to
indulge in any feeling of discomfort. I heard the
sound of the firing gradually recede, and knew that
Sibley's men were advancing. Then it came nearer
on the left, and I knew that Berry's outfit was being
beaten back. It was not an ideal way to observe
an action, and my anxiety would have been almost
unbearable if it had not been for one or two reassur-
ing messages from Sibley. That grand old man was
as hopeful as if the whole American army had been
at his back.

After a while the artillery fire let up a little, though
it was still on when they carried me back to Lucy.
They cut ofF my mask and hauled me out of the
ditch and bundled me on to the stretcher. Four
men raised me to their shoulders and away we went.
Carrying a 215-pound man on a stretcher over rough
country under fire is no joke, but they got me to Lucy.

Meanwhile Sergeant Sidney Colford had got an
ambulance at Lucy and I was rushed to the forward
hospital and shot full of anti-tetanus serum. Then
on to Meaux and finally to Paris, where I arrived at
4 A. M. the next day — June 7th — after being eight
hours in the ambulance. I was placed in Hospital
No. 2 — Dr. Blake's — ^where they drew quarts of
blood from my pleural cavity. It is a wonder that
I came through it, but there were no serious compli-
cations and the wound began to heal. I remained

122 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

in the hospital until July 22, when I was discharged
and came home on leave.

So much for my personal experience. Mean-
while the battle for Belleau Wood was going on, and
I received detailed reports of it. How it went with
the boys after I fell remains now to be told.

CHAPTER IX
In Belleau Wood and Bouresches

MAJOR Burton William Sibley is one of the
most picturesque characters in the Marine
Corps. He is a short, swarthy man, wiry
and of great endurance. He is one of those men
whose looks are no indication of their age; he might
be anywhere from thirty-five to fifty. I fancy that
is why he is affectionately known as "the old man."
As a matter of fact he was born in Vermont on March
28, 1877, and was appointed a Second Lieutenant of
Marines on July 23, 1900. Thus far he seems to
have borne a charmed life and I hope his luck will
not desert him.

Sibley is particularly thorough in everything he
does and has never been known to get rattled. His
men love him and would follow him anywhere. He
is as active as a boy, and it was he who, on foot and
fighting as desperately as any of them, personally
led those two companies of Marines into the death-
haunted labyrinth of Belleau Wood. They followed
him as warriors of old followed, their chieftain, and
he pulled them through and won the first stage of
the battle that was to put the strength of our brigade

to the acid test. Staunch veteran of Marines that

123

124 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

he is, he deserves all the praise that can be heaped
upon him for that night's work.

The minute they got into the woods our boys
found themselves in a perfect hornets' next of
machine gunners, grenadiers, and riflemen. No
one could have realized how strong the enemy's
position there was, or I do not believe that we would
have been ordered in without more adequate artil-
lery preparation. There were machine gun nests
everywhere — on every hillock and small plateau, in
every ravine and pocket, amid heaps of rocks,
behind piles of cut timber, and even in the trees,
and every gun was trained upon the advancing
Marines and spitting hot death into them.

These German guns in the wood were well placed
to cover all zones with both lateral and plunging
fire. No spot was safe from their spray of bullets.
Quick action was essential, or our force would have
been wiped out. But the Marines never faltered.
They attacked those nests with rifles, automatics,
grenades, and bayonets. In small groups, even
singly, they charged the machine gun crews and their
infantry supports with wildcat ferocity, fighting like
fiends till the Huns were dead or threw up their
hands and bleated "Kamerad." Then they rushed
on to the next one.

The most eflPective method was to run to the rear
of each gun in turn and overpower the crew. But
each flanking position was covered by another gun
which had to be taken immediately. It was a furious
dash from nest to nest, with no time to stop for

HhJ

AND A FEW MARINES 125

breath. In the thick of the m^lee the wild yells of
the Marines were mingled with the constant
crackle of rifle fire like bunches of fire crackers
exploding.

Through the smoke of battle that drifted like fog
among the tree trunks, Sibley kept to his course
across the southern section of the wood. His diffi-
culties must have seemed well-nigh insuperable, for
his men were exposed to a constant flanking fire on
their left, while they were obliged to keep their eyes
to the front and take the machine guns from the
flank or rear. But take them they did, one after
another, and though many a brave man fell there in
the wood, they pushed steadily on across.

There was dense brush in spots, where men got lost
and found themselves isolated and cut off from their
squads. The wounded dragged themselves to thickets
and depressions — any place where they could hide
from those prying bullets and wait till there was time
for some one to carry them out. They were short of
water and the suflFering of many of them was intense,
but they urged their comrades to leave them and

press on.

An hour passed; two hours, the Marines still fight-
ing with the savage intensity of catamounts. "All
the time," said Private Frank Damron afterward,
"the fighting consisted in running from one shell
hole to another. Shove your bayonet at a Hun and
he will give up. I myself had very little 'stick-
ing' to do. You could generally get them with a
rifle bullet first." "Our men," added Corporal John

126 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

Miles, "went after them with fixed bayonets, and
drove them as a fellow drives a flock of chickens."

The action was all in the hands of the platoon
officers. Success or failure rested on their shoulders.
It is not the general who wins such a battle as that,
but the captain, the sergeant, the private.

It had been called an exaggerated riot, that des-
perate conflict in the wood. It was hand-to-hand
fighting from the first, and those Germans, hating
cold steel as they do, soon learned what American
muscle and determination are like. From tree to
tfee fought our Marines, from rock to rock, like the
wild Indians of their native land. It is the sort of
fighting the Marine has always gloried in. And in
that fighting they beat the Germans on two points —
initiative and daring, and accuracy of rifle fire. They
picked the German gunners out of the trees like
squirrels, and in the innumerable fierce onslaughts
that took place at the machine gun nests the Marines
always struck the first blow and it was usually a
knock-out. It was a wild, tempestuous, rough-and-
tumble scrap, with no quarter asked or given. Rifles
grew hot from constant firing and bayonets reeked
with German gore. It was man to man, there in the
dark recesses of the woods, with no gallery to
cheer the gladiators, and it was the best man that
won.

The thick woods made the fighting a matter of
constant ambuscades and nerve-racking surprises,
but the Marines tore on. With Sibley at their head
nothing could stop them. Machine gun nests whose

AND A FEW MARINES 127

crews held out formed little islands in the welter
about which the Marine flood swept, eventually to
engulf them. Some of the Germans turned and fled,
abandoning their guns; others waited till caught in
the rear and then threw up their hands and sur-
rendered; some waited in huddled groups in the
ravines till the gleaming-eyed devil dogs should leap
upon them; some stuck to their guns till an American
bullet or an American bayonet laid them low. One
by one the guns were silenced or were turned in the
opposite direction.

They started in at 5 o'clock. At 6.45 the report
was sent to headquarters that the machine gun fire
at the lower end of the woods had been practically
silenced. At 7.30 German prisoners began to come
in.

Night fell with the fighting still going on and only
the flash of shooting to see by. But at 9 o'clock word
came from Sibley by runner that he had got through
and had attained the first objective, the eastern edge
of the wood. In four hours he and his men had
passed clear through the lower quarter of Belleau
Wood, traversing nearly a mile, and had cleaned
things up as they went. And only 500 of them
started; I hesitate to mention the number that
finished.

At 10 o'clock reinforcements were sent in with
orders to consolidate the position. Two companies
of Engineers were reported at Lucy and they were
ordered in to help. Their assistance was invaluable,
for though there was still heavy fighting for the

128 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

Marines that night, the Engineers started in at once
and by morning had the position reasonably secured.
Orders to stop further advance were sent out at the
same time.

The men who went through that Turkish bath of
fire and steel are the best judges of what it was like.
This is the way the story was told by Private W. H.
Smith of Winston-Salem, N. C, after he had been
invahded home:

"German machine guns were everywhere. In the trees
and in small ground holes. And camouflaged at other
places so that they couldn't be spotted.

"We stayed for the most part in one-man pits that
had been dug and which gave us just a little protection.

"We sa'W one German a short distance before us, who
had two dead ones lying across him. He was in a sitting
posture and was shouting *Kamerad, Kamerad.* We
soon learned the reason. He was serving as a lure and
wanted a group of Marines to come to his rescue so
that the kind-hearted Americans would be in direct line
of fire from machine guns that were in readiness.

"Now isn't that a dirty trick? Say, it made me sore.
Before I knew what I was doing and before I realized
that every one was shouting at me to stay back I bobbed
up out of my hole and with bayonet ready beat it out
and got that Kamerad bird. It seemed but a minute
or so before I was back. But, believe me, there were
some bullets whizzing around. They came so close at
times I could almost feel their touch. My pack was
shot up pretty much but they didn't get me.

"After that I thought I was bullet proof, and didn't
care a damn for all the Germans and their machine guns.

-' Photograph jrom the Committee on Public Information

IN BELLEAU WOOD— AMERICAN MACHINE GUNNER

IN A TREE

"There were machine gun nests everywhere — on every hillock and
small plateau, amid heaps of rocks, and even in the trees"

Photograph from the Committee on Public Information

"They picked the German gunners out of the trees like squirrels"

AND A FEW MARINES 129

"Soon we charged forward again. I saw one Dutch-
man stick his head out of a hole and then duck. I ran
to the hole. The next time his head came up it was
good-night Fritz.

"We were running along when a German pops up
right up from the weeds on the roadside and shot at a
Sergeant with me. The bullet got the Sergeant in the
right wrist. I got the German before he dropped back
into the weeds.

"Every blamed tree must have had a machine gunner.
As soon as we spied them we'd drop down and pick them
ofF with our rifles. Potting the Germans became great
sport. Even the officers would seize rifles from wounded
Marines and go to it.

"On the second day of our advance my Captain and two
others besides myself were lying prone and cracking
away at 'em. I was second in line. Before I knew what
had happened a machine gun got me in the right arm
just at the elbow. Five shots hit right in succession.
The elbow was torn into shreds but the hits didn't hurt.
It seemed just like getting five little stings of electricity.

"The Captain ordered two men to help me back. I
said I could make it alone. I picked up the part of the
arm that was hanging loose and walked.

"It was a two-mile hike to the dressing station. I got
nearly to it when everything began to go black and
wobbly. I guess it was loss of blood. But I played in
luck, for some stretcher bearers were right near when I
went down."

In a letter home Private Edward Cary of St. Louis
thus described that night of blood and battle:

"We were called from a little town somewhere in the
vicinity of the Marne, where we were resting, up to the

I30 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

front, where the Germans were coming too strong for the
French, and when we hit the line the 'Froggies' were all
in and retreating. The Marines went into the action,
stopped them and drove them back over a mile. How*s
that ?

"We did not go into action until the 6th, but were
held in reserve in woods made a living hell by shell fire.
I have seen boys killed and blown to pieces by high ex-
plosive shells right beside me. It was trying at first. A
comrade was wounded alongside of me and one killed.
The same shell got the both of them.

"The day after this we made an attack. Whooey! I
never knew there were so many machine-gun bullets and
high explosives in the world. Two men, one on either
side of me, were killed by machine-gun fire, and in the
fracas I lost the company but hooked up with another
one. A Lieutenant, eight other men and myself took
seventeen prisoners, three machine guns, and other equip-
ment. I had to shoot at two of them, and they fell, and,
as we found them afterwards dead, I have two notches
to my credit.

"When we came up to the Germans they threw down
their arms and called *Kamerad! Mercy!' They are yel-
low as ochre and will not fight like men. As long as
they are away from you they will fight, and fight damn
dirty, but corner them and they quit — I could lick a
squad of them with a soup ladle.

"Some of the boys took souvenirs, but not for me.
Everything they own is tainted with innocent blood and
they are too damn mean and too foul to touch. The only
things that I have are three buttons that a young 16-year-
old Prussian gave to me voluntarily.

"Well, we gave them hell that night when they at-
tempted a counter-attack, and then we were relieved to

AND A FEW MARINES 131

go into reserve and reorganize. I wasn*t the least bit
scared in battle."

During the night the fighting raged for five hours
or more with gradually diminishing fury, and those
men who were able to snatch a few minutes* sleep
in a shelter trench or rifle pit were the lucky ones.

Meanwhile an equally important and successful
action against odds had been taking place at Bour-
esches, the town just east of the woods at its lower
end. It was necessary to eject the Germans from
this position for the same reasons that made it
essential to drive them from Belleau Wood.

Shortly after the attack on Belleau Wood had
been launched, the 96th Company of Holcomb's
battalion and one of Sibley's reserve companies were
ordered to take the town, and two platoons started,
one from each company. There was a short bom-
bardment, and then the Marines advanced in four
waves just as the others had done in going into the
wood — twelve men in each wave, five yards apart,
and twenty yards between the waves. The first and
third waves were supplied with automatics and gren-
ades, the second and fourth with rifles. They ad-
vanced across a little valley and a wheat field, in the
face of a sharp fire from three-inch and machine guns.

The original plan was to have the battalion of
Sibley's company go into Bouresches, while Hol-
comb's undertook to straighten the line from there to
Triangle Farm, but through some misunderstanding
of the orders, Holcomb's men got to Bouresches first
and went in.

132 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

Half of this little force was under Captain Duncan
and the other half under Lieutenant Robertson.
The enemy's fire, as they neared the town, was
frightful, and more men fell than kept going. Dun-
can was shot down while coolly advancing with his
pipe in his mouth. Robertson, who, by the way^
was afterward shot through the neck near Soissons^
led the remnant on and entered the town.

There were probably 300 to 400 Germans in that
town and the place bristled with machine guns.
There were guns at the street corners, behind barri-
cades, and even on the housetops, but the Marines
kept on. They attacked those machine guns with
rifle, bayonet, and grenade in their bitter struggle
for a foothold. They were outnumbered when they
started, and one by one they were put out of the
fighting. But they kept going, taking gun after
gun, until the Germans, for all their numbers and
advantage of position, began to fall back. And
Lieutenant Robertson took Bouresches with twenty
men !

He sent back word at 9.45 that he had got in and
asked for reinforcements, but he did not wait for
them. Those twenty men started in to clean up that
town in the approved Marine fashion, and he was
well on his way when Captain Zane's company of
Holcomb's battalion arrived to support him. Then
Engineers were sent in to help consolidate the

position.

But the town was not 3"et fully won. The Ger-
mans began displaying counter-activity, and the

AND A FEW MARINES 133

Marines sent back word that they were running short
of ammunition. Lieutenant William B. Moore, the
Princeton athlete, and Sergeant Major John Quick
(of whom more anon) volunteered to take in a truck
load. With a small crew chosen from fifty who
wanted to go, they started with their precious, peril-
ous freight, over a torn road under a terrific fire.
The whole way was brilliantly lighted by enemy
flares and the solitary truck offered a shining mark
to the German gunners. It rolled and careened fear-
fully over the gullies and craters, shells shrieked and
whistled over their heads and burst on every hand,
and as they neared the town they drove straight
into the fire of the spouting machine guns. But
John Quick bears a charmed life and they got through
unscathed.

That ammunition truck saved the day at Bour-
esches, for after it got in, Zane's men proceeded to
clean up the town. At 11 o'clock that night the
report was sent in to headquarters to the effect that
the Germans had been driven out of Bouresches.
At 2.30 A. M. they made an attempt to get in again,
but the counter-attack was smothered by our
machine gun fire.

The next day, with the help of the Engineers, our
position in the town was made secure. Later the
garrison was reinforced by replacement men under
Quick. Fighting continued through the 8th, but
all counter-attacks were repulsed and the town
remained in our hands. Contact was established
with Sibley's men in Belleau Wood and Holcomb

134 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

straightened and consolidated the line from Bour-
esches to Triangle Farm.

Through all this fighting our men were obliged to
get along without direct telephone connection with
headquarters, and our runners were depended upon
to carry out the reports and the requests for assis-
tance. All that night they plied their hazardous
trade, dashing through machine gun and shell fire
and keeping open the Hnes of communication. They
were specially selected men, attached to head-
quarters, and their work should not be allowed to
pass unnoticed.

I have spoken of some of the officers who were
responsible for the success of our undertaking, but
I have neglected to mention Wendell Neville, the
Colonel of the Fifth. He was a classmate of mine
at Annapolis and we entered the Corps together.
He was with the Marines at Guantanamo and was
brevetted Captain there for his excellent work. He
served with Waller in China at the time of the Boxer
uprising and at Vera Cruz. After I was wounded
and Lee took over the command of the Sixth, Neville
went in with the Fifth in the subsequent fighting in
Belleau Wood. He is now a Brigadier General and
had command of the brigade at Soissons in July.

And I must speak of Major Evans. He had
retired from the service but rejoined at the outbreak
of war. He joined the Sixth Regiment when it
was organized and with the able assistance of John
Quick he whipped that regiment into shape at
Quantico. I couldn't have had a better man. He

AND A FEW MARINES 135

is a jolly fellow, always in good spirits, and possesses
that sort of magnetic, dynamic personality that
keeps things moving. He is a man of intellect, too,
and altogether just the sort to succeed with our college
boys.

In France he served as my adjutant. He did not
get into the fighting in Belleau Wood and Bouresches
because he remained at the Post of Command,
where he received all the reports and orders and kept
his fingers constantly on the keys of the situation.
He backed up Sibley and Holcomb in their arduous
undertakings; his was the brain behind the fight.

A long letter from Major Evans, written from the
front to our Commandant, Major General George
Barnett, I have thought best to offer in full in the
appendix of this volume, since it gives a graphic
account of the entire action at Belleau Wood as
viewed by the man at the end of the wires in the
Post of Command. I will, however, insert at this
point a shorter letter from Major Evans to Mrs.
Charles A. Childs of New York, the donor of our
regimental colours, because it speaks entertainingly
of our old friend Lizzie who turned up again at
Bouresches.

"As a result of the splendid work of the Marine Bri-
gade, notably between June 6th and loth, when our regi-
ment did its share in the capture of Bouresches and
part of the Bois de Belleau, we .have learned that the
brigade is to be cited by the French army and that the
regimental colours will have the Croix de Guerre and the
palm. It is a wonderful honour, the highest that any

136 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

regiment has won over here so far, and I know how
much you will be pleased and how proud you will be.
When it does take place I will send you a photograph, as
many as I can, if I have to face a firing squad to get them
to you. We also hear that our Colonel, who was wounded
in the first half hour of the first fight, is to be made a
Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.

"And the Ford which Mrs. Pearce gave us will go
down in Marine Corps history at any rate.

" Elizabeth Ford, as the regiment knows her, has had a
unique career. Not only in Quantico, where I drove her,
but in Bordeaux and later up in our training area, she
catried everything from sick men to hard tack. Then
we had two months in the trenches near Verdun and at
the end it seemed as though she would have to go to the
scrap heap. Her top was entirely gone and we made a
mail wagon of her. In some way the men, who have an
affection for her that you can hardly comprehend, patched
her together and we brought her down to our first billets.
A week later we had to go to another area, forty kilo-
metres north of Paris, and in the long trip the Elizabeth
Ford sailed along without mishap and was the talk of
the division.

"Then we came up here and she rose to the heights of
her service and her record. The night we took Bouresches
with twenty-odd men, and news came through that others
had filtered in and the town was ours, we shot out a truck
load of ammunition over the road. The road was under
heavy shell and machine gun fire. Later in the night we
sent the Ford out with rations. For the next five days
she made that trip night and day, and for one period ran
almost every hour for thirty-six hours. She not only
carried ammunition out to the men who were less than
200 yards from the Boche, but rations and pyrotechnics;

AND A FEW MARINES 137

and then to the battalion on the left of the road, in those
evil Belleau Woods, she carried the same, and water,
which was scarce there. For these trips she had to stop
on the road and the stores were then carried by hand
into a ravine. I saw her just after her first trip and counted
twelve holes made by machine gun bullets and shrapnel.
"At one time the driver, Private Fleitz, and his two
understudies, Haller and Bonneville, had to stop to make
minor repairs, and another time, when they had a blow-
out, how she and the men escaped being annihilated is a
mystery. The last time I saw her she was resting against
a stone wall in the little square of Lucy-le-Bocage, a shell
wrecked town, and she was the most battered object in
the town. One tire had been shot off, another wheel hit,
her radiator smashed, and there were not less than forty
hits on her. We are trying every possible way to find new
parts and make a new Ford of her. She is our Joan of
Arc and if it takes six old cars to make her run again
we'll get those six and rob them.*'

As night deepened and hostilities diminished in
Belleau Wood and Bouresches, the first stage of the
battle ended, with our line extended some distance
to the north, taking in nearly a third of the v^^ood and
the town of Bouresches, and running from there
straight down to Triangle Farm. All night the inde-
fatigable Engineers laboured to make good our
position while the fighters snatched such rest as they
could, and the dawn of June 7th found them ready
for another attack on the monster in the forest.

CHAPTER X
Pushing Through

THE backbone of the German resistance was
broken on the night of June 6th when Sibley
went through Belleau Wood and Robertson
walked into Bouresches, but there still remained
much to be done. We held the town and the lower
edge of the wood, but it was at best but a precarious
foothold. The enemy remained in force to the north
of the town, his machine guns were still thick in the
greater part of the wood, and his big guns still thun-
dered from back of Torcy. He was daunted by our
first rush, but he came back. It took the Marines
many days to finish the job, but finish it they did.

On June 7th fighting recommenced with a more
intense fury, and our losses on that day were even
heavier than on the 6th. We launched a series of
battalion attacks against the forces in the wood,
besides the constant fighting for local positions and
the repulsing of counter-attacks. On that day
Sibley's men resumed their rushing of machine gun
nests and their strenuous hand-to-hand fighting.

At peep of day they were up and at 'em again as
though fresh from their billets. It was now a matter
of thrusting the whole line northward through the
wood, and into its darksome maw they plunged,

138

AND A FEW MARINES 139

straight into its Dantean horrors. There was no
respite. The enemy machine gun fire became more
deadly after they had penetrated to some Httle dis-
tance, but they had to keep going. When they could
they dug little rifle pits for themselves with the small
trench tool carried in the kit, as a slight shelter
against that withering fire. When fatigue became
greater than could be borne, men curled up in shell
holes or crevices in the rocks, or in the shallow
trenches they dug, hoping for a brief respite, only to
be roused by the uproar of a new conflict or the
nearby bursting of a shell. Occasionally gas was
poured into the w^ood, and that meant fighting in
masks. None but the finest type of soldier could
have stood up to all this and continue to make prog-
ress. They took those machine gun nests one after
another, and in some cases were able to turn them
on the Germans.

Our artillery was at a disadvantage in not knowing
just how far our men had penetrated, but gradually,
with more complete information, our shell fire im-
proved. The guns cooperated when they could,
eventually hurhng more than 5,000 high explosive
and gas shells into the woods and clearing the heights.

Fighting on in those treacherous woods, subject to
flanking fire and in constant danger of ambush, the
Marines continued to advance, regardless of fatigue
and losses, until they held another quarter of a mile
of the woods and the advance was halted. The new
position was consolidated with the help of the
Engineers and food and ammunition were sent in.

I40 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

Lizzie did heroic work on that day. A few light
guns were got in to Sibley.

As a result of the fighting of June 7th all along the
line, the Americans advanced their position over a
six-mile front.

On the 8th and 9th, Sibley's men continued to
rush those machine gun nests and to make further
progress in the wood. It seemed as if nothing could
tire them out or force them back. Meanwhile, Berry,
who had been wounded, was relieved. Lieutenant
Colonel Wise, in command of his battalion of the
Fifth, went in to support Sibley.

Our casualties were terrible; I will not attempt to
give the figures. Our men were engaging in a sort of
fighting that means heavy losses with the best of
luck, but that did not check them. Their comrades
fell, but they pressed on, and behind them they left
dead Huns piled three deep about those captured

nests.

To the men in the woods, fighting most of the time,
snatching sleep when they could, the succession of
night and day was hardly noticeable and there were
few who could have told how long they had been
fighting. Thus wrote Private George Budde of the
Fifth to his parents:

"I was always glad when the various positions we held
in the woods had a few holes strewn around into which
we could crawl when necessar>s but there were days in
the first woods we went to especially, when M. and my-
self, he being of the same mind, lay under the stars with
nothing but a blanket, while the others had gone from

AND A FEW MARINES 141

four to six feet under ground, which was not as foolish
as it sounds, as the shells were really going over us, and
besides there was a perfectly splendid ditch along the
side of the road. I reall}^ did start to dig, but it just
naturally tired me all to little bits and I quit with nothing
to show for it but some elegant blisters. It seems really
unbelievable, but there were hours at a time at that place
and others when we would lie -perduy while a steady
stream of missiles would be going sweetly over our heads,
just a continuous humming whir-r-r that can't be de-
scribed. Most of the big ones do give notice of their ap-
proach most politely, and one generally has time to duck
or take cover."

On June 8th Major Evans jotted down a laconic
memorandum to the eflPect that Holcomb had asked
for both chaplains. That meant the hurried burial
of our dead.

And right here let me put in a good word for those
chaplains. Theirs is no easy berth, and they do
not always receive the honour that is their due.
The Marine chaplains, like the members of the
Medical Corps, are furnished by the Navy. They
^re busy men. Besides holding services at the
camps and in the various villages where the Marines
are billeted, and acting in a general way as the big
brothers of the men, they have to censor all mail and
serve as the statistical officers of the regiment. At
the front they have charge of all burials, collect the
bodies, and attend to the matters of record and iden-
tification. And more often than not they volunteer
to assist the surgeons.

142 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

In each of our two regiments there were two
chaplains, a Protestant and a Catholic. After the
battle was over, all four of them were cited and
decorated for heroic action in collecting and burying
the dead and assisting the surgeons under fire.

Gradually terror and the realization of defeat
began to creep into the hearts of the Boches. Wrote
one of the boys :

"Not once in .the days of fighting that followed did a
German stand up when the Americans got close to him.
WeVe got their number and they know it. I wish I
could get over and tell you all about it. I'm so full of
stuff I simply can't write the things in a straight-out way.

"You know how I did worry about a pistol and field
glasses. Well, it wasn't necessary. I now have the best
Zeiss glasses the Imperial German Government could
purchase for me, and the splendid new Lauger pistol
that I swing at my belt is certainly the finest the Hohen-
zollerns could provide for an American Army officer.

"In many places they left so fast that clothing, boots,
rifles, machine guns and all sorts of booty taken from
French towns was left. Every soldier had at least two
Boche overcoats for a mattress.

"In one officer's overcoat Lieutenant Blaisdell found a
cat-o'-nine-tails, ample evidence of the statement of many
prisoners that they were driven time and again to fight."

There were evidences ever3rwhere, during this
fighting, of German treachery. Those Prussians
were nasty fighters. The following is quoted from
the letter of a Quartermaster's Sergeant who talked
with a number of our wounded in the hospital:

«<

AND A FEW MARINES 143

If evidence were lacking of ingrained German untrust-
worthiness and treachery, the following from the lips of
three men, one an officer, would be ample. During the
progress of a hot engagement a number of Germans,
hands aloft and crying *Kamerad!' approached a platoon
of Marines who, justifiedly assuming it meant surrender,
waited for the Germans to come into their lines as pris-
oners. When about three hundred yards distant, the
first line of Germans suddenly fell flat upon their faces,
disclosing that they had been dragging machine guns by
means of ropes attached to their belts.

"With these guns the rear lines immediately opened
fire and nearly thirty Marines went down before, with a
yell of rage, their comrades swept forward, bent upon re-
venge. I am happy to state that not a German survived,
for those who would have really surrendered when their
dastardly ruse failed were bayoneted without mercy.

**As stated, I talked separately with three different
Marines at different times, and have no doubt of the
truth of the story. When it spreads through the Corps,
it will be safe to predict that the Marines will never take
a prisoner.

"Can they be blamed? As one man remarked,* A good
German is a dead German.' Another said, 'They are
like wolves and can only hunt in packs. Get one alone,
and he is easy meat.'

"Little of this sounds uplifting, and smacks of cal-
loused sensibilities. But the business that brought these
men to France is not a refined one. It is kill or be killed,
perhaps both, and the duty of each man in the American
army is to kill as many of the enemy as may be, before
he, in turn, is killed. Likewise it is his duty to study
and understand the psychology of the German, and he

144 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

does it in his crude way, although he might not under-
stand such mental processes by the term psychology.

"An occupation lacking refinement creates unrefined
descriptive terms, and the man whose temporary trade
is war chooses his own phrases and originates new defi-

nitions.

I will not deny that my nerves are tense with horror
at what I have seen, and with pride at what our boys
have done, even while my soul is sickened with this
closer view of the red monster. War. In the spirit of the
men seen to-day, I am moved to greater admiration for
their qualities and an abiding faith in our ability to finish
as we have begun. Youth of the American army, flower
of our young manhood, my hat is off to you! May vic-
tory perch upon your banners, and God give you the re-
ward you deserve here and hereafter."

And here is further evidence of German gentleness
from the pen of Private James Donohue, a BuflFalo
boy, who was captured by the enemy and was, I am
told, the first American prisoner to escape and make
his way back to our lines.

"I attacked with our boys," wrote Donohue, "and ran
into a lot of Fritzies. One of them hit me on the head
with the butt of his rifle, and when I woke up, I was in-
side the German lines being dragged before an ofiicer at
German headquarters. Every one I passed along the
road kicked, jeered, and spit at me.

"When I landed in headquarters, a pompous German
officer asked me how many divisions we had in France.
I said 'thirty,' but he didn't believe me. A guard was
then placed over me, who watched me all night. Just as

AND A FEW MARINES 145

day was breaking, I was roughly awakened and given an
axe and without breakfast I had to cut a lot of brush that
was to serve as camouflage for machine guns.

"I was working close to the front lines and American
machine gun bullets whistled past me for fair. I had to
work all that night. When I tried to snatch even a few
minutes of sleep, a husky guard would give me an awful
kick with a big hob-nailed boot and I would grab the
axe and go to chopping again. I saw three Germans dis-
guised in American uniforms. I was getting so weak
from hunger and loss of sleep that I thought I would go
under any minute. Finally the guard gave me some
black bread and thin, watery soup. I could not get any
coffee.

"Afterward they put me to digging trenches to bury
dead Germans in. Along with other prisoners we dug
long rows, two and three deep, into which it seemed as if
they buried the whole German army.

"Finally one night, I found my guard asleep. I wal-
loped him over the head with my pickaxe. He never
moved. I ran away through the woods in front and
there chanced across some German Red Cross dogs. I
found some canteens of water and hunks of bread tied
on their backs, which I took.

"All of a sudden I got where shells were bursting
everywhere. I had run into a barrage and thought it
was all up with me. But I ducked along and suddenly
a sentry challenged me. I recognized him as an American
and shouted at the top of my voice, *I am an American.
Don't shoot.'

"So he passed me through the lines and that night I
slept in the wood inside the lines and reported the next
morning."

146 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

And so the battle continued, with our boys edgin
their way slowly ahead in the forest, the ghastly
dead lying all about them. Companies that had
entered the battle 250 strong dwindled to fifty or
sixty with a Sergeant or only a Corporal in command;
but with burning eyeballs and drawn faces they
fought doggedly on. The Germans brought up
reserves and stiflFened their resistance. A tremen-
dous and continuous artillery fire was concentrated on
the wood, Bouresches, and all the approaches. Gas
was poured in, the deadly, insidious yperite, that
saturates the clothing and burns the skin and hangs
for days in thickets and low places. The strain was
beginning to tell.

Gallant as had been the fighting of the Marines
in Belleau Wood, it was finally decided that their
first operations were not sufficiently decisive. Their
progress was too slow and too costly. The Germans
were concentrating their forces in the northern half
of the woods and it seemed impossible to drive them
out and complete the occupation without more
thorough artillery support.

On June 9th, accordingly, Sibley received orders
to withdraw to give the artillery a chance. Back to
the edge of the woods he came, with the ragged
remnant of his brave battalion, fighting a rear guard
action. Many of them were wounded ; some of them
had worn their gas masks for eighteen hours at a
stretch; they had lived on scanty rations and had
enjoyed but little sleep or rest; they were weary,
spent, sated with killing; but every man was mad

AND A FEW MARINES 147

clean through because he could not go on and settle
the rest of the German army then and there.

Fifty American and French batteries — some 200
guns in all — then let loose an infernal fire on the
woods. The infantry action had given the artillery
a chance to get thoroughly ready for this storm of
fire. And they battered the last spark of fighting
spirit out of the Huns.

On the loth, after hours of bombardment, Major
Hughes went in with part of his battalion and
reported that the woods had been reduced. He
and Wise worked steadily up from Sibley's former
position and extended the line in the wood farther
to the north. Hughes himself was later gassed and
had to come out.

The Germans had tried attack after attack to drive
the Marines out but without success. Now they
were up against a more serious situation. The com-
bined artillery and infantry attack was too much for
them. It must not be supposed, however, that there
was any lack of resistance. The enemy still oper-
ated numerous machine gun nests in well selected
positions, many of them cleverly camouflaged, which
our shells had missed. And so the hand-to-hand
fighting was resumed, though against less frightful

odds.

Early on the morning of the loth the Marines
started in again, with the artillery fire sweeping the
woods ahead of them, and began to clean out the rest
of those machine guns with rifle, hand grenade, and
bayonet. They partially surrounded the woods and

148 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

subjected the flanks of the German defenders to a
taste of their own medicine. The Boches began to
flee, and some of them ran into their own machine
gun fire. They were cut up and slaughtered. They
began surrendering in groups.

On that day our Hne was advanced two-thirds of
a mile on a 6ooyard front, and all but the upper
portion of the wood was cleared of Germans. And
behind our men came the Engineers, constructing
a strong position.

Our casualties on that day were heavy, but if it
was bad for us it was inferno for the Boche. Hun-
dreds of Germans were slain, and those that were
captured were heartily glad it was over. The wood
which they had chosen as an impregnable fastness
had proved to be a death trap. We took 300 pris-
oners that day, and found that many of them be-
longed to the Fifth German Guard Division, includ-
ing the crack Queen Elizabeth Regiment.

On the same day — the loth — the Germans
launched an attack in force to regain Bouresches.
It was well planned and was executed by fresh troops.
A dark, cloudy night had aided their preparations,
but they were expected. The Americans had the
northern side of the town lined with machine guns
and heavier guns were trained on the railroad em-
bankment over which the Germans must come.

Following the usual artillery preparation they
advanced in close formation. At the edge of the
town they were met by the sting of the machine gun
fire and were checked with heavy losses. Then our

AND A FEW MARINES 149

artillery laid down a thick barrage behind their
advanced line, preventing the bringing up of rein-
forcements. They could neither advance nor retreat;
they were caught between two destructive fires.
Gradually the barrage was lowered upon their
advance line and their position became a slaughter
pen. Those who got into town never got out again
and the rest were driven back to their lines. The
well organized attack was simply crumpled up and
wiped out. We had very few casualties and took
fifty men captive and one officer.

In Belleau Wood the advance after the loth was
slow but continuous behind an effective barrage.
Almost imperceptibly our line was pushed forward
among the trees, like water eating its w^ay into a snow
bank. As fast as they advanced the Marines dug in
and stuck, though constantly shelled and gassed.
There was less hand-to-hand fighting now, but cas-
ualties on both sides were numerous and the Marines
continued to capture prisoners and machine guns.

Between June 6th and 15th six main attacks were
made against the woods and nine counter-attacks
were repulsed. The Germans tried to filter in from
the left but were beaten off. Bouresches was sub-
jected to an aerial bombardment, but the Marines
stuck there, too. What they have they hold.

Private F. E. Steck of Camden, N. J., remembers
this period rather vividly, for it was then he was
wounded. Steck's company did not take part in
the attack on Belleau Wood until June i ith, but they
were not all idle while in reserve. He and two

ISO WITH THE HELP OF GOD

sergeants succeeded in sneaking out at night and
bringing back wounded Marines they found in that
area. Private Steck doesn't know whether his
officers learned of these nightly "desertions." The
trio succeeded, however, in rescuing many com-
panions in this manner.

"We came across a German officer seated comfortably
with his knees crossed," Steck relates. "Before him was
spread a little field table on which was cake, jam, cookies,
and a fine array of food. A knife and fork was in either
hand.

"Beside the officer was seated a large, bulky Sergeant
who had been knitting socks. The darning needles were
still between his fingers. Both their heads had been
blown off by a large shell.

"We went into hot fighting on June nth at 2 A. M. A
few hours before I had been on a detail that was bringing
up hot coffee from the rear.

"Hand grenades were distributed and then Captain
L. W. Williams lined us up in combat formation. Soon
we were going single file through the woods and charging
across the open area to where the Germans were secluded
in their holes.

"My duties were to load a Chauchat or French auto-
matic rifle. You could run about nine steps and then
another clip would have to be inserted. Bullets slit my
canteen, hit my scabbard, and two or three went through
my trousers without touching me. We had advanced
in triangle formation about half a mile. I was in the
front end of the *V' when three machine bullets got me.
One went into the neck, another in my left shoulder,
and the third in my arm.

AND A FEW MARINES 151

"I tried to keep on in assisting the operation of the
automatic but the blood came up in my throat. I forced
my way back and hid in a shell hole in the woods until a
little Marine found me. This fellow dragged me five hun-
dred yards on his shoulder to a first-aid dugout. There
a shelter-half was used as a stretcher and I was taken
back to a larger dressing station."

Private John C. Geiger's company was also one
of those that were held in reserve during the first
few days of the fighting, but when they got their
chance they went to it as though afraid that their
comrades had left them no Germans to kill. It was
the attack of June loth which they took a leading
part in, and at last they found themselves entering
the blood-soaked wood. They surged forward in a
two-wave formation at five-pace intervals, but they
were an impatient bunch and the waves did not last
long in the wood. It was impossible to hold the
second wave back and the attacking force soon
became one line of fierce fighting men, shooting,
bayoneting, and hurling grenades wherever the
Boches dared show themselves.

"Our men were yelling as if they were in a football
game. You heard just one cry from the Germans — that
was *Kamerad,' " Geiger declared. "We crossed an open
space of nearly a mile when we discovered that we had
hit the Germans' second line trench.

"Still we kept going. Of th^ twenty-five who were
with me, only four remained.

"Suddenly we spotted a machine gun. Without a
thought the four of us started to charge it. Two of the

'152 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

men were killed immediately. I was shot in the right leg.
The last man escaped. He told other Marines of the
machine gun and in a few minutes a second and bigger
advance was made. They surrounded the gun and the
crew wanted to surrender. But there's not much use
taking as prisoners men who fire at you until they see
they are overpowered. I don't remember any prisoners
walking back from that crowd.

"I lay wounded for nearly an hour. For a while I
hardly dared to breathe. I was right in line with the
machine gun's fire.

"The bullets sped past my ears so closely that I couldn't
hear them whizz or buzz. There was nothing but a loud
'Crackety-crack-crack' as they went by. It was just
like having your head near the muzzle of the gun.

"Soon the camouflage, consisting of high weeds around
me, was shot away. Fortunately the machine gun tried
for another target about that time and ceased firing in
my direction. I tried to crawl off but couldn't make it

very far.

"I heard a German crying piteously 'Wasser, wasser.*
It was a fellow I had seen shooting at the Marines a few
minutes before.

"I tried to get near him but couldn't make it. I had
no water but did have about eight inches of blade that
I wanted to present to him.

"Then came a scene I shall never forget. This spot
was pretty well abandoned now. The heavy action had
moved forward and the Germans were still being pursued.

"I heard occasional revolver shots and through the
weeds saw a Hun running about the field shooting wounded
Marines. Never before did a man look so like a devil
to me and I shall never forget the fiendish glare with
which he went about his mission.

AND A FEW MARINES 153

"It was not long before five Marines came up. They
wanted to carry me ofF but I told them of the fellow
who had been shooting our wounded. Later they re-
turned with that devil's automatic."

Geiger was carried back until hospital men with stretch-
ers appeared. His wound cost him his right foot.

"Shooting Germans is heap more fun than shooting
rabbits," says Geiger. "You never could tell what was
going to happen. We captured one machine gun and
turned it on the Germans until the ammunition was ex-
hausted.

"But I want to give credit to those hospital corps men
of the Navy, who worked with the Marines. Those fel-
lows deserve a gold medal or the highest award they can
receive. Why, before we could reach our objectives they
were right out on the field picking up and tagging the
wounded. They didn't mind the danger and did their
duty without protection of any kind. They were un-
armed and could not shoot a German if they did nm
across one.

"There was one fellow we knew as * Little OF Pewee*
Jones. On June 8, * Pewee' had his clothes almost shot
ofF but he escaped without serious injury. After a few
hours he did get hit badly in the arm but he refused aid
and went back to the dressing station alone laughing and
cussing the Germans in the same breath.

"It was *Pewee's' everlasting good spirits and bandying
that kept his co-workers and every one he came in contact
with in the best of humour.

"Others who deserve worthy mention, too, are men
known to me only as First-Class Pharmacist's Mate Tib-
bets, Second-Class Pharmacist's Mate Israel, and two of
their assistants, Russell and Turner."

154 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

Private Fank Damron, who was also wounded
about this time, gives another glimpse of the fighting
in a letter home.

"On the morning of the 13th we saw a German lying
ahead of us a few yards. We brought him in. He must
have had twenty-five wounds in his arms and legs without
being hit in a vital spot.

"This fellow told us that the Prussian Guards were
coming and it was but a short time before the information
had been relayed back and had reached our leaders.

"And that night they attacked. Let me say right at
the start they didn't budge us back an inch. The recep-
tion they were given made what few were left forsake all
desire for further attacks.

"But those Heinies gave us everything they had by
way of artillery fire. And they are good at it, too. Those
fellows can place a shell in your hat five miles away.

"That action certainly was hell. We counter-attacked
right at the start. It wasn't but a short time when
shrapnel got me in the left foot and put me out of action.

"Fellows near by bound up my leg with a belt and
made a litter out of a blanket and tree branches. But
that broke. I was hours and hours getting back to the
dressing station. But two days later the amputation had
been made and I was on the road to recovery."

On June nth the report came in that the enemy's
machine gun fire had been practically silenced and
he was making a last stand at the northern end of
the wood. So far, so good, but our progress was now
a mere crawl against concentrated resistance and the
fight was not over by any means. The enemy was

AND A FEW MARINES 155

still supported by the guns at Torcy and our men
were under constant fire.

Then the Germans, realizing the seriousness of the
situation, resolved to make one last desperate effort to
regain what they had lost. Reserves were brought up,
including an entirely fresh division, and their forces
were strongly concentrated along the whole Belleau
Wood front. On June 13th they attacked with stub-
born fury. Their orders were to retake Belleau
Wood and Bouresches at all costs, and God knows
they tried. But that depleted line of Marines,
backed now by artillery, still held fast. Held ? Nay,
worn down and decimated as they were by nearly two
weeks of bitter fighting, they counter-attacked, and
foot by foot, day by day, they pressed the Prussians
back.

For days the Marines kept up that steady, unre-
mitting grind, that constant battering at the German
gates. They seemed not to know when they were
overwhelmed and beaten. Then, on June i8th, their
fury flamed out again. There was a scalding artil-
lery shower from the American guns by way of pre-
face, a quick drive across the open behind a bar-
rage, and then the Marines fell tooth and nail upon
the tow^n of Torcy. It was a short and merry battle.
The crossroads below Torcy were taken at a rush
and the troublesome German batteries behind the
town were silenced.

On the 19th a heavy barrage tore up the woods
and Marine rifles and bayonets proceeded to com-
plete the job. By the 24th the last German was

156 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

cleared out of the main part of Belleau Wood — or
was killed — but it was not until the 26th that the
battle was over. On that day Major Shearer of the
Sixth was transferred to the command of a battalion
of the Fifth and attacked the last bit of woods held
by the enemy, which lay like a small green island
to the north of Belleau Wood proper. He took 500
prisoners there, besides machine guns and other
booty, and the last of that formerly victorious Ger-
man army, smitten hip and thigh, was driven from
cover and forced to fall back to a new line.

"Before leaving the dismal waste that was once
Belleau Wood, now haunted by the memories of
brave and fallen comrades, I have one more story
to retell. It is another dog story, and it was told
by one of those cheerful ruffians who have been
getting their broken bodies mended at the Brook-
lyn Naval Hospital. This fellow has had a close
shave, but American surgical skill has pulled him
through.

He took part in some of the hottest fighting in
Belleau Wood and it took more than one piece of
German metal to make him quit. The first wound
didn't bother him much — **just a scratch in the leg,
and besides we needed every man and in the excite-
ment I didn't care." So he kept on going until a
piece of shell shattered the bone in his right leg below
the knee. That stopped him. He did try to crawl,
but weak from loss of blood and pain he finally gave
it up, waiting for some one to find him and carry him
in. The "scratch" had been a shell wound where a

AND A FEW MARINES 157

big chunk of flesh had been torn from the muscular
tissue of his left leg, but in the excitement he hadn't
known.

He lay for many hours — a whole day and night
they told him later at the hospital — ^when he felt
something pushing against his shoulder. He shut
his eyes tight because he thought it might be a
Heinie. Then something warm and moist licked his
cheek and travelled down toward his lacerated leg,
and he looked. His own particular buddie wouldn't
have been a more welcome sight than that Red Cross
dog.

The dog was a big one and a mongrel. "They
don't use any particular breed so far as I could
notice," explained the Marine. "He was just a dog,
but he sure had learned his work."

He came up to the Marine now, placing himself in
such position that the wounded man could see the
canteen on his back. The Marine, parched and
burning, needed no second invitation but detached
the canteen and took a long drink, and then replaced
it. He had been without water so long and he was
afire with fever and the water was wonderful, so
wonderful that he just dropped back satisfied; but
the Red Cross dog wasn't satisfied. He had come
to do a certain thing and he knew his duty as well as
any soldier in the line. He kept pushing against the
wounded man's shoulder until he just had to Hsten.
The Marine said "listen" because it seemed almost
as if the dog talked to him and said "Come on, buck
up, you've got to get out of this."

158 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

And the Marine did buck up. He grabbed the
dog's tail with one hand and with the other and his
useful knee he crawled forward at the dog's leading.
But it was slow going and finally he had to give up in
despair. The pain was too much, and he had to
quit. But the dog didn't quit. He went off at a
trot and after a time returned with two Red Cross
stretcher men, who carried the Marine to the dressing
station.

When the Marine was made comfortable his first
thought was very naturally of his rescuer. His
surprise was very great when he found that the dog
would pay no attention to him.

"That's the way they're trained," it was explained
to him. "They pay no attention to any man unless
he is wounded and then only to bring him into safety.
They go out time after time under shell fire bringing
in the wounded, or leading the stretcher men to them,
but when they have done that they aren't interested
in the wounded any more.

"Another thing they have learned is never to eat
anjrthing except food that is given to them by their
masters in the dressing station. They are taught to
be suspicious of food, for earlier in the war some Red
Cross dogs were poisoned."

"They sure are wonderful," the Marine says. "I
wish I could have brought that dog home with me,
but of course he's enlisted for the term of the war,
and had to stay in France."

The action which centred about Belleau Wood
and Bouresches, and which had for its object the

AND A FEW MARINES 159

relieving of the menacing German pressure north-
west of Chateau-Thierry, may be said to have
been brought to a close on July ist, when men of
the Ninth and 23 rd Infantry of our Division took
the town of Vaux behind a barrage of American
artillery fire.

Vaux lies on the Metz-to-Paris Road about two
miles east of Triangle farm and halfway to Chateau-
Thierry. (See Diagram 2.) Its capture and that
of the Bois de la Marette were necessary to straighten
the line and to free the Metz-to-Paris Road of the
danger of a German attack. The American lines
were rather too far advanced on the left to make the
position secure, and what amounted to a small salient
had to be wiped out. With this removed, Chateau-
Thierry, the Bois de Belleau, and the road to Paris
were relatively safe.

The task was given to the two regiments of Infan-
try, which had hitherto seen but little action. They
had been merely holding their section of the line and
serving as a barrier across the threatened road. The
capture of Vaux was not spectacular, but was a
cleanly done job from a military point of view. Our
guns were now in position in force, and there was
perfect artillery preparation, such as had not been
possible in the earlier fighting. Following a thor-
oughly effective barrage, the Infantry took their
objectives almost without loss, and the work for
which our division had been thrown in was com-
pleted.

The Marine Brigade was soon withdrawn to a

i6o WITH THE HELP OF GOD

quiet place for a period of hard-earned rest, to mend
battered heads and limbs, to fill the gaps in the ranks
with replacements, and to prepare for the next job.
In about two weeks it was "Marines to the front!"
again.

CHAPTER XI
"They Fought Like Fiends"

ONE prisoner that we took at Belleau Wood
stated that the impression had been created
among his comrades that all the Americans
had become drunk before going into battle, for no
men in their sober senses could have fought so like
fiends. Well, they weren't drunk, but they did fight
like fiends, and so many of them performed prodigious
deeds of personal valour that the story of them is
bewildering. I want to tell some of these individual
stories, for they are thrilling in themselves and they
give a sort of mosaic picture of the battle in the
woods. But when I glance over the Hst of the cita-
tions which our Marines received I find it difficult to
make a selection. There are so many of them, of
almost equal importance, and I dislike to mention
one brave man and not another. The best I can do is
to recount a few of these true tales that particularly
gripped me by reason of their dramatic quality,
hoping that it will be understood that there are
dozens of others of which these are merely a sample.
First let me tell something about one of our old-
timers, one of the most noteworthy characters of our
Corps — Sergeant Major John Quick. He is a Manne

i6i

1 62 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

of some thirty years' standing, and what he doesn't
know about the service must be a matter of small
importance. In 1898 he signalled to the fleet from
an exposed hilltop in Cuba with hundreds of Spanish
rifles firing at him, and for that act he received a
Medal of Honour. In 1914 it was Quick who hoisted
the Stars and Stripes above the Hotel Terminal in
Vera Cruz when every window sill and roof parapet
was the gun rest of a Mexican sniper. He helped to
whip our new Marines into shape at Quantico and
to keep the wheels oiled at Chateau-Thierry. Then,
when there was need for heroism of a rare kind com-
bined with a quick brain and steady nerves, it was
Quick who, though supposed to be at regimental
headquarters with Evans, doing clerical and execu-
tive work behind the lines, rose up from the earth
and took into Bouresches that truck-load of ammuni-
tion along a road swept by artillery and machine gun
fire. He thereby "relieved a critical situation," in
the words of the order citing him for bravery, and
he received the Distinguished Service Cross.

I don't know what to think of John Quick. I
think he must carry a rabbit's foot or some other
amulet about with him, for he has repeatedly risked
his Hfe in the most hazardous undertakings and he
has usually come through without a scratch. In
fact, I believe he has never been seriously wounded.
They say the only time he ever got hurt was at the
end of a long march in the Philippines to rescue a
detachment of Americans who had been cut oft.
Nearly dead with exhaustion and hunger, he fell over

AND A FEW MARINES 163

a precipice into a river. A native pulled him out
and he spent the next two months in the hospital.

Quick is the sort of man we like to put in with the
young recruits, for he is a living example of what a
Marine ought to be. He is the Mulvaney of our
Corps. Now he has returned to America to resign.
We in the Corps are mournful, but Quick has finished
his job, he deserves his rest.

Then there is another picturesque old-timer that
I must tell about — First Sergeant Dan Daly of the
machine gun company of the Sixth. He enlisted in
January, 1899. He first distinguished himself during
the Boxer Rebellion in China when, on the night of
July 15, 1900, he volunteered to remain alone under
fire in a bastion in Peking, which he held until aid
came. For this act and for his conduct during the
siege of Peking and the battle of August 14th, he
was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour.
During the outbreak in Haiti, under odds of ten to
one, he led a squad of Marines against Fort Dipitie
on October 24, 191 5. The men were in pitch dark-
ness and were obliged to wait until daybreak, when
they advanced under heavy fire. Their steady shoot-
ing and cool discipline alarmed and disorganized the
Cacos. In a short time they had captured the fort
and set it on fire. For this Daly was awarded his
second medal. When the Marines landed at Vera Cruz
Sergeant Daly inspired his men to limitless daring,
and for his he was recommended for a third medal.

Daly went to France with us and he fought there
with all his old-time fire. Boches meant no more

r64 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

to him than Mexicans. In Belleau Wood he located
a machine gun and took it single-handed, charging
its crew with a yell and killing most of them before
they could put up a fight. For that and for some
other little matters General Pershing sent him a
Distinguished Service Cross, the citation reading as
follows :

"Sergeant Daly repeatedly performed deeds of heroism
and great service on June 5, 191 8. At the risk of his life
he extinguished a fire in an ammunition dump at Lucy-
le-Bocage. On June 7, 191 8, while his position was under
violent bombardment, he visited all the gun crews of his
company, then posted over a wide portion of the front,
to cheer his men. On June 10, 191 8, he attempted an
enemy machine gun emplacement unassisted and captured
it by use of hand grenades and his automatic pistol.
On the same day, during the German attack on Bouresches,
he brought in wounded under fire."

If you can picture Dan Daly doing these things
there in the smoke and uproar of battle, with his
comrades falling on every hand, you may be able
to get some conception of what the fighting was like,
for there were hundreds of our fellows doing just
that sort of thing.

Captain Burns of the 74th Company offers a good
example of the spirit of the Marines. He also got
after a machine gun nest and had both legs shot ofl^.
Later I saw him in the hospital. He was smoking
a cigarette, and he blithely remarked, "No more toe
dancing for me, I guess." I regret to say that he did
not recover.

AND A FEW MARINES 165

I have already mentioned Captain Duncan of the
96th Company, who was ever a source of inspiration
to his men and who led the advance against Bour-
esches with his pipe in his mouth. He died with his
face to the enemy, and if you never saw anything but
the laconic citation which recounted his act, you
would never know what a splendid type of American
hero he was. "Captain Donald Duncan of St.
Joseph, Mo., on the night of June 6th, courageously
led his men through the machine gun fire in the street
fighting which resulted in the capture of the village
of Bouresches. He was killed while the town was
taken."

Major Berry of the Fifth was awarded the Dis-
tinguished Service Cross by General Pershing, and
his citation is almost as brief and unemotional as that
of Duncan. "Major Benjamin S. Berry led his men
in a gallant attack across open ground and into the
Bois de Belleau, northeast of Chateau-Thierry, on
the afternoon of June 6th, inspiring them to deeds
of valour by his example. When he reached the
edge of the woods, he fell, severely wounded. Never-
theless, he arose and made a final dash of thirty
yards through a storm of bullets and reached again
the first wave of his command before yielding to
exhaustion from his injury."

I briefly mention these few instances at the outset
to give an idea of the sort of things the officers did.
Some of the most picturesque exploits, however, -
were accomplished by privates. The story of Private
Henry Lennert is one of the best. Lennert was

1 66 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

captured by the Germans and was held in an officers'
dugout for three days. He wondered why he was
not sent to the rear or set to work like most of the
prisoners. The captain of the company into whose
clutches he had fallen spoke Enghsh, and occasionally
dropped in to chat with Lennert. He asked repeat-
edly what sort of treatment was accorded to German
prisoners, whether they were summarily shot as had
been reported.

"Shot?" responded Lennert. "Why, no; they are
given a good feed and sent to a quiet place."

On the third night, after a good deal of this sort
of questioning, the Captain asked, "Could you get
us safe into the American lines if we were to sur-
err

"Sure," replied Lennert. "Easy."

"Then come with me," said the Captain.

The Marine was led out of his dugout, and there
in the darkness he beheld what appeared to be the
entire company lined up. He wondered whether it
could be a firing squad, or whether some new
form of German trickery had been invented, but the
Captain showed him that their arms had been
thrown down and bade him lead the way. Lennert
picked up a few souvenirs and set forth toward the
American lines.

At length he was challenged by an outpost.

"Who goes there?"

"A Marine," replied Lennert, "with a bunch of
recruits that want to sign up."

The American guard advanced and Lennert led

AND A FEW MARINES 167

proudly into the lines eighty German prisoners
including the Captain and four other officers.

One of our most daring young athletes was Carle-
ton Burr. I wish I could remember all the stories
they told of him. He had been in the American
Ambulance for about a year, when he came home
and got a commission in the Marines. He trained
at Quantico and was transferred to the first outfit of
the Sixth that went across. Because of his initia-
tive and daring he was made intelligence officer of
the First Battalion and achieved some remarkable
successes at patrol work while we were in the trenches.
But hard luck came to him when we went in at
Chateau-Thierry. He was gassed at Belleau Wood
about June 5th and was evacuated to the rear. He
knew we were fighting and was crazy to get into it.
About July 2 1st he managed to get out of the hospital
and rejoined his regiment at Soissons. Forty-five
minutes after he went in he was killed by a shell.
Not all our dare-devils bear charmed lives.

From various brief reports of individual valour
that have come back to us I have culled a few that
give an idea of the fighting in the wood. Corporal
Christie Collopy of Spring City, Pa., kept his group
under cover and then went out alone with hand
grenades and routed an enemy machine gun crew.
Gunnery Sergeant Grover C. Conrad of Lexington,
N. C, when his commander was wounded and the
strength of his platoon was reduced to himself and
five men, took charge, advanced, and silenced an
enemy machine gun. Private Clarence W. Kelly of

i68 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

Oil City, Pa., led a rush into a German machine gun
position, himself accounting for six of the enemy.
Corporal Earl F. Miller of Chattanooga, Tenn., went
out alone after a German sniper in a tree whom he
killed with a well thrown hand grenade. Private
Charles McGarland, a baseball player, by himself
hand-grenaded the enemy out of two machine gun
positions. Private Walter J. Ball of Roxbury, Mass.,
crept to within twenty yards of a German sniper and
got him with an automatic rifle. And such instances
could be multiplied by the score.

On June 9th the French, who were holding a small
wood on our left, called for aid, as the Lieutenant in
command had only twenty men left and the Germans
were advancing to attack. Lieutenant Robert Blake
of Berkeley, Cal., responded promptly with twelve
men from the American front line. When they
arrived at the French position the Germans were
but 200 yards away, coming in three waves, sup-
ported by machine guns. A wheat field was immedi-
ately in front and screened the Germans, so that
the handful of Marines had to stand on their feet in a
withering fire, blazing away with their rifles. By
reason of their cool and accurate fire they soon had
the Germans running back. Many of the party
were wounded and all have received the Croix de
Guerre.

An amusing story is told of Captain Alphonse
De Carre of Washington, who went forward with his
company to the support of his Lieutenant Colonel.
On the way he kept bumping into groups of Germans,

AND A FEW MARINES 169

utterly terrified, who had been passed in the advance.
Had they been properly officered, these Germans
might have attacked the advanced American troops
from the rear and partially surrounded them, but
De Carre supposed they were prisoners who had
been left behind by his commander, and he coolly
gathered in 164 of them and sent them to the rear
before he learned the truth about them.

Private Frank Cronewett of Monrovia, Cal., was
an ambulance driver loaned to the American troops
by the French army. He ran his ambulance along
a road full of shell holes between Bouresches and
Coupru when it was being gassed. He took ofF his
mask to see the way better and was burned about the
eyes and face, but kept to his work of transporting
the wounded. On his way back with an empty am-
bulance on one trip he had a French soldier on the
front seat with him. A shell exploded in the road,
wounding his companion. He stopped the ambu-
lance, put the wounded soldier inside, took him to
the hospital, where he had a cut in his own head
dressed, and then reported for duty and continued
in service.

There are, altogether, several hundred citations on
file — ^that is, recommendations for bravery on the
battlefield. Over 500 of these give the names of in-
dividual heros of the Battle of Belleau Wood. One
group is printed at the end of this volume. Man}'
of these men won decorations, and a mere list of
them would be too long to include here. They
tell of officers who led desperate attacks against

170 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

odds; of wounded officers who refused to leave
their commands and go to the rear; of non-coms,
who took charge of platoons and led them on in the
wood after all the officers had been killed or wound-
ed; of men who brought out wounded officers and
comrades under fire; of runners, sometimes wounded,
who braved death a hundred times a day carrying
messages under fire; of drivers who brought up
ammunition and supplies through a storm of shells
and machine gun bullets; of non-coms., privates,
and members of the Medical Corps who dressed the
wounds of the fallen under fire; of men who con-
tinued operating machine guns single handed after
all their comrades had fallen; of severely wounded
men who walked to the rear to spare the services of
the stretcher bearers; of men who displayed excep-
tional courage and dash in charging machine gun
nests. It sometimes seems as though the entire
brigade must have been individually cited; indeed,
the Marine who did not exhibit personal heroism of
a high order in those days was the exception. And
there was Private Morris Fleitz who drove battered
Elizabeth Ford all over the place, through a spray of
shrapnel and bullets, carrying ammunition and
rations to exposed points.

CHAPTER XII
"Le Bois de la Brigade de Marine"

A REGIMENTAL or brigade officer has the
advantage of being able to view an engage-
ment in its entirety, while the men in the
thick of the fighting know only what is going on in
their immediate neighbourhood. That is why so
many of the letters from the front are fragmentary
and give but a sectional view of the great movements
of the war. Nevertheless, most of us, because we
have personal friends at the front, are vitally inter-
ested in knowing something of what the individual
soldier accomplishes and suffers, what he is thinking
about and how he feels. From the newspapers we
learn how the battle goes; it is only from the
individual soldier that we can learn how the war
appears to the man who is doing the fighting.

For this reason I venture to present one more letter
from a Marine in France before proceeding with the
rest of my story. It is one of the most interesting
letters I have seen and I offer it in full because it
tells the whole story of Belleau Wood from the
restricted but intense viewpoint of the man behind
the bayonet. It was written by Private Hiram B.
Pottinger of the 76th Company, Sixth Regiment, to

his mother in St. Louis.

171

172 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

"I wrote you a card yesterday telling you we had
gone over the top. Well, we sure went over the top and
we had some battle. I will tell you the story as near as
I can.

"It happened early in the morning and before day-
light we were all lined up behind our lines. In front of
us lay a large open field and in front of that a thickly
wooded hill. That was where we were going. We all had
kind of a funny feeling, but we laid back there smoking
and telling jokes while we waited for the order to form.
During all that time our artillery was throwing a barrage
into the woods ahead of us, and believe me they were
siire tearing things up, too.

"Well, at daylight we commenced to form. Our com-
pany was in about the fourth or fifth wave and then the
advance started. I would give anything for a picture of
those 'leathernecks* that morning going across that field,
for we were behind and could get a good view of it.

"Across the field we went and up the hill and over, but
the Germans never put up much of a fight. I guess the
shell fire was too much for them and they retreated. We
took positions at the edge of the woods and stayed there
all day. The next day was the day of the fighting in
which our company took a big part — we took a wood
which had formerly been known as the 'Machine Gun
Nest,' 'Death Valley* and all such names as that, and none
of the names were too good for it.

"The first sight that struck my eyes when our little
platoon started through the woods was a place where the
Germans had shot liquid fire and the ground and woods
all around were scorched black. In the middle of this
were men's bodies all charred and some of their faces
almost burned off. A little farther on I stumbled over
the body of a man who must have been killed a month

AND A FEW MARINES 173

before. I tell you such sights as that gives you a sick
feeling if you have seen nothing like it before, but I soon
forgot them, for it was then we spied the Boches.

"They were placing a machine gun to turn it on us,
but they never did get it placed, for we let out a yell
and fired into them, wiping all of them from the gun,
and in a second we had the gun in our hands.

"They must have thought from the way we were
shooting and yelling that the whole American army was
coming through the woods, for they blew a call to either
retreat or surrender and they came running out of the
woods with their hands up, yelling, *Kamerad, Kamerad,'
and we took an awful mob of prisoners right there.

"One of our men could speak German and he got the
lay of everything from a prisoner who was scared to
death. We then advanced on their flank so as to come up
behind them, and that we did. We caught four or five
bunches of them in the act of swinging their machine
guns on us, but our eyes and rifles were too quick for
them and we wiped more than one crew away from their
guns. That was our main watch-out, machine guns.
We got about half way through the woods and started
raising hell in general; we killed Boches like rabbits; they
would not fight us hand to hand. Seeing their machine
gun was lost, they threw up their hands and yelled 'Kam-
erad— mercy.* One guy threw a whole bundle of hand
grenades at us and then yelled 'mercy.' He is still laying
up there, I guess.

"We took their machine guns and turned them on the
Boches as we advanced through the woods, also their
grenades and pistols. We had nothing of our own except
our rifles and bayonets, but that was enough for them,
for the sight of our bayonets made them shout * Kamerad.'
It was then that the old saying about your rifle being your

174 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

best friend came true, for they were sure our best friends
that day.

"At last we reached our objective. It was a bunch of
great big rocks, but we never stopped. We stormed the
rocks, but all we found was a lot of dead Huns. If they
would have let us go on we would have gone clear to
Berlin, but when we reached our objective we had to
stop.

"We then started to dig in. We brought up the ma-
chine guns we had captured and put them on the line
with us; then in a little while our own guns got up on the
line and we were pretty well fixed for the counter-attack
we expected. But we were not there two hours until they
started shelling us and then, after not losing a single man
in the attack, one was killed and two wounded, including
one Lieutenant, by shell fire. But it only lasted about two
hours. Then it quieted down, but we kept on digging
and dug down underneath the rock and made regular dug-
outs for ourselves. Everything went well until the next
afternoon and then hell started.

"They gave us a bombardment which lasted about five
or six hours, which none of us will ever forget as long as
we live. It tore the woods all to thunder, the trees looked
as though somebody had cut them down with a scythe.
All that afternoon the ground just rocked under shell
fire, and the gas was so thick at times you could not see
two feet in front of you. By night about half the platoon
was killed or wounded, and it did not look as if any of us
had a chance to get out alive, but we stayed, and the
bombardment kept right on, and about midnight it
quieted down a little and over the}^ came with a counter-
attack, but as you might know, sleeping was out of the
question, and we saw them coming, although it was pitch
dark.

AND A FEW MARINES 175

"As the Lord would have it, not one of our machine
guns had been hit, and when they started over, we crawled
up out of our holes and pumped enough iron into them
to kill the whole German army. But it only lasted a few
minutes, for the Huns threw up a call for a barrage and
retreated, and we had to hunt our holes once more, for
the shells started dropping by the thousands. The whole
end of my rifle was blown off by shrapnel, and my bayonet
was shattered into a million pieces. It was pretty tough
to lose that rifle, too, after carrying it so far, but I had to
hunt another one.

"Until we were relieved the days we spent were days
of hell, for the bombardment kept right on, and you
were taking your life in your hands when you left your
hole. Why, the concussion of the air made by some of
those high explosives just knocked the wind out of me,
and I was buried beneath the earth three times.

"We never thought much about eating or sleeping, for
they tried an attack almost every night. We were gassed
so much that we had to wear our masks a good part of
the time, but we held our ground and never gave an
inch, and drove back every attack they tried to make.
I went after rations one night (there were three of us),
and coming back through the woods we were caught in a
barrage. We threw down our sacks and jumped into a
hole, and had hardly done that when a shell hit just a
few feet away. A piece of shrapnel about a cubic inch in
size went clear through the sack of bread and grazed my
hand, knocking a hunk of flesh off, but it never amounted
to anything.

"By the time we were relieved our platoon had dwindled
down to about twenty-odd men, and we came back leav-
ing our best pals up there. When we came out we brought
along the machine guns v/e had captured, and are sending

176 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

the finest one to Major General Barnett, commander of
the Marine Corps. Our one little platoon captured about
(censored) prisoners, and I do not know how many ma-
chine guns.

"But we won. We advanced about three miles and held
everything we took and found out we were not fighting
fighters, but cowards, who have to rely on artillery and
machine guns to do their fighting."

Before passing on to the subsequent activities of
the Marines in France it may be well to survey the
Battle of Belleau Wood in its entirety, that it may
appear in its true proportions in relation to the rest
of the W2Lr in general and the strategy of the Marne
salient in particular. Just what did this month of
bloody fighting accomplish, with its terrific losses in
our ranks .f* What were its strategic and moral
results .?

In the first place, the German rush toward Paris
was definitely and finally stopped. The day before
the Marines went in the Germans had advanced six
miles against the weakening resistance of the French.
After that they advanced not a step. It is not on
my own authority that I make the assertion that the
Marines saved Paris. M. Clemenceau said so; the
Parisians said so; it was generously admitted by the
French commanders. That was the one outstand-
ing result of our eflFort. The fact received official
recognition in various communications and orders,
one of the most interesting of which I present
herewith :

AND A FEW MARINES 177

Translation
With Army StaflF.

6930/^ Army H.Q., June 30th, 1918.

Order

In view of the brilliant conduct of the 4th Brigade of
the 2nd U. S. Division, which in a spirited fight took
Bouresches and the important strong point of Belleau
Wood, stubbornly defended by a large enemy force, the
General commanding the Vlth Army orders that hence-
forth, in all official papers, the Bois de Belleau shall be
named "Bois de la Brigade de Marine."

Division General Degoutte,
Commanding Vlth Army.
(Signed) Degoutte.

The strategic situation of the lines at the rounded
point of the salient created by the German drive was
much improved by the action. In fact, a line was
established which had been virtually non-existent.
W^ith the French cooperating on the left, the Ameri-
cans forced the German line back two kilometres on
an eight-kilometre front. At the end of the action
we held a strong line which included the strategic
positions at Bussiares Wood, the crossroads south of
Torcy, the whole of the Bois de Belleau, Bouresches,
and Vaux, establishing a tenable front from Bussiares
to Chateau-Thierry. (See Diagram 6.)

We took, in that action, some 1,400 prisoners and
more than 100 guns, including 77's, machine guns,
and small mortars.

We whipped more than four times our weight of
Germans, fighting in protected positions and includ-

178 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

ing some of the Kaiser's best. A portion of one
American division had two and sometimes three

German divisions op-
posed to it. At first
they had in line the
Tenth, the 197th, and
the 237th, and these
were so hard pressed
that they had to be
reformed after the first
few days and the 28th
and the crack Fifth
Guards Division were

DIAGRAM 6 ^^^^^^ ^^- ^^ «^^^.^

The final position of the line after the BatUe of WOrds, the tWO tegi-

^^""" ^°*^ ments of Marines used

up five divisions of the Germans' finest fighting
troops.

All this was officially summed up and recorded for
us by General Bundy in one of the many communica-
tions which reached us. His order reads as follows:

Headquarters Second Division (Regular),
American Expeditionary Forces.

France, July 10, 1918.
General Orders No, 41.

After more than a month of continuous fighting, the
division has been withdrawn from the first lines. It is
with inexpressible pride and satisfaction that your com-
mander recounts your glorious deeds on the field of battle.

In the early days of June, on a front of twenty kilo-
metres, after night marches, and with only the reserve

AND A FEW MARINES 179

rations which you carried, you stood Hke a wall around
the enemy advance on Paris. For this timely action you
have received the thanks of the French people whose
homes you saved, and the generous praise of your com-
rades in arms.

Since the organization of our sector, in the face of
strong opposition, you have advanced your lines two
kilometres on a front of eight kilometres. You have en-
gaged and defeated with great loss three German divi-
sions, and have occupied the important strong points of the
Belleau Woods, Bouresches, and Vaux. You have taken
about fourteen hundred prisoners, many machine guns,
and much other material. The complete success of the
infantry was made possible by the splendid cooperation
of the artillery, by the aid and assistance of the engineer
and signal troops, by the diligent, watchful care of the
medical and supply services, and by the unceasing work
of a well-trained staff. All elements of the division have
worked together in perfect harmony as a great machine.
Amid the dangers and trials of battle, every officer and
every man has done well his part. Let the stirring deeds,
the hardships, the sacrifices of the past month remain
forever a bright spot in our history. Let the sacred
memory of our fallen comrades spur us on to renewed
efforts to add to the glory of American arms.

(Signed) Omar Bundy,

Major General, N. A.

And finally, the achievement of the United States
Marines brought new hope to the people of imperilled
France and new confidence to the Allied armies.
What they had done was an earnest of what America
would continue to do. There in our little section

i8o WITH THE HELP OF GOD

of the far-flung battle line we had given a fair sample
of the sort of fighting that might be expected of
America at war.

It was like many a football match you have attend-
ed, with the game going dead against your side in
the second half. The opposing team has recently
made a touchdown and the score is in their favour.
The ball is in their possession and they are forcing it
steadily down the field, five, ten, fifteen yards at a
rush. The defence seems to have crumpled. Your
team, beaten by superior weight, appears to be all
in and there is small hope of regaining the offensive
before another score is tallied.

Nearer, nearer to the goal the scrimmage line is
pressed. You sit on the bleachers with clenched
fists and groan inwardly — perhaps aloud. The game
seems lost.

Suddenly from the sidelines, at the command of
coach and captain, a substitute back field jumps in
to take the places of the worn-out plungers. They
are not the veterans of the team, but they are fresh,
strong, eager to make good and to save the day.

Again the shock of attack. You watch the line
bend, sway, then hold. The new backs plunge into
it, fighting like wildcats. Twice more the desperate
charge is loosed and twice more the line holds, though
perilously near the goal line.

There is a pause; the linesmen do some measuring;
the referee raises his hand; the boys at the score board
manipulate the letters and figures. A wild cheer
goes up from the bleachers. Your side has the ball

AND A FEW MARINES i8i

again and there is yet hope. The blood races again
through your veins; your benumbed brain is aroused
to new activity. The advance is checked on the
threshold of defeat; the ball is punted out of danger,
and with fresh courage and a new chance your team
begins once more to hght.

That is the way it was there on the Marne in June,
1 91 8. I do not wish to overemphasize the strategic
or tactical importance of the Battle of Belleau Wood,
nor the part the Marines played in the great game of
the war. But unquestionably they did do just what
fresh blood will often do on a football field. They
brought into the conflict new zest, new strength, new
courage. The German advance slowed up and the
whole Allied world took heart. The game had by
no means been won yet, but that heart-breaking rush
down-field was checked by the United States Marines.

They were untried, inexperienced, green in the
grim business of fighting; they were substitutes, if
you will; but when the}^ went in it made all the
diflFerence in the world to the losing side. For it was
then that the French took heart of hope, and with
their new allies at their elbows, they held the baffled
Hun for downs on their five-yard line.

CHAPTER XIII
At Soissons and After

THE Second Division, to which the Marine
Brigade belonged, was now one of the vet-
eran divisions of the American Army in
France, and I have seen it stated by correspondents
on more than one occasion that, as a fighting unit,
it was considered the equal of any division of any
army in Europe. For that reason it was not allowed
to rest idly on the laurels it had won at Belleau Wood
but was repeatedly called upon for hard action up to
the very moment of the cessation of hostilities.

In July the Second Division was honoured by
Marshal Foch who especially selected it to aid in
leading the drive at Villers-Cotterets in the Soissons
offensive. Again, in September, Pershing had the
Second Division in the van at St. Mihiel. Later, in
October, it took part in the attack on BlancMount
which relieved the pressure about Rheims. And
finally, it participated in the capture of Sedan and
the final breaking of the strongest part of the German
line.

First, the Franco-American attack on Soissons, an
action in which the Marines won no less credit than
in the affair at Belleau Wood and which was part of

a broader and more important movement.

182

AND A FEW MARINES 183

Undoubtedly the American successes in the Cha-
teau-Thierry sector encouraged Foch to take the
offensive in July. Because of the rapidly augmenting
American armies in France he was able to bring up
his splendid French reserves and strike the blow that
placed the German commanders on the defensive and
sounded the death knell to German hopes. He knew
now that he could count on Americans to fight. He
used them in that offensive and they did not fail him.

It will be remembered that the drive that menaced
Paris resulted in a deep, U-shaped salient thrust down
from the Chemin-des-Dames to the Marne, its bot-
tom resting on Belleau and Chateau-Thierry and the
upper ends of the two sides being near Soissons and
Rheims respectively. Rheims was held strongly
against German attack, but Soissons had been in-
cluded in the territory won by the drive. It was at
Soissons, at the upper end of the left-hand side of the
salient (See Diagram I), that Foch decided to launch
the attack which had for its ultimate purpose the
pinching out of the entire salient — a purpose even-
tually achieved. Here the French General's superb
strategy completely outwitted the Hun. He sud-
denly massed his forces on an apparently inactive
sector of the front and delivered a surprise attack in
great force that drove confusion into the German
armies and started the great withdrawal that proved
so costly to the foe.

The action which began on July i8th had for its
immediate objective the cutting of communications
between Soissons and Chateau-Thierry, thus leaving

1 84 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

a large part of the German army in a helpless con-
dition. The attack was launched at the Forest of
Villers-Cotterets, on the western side of the Marne
salient below Soissons. Foch used the French re-
serves which he had been holding for an offensive,
but he also summoned to his aid the available
Americans, including the Marines.

The two regiments of Marines, when they were
withdrawn from the Chateau-Thierry sector, were
placed under the command of Brigadier General
Neville and were taken to La Fere, where they re-
m^ained for a few days, resting and reorganizing.
But they did not enjoy a long period of recuperation.
They were summoned by Foch to help in the attack
on Soissons and they left La Fere in camions.

In a way Soissons was a bigger affair for the
Marines than Belleau Wood, though entirely different
in character. They were not required there to stop
a German drive single-handed, but they took a not
inconspicuous part in the big push that drove the
Boche back from the Marne. Both the First and
Second American Divisions participated in that
attack, with the French Moroccan Division between
them — one of the crack divisions of the French Army.

The advance of the Marines to the point of attack
was a memorable one. They were en route on motor
lorries through the whole of one night, hiked during
the greater part of the following day, and then, just
as darkness began to fall, set out again. They
marched until daylight, rested for only a few minutes,
and then went in. The Fifth Regiment arrived at

AND A FEW MARINES 185

the front on the first day of the attack, July i8th.
The Sixth relieved them on the second day.

It was a wonderfully planned surprise attack, and
the first day's advance of eight kilometres rendered
the German position in the salient untenable and its
evacuation inevitable. The part of the Second Di-
vision in this offensive was the taking of Beau Repaire
Farm and Vierzy in an advance of extraordinary
rapidity in the face of a murderous machine gun fire
which contested every step of the way. They reached
the objective position in front of Tigny at the end
of the second day. In this action the First and
Second Divisions captured 7,000 prisoners and over
400 pieces of artillery.

I am again indebted to Floyd Gibbons, the corre-
spondent of the Chicago Tribuney for a first-hand
account of what the Marines did at Villers-Cotterets.
Having somewhat recovered from the wounds he
received at Belleau Wood, he stuck to the Marines
and witnessed their mobilization for the new action.
He was, quite unexpectedly, the only American
correspondent at that point when Foch launched his
big drive.

"The Boche was prepared for an attack to come from
that place/* said the war correspondent. "He had his
Prussian Guards all prepared for it. His planes would
come out at night looking for ammunition dumps and
men and supplies, but there were none to be found.
There was nothing to be seen but a little line of French-
men, holding a hastily constructed trench on the edge of
the forest.

1 86 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

"The Germans believed the Frenchmen, for sentimen-
tal reasons, would strike on July 14th — their national gala
day. But they did not. The Germans were puzzled.
There was no French movement of ammunition or troops,
and they did not appear strong enough to hit.

*So they took the Prussian Guards away and moved
them over to the Rheims front on the other side of the
salient for the purpose of getting Epernay and Chalons —
the second phase of their offensive. They attacked there
July 15 th.

"When Foch learned the German policy he made the
master stroke. From somewhere in the line he took the
Seeond Division, including the Marines, and put them in
to fill the gaps here and there. He used them all, too.
Besides the division to which the Marines were attached,
there was another — the finest in the whole French army.
The combination of the two was the greatest compli-
ment that could be given to the Marines by the French
people. There were also some Morrocan troops, splendid
fighters. These troops, chosen to serve with the Marines,
are without a doubt the finest the French have. Alto--
gether some 70,000 men were used.

"The Marines and the French had made some prelim-
inary raids on the German lines and knew the exact
strength of the forces that opposed them. I have the
order, a slip of paper, that came round on the night of
July 17th from the American Commander, saying: 'Men
of the First and Second Divisions, this honour comes to
you, and see that you respond to it.'

"That night the weather for once played in the Allies'
hands. It began to thunder, the lightning came and the
skies spit fire. The rain came down like the spray of
machine guns.

"While the rain poured down, from every avenue

AND A FEW MARINES 187

came two long lines of steel trucks, ammunition wagons,
and every sort of conveyance. On either side of the road,
marching in single file, were American Marines, infantry,
and others. All were moving forward. French cavalry,
with the lances, were winding in and out of the trees.
Little French tanks, green, yellow, brown, and blue,
moved forward like monsters in the dark, guided by fel-
lows walking in the front with Turkish towels wrapped
around their shoulders, showing faintly white through the
darkness. All moved through the forest of Villers-
Cotterets.

"It was 4:35. It would have been hell if the Germans
had found out there were 70,000 men in the forest. Poi-
sonous gases would have knocked out thousands of them,
the place would have been filled with shrapnel — and that
would have been the end of that movement!

"The Marines had plainly the furthest distance to
move to get into line, and they had to hurry to get there
by the zero hour. Yet — would you believe it — after
those poor fellows had been on the march all day long,
they moved forward on the double time in order to get
there on time.

"Then, preceded by artillery barrages, they swept
through village after village, scattering the Boche and
cutting his communications by capturing the road be-
tween Soissons and Chateau-Thierry.

"The marching was awful. I talked with one chap
who was sitting down to rest. When I asked him what
was the matter, he said his feet were all in, and he could
not run any further.

" *I enlisted in the Marines to Jcill Germans,' he said,
*but I did not think we had to run them to death. I
recommend that they give us lassoes.'

"Of course," said Mr. Gibbons, "this is not always the

1 88 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

case. Frequently the Boche will hold his ground fairly

well.

**When the attack started, I never saw such spirit in
my life. Side by side the infantry fought — one side those
little French Moroccans, who are really wonderful fight-
ing men.

"I saw quite a sight when the Boche prisoners came
back — a long column of them. We were on the edge of
what was once a farm. Eight Boches walked ahead
of this column, four abreast in front and four in the rear.
They had between them two roughly constructed litters
with coverings made of German hairy knapsacks. There
w^ a wounded man on each of these litters. These two
fellows, one an American and one a Moroccan, were up
there in a half-sitting, half-reclining position, using the
hairy knapsacks as pillows. Both appeared to be hit in
the arms, and their clothing was covered with blood.
Each had a cigarette.

"There was a long line of prisoners following them.
It was a curious procession. The American was calHng
to every one who passed, shouting to this one and that
one: *How do you do, boys?' You see reinforcements
were coming forward all the time.

"After a while this procession, led by the litters,
moved up to where two American generals were standing.
The American, who was smoking his cigarette and shout-
ing greetings, spied the generals and poked his companion

in the ribs.

"It was the funniest thing to see those two fellows,
up there on the litters, throw their cigarettes away, raise
themselves to a sitting position on the litters being carried
by the Boches, and bring their good arms to a salute
when they arrived in front of the generals — for all the
world like stern regimental commanders on parade.

AND A FEW MARINES 189

"During this never-to-be-forgotten fight of July i8th,
they captured many German 77*8 and other guns, fre-
quently turning them around and letting them go at the
Boches. Marines should never forget July 18th."

It was in this action that Private Elmer Groves of
Billings, Mont., emulated the example of some of his
comrades at Belleau Wood and brought in a batch
of German prisoners single-handed. This is the
story as told by George H. Seldes, correspondent of
the Buffalo Express:

"Groves had lost his company in the confusion of the
attack at Villers-Cotterets on July 19th. He wandered
about the battlefield until he heard a gunner firing over
a knoll. Wearily he approached the enemy position, and
gaining a point of vantage, plugged his man through the
hand. The German could no longer work the machine
gun, so he got his revolver and was about to shoot again
when Groves shot him through the head.

"The noise of the duel disturbed other Germans who
were weathering the American artillery showers in dug-
outs. Groves approached the men and, bombs in hand,
called upon the Boches to surrender. One by one they
stumbled up the dugout steps, hands over their heads.
Groves asked one of them to bandage his bleeding hand,
and then, not knowing where his company was, marched
his thirty-five prisoners to regimental headquarters and
got a receipt for them. He was told to go on and have
his wound treated."

A letter written by Sergeant K. P. Spencer of
Kansas City, Mo., gives an unusually colourful

I90 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

picture of the engagement from the fighter^s point
of view. He writes :

"The day the Germans began an offensive on the
Chateau-Thierry-Rheims front we were standing by in
a small village in the rear of Chateau-Thierry. The of-
fensive began that morning — the next morning we were
in trucks riding toward Soissons. An Allied drive was to
begin the following morning, July 1 8th, and our division
was to start the ball rolHng.

"After the truck ride came a forced march through
one of the largest forests in France — immense trees
eighty and ninety feet high on both sides of the road as
far as one could see. It was a narrow road but thousands
and thousands of men were going forward over it. A
traffic jam on Grand Avenue couldn't compare with the
congested condition of this single road leading through
the woods.

"Overhead were dozens of airplanes, all of them Al-
Hed (the supremacy of air was necessary to protect and
cover the movement of troops). Filing down the right
side of the road were three columns of infantry, down
the left two columns; on the right centre a continuous
stream of vehicles, machine guns, carts, provision and
munition trucks, hundreds of artillery pieces and their
caissons; occasionally a general in his auto; large French
tanks and British armoured cars, and probably best
of all the French cavalry, regiment after regiment, going
forward at a trot. On the left side of the road coming
out were trucks, ambulances, wagon trains, and artillery
limbers.

"All the allied troops of the world were represented
here — the Americans in their khaki; Moroccans and
Italians wearing a dirty brown coloured uniform; the

AND A FEW MARINES 191

Scots in their kilts; Englishmen and Canadians in their
khaki; Irish troops wearing tam-o*-shanters, and the
French wearing all the different shades of blue imaginable.
Here was a display of colours that outclassed the rain-
bow.

"About 10 p. M. it began raining and we were soon
drenched. After about an hour of sHding and slipping
around in the mud we left the main drag and made camp
under the trees. It was still raining but we were too
tired and sleepy to mind it so were soon asleep. Next
morning we were awakened at 4:30 a. m. by the bang,
bang of several guns, which was soon followed by thou-
sands of them. I have never heard a barrage that could
begin to compare with this one; we were only a couple
of hundred yards in front of a six-inch battery and the
concussion from these large guns was fearful.

"After two hours of this bombarding, our division, ex-
cepting this regiment which was reserve, went over.
Little resistance was met. By eleven o'clock the line
had been advanced ten kilometres and thousands of Ger-
man prisoners were being marched back (most of them
carrying in our wounded and a few of their own). The
third line of Hun artillery was passed that day, hundreds
of large guns captured and thousands of machine guns.
The attack had been a complete surprise so the Germans
had either thrown away everything and started running
or had been taken prisoner.

"As reserves we followed the advance. The road was
more congested than the night before, if such was pos-
sible. Hundreds of tanks, armoured cars, and motorcycle
machine guns were going forward. The Germans were
on the run — we were to keep them going. Toward
night we made camp in the woods and slept. We were
to attack the next morning.

192 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

"At 4 A. M. the barrage was on and we were soon going
forward. The attack was scheduled for 7 a. M. A few
minutes before this hour we were formed in two more
formations on the top of a small hill about 1,000 yards
from the Germans. The Germans were on the reverse
side of a hill in front of us. About three kilometres be-
hind them was the edge of a woods, our objective.

"While we were waiting, the Hun artillery and ma-
chine gunners got busy and clicked off a few casualties,
mostly leg wounds, for they were shooting low. We hadn't
waited long until we saw the remainder of the regiment
coming up behind us. There must have been six or
ei^ht waves of them; perfect lines and at intervals of thirty
yards. Behind the second wave was a line of tanks. Oh,
what a sight, one that even made you forget the Germans
were only a short way off shooting at you.

"This formation soon passed through our own and we
followed. The tanks did wonderful work that day clear-
ing out machine gun nests, but they drew much artillery
fire which inflicted many casualties on the infantry. The
Germans threw up a barrage of high explosives and ma-
chine gun bullets but we continued to advance and soon
had taken the hill they had occupied. Here we dug in
and awaited orders. You should have seen us dig — it
was no time at all until every man had a hole of some sort.

"Yes, we dug in and we remained. We gained six
kilometres that day and all objectives were taken. That
night at 12 o'clock we were relieved and started toward
the rear. Since then we have been travelling in a leisurely
manner away from the front."

The two letters which follow, dealing with this
same adventure, fairly illustrate the cheerful atti-
tude of the average Marine lying wounded in the

AND A FEW MARINES 193

hospital. Private Kenet Weikal of Middletown,
Ohio, writes:

"I have seen and fallen over many dead Germans in
the past months. I have also quite a few souvenirs, but
have thrown some away. It makes things so heavy to
carry around on the different and many hikes, but if ever
I return, I'll bring a few back with me. One of the
souvenirs I have is a piece of the shrapnel that went into
my leg; it's about one inch and one-half long; quite a nice
thing. I also have a German belt and several buckles
with brass and silver. I had a hard time getting them
as the dead German was down in a deep hole and to get
to him I had to step all over him. I also have a pocket-
book and several marks.

"I was wounded on the 1 8th, perhaps you know by
this time. It was about 9:20 in the morning when our
batteries and tanks started and we followed the tanks.

"I was in the fourth wave. The first two waves are
much better than the others. After going over for about
600 yards and about 100 yards from a small town which
was one of our objectives, I received my wound when
two big shrapnel shells exploded beside the squad I was
in (the first in the line), receiving it in my leg. The next
fellow got his left hand blown oflF, the next was shell
shocked and lost his voice, and so on. I could use all
the paper in the 'Y' telling how each of us got wounded
or killed. It sure is horrible. It is something that is
impossible to express, but there is something humorous.
As when we just started over, a high explosive shell lit
right behind one fellow on my right, and as you know
most of the power of a shell goes before it, so, in this
case, it didn't hurt the fellow, but just raised him off
the ground about three feet. Then turning around he

194 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

said: *That one sure had whiskers!* The same fellow
had his bayonet taken away by a big shell. But over
here one is taught and drilled to take death with a grin.

"We have captured quite a few of the German machine
guns and in every case the men were chained to their
guns. Being able to speak a little German myself, I asked
a young German wounded who was only eighteen years
old, how long he had been in the service. He said his
mother had hidden him in the woods for two years and
that he had just been at the front two days. There are
ever so many cases like this.

"I am still in the hospital at Bordeaux with but few
new changes. Yesterday I was given ether, then had my
wound sewed up. To-day I am walking around without
crutches. They can't keep me down (they can't keep a
good man down). Ether is sure awful stuff. When I was
coming to I made love to the nurse."

Private Robert U. Neal, 45th Company, Fifth
Regiment, v^rote as follows to his father, Mr. J. H.
Neal of the Committee on Public Information :

"I have reached the base hospital at last in fairly good
spirits and am able to hobble around a little, just as a
wounded guy should. This is a fine place but just a bit
awkward without money — no pay yet, you know.

"Every doggone personal thing that I owned in the
way of toilet kit (present from Warren), wallet (present
from Uncle Wialt), my address book, your pictures, foun-
tain pen, etc., is somewhere out in No Man's Land. You
see, Hell was a-poppin' so fast during that attack, that
toilet kits and excess baggage just couldn't find a lodgment
in my cerebrum a-tall.

"Us Marines and doughboys went over the top O. K.

AND A FEW MARINES 195

you know, with the tank fleet leading the procession. We
had gone several kilometres when one of the many little
machine gun bullets stopped its 'wee-ee' song long enough
to rip off my gas mask and tear my shirt open. That
little manoeuvre swung me around to such an inviting
positon that I stopped two more of those sweet singing
little hunks of lead with my chest. Luckily they hit my
bandoliers and no more than bruised me, although my
chest is still pretty sore.

" TU catch up as soon as I can get my breath,' said I
to the rear Sergeant at the end of the column. Just then
a bold, audacious hunk of an eight-inch heavy skipped
through my legs instead of around me as any gentlemanly
shell would have done, but who ever heard of a Hun shell
acting like a gentleman.? So there you have the story
of how it happened, dear father.

"Darn! There is a lop-eared son-of-a-gun playing all
mother's pieces on the piano. I have counted six so far.
This is a punk time for getting homesick.

"We have the use of a good library here, which just
about saves my life, the 'Y' to write in, moving pictures,
billiard table, shower baths, wash room, regular human
chow, and a civilized bunk. All that I really need is a
toilet kit and a pay-day, Hope to get both in the near
future.

"About half a dozen of my company are down here so
I can find some one to chat with. Believe they actually
deliver mail here once in a while, so I might get some of
your letters. Wonderful thought.

"Hope you and mother are both well and can stand for
my living this life of sinful ease for a few weeks.'*

Of all the literature which this war has produced,
I know of nothing more thrilling and vivid, or that

196 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

more truly expresses the soldier's sensations in battle,
than a series of letters written by Sergeant Arthur
R. M. Ganoe of the Marines to an old friend, Mr.
A. W. Brown of Pittsburgh. They appeared first in
the Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, and I shall take the
liberty of quoting from them at some length. After
some preliminary paragraphs on the fighting of the
Marines, Sergeant Ganoe continues as follows:

"Then on the evening of July i6th we suddenly
pulled stakes and vaulted into camions or French
motor trucks. The boys love these vehicles. The
springs are so staunch and stiff, the hard seats are
so dependable, like boards laid on the round side
of overturned beer kegs; and their capacity is so
blindly ignored when they are loaded. The comment
heaped on the guileless French driver during an all-
night ride is so refreshing that you don't get tired in
any particular place, just all over. But this time
the boys were cheerful during the first stages of
agony. Although they had no supper there was
quite a bit of singing and 'kidding.' They believed
themselves at last on the way to a well-earned and
longed-for rest. I had a hunch, but said nothing.
If ever men needed a rest and deserved it they did.
So it was good to hear these young veterans sing
once more! Then, too, their arguments were logical.
We had been issued no emergency rations, a prime
essential in the movement of troops who leave their
field kitchen behind. But such things are accom-
plished so easily at the last moment.

AND A FEW MARINES 197

"All night long as we bumped over the traffic-torn
roads off to the right the red reflection of the heavies
kept pace with us. And I knew my hunch was
right. We were not ofF to a rest camp. When dawn
peeped above the purple horizon we pulled into a
little village and crawled out of the camion. We were
hungry and thirsty, and oh, so sleepy! And we had
a long, long road to foot. It started to rain as we
started to hike. The booming of the big guns dis-
illusioned the boys. They were drunk on misery.
Yet not one word of protest was uttered.

"A division cannot be moved over one road and
expect to arrive on the line in proper formation.
All the roads leading to the objective must be utilized.
And some parts of the division will be dumped quite
a long way from their place in the line. This is to
avoid congestion of the main traffic arteries. We
were dumped twenty-five kilometres from our
destination. So we hiked and hiked, till the road
beneath us rose in dusty protest at our ceaseless
tramp, tramp, tramp. Toward noon we got some
water. Everywhere were American troops. We
climbed mountains and descended hills, skirted
jungles and ploughed through worse. It stopped
raining and the sun came out. Sweat followed suit.
Our suits were steaming. Canteens went dry. So
did we.

"In the afternoon we struck through a huge wood.
Magnificent trees! All the linderbrush had been
cleared out. It was replaced by shells! Acres on
acres were piled high with shells of every calibre!

198 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

Most of 'em were made in America. How that sight
gladdened our tired minds! And around the edges
of this stupendous mountain of death there was the
liveHest activity, a subdued excitement that boded
ill. American and French ammunition trains came
tearing, galloping, whirling in dust-clouds ahead of
smoking exhausts, into that trembling woods. With
seeming recklessness shells were tossed into the
wagons and camions, which departed with fresh
haste. A flood of giant trucks steamed into that
wood, dumped their loads of ammunition and whirled
away for more. We boys tightened our belts and
determined to stick around. Something was doing!
" Finally we emerged on the main road. And what
a road! It was a nightmare, a thousand bedlams.
I've seen the busiest thoroughfares in the world.
They were country lanes compared to this road.
There was noise, noise, and more noise worse con-
founded. It was a Niagara of sound, a mighty dia-
pason that deafened us. The shouting and curses
in 'steen different languages, the crunch and grind
of wheels, the groan of gears, the crackling of whips,
the clang of metal, the pounding of countless horses'
hoofs, the chugging of streams of motors and the
screams of their many-throated sirens, empty ammu-
nition trains coming and loaded ones going, light
artillery and heavy artillery, tanks in platoons,
trucks in companies, field kitchens, water wagons,
supply trains, ration carts, officers' cars, motorcycles,
all fought for space and air in which to make their
own peculiar noise vibrate. Every square foot of

AND A FEW MARINES 199

that road, broad and gummy-surfaced, supported
something all the time, while the ditches on both
sides were used by endless lines of plodding Ameri-
cans, faint from hunger and thirst, almost exhausted
for want of sleep, but all thrilled by the hunger for
Huns that will be satisfied only by victory and peace.

"The World was about to strike the Huns. Mar-
shal Foch was behind us. So, these hungering
Americans plodded on and on, without complaint.
That road with its babel of streaming traffic told
us something big was about to happen. And we all
secretly congratulated ourselves on being considered
good enough to have a part in the big show.

"The tanks were the most cheering sight. In our
previous ventures over the top we had done for the
Hun with artillery and rifles only. We never had
seen a tank in action, but we believed it would be
a comfort to have them with us. Had we only known !

"Toward evening it was pure agony to pass a
French kitchen, located in the woods that flanked
both sides of the road. We took to robbing the water-
wagons as they passed. The Frenchman is a volup-
tuous little cusser and we gave those poor drivers
every chance to display their undoubted talent.
They slashed at us with their whips when their voices
gave out, but we didn^t mind. When a man gets to
a certain stage of dryness, such as he might feel
after thirty Turkish baths have fried him out, a
thousand devils wouldn't prevent him from robbing
a water-wagon. It reminded me of Kipling's 'But
when it comes to slaughter, you'll do your work on

200 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

water, and you'll kiss the bloomin' boots of him that's
got it.' Good old Kip — he knows!

"Looking back along the line, I saw a lad with
a loaf of French bread. I stepped aside and waited
for him. In the presence of that loaf I actually
trembled, as a lover will in the presence of some peach
he would die to possess.

"*Where'd you get it.?'

" 'Frenchman — the makin's,' came between the
gulps.

"Congestion soon halted the line, and I soon pro-
cured three loaves of bread and a cup of heavenly
wine. They cost me half a tobacco sack (all I had)
and a pack of cigarette papers. And the French
cook, by a wealth of gestures and a shameful waste
of words, finally informed me that the grand show
would open in the morning. "^The bread disap-
peared. And all spirits in my vicinity perked up
wonderfully.

"Every now and then we'd come to a place in
the road where a shell had exploded recently. At
one place there were five and a half horses and some
blue helmets. These were dragged aside hastily.
And then what a furious race ensued as the halted
traffic now dashed ahead to close the gap in the
stream of war wheels.

"Around 5 o'clock the Major, who had gone to
headquarters in a commandeered automobile, re-
joined us and we stopped for a rest. I dropped down
in the ditch and eased my pack straps from the'spots
that ached. I forgot to state that I had been attached

AND A FEW MARINES 201

to battalion headquarters as liaison non-com. The
Major came over and sat beside me.

"'Sergeant/ he said, * have the men got emergency
rations?' I knew my company had none.

"'No, sir/ I replied.

"'What!' he exclaimed. 'Why in h — haven't

they? Maj. G (who had taken charge while

our Major was in hospital) told me they had !*

"I could have told him why they had none, but
refrained. He is the finest man in the Marine outfit.
He is known as 'Johnny the Hard'. The title was
bestowed by his affectionate men years ago because
he will bawl any one out from a buck private in the
rear rank to a Colonel on the general staff for good
reason. He is as keen as a razor, indefatigable in
the line of duty, a soldier from top to toes, and an old
hand. I wasn't in the mood to receive a tongue
lashing, so I referred him to the Captain of the nearest
company. After the Major had exploded with the
effect of a big gas shell we resumed the hike.

*' Finally, after several parleys with French officers
and a close study of maps, the Major struck out
along a quieter road. We hiked and hiked and hiked
till our shoes quit squeaking. Dusk dropped his
curtain. The road gradually became deserted. Soon
we were the only men in sight. We zigzagged
from side to side, ducking trees cut off by big
shells. Suddenly we were confronted by a ges-
ticulating Frenchman, who refused to let us pass.
His eloquence barred our way. The Major was
impatient. He sent back for an interpreter. Then

it (^
lu<

202 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

the Frenchman had an idea. He grasped the Major's
arm and, pointing along the road, he dramatically
uttered, *Boche!'

What!' said our Major, 'Combien kilometres?'
'Non, non! Kilometre!' hissed the little Man in
Blue.

One hundred metres at forty inches a metre,
turned over in our minds and made us uncomfortable.
As an Enghshman would have said: *If hide 'ad a
'andkerchief hide 'ave mopped me brow.' The
Major shook hands admiringly with that Frenchman.
And we discreetly withdrew to a woods, like a lady
to her boudoir, assisted by five shells that burst
on either side the road. A runner from R. H. I. found
us and delivered an order to dig in.

"Meantime darkness had blotted out all but the
trees, and between the bark of *heavies' we caught
the deep-throated roll of thunder. A soldier who
has had two months of open work of out-door war-
fare, in which artillery has played the leading role,
has to be very, very tired to ignore an order to dig
in, a scant kilometre back of the first line, the worst
spot on the field. We dug in. When nature's storm
broke we meekly rolled up in our ponchos and
dropped to the ground asleep. The closing misery of
that day came in the shape of rain-water trickling
down my back as sleep knocked us unconscious.
And I had not strength enough left to mutter a curse!

" Before dawn next morning we were up, standing
by, awaiting the barrage. We were not scheduled
to work that day. But reserves are held in readiness

AND A FEW MARINES 203

to act instantly. The last of the tanks that had found
shelter in our wood the preceding day trundled away
by 4 A. M. Nothing was left to divert our attention
from gnawing stomachs. We tightened our belts
again and tried to concentrate on the barrage to come.
We expected something extraordinary. But we were
utterly unprepared for what did happen.

"At 4:30 A. M., July 1 8th, there was an explosion —
a grand, glorious, terrific, ear-gouging explosion. It
never wavered. It lasted for hours without interrup-
tion. The earth shook up and down and sideways.
The very foundations of the Teutonic dynasties must
have trembled fearfully, for it heralded the long-
awaited new order of things. The Driver became the
Driven, the Offender the Defender. I thought I
knew what a barrage was. I had heard 1,600 guns
of all calibres discharged simultaneously and had
thought it the Himalayan topmost peak of din.
But this barrage! It shook the leaves oflF the trees!
The heavens came down and the earth went up;
I can't describe it. The great organ of eternity was
rolling out its thunder from the world^s end to world's
end. The mills of the Gods were grinding, and they
grind, exceeding small.

"And we revelled in this gargantuan explosion
like starving men set down to milk and honey. For-
gotten were our empty stomachs! Forgotten were
parched throats, cracked Hps, blistered feet, aching
joints, and wet clothes ! Our eyes shone like a zealot's
and our hearts filled with the glory and splendour
of that mighty thunder. O, man! What a grand

204 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

and glorious feeling that was! One lad said: T
never want to have a grander feeling or Fd just
naturally die of joy.*

"Two hours later, the guns still on double-forte,
we started up the road on which the Frenchman had
flagged us the night before. A hundred yards be-
yond where he had turned us back lay a dead Ger-
man. Near him was a machine gun placed to com-
mand that road. This road was a replica of other
roads. If anything, the congestion now was worse.
Huge trees uprooted by giant shells required detours,
while the engineers worked like beavers to clear
away the massive tops. Reserve tanks and artillery
lined either side of the road. Ambulances now
mixed with the various wagons of war. Weaving
in and out through the traffic came the walking
wounded. Germans bearing improvised stretchers
and batches of from ten to thirty Boche prisoners.
The air was peopled with airplanes. The sharp
clatter of their machine guns occasionally rose
above the rumble of the artillery.

"We had travelled about three kilometres when we
met the first big haul of the front-line fishermen.
There were about 200 Huns and five officers. The
boys have learned a lot about human nature in the
last few months. They read faces. The face of one
of those officers roused their ire. He was brazen
and contemptuous. 'Kill the Boche T some one
shouted. Many a hand slipped to an automatic.
Lordy, how we hate the German officer, arrogant,
full of bile, and raging inwardly at his capture! One

AND A FEW MARINES 205

of the grimy-faced guards taking those prisoners to
the rear shouted after us:

" 'We got more than this spawn! You oughta
see the artillery! Some 210s/ Better news never
came back from the front line.

"In our first encounters with the Boche we learned
many things. We learned that the German infantry
has a horror of hand-to-hand fighting and will run
or surrender rather than try such combat with us.
We learned that the sole protection of the Boche
artillery lay in the effectiveness of front-line machine
guns and its own accuracy. We came to believe
the backbone of the German infantry was their
artillery. Every battle since has strengthened that
belief. And such a situation in any army has a
demoralizing effect. The infantry should be the
backbone of the artillery! Our boys say: *0h,
if the powers-that-be would only dispense with the
artillery on both sides and let us mix it man to man,
we'd have BerUn in a week!' That's the spirit pro-
tecting our artillery, and it's appreciated. You
may get an idea of the confidence placed by our
artillerymen in our infantry when I tell you I have
seen three-inch pieces drawn up within 2,000 yards
of the front line, where the fighting could be seen
with the naked eye and one had to duck bullets.
That's cooperation with a vengeance. So news of
the capture of heavy artillery, the only dependable
fighting machinery of the enem}^ tickled us all over
and clear through. Further reports set the number
of cannon captured as 200, ranging from 77s or

2o6 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

three-inch to 2ios or eight-inch. And the absence
of reply to our battering batteries confirmed such
reports.

"We were wild with glee. Other reports dealt with
the conduct of the fleeing Germans, the demoraliza-
tion following the loss of their artillery, the capture
of a Boche Colonel and his staff, and the taking of
fifteen villages.

** Meantime our battalion took up a position at
the edge of the wood and awaited orders. After the
first excitement passed our attention fell back on
our empty stomachs. We counted again the hours
since our last meal. It was forty-two. For that
many years, it seemed, w^e had been without food,
sleep, and water rations and we had worked as men
never worked before. The nervous strain had kept
us on our feet and yet those men were willing, yes
fretting, to get into the thick of battle. Who kept
us back in reserve ? With what righteous anger the
men asked that question. They declared they would
bear such misery for months just to keep the Hun
running.

"Then the miracle happened. A big truck drew
up by the roadside and began to dump boxes — boxes
of canned beef, tomatoes, prunes, and bread. Fifteen
minutes later there were a thousand utterly radiant
soldiers ravenously gulping a real feed and easing
their thirst — ^with tomato juice.

** But war considers no man's pleasure. In the mid-
dle of the feast came the rattle and clatter of machine
guns, temporarily acting as aerial defence. Came

AND A FEW MARINES 207

swooping down from the sky directly over us four
planes. *The Iron Cross!' We grabbed our rifles.
'Germans!' 'Hold on!' as rifles were sighted; 'it's
a Frenchman and three Heinies after him!'

"Points in this aerial battle at close range come and
go too quickly for recognition almost. The clever
Gaul is outwitting the Boche pilots. The four
planes whirl directly over our heads ^00 feet from
the ground, the Frenchman a few yards ahead and
lowest. They clear the tops of the trees and circle
over a field in front of us. The Boche pilots pour lead
at the handicapped Frenchman, who desperately turns
the nose of his craft upward. The Germans must have
been looking for such a move. They elevate and
close in on him. A fierce rattle of machine guns!
A plane drops nose-foremost. Straight down it
comes, then — ^we gasp in avid admiration — ^within
twenty feet of the ground the French pilot with
superb daring jerks his responsive machine to a
level keel and sails off, clipping the heads oflF the
grain !

"We shout a millionth part of the joy we feel and
open fire on the Boche machines that hover, it seems
angrily, over where the Gaul should have met dis^
aster. Their amazed disappointment actually evi-
dences itself in the way they handle their craft.
They attempt several times to swoop down on the
Frenchman, who has alighted. But a thousand rifles
in the hands of Marines who know how to shoot is
a court of death. Each time they approach we
tear holes in their wings. They must have gone

208 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

only for more ammunition, for we had hardly finished
our meal when they returned with two companions.
We took cover and opened fire. They manoeuvred
and swooped down on us, all together, spitting
bullets by the reel. But the way we used our rifles
made those Hun machine guns look pale and ill.
Things began to thicken up when a French air
squadron plumped into sight. Our buzzards left
abruptly. We were sorry! We were having the time
of our lives! And we might have got 'em all. Then
we were ordered to dig in, and with full stomachs
and light hearts we turned to. By 5 o'clock every
one had a hole. At 5 :30 we left the wood and our holes
behind to take a position nearer the front line, which
was pushing ahead with surprising rapidity.

"We came to a crossroads and turned to the right.
From here one could see a deal of country. It was
all grain fields. Streams of men, of horses and ar-
tillery were everywhere. We cut across an enormous
field of wheat. On our right lay a French plane,
apparently none the worse for its adventure. To
the left lay a big German plane. One wondered if
the little Frenchman had conquered the big Hun.
To our left was also a German trench and the dead
who remained after one of our tanks had passed its
length.

** 'Here they come!'

*T looked ahead and saw a column of men — Ger-
mans— marching toward us, four abreast. Appar-
ently there was no end to that column. I bethought
me to count the fours. At least twenty officers were

AND A FEW MARINES 209

at the head of that column. They were the happiest
prisoners alive, I believe. Those Germans who spoke
English cheered us on. One shouted: *Give *em
hell, boys. It won't last long!' Those who spoke
French shouted encouragement to the Frenchmen
and the burden of their shout was: *Fini la guerre!'
(Finish the war.) The French were tickled. I
counted fours to the extent of 205 and lost track
then through trying to hear everything that was
said. I estimated the batch of prisoners at 1,300.
And the majority were so young. It made one's
heart ache to think of how recently they had been
dragged from their mothers' hearths by the Kaiser's
mailed fist. Nothing but rosy-cheeked, red-lipped,
bright-eyed boys! We vowed again to do our best
in the coming fight that the world might see a speedy
end of the outrageous clique of men who send to
hopeless slaughter the children of their nation for
the sake of mere temporal pomp and power and to
protect their own rhinoceros hides! There was
pure murder in the men's eyes now.

"We passed a line of batteries, famous French
75s, pounding, pounding. Over the country ahead
we counted five hangars, or what had been hangars.
Now they were grotesquely twisted steel skeletons,
deserted by the Huns. We passed through a wee
village, came into another wheat field, formed for
attack, and stopped for the night. We occupied a
knoll. On the slope below was a line of queer-looking
dots. In the hollow proper were three 75 batteries.
Up to the left were still more batteries. We searched

2IO WITH THE HELP OF GOD

the landscape in the direction they were shooting.
We found their target. It was on the farthest hill.
The last rays of the sun outlined it clearly. It was
a long line of tanks. Their artillery having been
captured, the Huns brought into the fight these tanks
as a substitute. When we first sighted them they
were spitting fire from their one-pounders. And they
were moving. In a half hour they were in ruins.
And through glasses w^e saw the German infantry
fleeing past them, running as only scared Huns can
run, helter-skelter, every man for himself, the devil
fake the hindmost. Our batteries rested and a
skirmish line of Americans came on the scene pur-
suing the Germans. The hill was ours!

"Then we went down to examine those queer dots
below us. *Guns, German guns. Eighty-eights.
Hundred and fives!' And we tore down on them.
They were placed in deep holes, with only the muzzles
sticking out. Large piles of shells were near each
gun. The Germans transport their shells in wicker
baskets, small caHbres having three compartments.
The 2io-shell is given its own basket.

"After the sun had set the slope before us began
to be covered "with Chasseurs de Cheval, the light
cavalry of France. They were massed on that slope
by the thousand and still they came. We wondered
where they all came from and where they had ob-
tained their horses. Again we had that feeling of
doing big things. For they were to go over the top
with us on the morrow.

"The day was succeeded by one of those nights

AND A FEW MARINES 211

that sets a fellow to dreaming of the folks back home.
I had the io-to-12 watch. From the road at the
right came the steady clinkety-clank, cHnkety-clank
of tanks — an endless stream of tanks going for-
ward for the morning attack. I had not dreamed
there were so many tanks in the whole of France
or in the world. To the right and left and in front
the Germans sent up star-shells that lighted the
country in an unearthly glare. One could judge
the extent of their demoralization by the continuous
stream of star-shells they sent up. Often a cannon
would bark somewhere. Always it was our cannon.
The Huns had none. How safe we felt with their
guns harvested behind our lines. When 12 o'clock
came I rolled up in my wet blanket and slept as I
never slept before behind the front line in easy reach
of the Germans. So ended the morning and the
evening of the first day."

"Base Hospital No. 20, A. E. F.

"Dear Brownie — Fm a very lucky hombre. Went
over the top at 8:20 a. m., July 21st. High explosive
shell hit the road alongside of me and never touched
me. The gas blinded and choked me and I fell
into a shallow dugout alongside the road. Just then
the dugout was blown up and the last of my sensa-
tions was of floating up, up, up, minus my left leg.
Some time later, when I got back to earth, a hos-
pital apprentice assured me I was all there. Consid-
ering all this Fm feeling pretty good.

"I've been to the land from which only cooks and

212 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

chaplains return. And Tve all my arms and legs!
Why? I don't know, unless God and Our Country
has further use for me before the Kaiser puts my
address on a shell. An English Tommy told me
before I went up to the battlefront that if I were
lucky my trials and troubles would end the first day
and were I extremely out of luck, Fd duck along
for a year or two. I smiled incredulously then.
But he was right. I believe that if it ever is neces-
sary for me again to endure what the last seventeen
days have battered in and out of me, I should be
a raving maniac. Nothing in history, in heaven or
earth, nor nightmares of a deranged mind can offer
simile to this war. Sherman's expression is of the
far past, and civilized. At that time it may have
been an apt description. But we have the electric
furnace to-day, with its thousand degrees of heat.
Compare it with a candle. So battles have inten-
sified, until they are a million hells rolled into one.
This is weak, weak! For no man, though he command
all the knowledge of the ages and the universe, could
in a terse expression conjure for the world an ade-
quate description or comparison of war to-day. But
Tm not going to continue in that strain.

"I've had a few days' rest since my last battle
and my nerves have quieted considerably here in the
hospital. Oh, the sweet rest! After one has survived
nine days of continuous shell fire, witnessed all the
numbing scenes of the most hellish bombardments
by shells of from i- to 15-inch calibre, classed shrap-
nel, high explosives, and gas, one may be excused for

AND A FEW MARINES 213

a slight case of nerves. Considering that we had
neither dugouts nor trenches for protection, that
we held fast under what veteran French officers swore
was one of the most terrific shell-storms in their
vast experience, that we actually stopped the Ger-
mans and drove the arrogant Huns back — consider-
ing all this we Marines, every one of us, believe
ourselves the luckiest warriors in the world. But let
us digress.

"It has ceased raining at last and France appears
to be doing her utmost to square herself on the 'sunny
stuff.' Man, this is a fine morning, the sun shining
brightly, the wind blowing gently over a rolling green
country stretching away to the uttermost reach of
sight, dotted here and there with clumps of wood
and red-tiled, picturesque stone houses. It's a
beautiful part of a wonderful country, but for all of
its promising beauty there is something lacking.
Even a novice can sense the air of desertion and deso-
lation hanging over the placid scene. It affects one
like the painting of an artist who cannot reproduce
the life, the soul of his subject. Life! There's not
a living creature to be seen. No moving thing in
all those miles of country. No haze of smoke haloing
yonder village, no cattle browsing on those verdant
slopes, no farmers working back and forth across
those strips of cultivated ground. The soul of the
country has been stunned, battered into uncon-
sciousness by the ravaging Hun.

"A closer scrutiny of the nearer buildings brings
a sense of the grotesque — they don't look plumb;

214 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

they're out of true. It's too far away to be distinct,
but the perpendicular line of yonder steeple curves
in and out again as though some giant hand had
torn away a fistful of the masonry. The roof of the
house off to the right appears to sag in the centre
and there stands a wall perhaps thirty feet in height,
without a supporting side — What's that? A dull,
droning humming sound like a monstrous bee over-
head. There's another, louder, nearer! Tutt, putt-t,
prrrrrht — putt.' — Machine guns! There they are,
outlined against the sun, two transparent yellow
spots that circle, whirl, dive and mount swiftly,
gracefully, the poetry of motion, manoeuvring for
mastery, majestic in their elemental swoop and dash
and bravery. Two lone eagle-men in the eagle's
realm are in combat. They charge. They feint.
They tack and twist. They dive and bounce upward,
wings flashing, Hke giant ospreys or cormorants,
love-rivals. Thrilling, thrilling, thrilling! As you
watch them, your heart in your bosom seems to
move in concert with every swoop and dash of the
eagle-men. The result of this battle, in a day or
two, may mean life or death to us who walk terra

firma.

"There, a black ball of smoke opens beneath those
dashing fliers. Another and another. High explo-
sive. Now two balls of yellow smoke, closer to them
than the black— shrapnel. Ah, one is falling. One
eagle tumbles like a plummet. The round world
rises to meet him. He's afire! French or Boche?
We don't know, but we hope

AND A FEW MARINES 21s

"Wommph — Bzzzzhhhr — Bang! A 155-shell has
come.

"The face of the earth is deserted. Not a man
is in sight where a moment before were twenty-
Vanished! Where? Were they blown to atoms?
See those Httle mounds of earth, neatly covered,
carefully concealed by boughs and leaves? Beside
each of those mounds is a hole and in each hole a man,
maybe two. While you listened to the song of the
enemy shell, they dropped into the bowels of the
earth.

"At first we lost men through inexperience. They
couldn't tell a shell's direction by its whistle. Some
of us ducked when there was no need. Some of us
did not duck when the need was imperative. But
now our ears are educated and we can spend more
time than formerly outside our dugouts. We do
not needlessly tire ourselves climbing in and out.

"Our invincible sense of humour sticks with us
Americans. That is the miracle amid all this blood
and death and crashing of cannon. And it is worked
overtime. Everything in this battle life is so novel
and grotesque. Passing through a trench I came on
a gunnery Sergeant sitting in his dugout, the roof
of which had been blown off. He was squeezing the
stump of his arm, which had been amputated near
the shoulder by a piece of high-explosive shell. At
the instant I stopped to give aid there ran down on
us a panic-stricken youth who had been rudely
ejected from his hole by a 155. In passing us he
stumbled over the Sergeant's detached arm in the

2i6 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

centre of the ditch. He paused for a second, glanced
at what had interrupted his speed, raised his eyes
to the Sergeant's stump, moaned dolefully, and
resumed his flight at redoubled speed. The wounded
Sergeant spat out a copious spout of tobacco-juice
and, with twinkling eyes, remarked: 'Reminds me
of the first time I had to drown a batch of kittens.'

"I've seen men laugh at the antics of their com-
rades whose eyes and mouths had been filled with
the dirt and corruption a Maxim machine gun tore
up. I was crouched in the entrance of a dugout
during one of the Germans' famous barrages when a
lad jumped out of the ditch and in front of me. At
that moment three 155-shells fell and burst within
a 15-foot radius. The terrific explosion hurled the
boy straight back into the dugout and his feet hit me
squarely in the face. When I recovered my wits
I called out, inquiring if he were hurt. He chuckled
and said 'H — , no.'

"During that same barrage two men previously
posted fifty yards ahead of the line with an automatic
were forgotten in the excitement, but they stuck
to their post. Some one happened to think of them
about half an hour after the show started and I
ducked out to get them in. I had little hope of
finding them aHve. I ran out into the wheat field
in their direction when I heard a shell coming. I
flattened out on the ground. The top of my head
floated in a crazy, gyrating course toward heaven,
then snapped back into position. The shell had
exploded ten feet on my right. One of the lads of

AND A FEW MARINES 217

my quest was long and rangy and hailed from Texas;
the other, short and stubby, was from Georgia.

" *She cut 'em both off,' came the Texan's voice
out of darkness on my right.

" Th' 'ell she did?' said Shorty.

" 'Shorty, I reckon we'd better drag this huzzy
out a here.'

" *Them's my sentiments,' Shorty agreed.

"We all returned together. The shell had lit, or
aHghted, under the tripod of their automatic rifle
and neatly amputated both its metal legs.

"Before we went over the top a tale was told to
illustrate the density of the German barrage. A
Corporal walked into a first-aid post with a badly
fractured arm and spoke of the terrific shelling his
unit was undergoing. There being no laceration of
his flesh, the puzzled doctor inquired how the Cor-
poral had been injured.

" 'Oh, that,' said the lad; *you see I was standing
beside the hole of my dugout, leaning up against that
barrage, when it suddenly lifted, letting me fall into
a hole, where I lit on my arm.'

"We captured a German Lieutenant Colonel soon
after our barrage lifted the first 100 yards, who
thought the efficiency and speed of our artillery
was due to machine work. As he surrendered he
fixed his captor with a vacuous stare and said:
'Where is it — that terrible machine gun you have
that shoots 75s .^'

"One lad remarked: 'Rifle fire is a sweet, sweet
lullaby, machine guns impress one as the humming

2i8 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

of bees, Austrian 88s make a lot of noise that won't
afFect a dugout, but the lazy boys launched away
back of Berlin sure disrupt the company.' And
when those 8- to 15-inch shells, 'sea-bags,' we call
*em, that the French turn loose from Somewhere
in France, come sailing over our heads, slow and
easy, like they're just aching and fixing to drop in
the centre of a German column, you should see the
boys look at each other and smile!

"One will hear a 'Whispering Willie' shoved off
in our direction. The boys will duck as it looses a
^diabolical shriek above their heads. Every ear
strains to catch the explosion — nothing but a dull
thud when it hits the earth. Immediately some
one says, ' 'Nother dud.' We've kept track when
the fire was not too heavy and found that an average
of two out of every five small-calibre German shells
were duds, while the larger ones average one out

of five.

"One platoon in reserve was taken up on a newly
estabHshed line to eliminate a pestiferous machine
gun nest. After satisfactorily completing the job
they returned to their dugouts to find during their
absence that Fritz had tried to blow up their homes
with some 205s. The last men filing into the trench
were spied by enemy observers, who signalled to a
battery of 88s that proceeded to accelerate the boys'
movements about 100 per cent. Each man dived
for his little old hole in the ground and all were safely
ensconced in a twinkling, except one lad, who was
seen to jump away from his hole with a terrified

AND A FEW MARINES 219

expression on his face and dive in with a neighbour.
Whereupon an altercation —

" *Hey, get out! There's two in here now/

" *Well, shove together. Fm comin' ki. Can't
get in mine.'

'Why can't you?'

'There's a 205-dud went through the roof and
its nose is sticking out of the door.'

*Tine argument. Our respect is enormous for
a dud of those dimensions. And not one of us is so
heartless as to force a friend into a hole with such a
cold companion. For an 8-inch shell's intentiens
are so indefinite.

*'I really believe that the recklessness of the United
States Marines saved many of our lives, astounding
the enemy, hypnotizing them into forgetting their
guns. And it would take incredible recklessness to
counter German discipline. One Lieutenant whom I
accompanied took two platoons from reserve, where
they had been under continuous shell fire for seventy-
two hours, to clear a wood of enemy machine guns
and establish liaison on the left flank of the battalion.
Advancing some 600 yards they found themselves
free of the shelled area, only to be spied by a couple
of Maxim machine gunners, who lost no time in
announcing their presence. *Peeung — peeung — pee-
ung,' the bullets came whistling through the brush.
One hit a lad on the cheek, whereupon he heaved a
sigh and said: *What a relief!' We halted the
men and reconnoitred. To reach the wood sheltering
the Boche we had to cross a ploughed field. The

220 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

Lieutenant took fifteen men. I followed with fifteen
more and was followed in turn by another Sergeant
and as many men. Each step we took was the
expected last. I was sweating like a harvest hand on
the Fourth, while my teeth chattered like dice in a
box. Never a shot! We formed a skirmish line the
shape of an L as we entered the woods, not knowing
the position of any German. The word was passed
to *down* and wait for 'patrol.* As the last man
on the right flank downed hell broke loose fifty
feet in front of us. A machine gun in the centre and
one on either flank tore up the ground, sawed off
the brush, cut down saplings in front of us, and lit-
erally slapped the whole mess in our faces. The man
on the right flank had failed to get down quickly
enough. He's there yet.

"I was behind a three-cornered piece of rock
that seemed to grow amazingly smaller each moment,
and for five minutes I neither could see, hear, nor
smell. Suddenly those guns ceased and, spitting the
dirt out of our mouths, we took a turn at shooting,
and I think our forty rifles and two *shau-shauds'
outdid the machine guns for speed and noise. But
the precarious position we held, practically a wedge
driven into the German line, offset the deadliest
fire, for we could be surrounded in a twinkling.
Back of us lay the ploughed field, devoid of cover,
that had been crossed in our advance. In front and
on the right and left were the enemy machine guns.
'Cannon to the right of them,' etc., popped into my
mind.

AND A FEW MARINES 221

"Came one of those lulls in the fire and a long
line of breaking twigs, stumblings, mumblings,
and sibilant commands marked the advance of the
Boche. We all thought our lives had just about
been lived. There was left a choice between two
distasteful dilemmas: Stay where we were and be-
come prisoners or retrace our steps across the ploughed
field and become dead men. It was one or the other,
pronto! And there wasn't a doubt in our minds as
to which it would be. Turning your back on a line
of Boche machine guns, walking away from them at
midday over a ploughed field covered by their cross-
fire isn't the pleasantest thing to contemplate and
it is well we had little time for thinking. When word
came to fall back every one was ready, believe me.
No matter how long you have lived previous to such
an experience you cannot know until then what a
pliable and sensitive thing your backbone is. There
was nothing lagging or pernickety about the step,
of that retreat. If we were uneasy when advancing
over that field, ignorant of the German line, imagine
our emotions now. Needless to say, the last few
yards were covered in nothing flat. And the Germans
never fired a shot.

"But they followed us and attempted to pull the
same trick again. With cries of *Help, Help,' and
'Kamerad' six men and an officer came across that
field and, while they parleyed, we continued to
throw up a parapet. On their part they were covering
two machine guns that attempted to flank us. We
held our fire while the Lieutenants shouted to each

222 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

other. When the Boche officer thought his machine
gun crews had had sufficient time to accompUsh
their task, two of the gang, who were trying to *sur-
render,' dashed forward and threw hand grenades.
Meantime we had obtained reinforcements and two
machine guns. So the two who threw the hand
grenades we used as parapets. The other five of
the *kamerad* gang will prevaricate no more. And
the eight who worked with the Maxim have doubt-
less been reported missing in German casualty lists.
I know they were missing a miscellaneous assortment
of organs necessary to the functioning of the human
body. For the effects of a C. E. grenade are splendid
and terrible.

"Later a whole battalion attempted to take those
woods without the assistance of our artillery. The
enemy, with no other object than a reckless deter-
mination to foil us, ignoring his own infantry, turned
a barrage into his own front line that accounted for
more Boches than we did. After our objective
was gained, rifles were laid by for picks and shovels.
The companies reported. Those reports will be
whispered into the ears of grandchildren by old,
old grandmothers, whose eyes will mirror the supreme
sacrifice. Such things make the chins of strong men
quiver. Anyhow, it was considered best to fall
back to original position. (The next morning, fol-
lowing a barrage, we took the wood.)

"One lad, on an isolated post, failing to get the
word, was industriously entrenching himself when
the Germans counter-attacked and he found himself

AND A FEW MARINES 223

alone, surrounded by what seemed i,ocx) Boches.
He reached for his rifle. He found its stock shattered
by a piece of shell. A young Boche Lieutenant con-
fronted him. There was nothing to do but surrender.
He signified his helplessness. But the Germans
didn't appear anxious to molest him. The Lieutenant
began to jabber at Sammy, who couldn't get his drift.
Several non-coms, took up the one-sided talk, when
the officer gave up and Sammy got disgusted. *H — ^*
says he, *if you don't want me, I'm going back.*
So saying he swung the shovel over his shoulder and
boldly marched back. To his surprise and discom-
fiture the German Lieutenant, nodding and smiling,
immediately fell in behind, followed in single file by
his men.

"Suddenly it dawned upon Sammy that the
Germans wished to become prisoners. The fire of
conquest ran through his veins. He stopped and
counted them. Fifty-nine and an officer! Oh, boy,
what a haul! With a lilting step, head up, shoulders
squared and chest thrown out, he peacocked back
to our lines and ran smack into company head-
quarters, the shovel still on his shoulder. When his
comrades spied those Huns, most of 'em armed and
equipped, there was a sharp intake of breath, a spon-
taneous, unanimous *What the h — 1,' followed by a
riotous grabbing of rifles. The alert Germans averted
a massacre by promptly sticking up their mitts while
Sammy explained. Then he was given a firearm
and permitted to lead his sixty prisoners triumph-
antly to the rear.

224 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

"One lad from the West was tickled by the com-
parison we offered to a prairie dog village. He said
you could sometimes slip up close enough to one of
these villages to catch a glimpse of hundreds of
animals sitting or frolicking around near their holes,
but the moment you were sighted they were gone,
each into his own hole. Their disappearance is so
sudden that it makes you rub your eyes and pinch
yourself. We differ from a prairie dog in that a shell
never slips up on us. When five minutes pass with-
out producing a shell several heads will be poked
cautiously from the earth in a place apparently
deserted. After a sniff for gas there ensues a grunting
and heaving, plentifully seasoned with invectives
directed at Fritz, the Kaiser, the general staff, most
anything German, and the more courageous are out
of their dugouts. They dig the 'monkey meat' (South
American canned beef) and bread from under the de-
bris and earth deposited by the 'Whispering Willies.'

"Those who have discretion, not valour, appear
intermittently and by the time the rations have
been recovered and rejuvenated every one is on the
job. The meal is begun and carried along with
astonishing rapidity until *womph — bzzzzwhrrr —
chapowieT From the Vommmph' to the 'owie' is a
matter of seconds, from the men to their dugouts is
a matter of feet and inches, but the most agile prairie
dog could not pull the vanishing stunt better than we.
For that shell has not shrieked the last *z' before
the face of the earth is deserted. Such speed would
make 'Smoky' Joe bat his eyes. All the time a man

AND A FEW MARINES 225

is out of his hole he knows instinctively the exact
direction of and distance to the entrance of his dug-
out. No matter how far he wanders or turns and
twists, the time consumed between the report of a
gun and his arrival in that dugout is invariably
the same as if he had been standing by the entrance
when the shell shoved off. But despite this ducking
and dodging there are no troops more feared and
respected by the Boche than the Marines. And we
so impressed them they honoured us with the nick-
name * Devil Dogs.' We are proud of it.

'*The first time our battalion went over the top
the leading wave entered the woods without seeing
a German. About 100 yards in the woods they
sighted the Boche. With a blood-freezing war-whoop
they charged. Nothing on earth but concentrated
cross-fire by cool machine gunners could have stopped
them. And the imperial German nerve, being noth-
ing to brag of in the first place, had been worn ragged
by our artillery. That war-whoop was the straw that
broke their nerve. Two crews stood by their guns.
The other Germans ran. They didn't seem to care
about direction. Some ran into our bayonets, some
ran away from them, some didn't have nerve enough
to haul themselves free of their dugouts. But it
made no difference. The result was the same.
They're there yet. One German Captain jumped up
from his dugout, wild-eyed and dishevelled.

" *What in Gott's name is it?' he shouted in good
English. *Are these devils we face drunk or blood-
thirsty savages?' Then he threw a hand grenade

226 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

pointblank at a Lieutenant. The 'loot' ducked and
levelled his automatic at the same time, so the
Captain's question is still unanswered."

After Soissons the Marines were again withdrawn
to a rest area. Their casualties had been heavy and
there was much reorganizing to be done and many
replacement men to be trained and fused into the
brigade. By September, however, they were ready
again for battle.

On September 12th Pershing started his now
famous drive to reduce the St. Mihiel salient, and
the Marine Brigade, with General Lejeune at its
head, was again called upon. The Second Division,
now rated as first-class shock troops, were given a
place of honour in the hardest fighting along the
southern side of the salient, where the German
resistance was stifFest. They smashed through that
stubborn line in record time.

Here is the story of that operation as gleaned from
the Pershing and Daniels reports: On August 30th
a large section of the St. Mihiel front was turned
over to General Pershing. Our Second Division was
placed in the First Army Corps, with the Fifth,
82nd, and 90th Divisions, under Major General
Hunter Liggett. On September nth the Second
Division took over the line running from Remenau-
ville to Limey. On September 12th the First Corps,
with three divisions of the Third Corps, began an
advance which continued irresistibly until the salient
was wiped out.

AND A FEW MARINES 227

On the night of the 14th and the morning of the
15th the Second Division attacked with two days'
objectives laid out for them. They crossed the Rupt
de Mad and occupied Thiaucourt, the first day's ob-
jective. But it never occurred to them to stop
there. They scaled the heights beyond Thiaucourt
and pushed forward to a hne running from the
Zammes-Joulney Ridge to Binvaux Forest, reaching
their second day's objective at 2:50 P. M. of the first
day. This extraordinary accompHshment was not
achieved without sacrifice. The division's casual-
ties numbered 1,000, of whom 134 were killed, but
they captured eighty German officers, 3,200 men,
ninety-odd cannon, and vast stores, besides slaying
their thousands.

The Marines were again withdrawn, to reappear on
October 2nd where least expected — in the Champagne
with General Gouraud's Fourth Army, which drove
north to free the Rheims from the German clutch. In
the region of Somme-Py they attacked like a whirl-
wind and broke through the German line for a gain of
six kilometres, leading all other troops in the attack.
They seized the German second line positions in
front of them, capturing the armoured trenches and
wired lines. On the second day, October 3rd, they
were ready for the main attack on Blanc Mont and
in the face of a devastating machine gun fire they
assisted in the capture of that stronghold, which was
accomplished with such amazing speed that the
Boches were swept oflF their feet.

The story of the Second Division's part in that

228 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

operation is thus succinctly told in General Per-
shing's report: "On October 2 to 9 our Second and
36th Divisions were sent to assist the French in an
important attack against the old German positions
before Rheims. The Second conquered the compli-
cated defence works on their front against a persist-
ent defence worthy of the grimmest period of trench
warfare and attacked the strongly held wooded hill
of Blanc Mont, which they captured in a second as-
sault, sweeping over it with consummate dash and
skill. This division then repulsed strong counter-
attacks before the village and cemetery of Ste.
Etienne and took the town, forcing the Germans to
fall back from before Rheims and yield positions
they had held since September, 1914.'' On October
9th the Second Division was relieved by the 36th,
having done its part in breaking the Hun's tenacious
hold on the hills of Champagne and at last setting
free the martyred cathedral city.

The story of that action is told thus by Edwin L.
James, correspondent of the New York Times:

"It is now permitted to give a comprehensive sketch
of the role played by the Americans in the brilliant
Champagne advance of General Gouraud's army.

"This stot}'^ is one of the most absorbingly interesting
of the Americans at war, not only because of the glorious
work of our Veteran* 2nd Division, but because of the
remarkably effective work done by the 36th Division,
from Texas, which, never having been under shell fire and
not even entirely organized, jumped Into the bitter battle
and made gains that were sensational. Never havIn/>

AND A FEW MARINES 229

heard the scream of shells before, they fought day after
day under terrific shell fire, and went after the Germans
in true ranger style. An official order of the French Gen-
eral calls this one of the brilliant performances of the war.

"America knows well the bright record of the 2nd Divi-
sion of Infantry, the regiments of which there are the 5th
and 6th Marines and the 9th and 23 rd Infantry. These are
the boys who stopped the Germans up in Belleau Wood,
back in June when the foe thought he was going to Paris.

"This division played a good role in the St. Mihiel
battle. It went into line on the evening of October 2,
taking over a position of three and a half kilometres
running westward from Somme-Py. To get a good
jumping-off place for the attack to begin the next morn-
ing, they seized the German second line positions in front
of them, taking armoured trenches and wired lines.
When the main attack started on October 3, at 5:30
o'clock in the morning, the Americans were successful
from the start.

"Raked from a German position on their left flank,
known as the * Essen Trench,' from which enfilading ma-
chine guns swept the advancing ranks, the divisions sent
part of a regiment out of its sector to take the trench.
So fast was the pace of these men that they reached the
German observatory of Blanc Mont before the foe knew
what had happened, an observer there being captured
while writing out a report that the German counter-
attack was going well.

"On October 3, the 2nd Division made an advance of
about six kilometres. The men got so far ahead of the
troops on the left that they were in danger of being en-
circled when a fresh French division was put in behind
them to protect their left flank. Next morning they re-
sumed the attack at 4:30. They ran into very heavy

230 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

German machine gun and artillery resistance north of the
Arnes River, but reached Ste. Etienne.

"The day of the 5th was devoted to consolidating the
newly won positions. All the time there was a murderous
fire from the Germans. The American positions had to
be held under front and flank fire until the troops on the
left and right got up. Meanwhile the advance of the
Americans and the taking of Blanc Mont had decided
the Germans to make a withdrawal from the Rheims
salient, the execution of which greatly bettered our po-
sitions.

•• "On October 6, two regiments of Marines, which had
been in the heaviest fighting, were relieved by a brigade
of the 36th Division, never under fire before. After short
artillery preparation, the attack was renewed October 8,
at the same time that the Germans delivered a heavy
counter-attack on the right of the division front. This
was repulsed after bitter fighting.

"The next day was devoted to consolidation, while on
October 10 the second brigade of the 36th relieved the
9th and 23 rd Regiments of the 2nd Division, completing
the relief.

"From that time on our part in the advance was ef-
fected by these young Texans, entirely new to war. On
October 11 they forced the Germans back, occupying
Machault and Semide, and on the next day, against heavy
machine-gun resistance, reached the banks of the Aisne."

On October 17th General Gaulin, commanding the
corps in which the Second and 36th Divisions served
in this fighting, issued this general order:

"On October 2 the 2nd American Division, having ar-
rived during the night on the sector of the 21st Army Corps,

AND A FEW MARINES 231

attacked the fortified crest of Blanc Mont, captured it
in a few hours in spite of the desperate resistance of the
enemy, and in the following days made an extended ad-
vance on the slopes to the north for the purpose of con-
solidating his victory. The 36th American Division, of
recent formation, and as yet incompletely organized, was
ordered on the night of October 6 and 7 to relieve, under
conditions particularly delicate, the 2nd American Divi-
sion and dislodge the enemy from the crests north of St.
Etienne and the Arnes, and throw him back to the Aisne.
"Although being under fire for the first time, the young
soldiers of General Smith, rivalling in their combative
spirit and tenacity the old and valiant regiments of
General Lejeune. have accomplished their mission in its
entirety. All may be proud of the task they accomplished.
To all the General commanding the army corps is happy
to address the most cordial expression of his recognition
and his best wishes for their future service. The past is
proof of the future.

"Gaulin."

And here is General Lejeune's order, in which the
pride of the Marine is manifest:

France,
Oct. II, 1918.
"Officers and Men of the 2nd Division:

" It is beyond my power of expression to describe fitly
my admiration for your heroism. You attacked magnifi-
cently and you seized Blanc Mont Ridge, the keystone of
the arch constituting the enemy's main position. You
advanced beyond the ridge, breaking the enemy's lines,
and you held the ground gained with a tenacity which is
unsurpassed in the annals of war.

** As a direct result of your victory, the German armies

232 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

east and west of Rheims are in full retreat, and by draw-
ing on yourselves several German divisions from other
parts of the front you greatly assisted the victorious
advance of the allied armies between Cambrai and St.
Quentin.

"Your heroism and the heroism of our comrades who
died on the battlefield will live in history forever, and will
be emulated by the young men of our country for genera-
tions to come.

"To be able to say when this war is finished, *I be-
longed to the 2nd Division; I fought with it at the battle
o/ Blanc Mont Ridge,' will be the highest honour that can

come to any man.

John A. Lejeune,

"Major General, United States Marine Corps, Command-

mg.

Finally, on November ist, General Pershing
started the drive which proved to be the last great
struggle of the v^ar. It was that mighty sweep
toward Sedan, that reaching for the very heart of
the Hun.

The Germans massed their best troops and a
tremendous artillery support and opposed every step
of the advance with the utmost bitterness. It was
a fight to the death. An interminable line of mur-
derous German machine guns, but a few feet apart,
was thrown across the line of the American advance.
The casualties were terrific.

For two weeks the Germans succeeded in beating
back the most determined American attacks in front
of Landres and St. Georges. Then the battling
Second Division was hurled in. Operating at the

AND A FEW MARINES 233

centre, they started an irresistible push on the ver^'^
afternoon that the Germans began to show signs of
weakening and pressed forward until they controlled
the heights below Beaumont. They broke through
that living fortress for five kilometres the first day,
leading all other divisions, and for the first time
since the beginning of the war the official German
communique admitted that the line had been pierced.

This advance made possible the shelling of the
vital Mezieres-Metz railway. The advance became
a pursuit, with the Germans on the run and the
Second Division ever in the van. Forty kilometres
were covered in seven days, German soldiers sur-
rendered in companies, and the end of the war was
in sight.

The soldier does not like to dwell on casualties,
but the casualty list is often the best indication of
the character of the fighting. Certainly the path
which the Marines trod in France was no easy one.
Of the various figures that have been given out,
those offered by General Barnett in his annual re-
port are the most reliable, though still subject to
revision. In all, 21,323 enlisted men of the Marine
Corps and 540 officers were sent to France. Be-
tween April I and September i, 191 8, the casualties
amounted to 23 per cent, of the gross strength,
though many of the units saw no action. During
that period 44 officers and 1,116 enlisted men were
killed and 76 officers and 2,832 men severely wound-
ed. Only 25 Marines remained prisoner in i- the
hands of the Germans on September ist. Surren-

234 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

dering wasn't popular at the time and the only way
to capture a Marine was to knock him senseless first.
After September ist took place the bloody fighting
in the St. Mihiel, Rheims, and Sedan regions, in-
creasing the casualty list and the percentage mate-
rially; authentic figures are not available at the time
of writing. I have seen it estimated that of the
8,000 who had some part in the action about Belleau
Wood, 6,200 were at least hit by a bullet or frag-
ment of shell, and that half of the men and officers
-in the fighting brigade who were not killed were at
one time or another knocked out of action. The
Marines won glory in France, but they paid a terri-
ble price.

The story of the Marines in France is told. Our
brave brigade had gone in at one of the darkest
moments of the war and had seen the thing through
till sunshine pierced the clouds. They saw the tide
of battle turn there on the Marne at Chateau-
Thierry. They saw Marshal Foch prove to all the
world that German armies could be defeated and the
German line broken. They saw him assume the
offensive, and they joined him in the last grim push
to victory.

And so, as I write these lines, the dream of the
Marines is coming true — to follow the retreating
Hun across the Rhine, for they have been chosen to
march side by side with the honour divisions of the
Allied armies in the forefront of the peace-com-
pelling Army of Occupation. Long live the United
States Marines!

PART III

SOLDIERS OF THE SEA

CHAPTER XIV
The Story of the Marine Corps

THE exploit of the United States Marines at
Belleau Wood now forms a glowing page
in history which all the world may read,
but back of it lies a history, less spectacular perhaps,
but world-embracing in its scope and honourable
among military and naval annals. "From the halls
of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli," from Cuba
to the Behring Sea, from Veru Cruz to Peking the
Marines have stood for over a century as the strong
arm of the United States Government, the embodi-
ment of the American spirit of justice, order, and fair
dealing. That history of a hundred daring deeds
well done forms a tradition which lies at the bottom
of our wonderful esprit de corps.

The American Marines were first organized by
resolution of the Continental Congress on November
lO) 1775- They served in the Revolution, the war
with Tripoli, the War of 1812, the Mexican War,
the Civil War, and a hundred affairs of less import-
ance. The volume of that history has become part
and parcel of the traditions of the Corps, but since
dates and terse statements of action make but dull
reading, I will spare my readers the boredom of
delving deeper into the past than the Spanish War.

237

238 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

But before I begin the story of the Marines as I
myself have known them, I beg leave to quote from
an article on **Sea Soldiers'' which appeared in the
New York Tribune of October 13, 1916.

"Considering the part it has played in the world's
history of warfare, there is no fighting unit less under-
stood, less appreciated, or even less known than the
Marines. Having taken his share in the making and
obliterating of maps since the days of the Phoenician gal-
leys and the biremes of the Grecian maritime states, at
least five centuries before the Christian Era, down to the
present day, the chroniclers of the glories of arras of all
civilized peoples have mentioned the Marine in many a
stirring passage. And yet, to-day, a very large part of
the population of maritime nations, and certainly of the
United States, do not know what a Marine really is.

"The Marines have proved their patriotism and devo-
tion to our country for over a hundred years. Through-
out this period they have been in the front rank of Amer-
ica's defenders. They have been zealous participants in
nearly every expedition and action in which the Navy
has been engaged. In many trying campaigns with their
brethren of the Army they have won distinction. The
globe has been their stage.

"They have fought at Tripoli, in Mexico, and the
Fiji Islands. They were on the job in Paraguay, at
Harper's Ferry, at Kisembo, on the West Coast of Africa,
and in Panama. They fought the Japanese at Shimono-
seki, the savages in Formosa, and the forts in Korea.
They suppressed seal poaching in the Behring Sea and
protected the lives and property of American citizens in
Honolulu, Chili, and China. These and many more things
have the United States Marines accomplished.

AND A FEW MARINES 239

"The Navy has in the Marine Corps a little army of
its own, which, without causing international complica-
tions, without disturbing stock markets, and without even
attracting undue attention, it may pick up and move to
some disturbed centre in a foreign land for the protection
of American lives and property. These Soldiers of the
Sea move speedily and unostentatiously, frequently nip-
ping a revolution in the bud before the world at large
knows that there has really been any cause for concern.

"They are the first men on the ground in case of trouble
with a foreign power and the first men in battle in case of
hostilities. Great mobility and facilities for quick action
are required of the Marines. They are kept in readiness
to move at a moment's notice. In many of the actions
in which they have been engaged they have had to con-
tend against great odds in the way of superior numbers.

"Aldridge says: 'Before a single vessel of the Nav>^
went to sea, a corps was organized, and a detachment of
it won, on the Island of New Providence — one of the
Bahamas — early in 1777, the first fight in the history of
the regular Navy, In this noteworthy engagement the
attacking party, consisting of 300 Marines and landsmen,
under Major Nichols, captured the forts and other de-
fences of the enemy after a struggle of a few hours, and
secured a quantity of stores and British cannon.' "

So much for ancient history and a running start.
After my own appointment in 1892, up to the time
of the Spanish War, the Marines were engaged in
only minor activities, such as protection service in
Honolulu, China, and Korea. In none of these affairs
did I personally have any part.

240 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

At the time of the outbreak of the Spanish War^
I had been detailed for service aboard ship, and it
so happened that, as First Lieutenant, I was in com-
mand of the Marines on the battleship Maive when
she was blown up and sunk in Havana Harbour in
February, 1898. It was a Marine, one Private
Anthony, then serving as Captain's orderly, who
came quietly aft to the Captain's cabin after the ex-
plosion with the historic remark, "I have to report.
Captain, that the ship is sinking."

I was transferred to Key West and remained there
through March, during the meetings of the Board
of Inquiry. Then I returned to New York. War
was declared in April and I was shortly afterward
ordered out on active service with the fleet. The
American liner St. Louis steamed into New York
Harbour on a Saturday night and was promptly
converted into an auxiliary cruiser of the United
States Navy. Supplies, ammunition, and four six-
pound guns were rushed aboard. Captain Goodrich
and Ensign Payne of the Navy being placed in charge
of the ship's crew. They were the only naval men
aboard. I embarked on Sunday with a Marine guard
of forty-five men, the only enlisted men aboard,
and on Monday we sailed. We mounted the six-
pounders at sea, two forward and two aft.

For two weeks we patrolled the sea east of the
Windward Islands in search of Cervera's fleet, which,
the reports stated, had left Spain. As ill luck would
have it we never saw that fleet. We reported on
the appointed day at Guadeloupe and then went

AND A FEW MARINES 241

on to St. Thomas. On the day after we left those
waters Cervera went through.

Seagrave, the first officer of the ship, who had been
in the EngHsh cable service, told Captain Goodrich
that he knew the location of all the submarine
cables and stated that the cable running to San Juan
could easily be picked up. The Captain decided to
cut the cable and we steamed out about ten miles
from San Juan. We had no grapnels aboard, so
one was made in the fire room. We picked up the
cable and finished the job in about half an hour.
Then we joined the fleet that had been bombarding
San Juan.

When Captain Goodrich reported to Admiral
Sampson regarding the cables, we were ordered to
proceed to Santiago and there cut the cable running
to Kingston, Jamaica. This was not such an easy
task, for the job had to be done under the Spanish
guns of Moro Castle. The tug Wompatuck was
ordered to accompany the St, Louis,

On May i8th the St, Louis dropped her grapnels
and picked up the cable about a mile from Moro
Castle. About the time we hooked the cable some
old six-inch guns east of the fort opened fire on us
and also some mortar batteries on the little island of
Smith Cay. We had just the two six-pounders on
the side toward the fort, and we returned fire with
those, manning the guns with crews of Marines.
I fired the gun aft while Ensign Payne had the for-
ward gun. We silenced the old six-inch guns, but
the mortars were too far away for our six-pounders.

242 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

We lay there for forty-five minutes, laboriously
reeling in the cable on an anchor winch, while shells
fell all around us. But, though the big St. Louis
offered an easy target, not a shell hit us, owing, I
suppose, to the notoriously bad marksmanship of
the Spanish gunners. Still, it was a warm situation
while it lasted.

I have sometimes been asked how it feels to be
under fire, and I can only answer that it all depends
on what you are doing. There have been times when
I have been obliged to wait inactive for orders, with
little to think about but the enemy's fire, and on such
occasions I must confess that I have grown uncom-
fortably nervous. But there in Santiago Harbour,
a fair target for the mortar batteries and the guns
of the fort, with the air thick with peril, I was so
intent on getting a diflficult and important job done
that the thought of personal danger never entered
my head. Only when we turned to get away and the
tension was over did anything resembling fear
hasten our flight.

After that we left for Guantanamo and sent the
tug in to cut the cable there. That happened to be
just the day before Cervera steamed into Santiago
Bay; we had missed him again. A Spanish gunboat
lurking behind the point — the Sandoval — came out
and opened fire on the tug with her three-inch
Krupp. The little three-pounder on the tug could
not reach her, and she was pouring in a shower of
shells. So Captain Goodrich was obliged to recall the
Wompatuck before the cable could be cut. Later

AND A FEW MARINES 243

on the Spaniards were obliged to sink the Sandoval
in Guantanamo Bay.

At Santiago, again, on July 3rd, Marines served
the secondary batteries, and were given credit for
inflicting more damage on the enemy than the larger
guns of the cruisers.

The first American troops to set foot on Cuban
soil after war had been declared were Marines, and
I only regret that I cannot give an eye-witness account
of their remarkable exploit. It was necessary to
establish at once a naval base on the shores of Cuba,
and the Bay of Guantanamo was selected for this
purpose — a splendid harbour where American war
ships have made their home ever since. A battalion
of Marines — about 400 men under Colonel Hunt-
ington— ^was landed on June 10, 1898, at 2 p. M.
They engaged about 3,000 Spaniards, drove them
inland, and, under the protection of the guns of the
ships, established and held a base on the point at
the entrance of the bay.

This base, however, was not secure from attack.
Spanish troops, estimated at 6,000, lined the shores
of the bay and the Marines were exposed to their
fire. It appeared necessary to drive out the Span-
iards at least from the side of the bay on which the
base had been established, and they were protected
by a cover of wooded hills.

Colonel Huntington learned Jrom his scouts that
the only water supply of the Spaniards on that side
of the bay was what was known as Cusco Well,
which was located about two miles inland from the

244 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

point, and a small detachment under Colonel (now
General) Elliot was detailed to go in against superior
numbers and capture Cusco Well.

It was a difficult task, but the Marines lost no
time in engaging the Spaniards. They had to cross
hills and ravines and there were a hundred spots
where large numbers of the enemy might be lying
in ambush. Progress, not to be foolhardy, was
necessarily slow.

The Marhlehead had taken up a position in the
harbour to assist the landed troops by shelling the
well or the enemy's main position when it could be
located, but at first they had no means of knowing
what to shoot at.

It was then that Sergeant Major John Quick,
who was afterward with me in France, pulled off the
stunt that won him a Medal of Honour, By means
of tireless tree-to-tree fighting, our men had advanced
far enough to be reasonably sure of the location of
the well and the troops that guarded it. To push
on in the face of such odds meant heavy casualties
and perhaps failure. The support of the Marhle-
head's guns was essential.

Halfway to the well there was a high hill that was
not wooded. Quick volunteered to go up this hill
and signal to the ship. He stalked up the slope in
full view of the enemy, and there at the top he stood,
with his broad back to them, while Spanish bullets
peppered the ground all around him, and calmly
wigwagged to the Marhlehead the position of the ene-
my. The shell fire began, the Spaniards ran for cover.

AND A FEW MARINES 245

and the Marines, when the woods were cleared,
romped in and took Cusco Well. This gave Colonel
Huntington control of the entire side of the bay and
the naval base was established and held for the fleet.

It is this sort of fighting that appeals to the imagi-
nation more than the tedious gnawing of trench
warfare or the ponderous movements of great armies.
The average American has been brought up on stories
of Indian warfare, and it is just this sort of fighting
that the Marines have learned to do — have been
obliged to do on numerous occasions — the whole
force engaged in concerted action to a definite end,
and yet each man depending on his own resource-
fulness to come through. That this sort of experience
helped us when we went in against the highly modern-
ized soldiers of the Kaiser in the Bois de Belleau has
already been pointed out in the account of that battle.

Meanwhile, in May, 1898, the Marines were with
Dewey at Manila. After the battle of Manila Bay,
Marines were landed from the fleet at Cavite to hold
the fort and naval station. More Marines were sent
to Manila at once, and later Marines served with the
Navy in some of the southern islands. At the close
of the war a brigade of Marines was left in the
Philippines to assist in the work of pacification.

Since that time, though the United States has not
until now been actually at war with any nation, the
Marines have seen plenty of service, not only in
the Philippines and in Mexico, but elsewhere.

The name of General L. W. T. Waller, now in
command of the Advance Base Brigade at Philadel-

246 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

phia, is one to conjure with among the Marines.
It was Waller, then a Major, who, at the outbreak of
the Boxer uprising in China, in 1900, was rushed over
from the Philippines with two battalions of Marines
— between 800 and i,cxx) men — to cooperate with the
Army in the safeguarding of American lives and
interests. Later they were reinforced by Marines
sent from the United States. They participated in
the battle of Tien Tsin, the march on Peking, and
the relief of the besieged American Legation. Here
is the story as printed in the Indianapolis Sun:

"It was in the campaign of the allies against the Boxers
in 1900. They had captured Tien Tsin by a hard three-
day battle. A conference had been called of all the com-
manders to discuss the question of advancing or waiting
for reinforcements. General Robert Meade, in com-
mand of the United States Marines, was ill, and Major
Littleton W. T. Waller was the junior officer of the rep-
resentatives of many nations in the conference.

'*One by one the older men gave their opinions that there
was no pressing need of an advance and that the troops
must have several more days of recuperating. Finally
Major Waller's opinion was asked, and he stood up and
said:

" 'Gentlemen, I don't know what the rest of you mean
to do, but the Marines start for Peking at 6 o'clock in the
morning.'

"The Marines did start at 6 o'clock in the morning,
taking the allies along."

It was Waller who, in October, 1901, took a battal-
ion of Marines down to Samar, one of the untamed

From the painting hy L. A. Shafer

SOLDIERS OF THE SEA

"From the Halls of Montezuma

To the shores of Tripoli,

We fight our country's battles,

On the land as on the sea."

— The Marines' Hymn

AND A FEW MARINES 247

islands of the Philippines, to clean it up. It was a
wild country, where no white troops had ever before
been, filled with hostile savages, and much cut up
by streams and jungle. They were misled by their
native guides, were lost in the wilderness, and suffered
untold privations. A number of men died on that
march, but Waller brought his battalion through,
marching clear across the island.

Meanwhile I was leading a quiet life. I went to
the Philippines in 1902, established the post in Hono-
lulu in 1903, and came home in 1904. But the
Marines were not idle. There were troubles in Africa,
Korea, Santo Domingo, and Panama that required
attention. About 1905 things got pretty messy
in the West Indies, and some troops from Panama
were sent over to Santo Domingo. In May, 1906 —
I was a Major then — I was sent down with a battalion
of Marines to relieve these troops. I remember I
was in New York at the time, on duty in the Navy
Yard. At II o'clock one night I received orders to
report in Philadelphia the next afternoon, and that
evening we were putting out to sea on the Dixie.
Things had quieted down a bit and we were not
obliged to make any landings. We stuck around
until matters had been straightened out, and were
about ready to return home when the revolution
broke out in Cuba.

Again the Marines were first on the job, and the
troops from the Dixie were the first to set foot on
Cuban soil. In September four battalions of Marines
were rushed down to hold things steady until the

248 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

Army of Cuban Pacification could be got ready. The
first of the Marines were landed at Cienfuegos;
later others went to Havana. By the time the Army
got there we had established our bases and I had
detachments all along the railroads and the situation
well in hand.

There were 2,ckdo Marines in Cuba when the Army
came. Then half of them were withdrawn, leaving
one regiment of about i,cx>o men which served with
the Army throughout the occupation until January,
1909. I was among those who remained. I was
stationed at Santo Domingo, in Santa Clara province,
in the centre of the island, and our job was to disarm
insurgents and keep things quiet.

One incident in connection with the first period of
the occupation is worth recording as illustrative
of the resourcefulness and fighting spirit of the Ma-
rines. It was in the last days of September, 1906, after
our landing in Cuba. The Newark^ of the battleship
fleet, was sent to the port of Nue vitas and Marines
were landed. Captain (now Lieutenant-Colonel)
Harlee, with a detachment of Marines, worked his
way up to Camaguey, a town in the interior of the
island, where a rebel general with 3,000 troops was
reported to be operating outside the town.

The frightened mayor of Camaguey sent word that
the insurgents were shooting up the town and ter-
rorizing the inhabitants. Captain Harlee took
twenty-five men and went in to clean it up. He di-
vided his little force into patrol squads and went
through the streets, stopping and disarming parties

AND A FEW MARINES 249

of rebels wherever he met them, no matter what their
numbers might be. The twenty-five Marines took
care of several hundred insurgents in this way, and
not entirely without resistance.

At one point a villainous-looking negro Captain
came riding up on horseback at the head of a band
of his ruffians. The Sergeant in command of the
squad of Marines stepped up and ordered him to
dismount and disarm. By way of reply the Captain
drew and cocked his revolver. The Sergeant prompt-
ly clubbed his rifle and smashed the stock over the
rebel's hard head, and the party threw down their
arms. Captain Harlee gathered in a pile of machetes
as high as his waist, and sent back the report that
the trouble was over.

After the government had been turned back to
the Cubans, and just before the American troops
were withdrawn, I took a leading part in a memorable
ceremony. We were drawn up in the public square
of the town for a sort of farewell tableau. The mayor
and town council came out with great dignity and
made speeches, and then they impressively presented
me with a huge diploma, gorgeous with gilt, in which
I was informed that I had been voted hijo adoptivo
— an adopted son — of Santo Domingo, Cuba. That
diploma is to-day one of my valued possessions.

Marines were used during the next few years in
Panama, Nicaragua, China, and elsewhere. In
March, 191 1, at the beginning of the Mexican crisis,
a brigade of Marines under Colonel Waller was sent
to Guantanamo at the same time the Army was

2SO WITH THE HELP OF GOD

sent to the Border. I commanded a battalion in
one of the two regiments sent down. Another
regiment was landed from the fleet, making about
2,icx> men in all.

During those anxious days people at home were
criticizing the Government for taking a foolish risk
and were worrying over the apparent lack of pro-
tection. I wonder how many of them knew that as
large a force of fighting Marines as had ever been
gathered together in one body was right there on
the job, ready to jump into Vera Cruz at a moment's
notice. And I wonder how many Americans realized
how capable those Marines were of coping with a
situation which seemed fraught with such peril to
our arms. A landing at Vera Cruz was not deemed
necessary at that time, however, and so but little
was heard of the Marines. The chief interest was
with the boys who were sent down to the Border.
We spent four months at target practice, sham bat-
tles, and general training, and then we came home.

In September, 191 1, I started on a three-years'
cruise with the North Atlantic Fleet, visiting Euro-
pean waters in 191 2. During that time I missed
some rather interesting affairs in Nicaragua, Haiti,
and elsewhere, of which I think I should speak more at
length, but before my cruise period was ended I
was fortunate enough to have some part in the
occupation of Vera Cruz in 191 4.

CHAPTER XV
Vera Cruz and the Outbreak of War

OF THE activities of the Marines during my
absence on cruise, a few seem worth telling
here. They had some exciting times in
Cuba during the coloured revolution of 191 2-1 3. In
February, 191 3, the fleet went down to look things
over and a brigade of Marines was landed at Guan-
tanamo under Colonel Karmany. They engaged
in some lively skirmishes with the rebels among the
iron mines and plantations at Santiago de Cuba
and returned in May.

It must be remembered that such events took
place while the United States was at peace and her
people were largely interested in economic questions
and domestic politics. I sometimes wonder how
many Americans realize that hardly a year has
passed during which the Marines have not been
fighting somewhere under trying circumstances,
perhaps dying under the tropic sun, to uphold the
honour of the Flag. The Marines, at least, have
never for long suffered from the debilitating effects
of peace, and when the Great War came their sword
was sharpened and unsheathed.

Did you know, for example, tliat four good Ameri-
can lives were lost and several United States Marines
were wounded in Nicaragua in 191 2? The revolu-

251

252 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

tionary situation in that country had become acute
and American hfe and property were unsafe. So
they sent the Marines. They fought and they paci-
fied the country. Major Butler took a battaUon
over to Corinto, Nicaragua, from Panama, and
Colonel Pendleton was sent down with a regiment
from the States to join him. For the rather stirring
events of that campaign, I am indebted to the follow-
ing account which appeared in the New York Sun:

"Early in August of 191 2 a battalion of Marines, con-
sisting of ten officers and 338 men, under Colonel Joseph
H. Pendleton, U.S.M.C., was ordered from Panama to
Nicaragua, then in the throes of a revolution that menaced
the lives of American citizens and other peaceful foreign-
ers in that country. That expeditionary force of Marines
had to struggle against all the handicaps of a tropical
climate, dense forests, and a foe that offered a good deal
of stubborn resistance.

"They participated in the bombardment of Managua,
a night ambuscade in Masaya, the surrender of General
Mena and his rebel army at Granada, the surrender of
the rebel gunboats Victoria and Ninety-three, the assault
and capture of Coyotepe, the defence of Paso Caballos
Bridge, besides doing garrison and other duty at Corinto,
Chinandega, and elsewhere. The most noteworthy event
of the campaign was the assault and capture of Coyotepe,
which resulted in the crushing of the revolution and the
restoration of peace to Nicaragua.

"The assault lasted for more than half an hour under
heavy fire from the rebels, who enjoyed a position deemed
well-nigh impregnable. During these operations three
enlisted men were killed and several wounded. . . .

AND A FEW MARINES 253

"The victory at Coyotepe Hill was the climax of other
work in which the Marines showed their adaptability
and the manner in which they have taken to heart the
lessons learned in time of peace. They took the loco-
motives and the battered rolling stock which the revolu-
tionists had tumbled into the ditches and got them back
upon the rails, which the Marines also repaired.

"With this done it was but a short task for these shifty
men to get up steam in the funny-looking engines. Then,
with the cars loaded with field guns and ammunition
and the men anxious for action, the trains staggered along
the sinuous track and over an uncertain roadbed, carrying
to the front a certainty of defeat for the entrenched foe,
safe, as he thought, behind unassailable defences."

Meanwhile, matters had been going from bad to
worse in Mexico, and from 191 3 on the Marines were
closely watching developments in that perturbed
country. In January, 1914, the Advance Base
Brigade, consisting of the First and Second Advance
Base Regiments of Marines, under the command
of the present Major General Commandant, George
Barnett, was stationed at Culebra, Porto Rico, for
instruction in advance base work as a preparation for
whatever serious situation might arise. Again the
Marines were ready. This brigade returned to the
United States just in time to be diverted from the
home stations to Vera Cruz, where perhaps the most
important action since the Spanish War took place.

It so happened, however, that there were other
Marines in Vera Cruz ahead of the Advance Base
Brigade. These were the Marines who were aboard

254 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

the ships of the Atlantic Fleet. The Utah and
Florida were lying in the harbour at Vera Cruz and
the Minnesota at Tampico; the remainder of the
Atlantic Fleet was at target practice off the Chesa-
peake Capes. I was on the Arkansas at the time,
and we received orders to hasten at once to Vera
Cruz. We sailed on April 17th and arrived in the
harbour early in the morning of April 22nd.

Meanwhile, on April 21st, Admiral Fletcher
decided to land and take charge of the custom house
^t Vera Cruz, in order to prevent the German ship
Yperangay which lay in the harbour, from landing
her cargo of arms and ammunition. The Marines
from the Florida and Utah and the sailor battalions
from the two ships were landed under command of
Captain W. R. Rush, U. S. N. Lieutenant Colonel
W. C. Neville was in command of the Marines.
There were about 200 Marines in the landing party
and some 300 or 400 sailors.

It was a ticklish business, for there were at least
600 Mexican troops in the town, in addition to the
garrison and other attaches of the Naval Academy
there. The Mexicans had also set free and armed
all the convicts in the vicinity, and there was no
way of estimating the number of armed and desper-
ate ruffians abroad.

The custom house was taken over quietly and
without great difficulty by this landing force. Soon,
however, the Mexican troops and civilians opened
fire, and it became necessary to send reinforcements.

The fleet arrived in the harbour at 2 a. m. on April-

AND A FEW MARINES 255

22nd, and the Marines and sailor battalions were
immediately landed. I was in command of the
Marines, numbering about 1,000 men, and Captain
E. A. Anderson, U. S. N., was in command of the
sailors.

The fire of the Mexicans became more intense,
and on the morning of the 22nd we were ordered to
take Vera Cruz and drive the Mexicans out. At
7:30 we commenced to clean up the town. \

The battalion of Marines under Major Butler,
which had been sent up from Panama some time
before, was landed under fire early in the morning
and took part in the occupation of the city. The
second Advance Base Regiment, under Lieutenant
Colonel C. G. Long, arrived and was landed during
the forenoon, so that we had some 2,000 Marines
ashore, besides the sailors. About ten American
ships lay in the harbour.

I don't know how fully that engagement has been
reported to American readers. It was a hot fight
while it lasted. The enemy was well supplied with
machine guns and the housetops were alive with
snipers. It looked like a dive into a hail-storm of
bullets, but we took a reef in our belts and started in.

The sailors got it worse than we did, for they
started on a rush through the streets, swept by the
enemy's fire, and their casualties were numerous.
The Marines, with their training in Indian warfare,
took another course. Since the open streets were
dangerous, we promptly decided to go through
the houses, and our chief weapon was the pick-ax.

2s6 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

The streets of Vera Cruz are lined with rows of
adjoining houses of adobe with flat roofs and with
their fronts picturesquely stained in various colours.
The walls of some of them were two or three feet
thick, but that did not deter us. We would place
a machine gun at the end of a street to keep it clear
of Mexicans, and then start in at the first house and
go right up the line, breaking through the walls of
one house after another, and cleaning each one up
as we got to it.

There were Mexicans on the flat housetops that
extended the length of the street, but we sent men
up to engage them from behind the parapets. This
double form of attack, from in front and below, was
not to their liking, and we soon had them running
for safer cover. When we got to a cross street we
rushed across to the house on the opposite side and
began again, potting Greasers as we went. It
proved to be an eff'ective method, for we cleared out
our share of the town that day and in the morning's
fighting we had only one man killed.

By 8 o'clock that night we had control of the town,
and on April 23 rd the whole of Vera Cruz was in
the hands of the Americans, though there was con-
siderable sniping from the housetops for several
nights. Five lives were lost in the fighting of those
two days and a number of men were wounded.

Colonel J. A. Lejeune arrived and took command
of all Marines on shore. The town was divided into
districts, with the sailors in charge of part of the
town and my regiment the remainder. The two

AND A FEW MARINES 257

Advance Base Regiments took charge of the out-
posts, one battalion going to Tejar, where the water
supply of the city was located. This was about
eight miles from the city on the narrow gauge rail-
road.

Ten days later the Army arrived, and with them
another regiment of Marines under command of
Colonel F. J. Moses. The sailors and fleet Marines
then returned on board their ships, most of which
remained in the harbour all summer. Colonel Waller
arrived about this time and took command of the
Marine brigade, and Colonels Lejeune and Mahoney
took command of the two Advance Base Regiments.
Marines took part in all the subsequent military
activities incident to the American occupation, the
three regiments under Colonel Waller remaining on
duty with about 5,000 Army troops until Vera Cruz
was evacuated in November. I came north in
September, having won my Medal of Honour.

During this period other Marines were watchfully
waiting on the west coast. Colonel Pendleton
assembled the Fourth Regiment at the Marine base
at Mare Island, Cal., and embarked on the South
Dakota, West Virginia, and Jupiter for duty off
the Mexican coast, but conditions did not require
a landing.

In operations of this sort, the Marines are generally
given two chief duties to perform. Because of their
mobility and training, they are usually the first
to make a landing and pave the way for the soldiers
or sailors, and this skirmish work requires speed,

258 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

energy, and resourcefulness. It is difficult, perhaps,
for the civilian to picture such a situation as has
often existed in the experience of the Marines. The
ships steam into the harbour with orders to straighten
out the difficulties existing on shore, to protect
American lives and property, and to take such action
as the commanding officer judges to be necessary.
But accurate information as to conditions on shore
is not always available. The strength and disposi-
tion of the enemy or the trouble makers is not defi-
nitely known. So Marines are landed to make the
necessary reconnaissance. They proceed unfalteringly
in the face of the unknown, confident of their ability
to do what Marines have done before. Often this
reconnaissance is sufficient to quell the disorders, and
the report goes back to Washington, "The Marines
have landed and have the situation well in hand."
Those few words may cover a tale of bloodshed as
thrilling as a page of Dumas, but all the American
newspaper reader knows is that Uncle Sam's police-
men have again somehow managed to break up one
of those opera bouffe disorders somewhere south of
Key West, and he goes to bed with his sense of
security undisturbed.

Thus the Marines are landed, and when the situa-
tion is well in hand they proceed to the second
of their duties, which is that of provost and patrol
work. Naval and Army officers have learned by
experience that no one can do that like the Marines,
and the Marines are nearly always assigned to the
important if not always glorious task of keeping

AND A FEW MARINES 259

order. That is what they did in Vera Cruz during
the summer of 191 4. And it is not merely the frac-
tious native that needs restraint; Jack ashore is
often a troublesome handful. The sailor will fight
the soldier who interferes with his liberties, but he
will usually submit to arrest at the hands of a Marine
without resistance, for the Marine is his brother-in-
arms. The sailor calls the Marine a leatherneck,
but he loves him just the same.

When the war broke out in Europe in August,
1 91 4, the United States Marines were not among
those who were slumbering in perilous unprepared-
ness. They were busy on both coasts of Mexico, two
regiments were in Santo Domingo and Haiti, and
the whole Corps was mobilized and growing. During
that same year, 1914, Colonel Charles A. Doyen
had the Fifth Regiment of Marines under arms on
board the transport Hancock, which remained in
Santo Domingan waters until December, during a
period of unrest in that unfortunate island. Again,
in April, 191 6, Marines were sent down to Santo Do-
mingo and cleaned out the rebels with the loss of
several officers and men. Colonel Pendleton was
placed in command of a brigade of Marines which
established a sort of military protectorate over the
government of the island.

A similar expedition was sent to Haiti in the
summer of 191 5 under General Waller. He landed
with a brigade of Marines in the midst of one of the
most serious revolutions in the history of the island.
He discovered that the northern part of the island

26o WITH THE HELP OF GOD

was in the hands of bandit chieftains who used the
people for their own ends, and the Government was
powerless to restore order. It appeared necessary
to wipe out these robber barons, and Waller did it.
There was some hard fighting, and I cannot say
how many rebels were executed as a military neces-
sity, but Haiti, the whole island, was cleaned up and
quieted down and peace was at last restored. Major
(now Colonel) Butler was left in Haiti with a number
of Marine officers and men to keep the peace. They
are still there at this writing, having formed the
Haitian constabulary of natives under officers of
the United States Marines.

Both Santo Domingo and Haiti were clean jobs,
well done. Doubtless some of the Marines down
there would give a year's pay to be with the boys
in France, but a Marine learns that duty is duty,
whether he is picked to serve as a runner under fire
on the Marne or is fated to serve as an office orderly
at Marine Headquarters in Washington. It's all
in his day's work.

As to my own part in this troubled period prior
to the entrance of the United States in the Great
War, I was doing what I could to get ready. The Corps
was expanding and there was a great need for officers.
I came north in September, 19 14, from Vera Cruz,
and my three-year cruise period was over in October.
I was relieved of my sea command by Colonel
Fuller and went to Portsmouth, N. H., in December,
to take command of the prison there. Seeing the
clouds of war approaching, and feeling the need to

AND A FEW MARINES 261

fit myself for wider service, I went to Fort Leaven-
worth to study in September, 191 6, and later to the
War College at Washington. I graduated from
the War College in the spring of 191 7, at about the
time the United States entered the w^ar, and received
my Colonel's commission.

The Corps was at this time organized in the cus-
tomary manner and engaged in its customary activi-
ties. The Marines are always on a war-time footing;
there is nothing that may properly be called a peace
basis with us. But the United States is not often
at war, and under ordinary conditions our forces
are distributed up and down our coasts and over the
Seven Seas. There are always some of our men on
board ship, while the rest are posted at the various
Naval Stations. The dreadnaughts commonly carry
about eighty-five Marines and the smaller battle-
ships about seventy-five, with usually two officers
to each detachment. The larger cruisers carry a
sergeant's guard.

The centre of activity of the Marines at home is
in Philadelphia, where is located the headquarters
of what we call our Advance Base Brigade. It is
here that the hurry calls come when the Marines are
needed. The General Headquarters is in Washing-
ton. At Paris Island, near Port Royal, S. C, and
at Mare Island, Cal., are situated our training sta-
tions where the recruits receive fourteen weeks of
training. At Miami, Fla., we have the Marine
aviation grounds.

Not to go too far back into history, the Marine

262 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

Corps at the outbreak of the Spanish War numbered
1, 800. It was increased temporarily to 4,500 at that
time, and afterward, in March, 1899, to 5,000. On
different subsequent occasions, to meet the demands
of an expanding Navy, the numbers were increased
to 7,500, 9,500, and more, until at the outbreak of
the Great War we had 14,500.

Owing to the kind of work we have had to do and
the size of the detachments commonly engaged, we
have always maintained a good complement of
vtrained officers. Though we are soldiers and not
sailors, our association has always been with the
Navy and Naval men have sought our ranks. In
1883 for the first time an Annapolis man became an
officer of Marines. From about that time until 1898
all our new officers were graduates of the Naval
Academy. Then the Navy was expanded and needed
them all, and the Marines were forced to look else-
where for their officers. Since then a few Naval
Academy graduates have received commissions in
the Marine Corps, but the majority of our officers
now are not Annapolis men, and we have developed
our own system of officer training.

Up to 1916 the highest officers of Marines, with the
exception of the Major General Commandant, were
the Colonels. In August, 191 6, we were allowed
by Congress four general officers in addition to the
Major General, and Waller, Lejeune, Pendleton, and
Cole were commissioned Brigadier Generals. Since
the Marines have taken part in the fighting in France,
others have received this rank. Major General

AND A FEW MARINES 263

George Barnett, our present Commandant, received
his four-year appointment in 191 3 and was reap-
pointed in 191 7.

When at last the United States declared war
against Germany, the Marine Corps was in fine fettle,
but in one respect we were, like the rest of the
country, unprepared for the great task that lay
ahead of us. We lacked man power, but we immedi-
ately set about repairing that lack. President Wilson
was empowered to increase the Corps to 17,500 if
necessary, and this he promptly did. Then Congress
voted an expansion to 30,000 for the period of the
war, and again in July, 191 8, raised the figure to
75,000. Recruiting was stimulated and the numbers
cHmbed steadily up to nearly 60,000, when enhst-
ments were halted on October i, 191 8, pending the
consideration of the Man Power Bill, and for a time
the ranks were filled by induction from the draft.
On December 5th recruiting was resumed for volun-
tary enlistments for the four-year period.

Following the first action of Congress, the Marines
started a whirlwind recruiting campaign. We did
not lower our requirements one jot, for we knew
that no weakling could be made into a Marine.
The whole Corps was on its toes, for there was
promise of action, and the Marine Hves on action.
The United States was going across to get into the
biggest thing that had ever happened, and the Ma-
rine recognizes no place but the van. Marine Head-
quarters in Washington was a beehive, our publicity
men were on their job, and the recruiting Sergeants

264 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

were talking their devoted heads off. As a result,
the young men of America flocked to our standard
and in those days we drew in some of the best blood
in the land. Some of our old-timers were made non-
commissioned officers and we sent in a bid for the
first of the Plattsburg graduates. The Corps un-
derwent a period of rapid expansion, but we were
able to absorb the new elements as fast as they
came along.

The new recruits were sent first to our regular
training camps at Paris Island and Mare Island.
There they were jammed through the regulation
fourteen-weeks period of preliminary training, which
in some instances was shortened for the emergency.
When they came out of that school of unremitting
drill they were Marines.

At the outbreak of war the Corps leased land at
Quantico, Va., on the Potomac River some thirty-
five miles south of Washington, and set about
establishing a finishing-ofF and embarkation camp.
Major Campbell was sent down from Annapolis to
take charge. As soon as the recruits had been
whipped into shape at Paris and Mare Islands they
were sent in detachments to Quantico, where they
were organized into companies.

Up to this time the Marines had had no fixed
regimental organization, provisional regiments or
battalions having been formed temporarily when
the emergency arose. Now we were confronted with
the problem of forming a complete military organ-
ization on the plan of the United States Army for

AND A FEW MARINES 265

the period of the war. Aside from the officers, we
had, as a nucleus in each regiment, fifty or sixty
non-commissioned officers who were experienced
Marines. All the privates in the regiments formed
at Quantico were new men.

By the time the Marine Corps had climbed up
to 30,000 strong, some 5,000 more than were
in the Regular Army at the outbreak of the Spanish
War, several regiments had been formed. The First,
Second, Third, and Fourth were on duty in the West
Indies, and about this time some small ones were
sent down there. The Seventh, under Colonel Shaw,
went to Guantanamo; the Eighth, under Colonel
Moses, went to Galveston; the Ninth was sent to
Cuba, Colonel James Mahoney being in command of
the brigade of three regiments. The Fifth and Sixth
were organized at Quantico and were the ones des-
tined for service in France.

About June i, 1917, I was made Commandant
of the Post at Quantico and went down to take
charge. The First Battalion of the Fifth Regiment
had already been formed when I arrived, and new
detachments were coming right along to fill up the
regiment. They were all living in tents then, and
while the training was going forward we were erect-
ing cantonments, a target range, and all the other
appurtenances of a permanent post. Major Evans
was my right-hand man in charge of organization,
and he was a wonder. Major Ellis was sent down
as my assistant in charge of instruction. Later the
officers* school was sent up from Norfolk, and we

266 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

had charge of that also. Of the life at Quantico I
shall speak more at length in the next chapter.

I remained in charge of the post there until Sep-
tember, when I was relieved by General Lejeune
and embarked for France at the head of the Sixth
Regiment. And the curtain was rung up on the
stirring drama I have endeavoured to describe.

CHAPTER XVI
The Making of a Marine

WHEN the Great War swept the United
States into its vortex, the Marine Corps
was already on a war footing and they got
their new units quickly into shape. The Marines
were disciplined, dependable troops the day they
landed in France. That is why they were called
upon to perform all that tedious provost duty and
keep the other troops in order. And by the time
they had completed their French training in camp
and in the trenches they were seasoned soldiers.
This was not the result of mere chance, though we
were unquestionably fortunate in the matter of per-
sonnel. It was the result of a thorough and inten-
sive system of training and instruction which we
believe is as good as any in the world, and I should
like to tell something of the way we make Marines
out of the raw material. We took boys fresh from
college and business offices and put them through
the mill, and in less than a year they were fighting
in France with all the dash and snap and spirit of
old members of the Corps. Young men who had
never shot a rifle or killed anything more dangerous
than a chicken were turned into such fighters that

the whole world heard of them. Perhaps a glimpse

267

268 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

at the system of training will give some idea of how
it was accomplished.

Young men are attracted to the Marine Corps from
all walks of life. In ordinary times the service has
been for three years and has proved attractive to
the best type of American youth. The Marine ser-
vice has always been popular and the percentage of
reenlistment has been high. A larger organization
than formerly is now being planned and the selective
enlistment of men for a four-year period is now go-
Jng on. It is still possible to become a Marine — if
you're man enough.

Our standards have always been high in the matter
of physique, intelligence, and character. We have
sought for men above the average in physical strength
and agility. We have sought intelligent, educated
men, for we have learned that they have sense enough
to realize the necessity for obedience. They get the
idea of the discipline quicker than the other sort and
it stands by them in a pinch.

The recruits which we took in for the overseas
service were of an even higher quality than the aver-
age in previous years. The campaign was, of course,
stimulated by the war, and we soon had bunches
of fine fellows on their way to the training stations
at Paris Island, S. C, and Mare Island, Cal.

At these stations the recruit undergoes fourteen
weeks of intensive training. For the war emergency
this period was shortened to six or eight weeks in
many instances, after which the men were sent on
to Quantico to be polished off. We knew there would

AND A FEW MARINES 269

be still more rigid training in France before they
would be considered fit to fight.

The recruit takes his preliminary oath and is
sent to quarantine, where he is subjected to general
inspection and physical examination. At the close
of the quarantine period he is re-examined and takes
the full oath of allegiance. He then goes *'over the
fence" into the training camp. There used to be
a fence at Paris Island, but the phrase is only tra-
ditional now.

Here the men are grouped eight men to a squad
and eight squads to a company and are put through
the regulation military drill. They become acquaint-
ed with the field w^ork on the manoeuvre grounds,
they learn how to take care of their equipment and
adjust their packs ** Marine style," they become
accustomed to all the rules and regulations of can-
tonment life. They learn the meaning of neatness
and the importance of ** police work." Finally,
when they have been whipped into some sort of
shape, the drill in markmanship is begun at the
rifle ranges, and this drill is kept up until the recruit
is worthy to take his place in the ranks of the sharp-
est shooting organization in the world.

The Marine Corps's reputation for marksmanship
can hardly be overemphasized, and it is all due to
the training. Over G'] per cent, of the entire Corps
have qualified as marksmen, sharpshooters, or ex-
pert riflemen, the three grades established for pro-
ficiency. Toward the close of a recent report on the
work of the Marines, Secretary Daniels said :

270 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

"Thus it is that the United States Marines have ■
fulfilled the glorious traditions of their Corps in this
their latest duty as the * soldiers who go to sea/
Their sharpshooting — and in one regiment 93 per
cent, of the men wear the medal of a marksman, a
sharpshooter, or an expert rifleman — has amazed sol-
diers of European armies, accustomed merely to
shooting in the general direction of the enemy.
Under the fiercest fire they have calmly adjusted
their sights, aimed for their man, and killed him,
and in bayonet attacks their advance on machine-
gun nests has been irresistible."

Much of the recruit's progress is due to the la-
bours of the drill Sergeant, who is usually a man
who bears about with him a perpetual grouch be-
cause he is not at the front killing Germans. The
mental attitude thus produced is well calculated to
carry the fear of authority into the heart of the un-
broken American. It is good for his soul.

A list of all the daily duties of the young recruit
would make tedious reading, but it seems to have
impressed a correspondent of the Savannah NewSy
who wrote as follows in an article describing the life
at Paris Island:

"What a man who has passed through the Marine
training can't do isn't worth mentioning. He is
trained to box, to wrestle, and has bayonet practice,
and when it comes to washing dishes and peeling
potatoes — ^well, as one Marine wrote to a certain
Savannah friend, *When I get through my training
here I would make any man a good wife.'

> >>

AND A FEW MARINES 271

And during these weeks, from the first minute,
the recruit is shot full of the spirit of the Corps, and
gradually there dawns upon his intellect the fact
that there exists among the Marines a code of thought
and faith and conduct which, Hke the British con-
stitution, is all-potent though unwritten.

After this preHminary training has been completed,
with its hikes and company drills, its shooting and
its bayonet practice, the young Marine is sent on to
Quantico, where there are facilities for the advanced
training of over 10,000 men. Here there are manoeu-
vre grounds and rifle ranges of the most modern type.
The men attend school where the best instructors
obtainable teach topography, machine gun work,
military science, and all the rest of it, and tactical
marches are required to teach the men the best use
of the roads.

In one section of the camp there are hills and ridges
and valleys that closely resemble the battleground
of Vimy Ridge, and here the practice trenches are
located. They are dug 450 yards apart and are fitted
with wire entanglements and all the features of actual
warfare. The Germans are represented by dummies
and against them the young Marines direct their
machine gun fire. Mines are sprung, wires are cut,
and over-the-top charges are indulged in, with a
bloodless mopping up at the end. The rifle, the auto-
matic, the bayonet, and the grenade are all used in
the manner required by actual fighting, and woe
to the man who lags behind or shoots wild.

Never having been through the private's training

272 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

myself, I must rely upon some one else to present
the recruit's view of it, which is naturally more inter-
esting than that of his officers. The following
letters were written by a Marine, now a Sergeant,
who passed through the training at Paris Island and
Quantico in 191 8. Reading between the lines, one
catches a vision of the unfolding of the Marine
spirit.

Paris Island, S. C,

July — , 191 8.
.Dear Dad; —

Here I am in the Y. M. C. A. at Quarantine Station,
Marine Barracks, Paris Island. I am writing to-night
because to-morrow and the next day we get our physical
examinations, which will take up all of our time. Then
we "cross the line" as they call it and all of the men I
came down here with will be formed into a company.

We had a long, dusty trip in a day coach, and the best
dressed man in the crowd (that's me) was surely a sight.
I made a bundle out of my coat, collar, and tie and put
them in my suitcase. I was covered with cinders and
grime and my long hair was tousled. My long hair is no
more, dad. You should see my Mr. Zip haircut.

Well, we landed in Port Royal, a town inhabited
chiefly by Civil War history. A Sergeant took us in charge
and we walked the gangplank of a small steamer tug
named Pilot Boy. I saw the ocean for the first time, dad,
and real live dolphins. We arrived at Paris Island in
about twenty minutes, but not before we had had a lot
of fun bidding good-bye to the mainland. Most of us
threw our hats into the channel where the tide, rapidly
receding, carried them out to sea. On the dock a Marine
Sergeant took us in charge and we started the mile hike

AND A FEW MARINES 273

to Quarantine Station, a huge camp where all the appli-
cants must come for examination, preliminary instruction,
and formation into companies. This^Sergeant was a
regular bull for strength. He seemed a powerful man
and his voice was just as powerful. They call them
"leather-lungs" down here. He was not unkind, though,
and seemed to gaze upon us with a sort of half-hearted
pity for what might be in store for us. In fact, he told us
we were not going to a picnic and that we had better
"snap out of it" right from the start, all of which he as-
sured us would make things easier.

I learned w^hat "snap out of it" means, to-day, when
I didn't hear my name at roll call, and two Corporals
came out looking for me. They found me, dad; they found
me! One of them looked at me with a degree of disgust
in his eyes, the like of which I had never seen, and said,
"So you expect to be a Marine? Well, you can't be a
Marine and be a dope. Snap out of it!" I am here to
tell you I snapped. In fact, I have been snapping all
day. It seems to be the principal occupation here.

But last night was a sort of reception night. As we
came into camp we were met by hundreds of fellows in
white pajamas who had arrived the day before. They
all wanted to know the home state of each one of us
and we were all busy shouting our cities and names.
Many of the boys found old friends or made new ones.
We were given new white pajamas, furnished with soap
and towels, directed to a shower bath, and then lined
up for chow. That is food, dad, and wonderful food it
was. Was I hungry? And did I eat? I never knew I
could eat a meal like that. You Icnow I have always
been a light eater.

After we had tried to eat everything in sight and had

274 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

failed, we went out and saw the camp. There are lots
of queer trees and palmettoes here. There are cotton
fields with old negro mammies hoeing and a line of red-
sailed fishing boats come and go with the tide in the chan-
nel, putting out to sea. Last night we saw three destroyers
painted a dull grey steaming out to sea in a heavy smoke
screen.

As soon as it was dark we went to the movies which the
Y. M. C. A. conducts in the open air. We sat on the
soft sand which was still warm from the sun and a de-
lightful sea breeze swept continuously over this motley
^audience hailing from all parts of the United States and
representing every class and type. Strange bits of slang
and colloquial phrases came to me from every side. It
was an evening potent with promise of great interest
in this new, strange life of the Marines. Under the
starry canopy, from the great shadows of this island
night, came the roar of the tide, sharp sounds of distant
commands, far-oflP strains from tented quartets, and the
faint tinkle of pots and pans from the galleys where men
were preparing for the next morning's breakfast. I went
to bed in my newly assigned bunk and scarcely slept a
wink for thinking and wondering what my part would
be in the great business of becoming a Marine.

This morning after chow we went into an open-air
pavilion and heard Captain Denby give his famous talk
on what was expected of us as Marines. Captain Denby
is an ex-Congressman from Michigan, and he surely must
have been an easy victor in his race for office, for he held
us all spellbound as he described the duties of a Marine —
where a Soldier of the Sea must go, what he is expected
to do, how he must conduct himself, and the penalty
imposed in war time for touching a drop of intoxicating

AND A FEW MARINES 275

liquor. Truth and the esprit de corps of the Marines
seemed to be the theme of this oracle whom they call
the "Daddy" of the Marine Corps. They all went up
to him after it was over — all those who could get near
him — ^just to shake hands and hear a few words more.
A lot of the fellows who had lied when they enlisted went
up to square themselves, and the Captain looked more
like he might be their own father than either a Congress-
man or a Captain of Marines. He is a big man in stature
as well as spirit. Even I, who have learned to respect
the uniform of Marine officers with a respect born of con-
fidence and esteem, forgot that Denby was anything so
formidable as a Captain, and I told him all about you
and your fight for the City Council last fall. He put his
arm around my shoulder and his face lit up with all the
enthusiasm of a man who knows men and loves them
from the bottom of his heart. This, I think, will prove
to be one of the biggest experiences of my camp life, for
then and there I resolved to be a Marine in every sense
of the word, first, last, and all the time, and try to up-
hold the splendid traditions of the Corps.

Love to all,

Bill.

The word "snap'* to which Bill refers is one of
the most widely used and significant at Paris Island.
It is descriptive of the spirit and technique which
the drill Sergeants endeavour to instill into the minds
of the new recruits who are learning foot drill without
rifles. This is the way one recruit described it:

So precise and snappy is the drill of the Marines that
the new man, who has always considered himself quite
alert, finds it necessary to make himself all over again.

276 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

His chief slogan becomes "snap/' The word is synony-
mous with "pep," but it means infinitely more, for every
movement in the Marine Corps must be executed quickly
and at exactly the right time, and, after the training has
become a science, at the same time.

Even the eyes seem to snap when a Marine commander
gives the command, "Eyes right!" As a result, Marine
drill is an almost perfect mechanism, moving in well-or-
dered clicks, quickly, to the accomplishment of itsj^pur-
pose.

Even in hours of play in the company streets the men,
with that rare humour of imitation, often regulate their
actions by shouting commands, or if at work, count a
cadence — ^'One, two, three, four; one, two, three, four!"
— as they fold their clothes or rake the ground about
their tents. In this spirit of fun they snap from one po-
sition to another.

One Marine who, just before taps, drilled up and
down the street in his pajamas giving bogus commands
and obeying them himself, was caught later talking in
his sleep, giving the same commands in a voice calculated
to imitate his superior officer. Naturally he became the
laughing-stock of his "buddies," who considered his
sleep-walking better than the one in Macbeth.

At the movies these hardy "buck" privates will count
**One, two, three, four; one, two, three, four!" as the
hero marches toward the leading lady, and if he does
not embrace her with true Marine speed, they will shout,
"Snap out of it!"

Yes, snap is the word from the time the boys "hit the
deck" or get up in the morning, through their drill periods,
not forgetting chow, until they make down their immacu-
late bunks at the sound of taps. Snap is the first thing

AND A FEW MARINES 277

the Marine learns and the last he forgets. It is the
Marine snap that has won for the Corps the well-deserved
reputation of being the snappiest fighting force in the
world.

Here is Bill's second letter to his father:

Paris Island, S. C,

July — , 1918.

Dear Dad: —

Three nights ago we came almost the entire length of
Paris Island, six miles, to the Manoeuvre Grounds, or Boot
Camp as it is called. We have no rifles yet and won't
have for ten days or more. You see the camps are ar-
ranged in a loop. When you have gone around the loop
at Paris Island you are a Marine. That's what the
Sergeant said yesterday and Fm beginning to believe him.
If I have any muscles in my body which haven't been
stretched within the last week it isn't the fault of the
drill Sergeant or the physical instructor.

I've been swimming twice. There's nothing like the
ocean, Dad. You know I used to do my two miles a
day in the lake. Well, a five-mile swim would be easy
here only they won't let you try to swim that far. Our
company went down in a column of squads uniformed in
regulation Marine Corps bathing suits.

Already we drill fairly well, but there are still a few
who don't seem able to get in step. They are put in an
awkward squad and given extra attention by the Ser-
geant. I'm glad I'm not in that squad.

At the beach we were separated into two classes, those
who could swim and those who could not. There is an
instructor for every man who cannot swim and chief in-
structors who supervise the work. Flocks and flocks of

278 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

pelicans and sea gulls flew over us, evidently much dis-
turbed because we had interfered with their summer
homes at the seaside.

I don't think I'll ever work in an office again. I am
tanning up fine now and have gained six pounds, so you
see exercise agrees with me. My bunkie, who lives in
the same tent with me, is a graduate of Oberlin College
and was a crack athlete there. We had a field meet
yesterday and he won the high jump, broad jump, and
quarter mile run. He tells me that though he used to
train in college, he never was in such good physical con-
dition as he is down here. It must be the outdoor life
and the happy-go-lucky spirit which all the boys have
acquired. No matter what hardships spring up or what
strenuous duties we have to face, they are all taken up with
a laugh. Good cheer always saves the day.

I won't need the toilet kit that Edith is making. The
Marine Corps has furnished me with one that will take
up much less room, I think. Just take it when she gives
it to you and keep it, and I will write and thank her
for it. If you were here you would understand that we
have no room for excess baggage.

You should see me washing my own clothes. We go
over as a company to a place where there are rows of
smooth, hard benches which drain into a trough. Each
man takes a bucket full of clothes, some washing soap,
and a big bristle brush. There are indoor places for
washing, but those are used only in bad weather or in
winter. It was hard work the first day, but I'm getting
used to it now. We scrub clothes about three times a
week. After each scrubbing a Corporal in charge inspects
every piece of clothing. I never saw a cleaner bunch
of men in any one aggregation before. There is some-

AND A FEW MARINES 279

thing to be cleaned all the time, but there is a great sat-
isfaction in knowing that you are "always ready" (a
Marine Corps slogan) and look just like you were on
parade. We dress up for our Sergeant the same as we
would for a General.

I must go now, for we are going to be instructed in our
general orders which will enable us to go on guard duty.
We must memorize fifteen or more orders and be able
to say them without a moment's hesitation. A Marine
must always know these, for he may be called to most
any country in the world where the United States has a
legation or consulate, to guard our interest there.

There's the Sergeant's whistle, which says, "Fall out
and fall in."

Love to all.

Bill.

Other letters from this young Marine, showing
the progress of the training, follow:

Paris Island, S, C,

July — y 1918.
Dear Dad: —

The day after your visit I was made an "acting Jack"
or acting Corporal, which means that at the end of my
training here at Paris Island I will be made a regular Cor-
poral. I wear a leather belt now and help to drill my
company. I may or may not have to go to the non-
commissioned officers' school. I would rather not, for
it might mean that I would have to stay on the Island
and drill troops, and you know I would rather go across.

The camp has changed a great deal since you were
here. It is marvellous the changes a week can bring. New
buildings have sprung up everywhere and the entire
island is a veritable city.

28o WITH THE HELP OF GOD

We are on the range now. I am on the first shift,
which has reveille at 4 o'clock while it is still very dark.
We have early morning coffee and then hike two miles
to the range, drilling every step of the way except for
one stretch of road where they give us the "route step.'*
Then we sing and shout to one another. It is a weird
sight to see the long columns of companies dressed in old,
ragged coats padded heavily at the elbows and shoulders
(many of the range coats have no backs), swinging along,
singing lustily and handling their rifles with the assurance
that comes only with long practice.

As daylight peeps over the targets we begin our fire,
which lasts until one o'clock in the afternoon. We shoot
rain or shine. When it rains we take our ponchos and
roll up in them while waiting our turn on the firing line.
On pleasant days there is no shade and the place where
my back is exposed to the sun is a deep tan now.

We "snap in" before firing actual bullets. By that I
mean we go through all the science of firing; we adjust
our windage, peep sight, and elevation, each man ac-
cording to the instruction of his coach. We "snap in"
three or four rounds, then shoot a clip of ammunition at
the targets. Each man is assigned to a target which he
keeps all through the three weeks of his range work.
We shoot rapid fire, ten shots to the minute, at 200
yards, rapid fire at 300 and 500 yards, and slow fire at
300, 500, and 600 yards. Even the large target looks
terribly small at 600 yards. Half the battle is keeping
the sights well blackened by smoking them in burning
shoe polish or oil. Then, too, the bolt must be kept in
good condition so it won't jam. Marines are taught the
science of shooting with the utmost care. -We must cal-
culate evcr3^thing according to mathematical tables —

AND A FEW MARINES 281

elevation, the velocity of the wind, and the "zero" of
the rifle. The greatest crime is to shoot carelessly with-
out strict adherence to form. The rifle must be held
just so, with the left arm well under the piece, the eye
just back of the firing pin, and the jaw set tightly to the
butt of the rifle, never firing until the breath is under
perfect control so that there is not the slightest possibility
of a "wabble.'*

Very few of the men fail to become marksmen and most
of them are sharpshooters and experts, all of which
shows what expert coaching will do. Our coaches are
mighty good fellows, always kind and patient and anxious
to have us make a good showing.

We expect to shove off in three or four days. Where
we are going no one has the least knowledge but every
one has his own idea, and I have been told that I am going
everywhere from Siberia to Texas. Of course Marines
go all over the world, so there is a possible grain of truth
in each rumour.

More in two or three days.

Bill.

Quantico, Va,y
August — , 1918.

Dear Dad: —

We arrived at Quantico late night before last. We had
to stand in line for about thirty minutes while some one
went after the officers of the supply department. They
were all up at the Post Gym. to hear Madame Schumann-
Heink sing.

This is a real camp. I hope you can get down here
before I leave. It is to Paris Island what New York
is to Hoboken. I had the equivalent of six meals during
the day's trip here from Paris Island. Every one along

282 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

the road treated us royally. There were lots of nice

canteen girls and members of the Red Cross who gave

us ice cream, sandwiches, and coffee, and all sorts of

bird food which we weren't used to but which tasted

mighty good.

The best news I have is that instead of being made a

Corporal, as I expected, I have been made a Sergeant

and will have charge of a detail of men in one of the

bunk houses. At Quantico we get "liberty" every

week-end and may run up to Washington for the day at

a total cost of a little more than $3. My detail is to be

sent out for duty to the miners' and sappers' camp about

two miles out on a concrete road. I don't know a thing

about the work but will write you all about it as soon as

we are settled. There are so many supplies to draw and

so much equipment to check up that I haven't much time

to write now.

Your Marine,

Bill.

Quantico, Fa.,
August — , 1918.
Dear Dad: —

What do you think? I am at Chateau-Thierry! Not
the one in France, but a regular imitation Chateau-
Thierry right here in Virginia. A whole section of the
Virginia woodland has been taken over and blasted, dug,
and mined by the miners and sappers of the Marine Corps
until it is almost an exact replica of the country around
Chateau-Thierry and Vimy Ridge. The Scouts and Snip-
ers stay at Vimy Ridge, which is closer to the main camp
than we are. Both places are used as schools and for ex-
hibition purposes. Troops of Marines come through here
before going to France and help dig the trenches and

AND A FEW MARINES 283

take part In the sham battles and patrol raids that are
everyday occurrences here.

Most of my detail never saw a mine before, but all of
the men in camp here are experienced miners and sappers
and have worked for years in the mines in Butte and
other Western mining centres. They have been retained
here as instructors and will teach us the game of laying
a sap through No Man's Land and blowing up the enemy
trenches. The Russian sap is used to establish listening
posts and can be dug without detection by the enemy.

At Chateau-Thierry there are three lines of main trenches
with their supporting trenches, shelters, dugouts, ma-
chine gun nests, barbed wire entanglements, and all the
trench accessories realistic as in actual warfare. Next
week we are going to blow out the Commander's dugout,
which is thirty feet underground and affords sleeping
quarters for a platoon of men. It looks just like a hotel,
for the hewn walls have been plastered with cement by
a cement gunner. It seems a shame to blow it all up.
But the officers want to see how much powder it will take
and how quickly it is feasible to repair the damage; all
of which, I suppose, is one of the many lessons of warfare.

To the novice the science of underground warfare seems
interminable. It is also about the most important, it
seems to me, for although aviation has proved to be of
great assistance in observation and even in direct attacks,
there is positively no way for the enemy to detect the
grim approach of the sappers and miners who may tunnel
to their very door and blow up an entire field with com-
parative ease.

As soon as we are ready for any specific phase of the
work, my detail will undoubtedly be shipped to France,
for the Allies stand in great need of this work. But just

284 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

because I am learning to be a miner, dad, does not mean
that I am not a Marine. On the contrary, the officers
here seem to be more particular than ever about our ap-
pearance, keeping us in good physical shape, and in-
specting our equipment. We carry our rifles and packs
the same as the other men and hope to see some actual
fighting, for our work carries us to the very first line
trench and beyond.

I must stop now, for I have made arrangements to go
in on the truck to the main camp with one of the boys
who is going to entertain his sister and three other girls
£rom Washington at the Hostess House.

Love to all.

Bill.

In Bill's first letter to his father there is a reference
to Captain Edwin Denby's address to the recruits
at Paris Island. I am inclined to believe that this
address does more than any other one thing to
awaken the young minds of the recruits to a realiza-
tion of their responsibility as Marines and to open
their eyes to the significance of membership in the
historic Corps. It is a vital step in the making of a
Marine, the value of which can hardly be overesti-
mated.

Captain Denby is the son of the Minister to China
in Cleveland's administration. He served for several
terms in Congress and then retired from politics
to go into business, in which he was equally success-
ful. But the war spirit got him; he wanted to be-
come a Marine. Turning aside all suggestions that
infliuence might secure for him a commission at the

AND A FEW MARINES 285

outset, he enlisted as a private and took the training.
He rose from the ranks to the Captaincy. He is a
big, powerful man and a born orator. His personality
is ideal for the task he has undertaken; no one could
be better fitted than he to flood the minds and hearts
of his hearers with the spirit of the Marines.

He talks to the appHcants in the open air, in groups
of a hundred, and I am told that the occasion is one
to be long remembered by them — the sunshine and
the breeze in the palmettoes, and the stretch of blue
ocean, and the stirring words of the orator ringing
across the sands.

He begins by calling attention to the most serious
of all a soldier's crimes — desertion — and the kindred
sins of absence over leave and sleeping on post. The
penalty, he points out, may be death or some
other severe penalty with the loss of citizenship,
and he explains why. He passes on to the subject
of drunkenness and explains why the Marines have
found it best to enforce the rule of no drink at all.
He explains the system of pay, allotments, and
insurance, counselling thrift. Then he takes up the
history of the Corps.

The work of the Corps, in normal times, he says,
is not laid down by law or regulation, long custom
and experience having shown how the Corps can best
serve the Government. The first duty is as guards
for the ships of the Navy, with service as soldiers,
police, orderlies, and sentinels. This includes police
work ashore, the manning and serving of the second-
ary batteries aboard ship, and the organization of

286 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

landing parties. Captain Denby calls attention to
the cordial relations existing between the sailors
and the Marines.

Second, the Marines may be called upon to act
as garrisons in overseas possessions of the United
States, such as the Philippines. Five hundred
Marines were sent to act as the garrison of the Island
of St. Thomas the day we took it over from Den-
mark.

Third, they serve as guards for the Navy yards
and all property of the Navy. And, fourth, they
serve, in a general way, as the guardians of the
Monroe Doctrine — the visible evidence of force and
protection for foreigners as well as Americans on the
Western Hemisphere.

Captain Denby goes on to describe the esprit de
corps of the Marines. He tells the recruits what they
will have to do and offers some plain truths about
plain work. He explains the rules of obedience to
officers and non-commissioned officers, the value and
meaning of the salute, and the rights of privates. He
describes the requirements of the drill and rifle
practice. He makes a plea for letters to the folks
at home and calls for voluntary censorship. He dis-
cusses foul language and profanity, diseases and
morals. He expounds the value and meaning of the
oath and discusses its various parts. Altogether he
sums up in a remarkable way the duties and respon-
sibilities and privileges of the Marines.

Set forth by some men, this sort of thing would
be listened to with scant attention. It is a long

AND A FEW MARINES 287

address; to restless young men it might be a great
bore. They would take it all with a grain of salt.
Not so with Captain Denby's oratory. The boys
listen to him with rapt attention and when it is
over they crowd about him for a more personal
word and approach him as a father confessor. It
is wonderfully impressive and effective, like the offi-
cial charge at some fraternity initiation.

I think I cannot do better, in closing this chapter
on the making of a Marine, than by quoting some
of the more striking paragraphs in Captain Denby's
address. In my humble opinion they are classic and
might be read with profit by others than Marine
recruits.

You are down here to enlist in the Marine Corps. You
know very little about the Corps. You know more than
the average man on the outside because you have talked
with recruiting Sergeants and perhaps read literature of
the Corps, but that is not saying much. The average
man on the outside has a very vague idea as to what the
Marine Corps is, and what place it holds in the American
military establishment — what it does for the Govern-
ment, in other words. As a rule he only knows that one
day he opens his morning paper and finds that there has
been trouble at Vladivostok, Siberia, for instance, and
the Marines have landed, and then that phrase we hear
so often, "The Marines have the situation well in hand."
The next day he notices in his paper that there has been
trouble in Central America, or S.outh America perhaps,
and again "The Marines have landed and have the situ-
ation well in hand." And again he opens his paper and
finds that there has been trouble in the Malay Straits

288 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

Settlements, or Borneo, or Siam, or some other place
long forgotten by God or man, and once more "The
Marines have landed and have the situation well in hand/'
So he says, "Who and what the dickens are these Ma-
rines? I never hear of them except when there is trouble
somewhere, and then they seem to rise up out of the sea,
and they are always landing and always getting situations
well in hand." And I don't know but what that is a
pretty good description of the United States Marines.
They are the stormy petrels of the United States Service.
A petrel is a little sea bird that flies on the wings of the
storm. So does the Marine, and wherever the storm blows
you may count upon finding him.

■ •••••

Let me point out to you that there are slackers and
slackers. We are accustomed to think of the slacker
only as one who fails or refuses to put on his country's
uniform when the country needs him for its defence.
But there are many other forms of slacking. Some of
them are even more objectionable than that, and one of
the most offensive forms of slacking is that exhibited by
the man in uniform who fails or refuses to perform cheer-
fully and well whatever duty he is given to do, because
he cannot get the duty he wants to do.
.

You must become good shots. The Marine Corps has
always been celebrated throughout the world for its
marksmanship, and if we ever get to open fighting in
France, the Marine Corps will give the greatest exhibition
of military marksmanship the world has ever seen. You
men must do your part. You can become good shots if
you will, and if you fail it will be because you lack the
will to succeed. It is almost a mathematical certainty

AND A FEW MARINES 289

that any man who can pass the surgeon, has good eyesight,
sound body, and sound nerves, can learn to shoot well.
You will shoot 60 shots. Each shot, if you hit the bulls-
eye, counts 5. Five times 60 is 300. Therefore, the high-
est possible score you can make is 300. No man has ever
done it, but why shouldn't you ? If you do, you will be
famous throughout the Marine Corps, but you don't
have to get 300 to become a qualified marksman and to
be a good shot. If you get only 202 you will win the priv-
ilege of wearing upon your uniform the little silver bar
of the marksman, and you will receive $2 additional
monthly pay. If you get 238 you will wear the cross
of the sharpshooter and get $3 additional monthly pay.
If you get 253 you will wear the wreath and crossed
rifles of the expert and get $5 additional monthly pay,
all for one year. Each year every man shoots for record
again. Go to it, men, and take your place as good shots
in;the best shooting force in the world. One other thing.
If you know anything about high-powered rifles now, and
have shot big game or at targets on the outside, forget it
and go to the range with an empty mind and learn to
shoot as the coaches instruct you. They know best how
military marksmen are made, and that is the way you
must learn.

..♦•••

"You will at the end of your training, I hope, find that
you have learned four things supremely well — obedience,
discipline, how to shoot well, and how to use the rifle
with the bayonet. If you will have developed your bodies
and made them strong, quick, and hard, and learn those
four things, you will be Marines. All things else can be
easily built upon that foundation, and all things else
that you are required to learn are comparatively easy,

290 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

once you have thoroughly mastered those four. Those
are the four great elements of the foot soldier.

• •••••

As you have often been told, we are fighting to make the
world a decent place to live in. We are fighting for future
generations, for the peace of the yet unborn as well as
for ourselves. So must we try hard, that while we fight
to make the world a decent place to live in, we do not
so conduct ourselves that those who are to be born here-
after will not be fit people to live in a clean and decent
world. We of America have stood on the sidelines and
, watched this ghastly war for three years, and now we
are in it. We have read with deep grief of the number
of splendid young men of England, France, Canada, and
Australia who have had their lives ruined, who have been
beaten not by the German foe but by disease behind the
lines. Scientists cannot estimate the harm that will be
done to future generations on account of the flood of dis-
eased blood that will be poured into the veins of those
countries because of these illnesses contracted during this
war. We only know that one hundred years hence there
will be deformed and misshapen babies born. There will
be half-witted men and women. The sum total of human
misery will be greatly increased and national efl&ciency
greatly lowered because of the diseases suffered by the
boys in the Great War. And we of America have seen it
all, and now we are in it too. Shall we not determine
that we of the Marine Corps at least shall win both wars?
So shall we be glad ever to look back with clean and lofty
pride upon our part in this great struggle.

Then, too, remember this. There is no man of us but
has left at home some woman. It may be a mother, a

AND A FEW MARINES 291

wife, a sister, a daughter, or only a girl. But there is
some woman vitally interested in each one of us. Let
me say to you that ours is the easy part, no matter what
suffering or hardships we have to undergo. You come here
to the island and you go through work that is hard and
trying, but that only needs a man's spirit in a man's
body. And all the while you are learning new things.
You are learning the art of the soldier. Your bodies are
being built up and there are things of interest constantly
coming to your attention. And so it will be throughout
all your service, until perhaps you find yourselves on the
battlefields of Europe. Even there, amid the horrors of
which we have read so much, you will find the curious
joy and exaltation of battle. After the guns begin to roll
and the first tremor of nervousness is over, you will find
the lust of battle to possess you. You will want to get
at the enemy. Every man who has ever been under fire
knows what I mean. And if the white road of duty shall
lead to the soldier's grave, after all, is that so terrible?
You will never again have a chance to offer your lives in
so noble a cause. All through your service you will have
the pride and glory of the thought that you are offering
all for humanity and for your country, and that is enough
to make things seem easy. You may think me childish.
Perhaps I am, but to me the sight of the flag takes the
hurt and the pain out of most things. To me the flag
seems like some beautiful spirit, lovingly brooding always
over our ships at sea and our camps at home and the
battle line of our men at war, the spirit of a nation looking
down in sympathy upon its sons.

They do not have that at home-^our women. They
only work and work and work for us, and then they pray.
And pray for three things: First, that the war shall be

292 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

soon over, and most earnestly may we join in that; and
then that their men, whoever they may be, will come
home again alive out of the struggle, and we can again
join in that. But we cannot promise; that is on the knees
of the gods, in the hands of fate. We may go home; we
may not; we cannot control our destiny. And then they
pray that, if we do come home, we shall come as clean
and decent and upright and honourable gentlemen as
we left — and we can do that. Nowhere in the world does
a man stand more squarely on his own feet, to make or
mar his character, than in the military service. We can
V go home clean if we want to. So remember always, if
you want to go back worthy to look your women in the
face, if you want to go back and have them glad you came
and not sorry that some kindly bullet did not leave you
on the field of honour over there — it is up to you, men;
it is up to you.

CHAPTER XVII

Some Reflections on the War

IT MIGHT be wiser, perhaps, if I were to leave
all critical discussion of the war in general and
the problems growing out of it to those trained
writers and thinkers who have made a special study
of these things. Viewing the situation broadly from
afar, their ears unassailed by the roar of cannon
and the groans of dying men, a clearer perspective
is granted them. But they are for the most part
civiHans, and my only excuse for indulging in these
closing reflections is that the views of a professional
soldier, whose Hfe has been spent with the Marines
and who has faced the Boche on the firing line, may
be not without a certain interest for those who gain
most of their conceptions of the war from magazine
writers and the editorial pages of the daily papers.

Before the war the German army was spoken of
as the finest military organization the world had
ever seen. Now that it has been defeated I have
sometimes been asked what I think of it. Well,
the military man still has the highest respect for the
German military genius. We must give the devil his
due. Strictly on military lines, it would have been
absolutely impossible to beat the German military
organization with anything like equal numbers.

293

294 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

That organization was so perfect in every depart-
ment, that each man counted for more than an^^
other single man in the world. And their capacity
for speedy mobilization was unexampled.

In the second place, the German system of strat-
egy, carefully and methodically developed by gen-
erations of military geniuses, was practically flaw-
less, and the German general staff was at least the
equal of any in the world. And in the present war
the reputation of that staff and that system of
, strategy has been amply justified. In Eoch the
German strategists met their match, but their system
is still unassailable; they never were beaten on
strategy.

How, then, shall we account for the downfall *of
the all-powerful German Empire.^ I think their
failure must be attributed to fundamental defects
in the German psychology and the basic error of
their belief that might can rule the world in spite
of right. They have utterly misunderstood the moral
motives and mental processes of other peoples;
they were mistaken in their belief in the German
type of discipline as affecting the fighting capacity
of the individual soldier; they underestimated the
duration of the war and hence overestimated their
own resources and staying power.

While the German military strategy has been al-
most perfect, many of the German war rheasures have
been fatally blundering. Their military judgment
has amounted to an almost infallible instinct; their
political judgment has often proved itself to be quite

AND A FEW MARINES 295

unintelligent. On numerous occasions their diplo-
macy has broken down completely.

The German theory of frightfulness is absolutely
logical if viewed only from a military point of view.
To destroy the morale back of an army is as effec-
tive as to destroy the morale of the army itself. If
you are out to destroy, why not destroy both root
and branch ? What the German in his blind follow-
ing of his faith in force failed to foresee was that in
neutral nations there existed a psychology which
would react against this theory of frightfulness and
so multiply Germany's opponents. He was hoist
by his own petard. If Germany had not murdered
babies in Belgium, if she had not ravished northern
France, if she had not destroyed cathedrals or
bombed hospitals or sunk the Lusitania, if she had
not, in short, followed out her theory to its logical
conclusion, the United States, loving peace, might
never have entered the war, and the Hun would
have been in Paris to-day.

The Germans, judging all men by their own char-
acteristics, misjudged the capacity of both the oppos-
ing commanders and the opposing troops. Measur-
ing them by a fixed, mathematical standard, they
wrongly estimated their power in the field.

And the Kaiser's own carefully prepared armies
failed him in the eleventh hour. The German
calculators failed to figure in the correct percentage
of depreciation. The Kaiser started the war with
a military establishment 100 per cent, efficient. It
was a perfectly adjusted machine. But the indivld-

296 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

ual parts of it weakened; the machine ran more and
more out of gear; and the Kaiser, knowing only how
to use a perfect mechanism, resorted not so much to
the strengthening of the weaknesses as to the general
repairing of the machine. During the last year of
the war he was running with a patched engine, and
a patched engine is not the thing he knows how to
run. In the four years of fighting the Germans
lost heavily in officers and a large part of their best
troops were used up. What they had left were not
a match for the flower of American manhood pitted
"against them.

The German soldiers and the German people
became w^ar-weary. As far back as last spring we
learned from prisoners that they were beginning to
feel that they could not win the war. They had
begun to distrust their leaders; rust was getting
into the German machine.

In this policy of deceit, in the belief of the German
ruling class that the common people could be made
to believe anything indefinitely, there lay one of
the greatest of German blunders. It had nothing
to do with strategy, but it was a fundamental defect
in their military theory.

In other words, the lOO per cent efficiency failed
because of fatal errors of judgment. The German
leaders misjudged Belgium, and France was given
a few precious days in which to prepare for the first
Battle of the Marne. They misjudged England
and brought against them the power of the British
navy, and later, the wonderful British armies. They

AND A FEW MARINES 297

misjudged the British colonies; they misjudged
the United States. All the brilliance of their military
genius and all the perfection of their system of
strategy could not avail against such basic errors
of judgment. Germany credited all men with selfish
motives and an elastic code of honour, and, thank
God, Germany was wrong.

One has also begun to wonder about the individual
German soldier, that perfect creation of the German
machine, who at last began to lose his nerve and
cry "Kamerad." Unquestionably he was the best
trained soldier in the world, and no military man
underestimates training. Not even the French sol-
dier was his equal in that respect, while we in America
have little conception of how thoroughly every Ger-
man was made over into a soldier. Individually he
was no coward, particularly when supported by his
fellows and his officers in a mass movement, as has
been demonstrated on a hundred occasions. What he
lacked was initiative, resourcefulness, adaptability,
the very things the United States Marines have
always sought to develop. Furthermore, the German
soldier is, as a rule, a poor marksman, while the
average American is a natural shot. I think I am
safe in saying that there are no finer marksmen in
the whole world than the United States Marines,
and I doubt if our boys would ever have been able
to take those machine guns in Belleau Wood if
they had not picked ofF four or five Germans with
their rifles for every American that fell. The German
soldier, with all his training, can be licked by a

298 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

Frenchman or a Canadian, and I believe that today,
man for man, the American troops are far superior
to the over-rated Germans in personnel.

It is difficult to characterize the American soldier;
it is hard not to brag. To the British and French
veterans who have learned all there is to know about
war during these four bloody years, we are still a
bit raw. But they all concede that the American
possesses courage, dash, initiative, a strong morale,
and a splendid physique. Perhaps it would not
hurt us to exhibit a little more modesty in the face
of events, but one cannot suppress a thrill of pride
when some battered old French Territorial glances
up from his trench digging with a broad smile at the
husky Yankee swinging by, waves his hand, and cries
with Gallic generosity, "Bon soldat! Bon soldat!*'

I believe that our part in this war has been vital,
that if we had not gone in Germany would have won.
The morale of the French people was unquestionably
at low ebb; they had begun to lose hope. Our first
troops got there none too soon, but even though they
were a bit slow at getting into the fighting, their
mere presence on French soil served to hold up
Foch's hands and brought back hope to the French
people. Our critics over here did not all believe
that these things were so, but the French knew. The
mere fact that half a million Americans were training
on French soil was enough to hearten volatile France.
They needed something more than mere fighters,
and they got it in the nick of time.

And if the United States Marines had not beaten

AND A FEW MARINES 299

back the Hun at Belleau Wood, Paris might easily
have fallen, and what would have happened to French
morale then ?

For morale may win or lose a battle or a war,
and the Americans, whatever else may be said of
them, were bubbling over with confidence.

One matter has been settled by this war which
my association with the Navy has led me to be
particularly interested in. The U-boat campaign
was a failure. It has been demonstrated that the
submarine is not the most formidable naval weapon
after all. The speed, efficiency, and resourcefulness
of the Allied torpedo boats and destroyers have
removed that question from the realm of debate.

Well, the war is over, and we all rejoice in that.
There has been enough of killing and of suffering.
But it has not been fought in vain if Germany's
military power has been thoroughly broken and its
menace to civilization ended forever. We must
remain constantly on guard to prevent the develop-
ment of any similar malevolent power elsewhere.

Never was there a conflict of human wills so fraught
with peril and despair as this one, nor so pregnant
with hope for the future of the human race. We are
proud that we had a part in it. Nor need we, I
think, reproach ourselves or our Government for
not taking a fuller part. We did what we were given
to do and God knows it was no child's play. We
went in with clean hands and we came out with hands
soiled only with the blood of international criminals.

So much for the conclusions to be drawn from the

300 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

military lessons of the war. In moral and ethical
fields it has taught us much. Especially have our
eyes been opened to new truths regarding prepared-
ness, efficiency, discipline, and democracy.

We have heard a lot about preparedness since
the Lusitania was sunk, but I am inclined to think
that a good deal of it is but dimly understood. It
seems to me that the first premise to be established
is that the thing to be prepared for is likely to be of
supreme and vital importance. It is one thing to
keep your revolver loaded on general principles;
it is quite another to be informed of the fact that
burglars are operating in the neighbourhood. The
Marine has learned that there are always burglars
operating in some neighbourhood, and his revolver
is always loaded. As for the Nation, I am not sur-
prised that Americans were slow to wake up to the
necessity for preparedness, for they did not believe
in burglars. It took a lot to convince them. But
perhaps the lesson has been learned and the Nation
will never become quite so completely demobilized
again. So long as human nature is what it is, so
long as there is a bare possibility that burglars Hke
the Potsdam gang may be in existence somewhere,
it is best to be ready.

Discipline is a thing that the average American
must more fully comprehend and beheve in if he is
to become a thoroughly effective and trustworthy
citizen, if the principles of American democracy are
to be justified. So far as it signifies serfdom, the free
American is right to condemn it. But when it be-

AND A FEW MARINES 301

comes part of a creed based upon truth, when it
subordinates individuaHsm only so far as to perfect
cooperation, when it means simply organization and
team-work, when it stimulates rather than dulls
personal intelligence and initiative, when it takes
into account that man lives not to himself alone
but is essentially a social being, when, in short, it
is the result of a broader vision, then discipline
becomes necessary to all national progress and the
forward march of human civilization. Such disci-
pHne is quite different from the Teuton idea of
utter subserviency to the State. To such discipline
the wise man submits while the fool rebels. He sees
in it a means of achieving the common good, which
includes his own. He is but conforming with univer-
sal law, to combat which is suicide.

It is this ideal of discipline, combined with courage,
will, and ability to act, that the Marine has learned
in the hard school of experience — an experience
more vivid and more varied than commonly falls
to the lot of man. A study of the ideals and creed
of the Marines, as exemplified by the history of the
Corps, is, I believe, a study of Americanism of a
type that is needed to invigorate, vitalize, and stabil-
ize our body politic and make us proof against those
political maladies and weakening influences which,
as history so clearly teaches us, insidiously beset
the prosperous nation.

National discipline we need. We have not yet
learned to obey the law as the soldier understands
obedience. We are an undisciplined people. Team-

302 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

work and cooperation are in their infancy with us.
And yet it would be a sorry day for democracy and
for us if we were to fall under the ban of Teutonic
efficiency, with the individual entirely subordinated
to the State, which, after all, was created by man for
man's benefit. Let us set up no man-made idols
to fall down before and worship. Let us beware of
the subtle lure of over-organization that leads to
bureaucracy, that deadly feeling of security in the
benevolent power of the machine. I speak of these
things because they are going to be questions that
we shall need to be awake to now the war is over
and we find ourselves struggling to extricate our limbs
from the net that we have in the emergency woven.

No military man can afford to say a word against
efficiency in its better sense, for efficiency is the chief
asset of the military establishment, but I doubt
whether we have so much to learn from the Germans
on that score as we thought we had. I fancy the word
will become less of a shibboleth with us than it was
before the war. We have already come to look
upon it with suspicion, like all other things made in
Germany. The Teutonic principles of efficiency
as applied to education, government, and industry
are too mechanical to fit in with American ideals.
They leave out of account the soul of man, and
leaving the soul out of account is the basic error
of the Teutonic theory of life.

As to democracy, two sorts have been brought
to our attention, the personal and the broadly social.
When two strong men stand elbow to elbow amid

AND A FEW MARINES 303

the naked realities of battle, caste appears as a futile
and artificial thing, without significance. Merit'
is the only criterion. And I trust that our young
men will come back to America with fresher and
clearer ideals of equality and brotherhood.

I have heard some comment as to the relation of
British and American officers to their men. I have
heard it said that we have much to learn from the
French in the matter of personal democracy. Well,
there is no hobnobbing between our officers and men,
no casting aside of class distinctions, no informal
slappings on the back, and I am sure that that sort
of thing is far less prevalent in the French army
than has occasionally been reported by imaginative
writers. That sort of thing is incompatible with
discipline, and discipline is the soul of any military
establishment. At the front the men must salute
the same as in camp. They must obey promptly
and must show proper respect for their superiors.
None of the snappiness of Marine discipline is
dropped, for that discipline is essential on the battle
front if anywhere.

Still, I doubt if a more cordial feeling of comrade-
ship exists anywhere in the world than between our
Marine officers and their men. It is based on con-
sistent justice and on the confidence of the men in
the unselfish devotion of their officers to the service
and to the personal welfare of their commands.
And there at the front we seemed to draw closer
together, like members of a big family with common
aims and interests at heart. There is nothing ap-

304 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

proaching servility in the proud Marine, but a ready
acknowledgement of authority through a complete
understanding of its necessity. If you had seen our
Marines fighting at Belleau Wood, you would
have become convinced of their implicit confidence
and trust in their officers. And that trust was not
betrayed. Those American boys who have enlisted
in the Marine Corps since the war broke out have
learned something, I believe, of the fundamental
relationship of man to man and have caught some
inkling at least of the truth that respect for properly
constituted authority and personal democracy are
not incompatible.

I hope, when they come back, it will be with the
deep-seated conviction that a man's money and his
social and business prominence do not necessarily
make him superior in political judgment or entitle
him to power or privilege. The spirit of Bolshevism
is abroad in the world to-day, and if we would avoid
its excesses we must beware of a post-bellum reac-
tionary movement tending toward special privilege,
the strengthening of class distinctions, and the bene-
fit of the few at the expense of the many. Let us
shun all political theories based on the false doctrine
of the divine right of the successful business man
to rule. That, rather than old-world aristocracy, is
our American danger.

And considering democracy in its broader sense, let
us never lose sight of the ideals that have been crystal-
lized in the heat of this war — the ideals of justice and
fair dealing among all nations and groups of mankind.

AND A FEW MARINES 305

I hope the war will have aroused us to the import-
ance of these questions. What its effect will be upon
those young Americans who left their peaceful
pursuits to shoot Germans, it would be difficult
to say. I suppose some of them will be ruined by it
all, physically and morally. There are always soldiers
who are spoiled for an industrious career in time of
peace; there are always some whose upset nervous
systems make them useless citizens forever after.
Following the Civil War the great army of tramps
sprang into being; there may be something like
that, only now we know how to handle those things
better and have already begun to tackle the problems
of post-bellum rehabilitation and employment.

One thing I am sure of, and that is that our modern
American military discipline is going to benefit every
man who has entered the service. They are all young
men, and the influence of this thing will not be fully
felt for a generation perhaps. But they will come
back with a better command of themselves, and I
look for a sturdier, more virile race of citizens in
the United States of America.

I must leave it for deeper students of such matters
to discuss our national problems after the war — •
political, economic, social, industrial. They lie
outside the province of the military man. There
will be a scramble for trade. There will be political
upheavals. Labour conditions will be woefully
upset. Business will be oflF its feet. And all our old
problems of before the war will be revived to an
intensified degree. I can only beg my fellow country-

3o6 WITH THE HELP OF GOD

men to be on guard against these things and pray
that statesmen may be raised up with sufficient wis-
dom and clearness of vision to solve these problems.
When the excitement of war is over, let us not sink
back into complacent inactivity. Like the Marines,
let us be ready and awake.

And finally I pray for a more robust and heart-felt
patriotism, a genuine love of country like that which
the Frenchman feels. So many of us have gone our
ways, getting and spending, with little thought of
our obligation to the land that gave us birth and the
"government that holds secure our sacred liberties.
Can we ever again feel like that, I wonder? Can we
meet a man who left an arm or his eyesight in France
and pass on without a thought of what it was all for?
Can we ever again look upon Old Glory as a mere
banquet-hall decoration? Can we read what our
college boys did in Belleau Wood without thanking
God that the soil trod by Washington and Lincoln,
the Pilgrim Fathers and the builders of the great
West, can still produce men of such stuff as that?

It is my country that went into this war solely
to save the ideals of Christianity from destruction.
It is my country that sent the flower of its manhood
to fight and die for that cause. It is my country that
stands here on the great Western continent, facing
the future with faith undimmed, ideals untarnished,
in the full strength of her prime, the world-acknowl-
edged champion of the rights of man. God save
my country!

APPENDIX

Historical Sketch

The following resume of the principal events in
the history of the United States Marine Corps is
furnished by the U. S. M. C. Publicity Bureau.

Soldiers who are enlisted for service either on land or
on board ships of war are known b}^ the distinctive name
of "Marines." In nearly all maritime countries claiming
to be war powers, they constitute a separate militar>' body
trained to fight either as infantrymen or as artillerists, and
especially for participation in naval engagements.

They are organized, clothed, and equipped very much
the same as soldiers of the land forces, and their prelim-
inary instruction is similar. For these reasons they become
qualified for duty with either the Army or the Navy, and
are, therefore, of double value to the nation which employs
them. Their headquarters barracks and depots are on
shore. Details from the barracks are made for service on
board ship when required. Marine detachments, accord-
ing to the size of the ship, vary in strength from a dozen
men under a Sergeant, to sixty or more men under one
or two commissioned officers.

The first authentic record of Marines in America bears
the date of 1740. Three regiments were organized in New
York for service under the flag of Great Britain. It was
presumed that the native Americans were better fitted for
service in this climate than Europeans. The field officers

309

3IO APPENDIX

were appointed by the king, while the company officers
were nominated by the American provinces.

On June 8, 1775, the Continental Congress resolved
"that the compact between the crown and Massachusetts
Bay is dissolved," and on November loth, of that year,
before a single vessel of the Navy was sent to sea, the
Marine Corps was organized by the following resolution:

"Resolved, That two battalions of Marines be raised,
consisting of one Colonel, two Lieutenant-Colonels, two
Majors, and other officers as usual in other regiments;
that they consist of an equal number of privates with
other battalions; that particular care be taken that no
" person be appointed to officers or enlisted in said battalions
but such as are good seamen or so acquainted with mari-
time affairs as to be able to serve to advantage by sea
when required; . . . that they be distinguished by the
name of the 'First and Second Battalions of American
Marines/ "

On December 13, 1776, Congress directed that thirteen
ships of war be built. On the 22nd day of the same month
Congress passed a resolution declaring Esek Hopkins
Commander-in-Chief, and appointed officers for all the
vessels then in service. This was the first step taken
toward the creation of the naval establishment which has
won imperishable fame for the United States, and upon
which is based the claim of the Marine Corps to be "the
oldest in the service."

In February, 1777, a battalion of three hundred Marines
and landsmen, under command of Major Samuel Nichols,
was landed from the fleet under command of Commodore
Hopkins at the island of New Providence, in the Bahamas,
assaulted and captured the English forts protecting the
island, taking a large quantity of cannon and military

APPENDIX 311

stores. This, the first battle of the American Navy, was
fought and won by the Marines.

During the following years of the Revolutionary War
they were at work proving their patriotism and devotion
to the cause which gave them being; and, in fact, through-
out their entire existence they have been in the front rank
of the Republic's defenders; zealous participants, on land
and sea, in nearly every expedition, action, or movement
in which the Navy has been engaged. Likewise have they
won honour and fame for themselves and their country
while serving in campaigns with their brethren of the
Army. The globe (which forms part of the corps's emblem)
has been their stage.

Conspicuous among their services is their part under
John Paul Jones in the battle between the Ranger and

the Drake, in the Irish Channel on April 24, 1778, in
which Lieutenant Wallingford, of the Marines, lost his
life at the head of his men. Again, in the great battle be-
tween the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis, in which
the Marines, numbering 137, lost 49 killed and wounded.
The American ship Trumbull seemed doomed when, on
June 2, 1780, it engaged the British frigate Watt in what
has been called the severest sea battle of the Revolution-
ary War. Lieutenant Jabez Smith of the Marines had
been killed. Captain James Day was mortally wounded,
and Captain Gilbert Saltnall, left in command of the Sea
Soldiers, had been wounded eleven times by shot and
shell-torn splinters. There was little hope of success, yet
the men fought on. Soon there was nothing left but the
foremast, yet the Americans doggedly continued until the
Watt, heavily punished, slowly drew^ away to safety. In
a few minutes its main-topmast crumpled and the Watt
gave up the fight altogether. In 1782, Captain Barney,

312 APPENDIX

in command of the Ryder Jlly, fitted out by the state of
Pennsylvania, with a crew of no seamen and Marines,
captured the British ship General Monk in Delaware Bay
after a hotly contested combat. This has been consid-
ered one of the most brilliant actions that ever occurred

under the American flag.

The Navy and consequently the corps of Marines, like
the Army, was disbanded at the termination of the Revolu-
tionary War, leaving nothing behind but the recollections
of their service and sufferings. On April 30, 1798, a regular
Navy Department was formally created, and on July 11,
1798, the Marine Corps was organized and established.

During the war with Tripoli, in 1803, in the fight be-
tween the frigate Philadelphia and the Tripolitans, "after
most gallant exertions" Lieutenant Osborne and his guard
were made prisoners. In the fight on the Tripolitan gun-
boats August 3, 1803, Lieutenant Trippe, engaged in a
hand-to-hand conflict with a Turk, was saved by a Ser-
geant, who "passed a bayonet through the body of the
Turk." The Marine Corps figured prominently in the
remarkable march of General Eaton, the American consul
at Tunis, from Alexandria to Derne, nearly six hundred
miles across the desert of Northern Africa. Upon arrival
at Derne on April 26, 1805, the Marines under Lieutenant
O'Bannon stormed and captured the native fortifica-
tions, hauled down the Tripolitan flag, and for the first
time in the history of the country y hoisted that of the Repub-
lic on a fortress of the Old World, and turned its gun upon
the enemy. Thereafter "TripoH" was inscribed on the
banners of the Marine Corps.

During the war of 181 2, in the glorious victory of the
Constitution over the Guerriere, the first ofliicer killed was
Lieutenant Bush, commander of the Marine Guard, who

APPENDIX 313

was ably assisting in repelling boarders at a critical mo-^
nient of the engagement. In the victory of the United
States over the Macedonia Lieutenants Anderson and Ed-
wards with their Marines fought with "utmost steadi-
ness." In the brilliant operations of the Essex in the
Pacific Ocean, Lieutenant Gamble, of the Marines,
gained a great reputation for "skill and efficiency," com-
manding in turn his guard, a prize ship, and a fort at
Nukahiva, in the Marquesas Islands. In the bloody fight
between the Shannon and the Chesapeake Lieutenant
Broom and eleven of his men were killed and twenty
wounded. The Marines also took part in the battles of
Lake Champlain and Lake Erie; in the action between
the Constitution and the Cyane and Levant; in the fight
between the President and the Endymion; and in the
fight on Lake Pontchartrain. On shore they were with the
Army under Scott in Canada, with General Winder at Bla-
densburg, with General Jackson at New Orleans, at North
Point, Baltimore, and in sundry affairs on the coast of Maine
and on the shores of Chesapeake and Delaware Bays.

In the interval between 181 5 and the Florida War
(1836-37) they were called upon, among other things, to
quell a serious revolt in the Massachusetts state prison;
to act against Spanish pirates in the W^est Indies and in
Sumatra; to guard public and private property at the
time of the great fire in New York (1835) for which they
received a vote of thanks from that city.

The capture of the American vessel Friendship by the
Malays led the Marines to Quallah Battoo on the west-
ern side of the Island of Sumatra in the year 1832. On
February 6th, Marines formed a landing party and at
dawn went ashore. The pirates and Malays were con-
gregated in a citadel which, with its massive stockade

314 APPENDIX

and fortifications, seemed to them impenetrable. The
natives jeered and yelled in derision when they saw the
Americans approach for what they considered an impos-
sible attack, but in less than an hour the Marines had
rushed the stockade. Then began a terrible hand-to-
hand struggle in which the Malays wielded their savage
knives. Again and again the Marines charged the de-
fenders, who by this time had taken to high platforms
where they could slash their assailants one by one as they
attempted to mount. After several hours the defenders
were routed and the few that survived fled from the town.

When Indian hostilities broke out in Georgia in 1836,
the disposable force of the Army being found inadequate,
Colonel-Commandant Archibald Henderson, of the Ma-
rines, promptly volunteered his services and those of the
Corps at that time on shore. Throughout Southern
Alabama and in the Everglades of Florida they served
under General Jessup against the treacherous Creek and
Seminole Indians.

From 1846 to 1848 the Corps was engaged in the war
with Mexico, where it figured in every quarter, and made
a most excellent record. Several detachments served on
the Pacific Coast under Commodores Sloat, Shubrick,
and Stockton, and on the East Coast under Commodores
Connor and Perry, and on shore under Generals Scott,
Taylor, and Worth. They were present at the capture
of Monterey, San Francisco, and Mazatlan, fought at
Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Gabriel, Yuerba
Buena, San Pedro, Santa Barbara, and Guaymas with
such credit that Commodore Shubrick recommended that
the Government double the number of Marines coming to
that station, reducing, if necessary for the purpose, the
complements of ordinary seamen and landsmen.

APPENDIX 315

On the East Coast they were engaged in the capture of
Matamoras, Tampico, Frontera, Tabasco, and Vera Cruz.
They were assigned to General Quitman's division in the
assault on Puebla. This was the first division to enter the
Grand Plaza, City of Mexico, which completes the ex-
planation of the inscription since found on the Corps's
banners, "From the Shores of Tripoli to the Halls of
the Montezumas."

The crowning honour, however, was at Chapultepec,
September 13, 1847, when the party assigned to the
storming of the castle, picked men from all corps, was
led by Majors Twiggs and Reynolds, both of the Marine
Corps. General Quitman in his report says:

"The storming parties, led by the gallant officers who
had volunteered for this service, rushed forward like a
restless tide. For a short time the contest was hand to
hand, swords and bayonets were crossed and rifles clubbed.
Resistance, however, was vain against the desperate
valour of our brave troops."

The gallant and lamented Major Twiggs fell on the first
advance at the head of his command.

These same Mexican heroes in 1852 and 1853 were
marching to the same music through the streets of Yeddo,
the capital of Japan, as a part of the celebrated expedi-
tion of Commodore Perry, which succeeded in opening up
the ancient empire of Japan to modern commerce and
civilization.

During the "Know Nothing" political excitement of
1847 Marines were ordered out by the President, upon
the request of the Mayor of Washington, to suppress an
armed mob of rowdies from Baltimore which had over-
awed the police. In 1856 they punished Indians who had
been slaying white men near Seattle, Wash.

3i6 APPENDIX

In 1858, Marines and sailors from the Vandalia had a
fierce conflict in the Fiji Islands with a body of native
warriors. In the same year a detachment was landed at
Montevideo, Uruguay, to protect the lives and property
of foreign residents from local violence. In 1858, when
a mob burned a part of the quarantine buildings at Staten
Island through fear of yellow fever. Marines were sent
from Brooklyn to "protect all the remaining buildings
at all hazards." In September, 1859, Marines blanketed
an insurrection in Panama.

In October, 1859, one hundred Marines were sent to
V Harper's Ferry to capture John Brown, and suppress the
rebels. This duty was carried out to the satisfaction of
the Secretaries of War and Navy.

In March, i860, Marines were instrumental in saving the
property of American residents at Kisembo, on the west
coast of Africa, and on September 27th of the same year
another party landed at Panama to protect the railroad.

At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1 861 the first duties
the Marines were called upon to perform were as rein-
forcements to the forces at Fort Sumter, Fort Washing-
ton, on the Potomac River, and Fort Pickens, Florida, and
to destroy the navy yard, ships, etc., at Norfolk, Va.
They participated in the first battle of Bull Run, at the
capture of Hatteras Inlet, in the Dupont expedition, at
Fort Clinch, and the battle of Port Royal, and in all the
expeditions and actions which followed along the coast
and up the rivers of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
They participated in the battle between the Merrimac and
the Minnesotdy Cnmberlandy Roanoke, and St. Lawrence.
At Roanoke Island, off Wilmington, N. C, operations in
the sound of North Carolina, and in the James and Po-
tomac Rivers they also assisted. On the lower Mississippi

APPENDIX 317

and in the terrible tumult at the passage of the forts,
"they more than maintained their reputation." They
fought under Farragut in the capture of New Orleans and
later served under him in the seizure of Forts Powell,
Gaines, and Morgan, which resulted in the destruction of
the Confederate fleet.

In 1862 Marines were the first troops to reoccupy the

Norfolk Navy Yard.

During the draft riots in New York in July, 1863, a
battalion of Marines won marked approbation by quell-
ing disturbances and guarding public property. They also
engaged in the night attack on Fort Sumter, and in the
battle between the Alabama and Kearsarge.

During the same year, on the Wyoming^ they were
fighting the Japanese forts at Simonosaki, Japan. They
also participated in the battle of Mobile Bay.

In November, 1864, two batteries of naval howitzers
and nine companies of Marines and sailors ascended Broad
River, South Carolina, cooperating with General Foster.
When Charleston was abandoned seven companies of Ma-
rines held the battery of fifteen guns. They also partici-
pated in the attack on Fort Fisher. In December, 1865,
Lieutenant French, of the Marines, with two Sergeants,
was sent to arrest and deliver Captain Raphael Semmes
of the Confederate cruiser Alabama, which was duly and
satisfactorily done.

Marines took part in the expedition against the savages
of Formosa in 1867 and 1870, also in the operations of
1 87 1 against the forts in Korea, where they led the

advance.

In 1869 they assisted the United States Marshal at
Brooklyn in preventing violation of the neutrality laws.
They were called out during the great fire in Boston in

3i8 APPENDIX

1872. In 1877, during the labour riots, Marines were taken
from the ships and barracks and rendered most excellent
service. Upon their return from this duty they were
reviewed by the Secretary of the Navy at Washington,
who in orders, among other things, pronounced them to
be a most important arm of the national defence, to be
confidently relied upon whenever the public exigency
should call them into active service.

In 1882 a detachment of Marines was landed at Alex-
andria, Egypt, for the purpose of preserving order and
preventing pillage.

In 1885 two battalions of Marines were sent to Panama
" for the purpose of keeping transportation open across the
isthmus.

In 1 89 1, during the trouble with the negro labourers in
the Nevassa Island, a detachment of Marines was landed
to protect American lives and property. During August
of that year a detachment was landed at Valparaiso for
the protection of the American Consulate. During the
months of July and August of the same year detachments
on board the Al Ki were used for the purpose of suppressing
seal poaching in the Behring Sea.

During the revolution in Hawaii in 1893 Marines were
landed in Honolulu for the protection of American interests,
as well as the lives and property of American residents.

Marines were used in 1894 for the suppression of riots
during the railroad strikes in California. From 1894 to
1897 detachments of Marines were used to protect the
American consulates in Korea and China.

In 1898 a detachment of Marines occupied Guanta-
namo, Cuba, defending it successfully, with the assistance
of the ships, against about 6,000 Spanish soldiers, thus
holding a base for the Navy. In the battle of Santiago*

APPENDIX 319

July 3, 1898, they distinguished themselves at the sec-
ondary batteries which, it is believed, inflicted most of
the damage to the Spanish cruisers. In May of that year
Marines were landed from Admiral Dewey's fleet at
Cavite, Philippine Islands, to hold the fort and naval sta-
tion after the battle of Manila Bay.

At the outbreak of the Boxer uprising m China in 1900,
Marines were sent from Manila (later reinforced by Ma-
rines from the United States), landed in China, partici-
pated in the battle of Tien Tsin, and the march to Peking
to the relief of the American Legation, which was being
besieged.

A battalion of Marines, under the command of Major
Waller, in October, 1901, landed in Samar (one of the Phil-
ippine Islands), and suffering many hardships and priva-
tions, marched entirely across the island through a most
hostile country. A number of the men died from the
hardships encountered.

In November, 1903, a company of Marines, commanded
by Captain Thorpe, and mounted on camels, accompanied
an American representative of the State Department
across the deserts of Africa into the heart of Abyssinia
to its capital for a conference with King Menelik.

During an insurrection in Korea in 1903 a company of
Marines, under the command of Captain A. J, Matthews,
was sent to Seoul, Korea, to protect the American legation.

Disturbed conditions in Panama incident to the holding
of elections was cause for the sending of an expedition to
that country in May, 1906.

Unsettled conditions in the West Indies caused a bat-
talion of Marines to be sent there^ in May, 1906, under
the command of Major Catlin. No service ashore was
performed by this battalion.

320 APPENDIX

In September, 1906, four battalions of Marines were sent
to Cuba, and later, in conjunction with the Army, became
the "Army of Cuban Pacification." The Army of Cuban
Pacification succeeded in pacifying the incipient Cuban
revolution of 1906, remaining in the field and occupying
Cuba for about two years. The Marines were the first
in the field and the only troops engaged in the disarma-
ment of the insurgent forces.

In June, 1908, Marines were dispatched to Panama, and
acted as police at the polls during an exceedingly tur-
bulent election, which threatened at one time to over-
throw the stable government of that republic.

The revolution in Nicaragua in December, 1909, threat-
ened destruction of property belonging to the Americans,
and an expedition under the command of Colonel Mahoney
was dispatched to Corinto. Another battalion under the
command of Major Butler was sent to Bluefields, Nica-
ragua, in May, 1910.

The Chinese revolution which resulted in the establish-
ment of the Chinese Republic in 19 10, caused much
uneasiness among the foreign residents in China. In Oc-
tober of that year, a battalion of Marines was sent from the
Philippines under the command of Major Bannon, to
reinforce the Marine Guard at the American Legation at
Peking.

The revolution in Nicaragua became severe, and in Au-
gust, 191 2, a battalion under the command of Major
Butler was sent to Corinto, Nicaragua, from Panama,
and a regiment commanded by Colonel Pendleton was
sent from the United States. This regiment took part
in several engagements and pacified the country. Four
lives lost, and a number wounded.

Border warfare between the negro republics of Santo

APPENDIX 321

Domingo and Haiti, involving Americans employed as
customs collectors, caused the United States to dispatch
a regiment, under the command of Colonel Moses, on
the Prairie to Port au Prince.

A brigade of Marines, under the command of Colonel
Karmany, was sent to Guantanamo, Cuba, in February,
191 3. This brigade returned to the United States in
May.

The Advance Base Brigade consisting of the 1st and
2nd Advance Base Regiments was concentrated at Cu-
lebra, Porto Rico, under command of the present Major
General Commandant, for instruction in advance base
work in January, 1914, and returned to the United States
in time to be diverted from their home stations to Vera
Cruz, Mexico, landing on April 22, 1 914, and taking part
in all the military activities incident to the occupation
by the American forces. Five lives were lost in the fight-
ing of April 22nd and 23 rd and a number of men were
wounded. Colonel Waller's brigade remained ashore at
Vera Cruz until November 23, 1914, when they returned
to the United States on transports chartered for this
duty.

On the West Coast the Fourth Regiment was assembled
at Mare Island, Calif., during this period and embarked
on board the Soxith Dakota, West Virginia and Jupiter
for duty oflF the coast of Mexico, but conditions did not
require Colonel Pendleton to land his force.

During the period of the Mexican occupation, conditions
in Santo Domingo became acute, and the Fifth Regiment
was assembled on board the transport Hancock under the
command of Colonel Charles A. Doyen and remained in
Santo Dominican waters until December, 1914.

Grave disturbances in Haiti compelled the dispatch of

322 APPENDIX

the First Provisional Brigade to that island in the sum-
mer of 191 5 and the establishment of a militar>^ govern-
ment by General L. W, T. Waller. Several units of this
brigade are still on duty in Haiti, and will continue there
until the organization of a force of native constabulary
known as the Gendarmerie d'Hayti and officered by Ma-
rine officers and non-commissioned officers has been per-
fected.

During April, 1916, conditions in Santo Domingo again
became acute and Colonel Pendleton was directed to as-
sume command of a provisional brigade made up from or-
ganizations in Haiti together with the Fourth Regiment
from the United States. This brigade is still in occupa-
tion of Santo Domingo and in charge of the administra-
tion of the civil and military governments, having lost a
number of officers and men in the actions incident to the
occupation.

In the spring of 191 7, a camp was established at Quan-
tico, Va., with Colonel A. W. Catlin in charge, for the
purpose of training Marine recruits for service in France.
In June the Fifth Regiment under Colonel C. A. Doyen
was landed in France. The Sixth Regiment under Colo-
nel Catlin followed in the autumn. These regiments were
brigaded together in the spring of 191 8 as part of the
Second Division, A. E. F., and took over a subsector of
the front Hne trenches in the Verdun region. Later they
took part in the fighting around Chiteau-Thierr}^, Sois-
sons, and elsewhere.

APPENDIX 323

The Marines' Hymn

From the Halls of Montezuma,

To the shores of TripoH,
We fight our country's battles

On the land as on the sea.
First to fight for right and freedom

And to keep our honour clean,
We are proud to claim the title

Of United States Marine.

From the Pest Hole of Cavite

To the Ditch at Panama,
You will find them very needy

Of Marines — That's what we are;
We're the watch dogs of a pile of coal.

Or we dig a magazine;
Though he lends a hand at every job

Who would not be a MARINE ?

Our flag's unfurled to every breeze

From dawn to setting sun;
We have fought in every clime or place

Where we could take a gun;
In the snow of far-off Northern lands

And in sunny tropic scenes,
You will find us always on the job —

THE UNITED STATES MARINES.

Here's health to you and to our Corps

Which we are proud to serve,
In many a strife we have fought for life

And never lost our nerve;
If the Army and the Navy

Ever look on Heaven's scenes,
They will find the streets are guarded by

THE UNITED STATES MARINES.

324 APPENDIX

III
Major Evans's Letter

I HAVE been granted permission to publish the
following remarkable personal letter from Major
Frank E. Evans, Adjutant, Sixth Regiment of
Marines, to Major General George Barnett, the
Commandant of the Corps. Major Evans was in a
position to view as a whole the Battle of Belleau
Wood, and this letter was written from the front at
about the time that action was completed.

France, June 2Qy 1918.

Major General George Barnett,
Headquarters Marine Corps,
Washington, D. C.

My Dear General:

I have been hoping to find time to write you something
about our recent activities, if as mild a term can cover
the capture of a Boche town two kilometres away from
our front line, and a week's fighting in woods honey-
combed with machine gun nests. I asked Lieut. Leonard,
Inf., U. S. R., attached to Zane's Company, to stop in
and give you some first-hand information and know that
you will find his news of great interest. He was selected
to return to the U. S. as instructor and his orders came
while he was in Bouresches. I got Holcomb by phone
one of the times his line was not cut, in his little cave
behind a rock out in front, and Holcomb relayed his
orders into Bouresches. Two minutes later Leonard was
out and on his way in.

APPENDIX 325

We have all been under a terrific drive from the time
we left our rest area on the 30th until we left our trucks
on the 1st and went into line that afternoon. Holcomb's
battalion was unloaded just in rear of the support position
to which our Brigade was assigned and his Co. Cdrs. got
part of their orders while their men were disembarking,
and then they deployed and went in. The strain accu-
mulated like a snowball rolling down hill until we were
pulled out temporarily on the 15th, and at times in that
long stretch it looked as though the elastic backbone of
the men and officers could not stand another tug, but
they were always ready on an instant's notice to deliver
a new attack or stop a new counter-attack. It made a
fatalist of me back at the P. C. where we were in constant
communication by phone or runner, until, the last five
days in line, I couldn't feel any more strain, nothing but
an absolute and serene confidence that the people higher
up knew what they were doing, knew the conditions, and
that our battalions would come across without a moment
of hesitation or faltering and carry on no matter how
black things were out there in the woods, or how close
they were to human limit of mind and body.

I feel as though I can talk as the battalion commanders
cannot talk, and tell anybody, without a feeling of boasting,
that the Marine Brigade not only lived up to the very
best traditions of our service, but even surpassed them at
times because we never faced such odds and never were
confronted by such a crisis. I was not bothered by the
consciousness of any heroic work on my part and at the
same time I had my fingers on the pulse of our regimental
front, for I talked with Holcomb, Hughes, and Sibley at
all hours of day and night, read their most intimate mes-
sages that were not intended for official reading, and

326 APPENDIX

talked to them when they were on the heights after the
first flush of their big victory, and when it seemed to them
that unless relief came there was nothing for them but
their back to the wall. And day after day I had to take
out my notebook in which I kept the officers' roster and
put opposite the names of officers who had been doing
such splendid work a K or W. And twice I had checked
off until not an officer was left in a company and more
than twice the notebook showed only one or two available.
When they came out for a breathing spell I saw more of
it by talking to officers and men, and I don't believe there
ever were three battalions where officers and men had such
a common feeling of strong love and affection and mutual
admiration for each other. They were brothers in arms
in the fullest sense of the word, and if ever any one asked
why our officers and men cannot adopt the French atti-
tude of officer-and-men comradeship, you can tell them
that those days in the lines simply was the medium
through which the constant care, the faithful performance
of duty, and the live interest that our officers, notably
the platoon officers, had shown from the Quantico days
in their men, was translated into as perfect a comradeship
as could exist between men. I saw then towards the end
out in the woods when it was possible for me to get
out, and I found them out there serenely confident, their
faces showing the strain, but the old spirit unconquered.
And I found them either clean shaven or shaving, and
Turner, Hughes' old adjutant, then acting as Garrett's
adjutant, as Hughes had just been evacuated, gassed,
could have walked into the White House and passed in-
spection.

Things broke so quickly that I have not found it possible
to keep accurate notes of what we have done in the last

APPENDIX 327

month, but at times I was able, and I hope to patch up
the gaps through visits to the battalions so that, when
the time comes, and I am able to, I can write down the
stor>'' of these days.

We left our rest area at 4:00 A. M., May 31, in camions,
20 to 30 in a camion, having bivouacked the night before
as we had expected to leave at 6:00 and again at 10:00 that
night. We took a route that skirted within 15 kilometres
of Paris and when we reached those villages we realized
that we were really on our way. Our other villages had
been drab, primitive, little villages where we had com-
fortable billets and a simple hospitality. Here we found
beautiful little towns with charming villas, blooming
gardens, and French who had that unconquerable gaiety
of the Parisian, and they lined the roads and threw flow-
ers into the trucks or handed them to the men, and waved
American flags at us. It was a wonderful transformation
and the men responded to it. Then, as we neared Meaux,
we saw our first fugitives on a road that was a living
stream of troops in camions, guns, and trains hurrying
to the front. And the refugees went straight to the
heart of us. When you saw old farm wagons lumbering
along with the chickens and geese swung beneath in coops,
laden down with what they could salvage, cattle driven
by boys of nine or ten years, little tots trotting along at
their mothers' skirts, tired but never a tear or whimper,
saw other groups camping out on the road for the night,
there was the other side, the side that I think fired the
men to do what they did later. I saw one wagon coming
along towering to the top with boxes and mattresses, and
on the top mattress was a white-haired old lady who
would have graced any home, dressed in her best, and
with a dignity that blotted out the crude load and made

328 APPENDIX

you think of nothing but a silver-haired old lady who was
the spirit of a brave people that met disaster with dig-
nity. Meaux was crowded with them, but we had learned
by that time that the work of getting them into new
homes was well organized, and we knew that the camions
that were rushing our division up to the lines would pick
up many of them on the return. Up from Meaux the
road went straight to the front with glimpses of the
Marne. And it was a living road of war, troops on foot
and in the lumbering camions, French dragoons trotting
by with their lances at rest and the officers as trim as
though they had just stepped out of barracks, trains, am-
bulances, guns from the 75's to the 210's, staff cars
whizzed by, and a trail of dust that coated the men in
the camions until they looked like mummies.

It was late in the evening when we were diverted to
the right of our first destination. It was midnight when
our 1st Battalion halted in their trucks at a point seven
kilometres back of where we finally went into line, and
officers and men bivouacked on the roadside or in the
fields. We found orders to throw us into the line that
night, but two of our battalions had been held up, the
men were sadly in need of rest for they had practically
no sleep for two nights, and it was finally decided by the
French to put us in the next afternoon. And Holcomb's
battalion arrived just in time the next afternoon so that
the orders could be carried out by rushing their trucks
close up to our line and deploying them out from the
trucks to their positions.

So it was June i when we took up the support line with
French troops, hard presssed by the Boche holding the
line out in front. The news was that the Boche was com-
ing. Our first P. C. was in the outer edge of a strip of

APPENDIX 329

woods that is now two kilometres in rear, with as much
protection from any kind of fire as a spot in the speed-
way. But from what the French told us the Boche
guns had got up in small numbers and in their fight the
Boche had fought with machine guns, a prodigious quan-
tity of them, and grenades. Our position then linked up
on the left in front of Champillon with the 5th, who in
turn had the 23rd on their left. The 5th had Wise's
Battalion in line while we had the ist and 2nd, with
Sibley in support. On our right were the French. The
next day, the 2nd, the French began to drop back, tired
out and outnumbered, and that afternoon, by prearranged
plan, they were to pass through and our line was to be-
come the front line. In the meantime, to close up a gap
between us and the 5th, we had put three of our reserve
companies into line on the left, and that afternoon the 6th
held a front of 7 kilometres with one company as regi-
mental reserve.

We had dropped back from our too-close-to-nature P. C.
and installed ourselves in a house in La Voie Chatel, a
little village between Champillon and Lucy-le-Bocage.
From one side we had observation of the north, and
when the Germans attacked at 5 p. m. we had a box seat.
They were driving at Hill 165 from the N. and N. E. and
they came out, on a wonderfully clear day, in two col-
umns across a wheat field. From our distance it looked
flat and green as a baseball field, set between a row of
woods on the farther side, and woods and a ravine on the
near side. We could see the two thin, brown columns ad-
vancing in perfect order until two-thirds of the columns,
we judged, were in view. The rifle and machine fire were
incessant and overhead the shrapnel was bursting. Then
the shrapnel came on the target at each shot. It broke

330 APPENDIX

just over and just ahead of those columns and then the
next burst sprayed over the very green in which we could
see the columns moving. It seemed for all the world
that the green fields had burst out in patches of white
daisies where those columns were doggedly moving. And
it did it again and again, no barrage but with the skill
and accuracy of a cat playing with two brown mice that
she could reach and mutilate at will and without any
hurry. The white patches would roll away and we could
see that some of the columns were still there, slowed up,
and it seemed perfect suicide for them to try.

You couldn't begrudge a tribute to their pluck at that.
Then, under that deadly fire and the barrage of rifle and
machine gun fire, the Boche stopped. It was too much
for any men. They buried in or broke to the cover of
the woods and you could follow them by the ripples of
the green wheat as they raced for cover. The 5th bore the
brunt of it and on our left the men raked the woods and
ravines to stop the Boche at his favourite trick of infil-
trating through. An aeroplane was overhead checking
up on our artillery's fire and when the shrapnel lay down
on those columns just as an elephant would lie down on
a ton of hay, the French aviator signalled back to our
lines "Bravo!" The French, who were in support of the
5th and at one time thrown into the line, could not, and
can not to-day, grasp the rifle fire of the men. That men
should fire deliberately and use their sights, and adjust
their range, was beyond their experience. The rifle fire
certainly figured heavily in the toll we took, and it must
have had a telling effect on the morale of the Boche, for
it was something they had not counted on. As a matter
of fact, after pushing back the weakened French and then
running up against a stone wall defence, they were lit-

APPENDIX 331

erally up in the air and more than stopped. We found
that out later from prisoners, for the Germans never
knew we were in the front Hne when they made that at-
tack. They were absolutely mystified at the manner in
which the defence had stiffened up until they found that
our troops were in line.

The next day Wise's outfit pulled a spectacular stunt in
broad daylight. They spotted a machine gun out in front,
:alled for a barrage, swept out behind it, killed or wounded
every man in the crew, and disabled the gun. They got
back O.K. and then the Boche launched a counter-attack
that was smashed up. For the next few days we were
busy pushing out small posts to locate the enemy, and to
reoccupy such strong points as were beyond the main line
assigned us. While it had all been prearranged, our
people were anxious to recover what they could, without
precipitating an engagement, of some of the ground
evacuated by the French.

The real fireworks broke on June 6, when a general ad-
v^ance on the Brigade front to straighten out the lines and
recover territory was decided on. In the meantime the
23 rd had been brought in from the left and put on our
right, Holcomb's flank. Our Division sector had been
shortened to about the front that the 6th had held and we
bad two Bns. of the 5th and two of the 6th in line. At
5:00 p. M. we started out for our new objectives, on a
wonderful day, and the twilight is so long here that it
was practically broad daylight. The eastern edge of the
Bois de Belleau and Bouresches were our main objectives,
with Torcy and other parts of the Belleau the 5th*s.
Sibley's battalion and Berry's of the 5th had the advance
with Holcomb's in support. The Colonel and Capt.
Laspierre, our French military adviser, went out to Lucy,

332 APPENDIX

the central point behind the advance. Sibley moved out
in perfect order, and poor Cole told me the night before
they got him that when Holcomb's 96th Co. moved out
later and came through the woods and into the wheat
fields in four waves, that it was the most beautiful sight
he had ever seen. The artillery preparation was short
and one of the platoons of our machine gun company
laid down a barrage. But out in the thick Bois de Belleau
liaison was extremely difficult. The woods were alive
with machine guns, and at times, where our lines and
those of the 5th had passed through, they soon found
Boche and M. G.s in their rear. The advance on the left
was held up by stubborn fighting, but about 9:00 Sibley
sent in a runner with word that his left was advanced as
far as his right, that he had reached the N. E. edge of
the woods, that the worst of the M. G. nests were on a
rock plateau near his P. C. but that he had sur-
rounded it.

In the meantime word came in that Col. Catlin had been
wounded and I felt that the bottom of the war had
dropped out. He had such a complete grasp of military
situations, was familiar as no one else could have been
with what was to be done, and officers and men invariably
looked to him, and there seemed no limit to his capacity
for work or his ready sympathy with and understanding
of his subordinates. Capt. Laspierre had gone to report
to Feland, who was in charge on the left, when a shell
burst near and he was evacuated, shocked and gassed.
It was a double blow. The Colonel had moved a short
distance out, as he had planned, from Lucy to watch the
first phase. He was standing up in a machine gun pit
with his glasses up, when a sniper drilled him clean
through the right of his chest. It was a clean wound and

APPENDIX 333

ill our reports lead us to believe that he will be out by
:he middle of July if not sooner.

In the meantime, because of the extreme difficulty of
iaison and with a dark night closing in, orders went out
:o consolidate. This came just before we had word
rom Sibley. It was just 9:45 when word came in that
Bouresches had been taken by Robertson*s platoon of the
)6th, or rather the 20 odd men of his platoon who had
nanaged to break through a heavy machine gun barrage
md enter the town. One of Sibley's company had been
issigned the town, with Holcomb's battalion to establish
he line from there to where the 23rd's left flank lay.
t had been unable to advance and at the same time
:eep in touch on its left as ordered. Duncan, however,
learing that this company was 200 yards in advance
an error), raced ahead with his 96th Co. and was met
)y a terrific machine gun barrage from two sides of and
rom Bouresches. As Robertson told me, he had managed
o get part of his platoon through the barrage and, looking
)ack, saw Duncan and the rest of the Co. charging through
he barrage, "go down like flies." Robertson had one-
lalf of the line and Duncan one-half. Robertson blew
lis whistle just before this to bring up all of his half of
he line, and missed Lt. Bowling. He passed the word,
'Where is Johnny.?" and saw Bowling get up, face white
nth pain, and go stumbling ahead with a bullet in his
houlder. Duncan, the last he saw of him before he
V2LS mowed down, had his pipe in his mouth and was
arrying a stick. Dental Surgeon Osborne picked Duncan
ip and with a hospital corps man had just gained some
belter when a shell wiped all three out.

Later Robertson gained the town and cleaned out the
ioche after street fighting in which his orderly. Private

334 APPENDIX

Dunlavy (killed later in the defence of the town), captured
and turned on them one of their machine guns; others fil-
tered through, also the 79th Co., under Zane. Holcomb
was very enthusiastic about Zane's handling of the town.

In the meantime, although the capture of Bouresches
was the most spectacular of the first fighting, Sibley was
having heavier work in the Bois de Belleau. He reported
early that there were many machine guns in the woods.
At first prisoners came in early and the men who brought
them back reported that the companies were cleaning
up fast with few casualties. Young Timmerman charged
one machine gun nest at the point of the bayonet and sent
in 17 prisoners at a clip.

To be able to get this letter ofF under present conditions
I will have to condense the rest, much as I would like to
give a more detailed story of it, and at the same time I
don't want to write a letter that will go down with Paul's
Epistles to the Ephesians in length.

After the first batch of prisoners came into the court-
yard of our P. C. and stood with hands up in the orthodox
Kamerad style, and the runners were full of the easy
manner in which Sibley was going through the woods,
there came a message that the woods ahead were full of
machine guns and that one, on a rock plateau in the
northeastern edge, was especially troublesome, a nest
estimated to hold between 10 and 12 guns. Then came
word that he had reached the limit of his objective at
the edge of woods, that he had surrounded the machine
gun nest and was awaiting orders. Then came word
from the Brigade to dig in and consolidate the position
won. Two Cos. of Engineers were placed in Lucy, one
for each Bn. We sent out a truck loaded with ammunition
and tools to Bouresches, got up our Stokes and one-

APPENDIX 335

founders for Sibley, and Holcomb was ordered to stralght-
m out his line from Bouresches straight down the to Tri-
mgle Farm where the 23 rd rested its left flank. The truck
-vent out with Lt. W. B. Moore, the captain of track
:eam, halfback on the football team, and President of
:he Senior Class at Princeton last year. The whole road
vas lighted up by flares and exploding shells and swept
)y both artillery and heavy machine gun fire. It was a
•;reat trip and we had 50 volunteers from the Head-
quarters Co., of whom we only sent the necessary crew.
^Vhen it got back we knew we could hold Bouresches,
md the counter-attack at 2:30 in the morning, although
t got within 30 feet of the town, was smothered by our
ire.

The 7th was spent in getting rations, water and am-
nunition out to both battalions, and the little Ford we
lave hung on to, although it was twice on the verge of
lalvage, ran through a period of 36 hours over the road
0 Bouresches in daytime and at night, or to a point from
vhich the stuff could be carried off to the left to the
avine running along the right of Sibley's position. All
hat day and the next Sibley's men rushed machine gun
lests in hand-to-hand fighting. The guns were emplaced
m crests in the thick woods, on rocky ridges, with fire to
dl points. Their light guns could easily be moved around
0 our flanks or rear and the Boche certainly know the art
)f working through, infiltrating, and opening fire from
mexpected quarters. Many times the groups got a
ooting on these crests, only to have to fall back in the
ace of a deadly machine gun and stick grenade fire. It
vas work of the most reckless courage against heavy odds
md they took their toll of us for every gun captured or
lisabled. All through this time Sibley had Boche and guns

336 APPENDIX

on his flank and in his rear, for the woods were held by
both forces and the Haison on our left had been crippled
by the initial advance in which the Bn. on his left, Berry's,
and his own had to fight their way in the dark, and Berry
wounded early in the fight.

On the 9th Sibley was withdrawn to a point from which
the artillery could hammer away at the machine gun nests
which had been thoroughly located. For an hour 50
American and French batteries of 75*s and 150*8 threw
everything they had into those woods on the right.
Hughes went in on the loth and his first message was that
the artillery had hammered the Bois de Belleau into mince
meat. Overton, who had taken over the 76th Co, that
day, charged the old rock plateau position in brilliant
fashion, killing or capturing every gunner and capturing
all the guns, and with few casualties. He got his later
when the Boches shelled him in his hastily dug-in position
for 48 hours. Hughes captured six minnenwerfers, and
about 30 guns, light and heavy. The copy of commenda-
tions we sent to you will tell you better than anything
else the story of Sibley's magnificent work before the
artillery preparation made the task an easier one. Young
Robinson charged into certain death to take one nest
and a string of bullets caught him full in the breast.
Young Roberts, a runner told me — the last time the runner
saw him — was flat on a rock not twenty yards away
from one gun, blazing at it with an automatic in either
hand. They hit him three times, and hit him hard
before he would consent to go to the rear. There was
not an officer left in the 82nd Co. and Sibley and his
adjutant, Bellamy, reorganized them under close fire and
led them in a charge that put that particular nest out
of business at :he most critical time in all the fighting.

APPENDIX 337

I heard later tnat at that stage some one said: "Major

Sibley ordered that " [and another man said "Where

in hell is Sibley?" Sibley was twenty yards away at the
time and a hush went down the line when they saw him
step out to lead the charge. And when the word got
around that dead-tired, crippled outfit that "the Old
Man" was on the line, all Hell couldn't have stopped
that rush. With all the stories that Fve heard about it
I wonder if ever an outfit went up against a more des-
perate job, stuck at it more gamely without sleep, at times
on short rations, with men and officers going off like flies,
and I wonder if in all our long list of gallant deeds there
ever were two better stunts than the work of Sibley and
Holcomb.

Since the loth, while the fighting has not been of that
savage hand-to-hand character, we've been in there, the
two regiments, always advancing, never giving an inch,
attacking and smashing counter-attacks by the literal
score. They've had five and part of a sixth Division vs.
our Brigade and one-half the time three Divisions at once.
One of them, the 28th, is one of their finest.

Just one more incident of Sibley's work. The supply
of grenades gave out at one time, due mostly to the fact
that no one knew what a veritable nest of machine guns
those woods sheltered. They would have been a God-
send, and as one of the men said, "When I thought of
the hundreds I'd thrown away in practice, I'd have given
a million dollars for a grenade more than once."

They've had reliefs for a few days, the battalions, for
It's a battalion war now, but many people would hardly
call it rest. It was the best we could get but the rest
woods were shelled at times, there was no chance to scrub
and wash clothes, and if it rained no shelter except ponchos

338 APPENDIX

and little dugouts that were soon flooded. But every time
they went back into the lines, dead tired, but with a
spirit that made any task possible. There were times
when it seemed to me, with my talks over the phone,
their official and unofficial messages and their reports of
casualties, of bombardments and gas, that they must
have reached their limit and could not hold. But they
held like grim death without a whimper and got away
with it. At one time, when a borrowed regiment took
over the sector for a few days, the battalions marched
back to the Marne for a swim. They had to go before
daybreak, and return at nightfall, and by the worst of
luck those were cold, rainy days.

We're still in and the line now takes in all the woods
from our right, which Sibley is now holding, up to the
left where the French are. In one night on the 26th,
Shearer moved his line forward for the 5th and sent in
560 prisoners. The next two nights, Keyser, on the ex-
treme left, for the 5th, moved his lines and took up the
positions assigned without a loss, and sent patrols 3CX) yards
ahead without resistance.

The Boches have had the fight knocked out of them
and admit it. The artillery has done wonderful work at
all times. The last big draft of prisoners had been cut
off from supplies for three days by our fire. One man
in the 1 6th Co., Lennert, captured and held in the front
lines, brought in unarmed a captain, 4 lieutenants and 73
Germans, unarmed. Another Marine, wounded and
found in a dugout by Shearer's men, had had his fun
when they hammered questions at him, in a smattering
of French, German, and English. When they asked him
how our food supply was, he said, " Bon. Beaucoup chow."
When they wanted a line on our machine guns they asked,

APPENDIX 339

"Combien put-put-put?" and he came back with "Beau-
coup put-put-put.'* The prisoners vary a lot, some fine,
big chaps and many look like retired farmers, undersized,
or running down to 17. At first they thought we were
Canadians, but the last lot say all the Germans know we
have about 700,000 and they say they don't want to
fight us, that we give them no rest and our artillery pun-
ishes them terribly. We've found lots of letters and
diaries and the diaries are interesting. They start off
with the Gott mit Uns lines and boasts of what they will
do to the big Americans. Then they tell of lying in the
woods under a terrific fire and about the big Americans
who seem to know no fear. Then they end, a complete
story of disillusionment.

I know you will be interested in what gallant work the
officers and men are doing. The men have learned that
the officers will lead them anywhere and the men worship
them. And the officers will talk you to a finish at any
time about their men. But they'll hit us heavily on
officers for they had to fight with a reckless bravery to
carry the day. The day I saw Holcomb's men going down
to the Marne for their swim and for a good cootie hunt,
I saw what looked like a rear guard. It was the 78th
and 96th Co.'s fifty-eight men under one second lieuten-
ant, and in that 58 were men who had been back at the
kitchens and not in the line. A battalion with 64 per
cent officers and 64 per cent men casualties. We put
our replacements to them a few days before, right out
to the lines, and they numbered 1,300. Three days later
they mustered 12 officers and 472 men. A gas and high
explosive bombardment did the bulk of it during a night
relief, but of course a big percentage of them will be back
soon. Last night we had an uneasy time for they gassed

340 APPENDIX

a large area from 4 to 9, but we only had two casualties.
The higher percentage was due to a black night and they
had to pick up their wounded and give them first aid,
and make their way to their new position. And men
can't give first aid and hike without seeing, so they ab-
solutely had to take their masks off for short periods. No
fault was found with the gas discipline by the gas oflBicers.

Frank E. Evans,
Major, 6th MariruSy A. E. F.

P.S. — Last evening, in a space of 20 minutes, I saw four

German sausage balloons go up in smoke to the N. of us,

one after another, the work of some real aviator. Things

are quiet and we expect a change soon. The very latest

news from Col. Catlin is that he is out of the woods and

should be fit for duty in 3 to 5 weeks. The French have

proposed him for the Legion of Honour.

F. E. E.

Cited For Valour in Action

Headquarters Second Division
American Expeditionary Forces

General Orders "[ France, July 5, igi8.

No. 40. /

I. The names of and the deeds performed by the fol-
lowing named officers and enlisted men of this division are
published as being well worthy of emulation and praise, n

Major EDWARD B. COLE, 6th M. G. Battalion, U. S.

Marines:

For extraordinary heroism in organizing positions, June
loth, resulting in the loss of his right hand, and wounds in

APPENDIX 341

upper arm and both thighs from enemy machine gun fire,
and for excellent judgment in disposing his guns during
the fighting from June 2nd to loth inclusive, until he fell.

Captain JOHN BLANCHFIELD, U, S, M. C:
Captain DONALD F. DUNCAN, U. S. M, C:
Captain JAMES McCOY, U. S. M. C:
1st Lieutenant ORLANDO C. CROWTHER, U. S, M, C:
2nd Lieutenant CLARENCE A. DENNIS, U. S. M. C:
2nd Lieutenant H. LESLIE EDDY, U, S. M, C:
2nd Lieutenant WALTER D. FRAZIER, U. S. A/. C:
2nd Lieutenant THOMAS H. MILES, U. S, M. C:
2nd Lieutenant C. C. ROBINSON, U. S, M. C:
2nd Lieutenant VERNON L, SOMERS, U, S. M. C:
2nd Lieutenant JOSEPH A. SYNOTT, M. C. R,:
Marine Gunner W, R. CORNELL, U. S. M. C:

For extraordinary heroism in stemming the German
advance in this region, and in thrusting it back from every
position occupied by the 4th Brigade from June 2nd to
nth inclusive.

Captain KELLER E, ROCKEY, U. S. M, C, Acting Bat-
talion Adjutant, ist Battalion, ^th Regiment:

Performed distinguished service as well in bringing up
support as in taking them to the front lines and putting
them in place there, demonstrating great personal courage,
exceptional ability, and extraordinary heroism. He was
indefatigable and invaluable to his Battalion Commanding
Officer in carrying forward the attack and organizing and
stabilizing our position.

Captain JOHN H. FAY, Commanding 8th Machine Gun
Company, jth Marines:

By displaying extraordinary heroism when placing his
machine guns in position. He was in the fight at all

342 APPENDIX

times encouraging his men and by his utter indifference
to danger set an example to all near him.

1st Lieuunant EDWARD B, HOPE, 45th Company, Sth
Marines:

For his coolness and courage in directing his platoon in
the attack on the morning of June 6th, during which time
he was badly wounded and refused assistance until wound-
ed men near him had been treated.

Marine Gunner HENRY L. HULBERT, 5/A Marines:

For his extraordinary heroism on June 6th and for his
invaluable services in assisting the supply service at all
times. Due to his efforts and the organization which he
has built up, the men holding the line have been supplied
with food regularly. Under the present trying circum-
stances no one could have rendered more valuable serv-
ices than Gunner HULBERT.

Captain PHILIP T. CASE, 47th Company, 5th Marines:

During trying times the last two weeks has shown ex-
traordinary heroism at all times. His manner of meeting
trying conditions was always cheerful and confident. He
has kept his company in excellent shape, faithfully car-
ried out his orders at all times.

1st Lieuunant ALBERT P, B ASTON, 17th Company,
Sth Marines:

Although shot and wounded in both legs by machine
gun fire, after leading his platoon through the woods on
June 6th, he refused to go to the rear until after personally
seeing that every man in his platoon was under cover and
in good firing position.

APPENDIX 343

1st LieuUnant ROBERT BLAKE, lyth Company, ^th Ma-
rines:

Displayed extraordinary bravery under fire, during the
attack on June 6th, in volunteering and going forward
after the line was temporarily held up, and crossing and
recrossing an open field, swept by machine guns, in order
to establish liaison between his company and the 49th
company. Later, again under heavy machine gun fire,
he crossed a wheat field in order to establish liaison with
French troops on the left. Although repeatedly sniped
at, he fulfilled his mission and returned with valuable in-
formation.

Gunnery Sergeant ARTHUR /. RINDAU, 47th Company,
$th Marines:

While organizing a combat group during the attack,
under terrific fire was killed. During his last moments he
gave directions to the group which were carried out and
an attempt by the enemy to flank his company was
stopped.

Gunnery Sergeant JAMES CARBARY, 4ytk Company,
§th Marines:
During an attack, went up and dragged out from in
front of the enemy machine gun position two wounded
men. He was fired upon, but miraculously escaped, al-
though the feat seemed absolutely impossible. He was
within fifty yards of this gun and brought out the two men,
one after the other, and escaped unharmed.

1st Lieutenant JOSEPH A. HAGAN, sist Company, ph

Marines:

For extraordinary heroism during an attack on June 6.

Led his platoon forward under heavy machine gun fire;

when his platoon was forced to retire due to heavy losses

344 APPENDIX

he noticed the loss of his Gunnery Sergeant and returned
through fire and brought this man back.

1st Sergeant WALTER G. ALLEN, i8th Company , s^^

Marines:
Sergeant GEORGE C. COLON, i8th Company, sth Marines:

These men displayed exceptional bravery and coolness
during enemy bombardment and attacks of June 7-8-9,
continually walking up and down the line of their platoon,
regardless of personal danger, steadying and encouraging
their men.

1st Sergeant JOHN GRANT, 20th Company, ^th Marines:

Showed extraordinary heroism and coolness in devotion
to duty; was killed while crossing a field swept by ma-
chine gun fire trying to deliver an important message to
reserve.

1st Sergeant DANIEL A. HUNTER, 116828, 67th Com-
pany, 5/A Marines:

During the attack, he fearlessly exposed himself and
encouraged all men near him, although he himself was
wounded three times. He subsequently died of his wounds.

Sergeant Major CARL J. NORSTRAND, 1 18863, ist Bat-
talion, £th Marines:

Volunteered to rescue wounded men from the field swept
by machine gun fire and under fire of snipers. He con-
tinued this work with the aid of other volunteers until
all in this particular place had been brought in.

Corporal ARNOLD D. GODBEY, 1 16923, 67th Company,

3th Marines:

Followed Sergeant Major NORSTRAND, assisted in

rescuing wounded on fire swept field with great danger to

himself. Corporal GODBEY himself carried in three men.

APPENDIX 345

Sergeant JOHN H, CULNJN, 116338, 4pth Company, sth
Marines:

Was directed by Major TURRILL to assist a wounded
man to the rear; while so doing was wounded in the head
but carried out his mission and succeeded in bringing the
other wounded man to the dressing station for aid.

Private JOHN KUKOSKI, 116482, 49th Company, ^tk
Marines:

Ran into a German machine gun. Several of his com-
rades were killed and wounded but he alone charged the
gun and with the utmost bravery captured it and its crew
with an officer. These he compelled to carry the gun to
the rear where he turned the gun into Regimental Head-
quarters and delivered the prisoners to Brigade Head-
quarters.

Gunnery Sergeant CHARLES F. HOFFMAN, 116329,
4gth Company, jth Marines:

Displayed coolness and extraordinary heroism through-
out the attack. During the counter-attack by a party of
Germans armed with light machine guns he organized
resistance and rushed the enemy off, killing several. When
only about 10 yards away Sergeant HOFFMAN first saw
the party of the enemy, he jumped at them, alone with a
rifle. The men near him advanced with him. This action
formed the basis for a successful resistance. Gunnery
Sergeant HOFFMAN was severely wounded at this time.

Sergeant JOHN CASEY, 116334, 4gth Company, ^th Ma-
rines:

Wounded during the counter-attack, he remained to or-
ganize his group and after successful resistance he refused
to go to the rear as he was senior in the group. Refused

346 APPENDIX

medical attention until the enemy had retired and then
remained long enough to assure himself that his men had
dug in properly.

Corporal PRENTICE S. GEER, 304300, 67th Company,
^th Marines:

When enemy counter-attacked he was among a group
that was isolated and in a bad position. He jumped to
the front yelling to the men to follow him and charged the
enemy with his bayonet. His comrades followed him,
capturing a machine gun crew and repulsed the attack at
that point.

burgeon PAUL T. DESSEZ, U. S. N., Regimental Sur*
geon, ^th Marifies:

On the day that the regiment suffered its heaviest losses,
June 6, 191 8, this officer organized the service of caring
for and evacuating of the wounded in a most systematic
and admirable manner. As there were few of his officers
and men who had had experience in this work and as the
terrain and the villages in which the above work was or-
ganized were not well known, the duty required almost
constant exposure to the fire of the enemy on the part of
Surgeon DESSEZ; it is felt that to the extraordinary hero-
ism, coolness and energy on his part, was due the efficiency
with which this work was performed.

Corporal ROBERT McC. FISCHER, 118548, 20th Com-
pany, ^th Marines:

Corporal CHARLES AUER, 11Q303, 20th Company, ph
Marines:

Corporal WILLIAM L. GRIFFEN, ii8o6g, 45th Com-
pany, $th Marines:

Sergeant JAMES J, GIBBONS, 118068, 45th Company^
^th Marines:

APPENDIX 347

Corporal CHARLES JV. HEWITT, JR., 1 18233, 45ih Com-
pany, 3th Marines:

Gunnery Sergeant HAROLD TODD, 118030, 43th Compaiiy,

3th Marines:
Corporal CHARLES E. PL ATT, 118 187, 43th Company,

3th Marines:

1st Sergeant WILLIAM HIGGINSON, 118048, 43th Com-
pany, 3th Marines:

Sergeant LUTHER W, PILCHER, 11 48 37, 20th Company,
3th Marines:

Sergeant WILLIAM B. PERMLEY, 117036, i8th Com-
pany, 3th Marines:

1st Sergeant JOHN GRANT, 1 18440, 20th Company, 3th
Marines:

Sergeant FRED T, LUKINS, 1 18432, 20th Company, 3th
Marines:

Corporal WILLIAM HANSEN, 118363, 20th Company,
3th Marines:

Gunnery Sergeant FRANCIS J, FLYNN, 118441, 20
Company, 3th Marines:

Sergeant STEPHEN G. SHERMAN, 1 18636, 20th Com-
pany, 3th Marines:

Sergeant VINCENT M, SCHWAB, 1 18700, 8th Company,
3th Marines:

Corporal BENJAMIN T. STRIN, 119617, 43th Company,
3th Marines:

Gunnery Sergeant ARTHUR /. RINDEAU, 11844, 47th
Company, 3th Marines:

Sergeant WILLIE R, JEFFRESS, 1 18342, 47th Company,
3th Marines:

Corporal MEARL C, ALEXANDER, 119119, Headquar-
ters Company, 3th Marines:

348 APPENDIX

Sergeant JOHN W. RODGERS, 117276, 43Td Company,

^th Marines:
Sergeant BERNARD WERNER, 117282, 43rd Company,

3th Marines:
Corporal KARL W. LOCKE, 117487, 31st Company, ^th

Marines:
Corporal FRANCIS J. DOCKX, 117749, 5Sih Company,

3th Marines:
Corporal GEORGE A, MINCEY, 1778 10, S5th Company,

3th Marines:

Who showed extraordinary heroism in the engagement
on the morning of June 6 and gave their lives fighting.

Captain GAINES MOSELY, 47th Company, ^th Marines:
During the attack on the enemy on the morning of
June 1 2th, accompanied by one man, successfully went
through territory occupied by Germans in order to estab-
lish liaison with the unit on the flank of his Company.
By this action of extraordinary heroism liaison was estab-
lished which had a bearing on the general result of the
fight. Captain MOSELY during the whole period of the
fight has assisted greatly in keeping the troops in good
spirits.

1st Sergeant EDMUND MADSEN, 47th Company, ^th
Marines:

Displayed extraordinary heroism during an attack,
when with two men he rushed enemy machine gun positions
and reached within three feet of the gun where he was
killed, June 6, 191 8.

Sergeant OLIVER D. BERNIER, 47th Company, jth
Marines:

During an attack and while under intense enemy ma-
chine gun fire stood up and broke down with his bayonet

APPENDIX 349

a wire fence which was impeding his company's progress,
thereby displaying extraordinary heroism and coolness
under trying conditions.

Sergeant JAMES A. PATTERSON, i6th Company , sth

Marines:
Sergeant P. W, JEWELL, i6th Company, ^th Marines:
Corporal HERBERT St. GEORGE, i6th Company, jth

Marines:
Private FRANK W. ADDANTE, i6th Company, 5th

Marines:
Private PHILIP J. REIHL, i6th Company, sth Marines:
Private GILBERT W, YOUNG, i6th Company, 5th Ma-
rines:

Displayed extraordinary heroism during an attack,
June 6, 1918, during which engagement all were killed.

Sergeant THOMAS R. REATH, 43rd Company, sth Ma-
rines:

Killed in action while delivering an important message
under heavy barrage, June Sth, 191 8.

Private ELVIN CAMPBELL, i6th Company, sth Ma-
rines:

After being wounded by fragment of high explosive
shell conducted wounded comrade to first aid station
under heavy shell fire. His act probably saved his com-
rade's life, as he was badly wounded and no stretcher
bearer available.

Private JAMES L, CLARKE, 4.7th Company, sth Ma-
riites:

During an attack, although wounded, delivered mes-
sage to battalion headquarters over a mile distance
through enemy territory, and fell unconscious.

350 APPENDIX

Private D. P. COL FIN, i8th Company, Sth Marines:

Displayed great bravery and coolness under heavy
enemy bombardment in caring for wounded comrades
during the enemy attack of June 7-8. As Acting Gunnery
Sergeant of his platoon he was continually exposed to the
enemy shellfire and machine guns, while walking up and
down his platoon trenches, encouraging and steadying his
men.

Private HENRY T. LAWSON, 20th Company, 5th Ma-
rines:

On duty as regimental messenger, while delivering a
message to regimental headquarters, through an open
country through shellfire, noticed several wounded men
lying in the field, delivered his message and reported to
the Regimental Commander, where these bodies were, vol-
unteered to lead an ambulance to nearest point on the
road and then assisted stretcher bearers to bring in
wounded.

Private ALOYSIUS LEITNER, Headquarters Company,
^th Marines:

For extraordinary heroism during the capture of three
officers and 169 enlisted Germans, in an attack on June 12,
although seriously wounded, continued to fire and assist-
ed in taking prisoners, six Germans who were operating
machine gun. He died at the hospital.

Private ROY H. SIMPSON, 47th Company, 5th Marines:

Delivering a message from Battalion to Company Head-
quarters ran directly across the face of enemy fire. He
was struck in the chest by bullets. He called out " I must
deliver this message," ran about 50 feet and fell dead.

APPENDIX 351

Private J. P, THORP, i8th Company^ ^th Marines:

Killed in action during the attack of June 7-8, while
remaining at his post with his automatic rifle, in an ex-
posed position. He inflicted heavy losses to the enemy
until he was killed by a shell.

Captain GEORGE W. HAMILTON, 49th Company, ^th
Marines:

During an attack on the enemy, showed exceptionally
brilliant leadership. He advanced his company a kilo-
metre to his final objective against an enemy in trenches
and equipped with machine guns. He and his company
passed through several zones of machine gun fire. When
it is known that this company lost approximately ninety
per cent of the ofiicers and non-commissioned officers and
fifty per cent of company in casualties. Captain HAMIL-
TON'S rare quality of leadership is apparent. During lat-
ter stages of the attack, after the men had lost their lead-
ers, he ran up and down his line under severe fire leading
his men forward and urging them on, by cheering and
similar efforts. He did this at great personal exposure.
Captain HAMILTON displayed a quality of extraordi-
nary heroism,

1st Lieutenant JON A PL ATT, 4gth Company, ^tk Ma-
rines:

Splendid example of leadership rendered. He joined
the 49th Company on June 5th. From the instant of
joining, he showed wonderful organization powers and
was an inspiration to his men. During the advance on
Hill 142, morning of June 6, he and several squads passed
the objective several hundred yards. They were here sub-
ject to heavy machine gun fire from both flanks. He or-
ganized an attack on one flank and gradually retired with

352 APPENDIX

his men to the Company in the first line position. During
the counter-attack, he brought his group to the assistance
of another platoon, took charge of both platoons, drove
back the enemy who were armed with machine guns.
During the action, he was badly wounded in his leg but
refused to return until his men had been properly dis-
posed and dug in. His coolness and bravery were remark-
able. Even after being wounded he refused assistance
and dragged himself about, giving his orders.

Lieutenant-Colonel LOGAN FELAND, Headquarters Com-
panjy ^th Marines:

' During gas alarm on the morning of June 6, while on
duty at Regimental P. C, was notified that the 8th Ma-
chine Gun Co., with the 17th Infantry Co. following,
could not find the route to go into action. Finding the
8th Machine Gun Co., with the Infantry Co., Lieutenant-
Colonel FELAND led them through CHAMPILLON,
which was being shelled, and sent them in. Finding the
Infantry was not the 17th Co. but part of the 66th, he
returned through CHAMPILLON, found the 17th Co.,
took them in according to plan of Battalion Commander.
He then went to the P. C. of the 1st Battalion Command-
er, volunteered to perform any duty that would help,
which assistance was of great value, displayed a high type
of courage.

Major JULIUS S. TURRILL, Commanding ist Bat-
talion, jth Marines:

For his extraordinary heroism and splendid example in
an attack made by the ist Battalion, on the morning of
June 6th. He exposed himself to danger constantly, kept
his command in hand at all times, and displayed the qual-
ities of leadership of a very high type.

APPENDIX 353

Captain LLOYD W, WILLIAMS, 51st Company , 5M
Marines:

Led his Company fearlessly, advancing over heavy fire,
reached his objective, organized it and secured it to left
front of the ist Battalion and aided materially in holding
the ground taken; he was killed.

Captain ROSWELL WINANS, 17th Company, sth Ma-
rines:

Rendered distinguished services in leading his company
through a woods of considerable depth, cleaning the way
before himself, ^nd coming up on the right (of the 49th
Company) where he held steadfastly and well organized
his position, meantime standing some counter-attacks.
Captain WINANS' Company was in support in the first
stage, and then took an active part. His skill, fortitude,
and high personal courage contributed loyally to our suc-
cess.

Captain PETER CON ACHY, 45th Company, sth Ma-
rines:
Showed extraordinary heroism leading his company,
carrying out the orders of his Battalion Commander cheer- '
fully, coolly, and courageously. Captain CONACHY'S
performance of duty during this trying period has been
most excellent. During the occupation of the town of
BOURESCHES received a gun-shot wound and was evac-
uated to hospital.

1st Lieutenant JAMES A, NELMS, Sth Company, ph
Marines:

1st Lieutenant J. H. NICHOLS, Sth Company, jth Ma-
rines:

Although both were wounded while leading their re-
spective platoons under trying conditions, had their

354 APPENDIX

wounds dressed on the field and remained with the Com-
pany.

1st Lieutenant GILDER D. JACKSON, i8th Companyy
£th Marines:

2nd Lieutenant W. W, ASHURST, i8th Company, j/A
Marines:

2nd Lieutenant H, A. ZISCHEX, i8th Company, 5th Ma-
rines:

2nd Lieutenant CHESTER H. FRAZER, i8th Company,
^th Marines:

These platoon commanders displayed exceptional brav-
" ery, coolness, and ability in handling men and showed dis-
regard of personal danger during the enemy attack of
June 7-8-9, and led their men fearlessly against machine
gun positions.

2nd Lieutenant ERNEST TOOMEY, 20th Company, sth

Marines:
2nd Lieutenant PERCIVAL L, WILSON, 20th Company,

^th Marines:

Showed extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty
during the movement of their platoons, both being badly
wounded during an attack.

2nd Lieutenant MERWIN H, SILFERTHORN, 20th
Company, 5th Marines:

Who on June 13th, received his commission as 2nd Lieu-
tenant, continued in the attack after being wounded.

2nd Lieutenant HAROLD T, PALMER, 5th Marines:

Promoted to 2nd Lieutenant June 13th, displayed ex-
ceptional bravery in handling section under heavy ma-
chine gun and artillery fire during an attack.

APPENDIX 355

2nd Lieutenant BERNHARDT GISSELL, U, S, R,, 17th
Company, ^th Marines:

He has shown high qualities of leadership and personal
bravery in command of his platoon and led them under
heavy shell-fire in repulsing a counter-attack of the en-
emy, June 6.

2nd Lieutenant EARL W, GARVIN, iph Company , ^th
Marines:

He showed great courage and daring when, after repel-
ling two counter-attacks, he led his platoon in a brilliant
charge against a machine gun position, captured the gun
and crew and immediately turned the gun against the
enemy. Later he captured another machine gun.

Lieuunant RALPH McN. WILCOX, sth Marines:

Who rendered most valuable service making reconnais-
sance, performing other services which required great per-
sonal exposure to danger.

Lieutenant BALL, §th Marines:

Who rendered most valuable service making reconnais-
sance, performing other services which required great per-
sonal exposure to danger.

Lieutenant MAX GILFILLAN, 66th Company, jth Ma-
rifles:

Who was badly wounded while leading his men into
action.

Passed Assistant Surgeon PAUL T, CROSBY, U. S. N,,
Sth Marines:

His untiring energy, extraordinary display of bravery in
the performance of his duty in giving assistance to the
wounded, and his constant application to his work, labour-

356 APPENDIX

ing unceasingly for four days and nights with but Httle
sleep during the days of attack, he was responsible for sav-
ing many lives. Dr. CROSBY worked under all condi-
tions and in many cases in the front lines with a disregard
for personal danger, inspiring to his men.

Pharmacist Mate CHARLES B. ROBERTS, U. S. N.y

8th Company, Marines:
Private DEWEY MANNER, 8th Company, 5th Marines:
Private JOSEPH /. McQUEENEY, 8th Company, 5th

Marines:
Private ANDREW HICKEY, 8th Company, 5th Marines:

Showed extraordinary heroism under heavy machine
gun fire volunteering to cross open field to bring in wound-
ed who were calling for help, on the night of June 7th, 191 8.

Chaplain JOHN J. BRADY, U. S, N., Headquarters,
jih Marines:
For his devotion to duty and his coolness under fire,
carrying out his duties as Chaplain, exposed himself fear-
lessly, made a complete tour of the front line twice, carry-
ing cigarettes to men who would not have an opportunity
otherwise to get them.

ist Sergeant THOMAS J. McNULTY, 116583, 66th Com-
pany, 5th Marines:
Badly wounded while leading and encouraging men of
his company. Displayed courage of the highest order.

Quartermaster Clerk THOMAS DORNEY, Headquarters,

4th Brigade, M. C. {Warrant Officer, 30 Years Enlisted

service):

For displaying remarkable bravery and coolness in the

performance of his duty in loading ammunition truck and

accompanying it along shell swept roads at night.

APPENDIX 357

S^rg^ant PHILLIP H. KNOWLES, M. C. R,y Head-
quartersy 4th Brigade:

For displaying courage and coolness in the performance
of his duties and driving an automobile under heavy shell-
fire upon several occasions.

Corporal GEORGE W. DAME WOOD, Headquarters, 4th
Brigade, M. C.:
For courage and coolness under fire, and for driving
motorcycle with side car containing an officer along shell
swept roads, upon several occasions.

Corporal HUGH C. FAN AMBURGH, Headquarters,
4th Brigade, M. C:

For courage and coolness under fire, and for driving
motorcycle with side car containing an officer along shell
swept roads, upon several occasions.

Corporal GEORGE W. RIDER, Headquarters, 4th Brig-
ade, M, C:
For courage and coolness under fire, and for driving
motorcycle with side car containing an officer along shell
swept roads, upon several occasions.

Sergeant HARRY T, BURNS, i6th Company, Sth Marines:

While in charge of ration carrying party was struck in
the head by a shell fragment and knocked down, rendered
unconscious. As soon as he recovered, he reorganized his
party and brought in the rations.

Trumpeter JAMES C. TONER, i6th Company, 5th Ma-
rines:
Trumpeter DAVID RUFF, i6th Company, sth Marines:

Both made trips carrying messages under heavy shell-
fire, showed extraordinary heroism, never failing to de-
liver messages promptly and properly. '

358 APPENDIX

Gunnery Sergeant WILLIAM H. MACK J, 20th Com-
pany ^ ^th Marines:

Showed extraordinary heroism in attacking machine
gun nest in the face of murderous fire. When his platoon
commander was wounded, he took charge of the platoon
and led it successfully.

Private HOLLIS E. EMPEY, 5^A Marines:

Made a very courageous attempt to pick up wounded
from in front of machine gun nest.

Private J J RON K, SHERRITTA, 20th Company y 5th
Marines:

After being wounded he refused to be evacuated, re-
mained with his platoon throughout entire attack. Later
sent to the hospital.

Private GEORGE 0. BISON ETTE, 20th Company, jth
Marines:

Continued in the attack after being wounded and fought
courageously.

Private ROY C. LASHER, 4^th Company, ^th Marines^
Private SIDNEY STREETY, 4Sth Company, 5^A Ma-
rines:

Private HARRY WULFMULLER, 45th Company,. sth
Marines:

For extraordinary heroism in carrying messages through
enemy barrage, keeping liaison from battalion to com-
pany open at all times.

Corporal VICTOR M. LANDBRETH, 47th Company,
^th Marines:

Private PHILIP B, WILKIE, 47th Company, sth Ma-
rines:

APPENDIX 359

Private WALTER MORRIS, 47th Company y s^h Marines:
Private CHARLES H. LEWIS, 47th Company, s^h Ma-
rines:

For four days went under heavy bombardment and
machine gun fire, carrying messages between Company
and Battalion Headquarters, performing their tasks with
an eagerness and daring, and seeming almost impossible
for human beings to pass through the beaten zone.

Private NORMAN A. SIMKINS, s^st Company, sth
Marines:
Displayed extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty,
carrying messages under heavy machine gun fire.

1st Sergeant GEORGE STOKES, sist Company, sth Ma-
rines:
Personal bravery and devotion to duty under heavy ar-
tillery bombardment during attack on the BOIS DE
BELLEAU.

Sergeant RAYMOND H, GORDON, 51st Company, 5th
Marines:
For extraordinary heroism and personal bravery during
the attack on the BOIS DE BELLEAU.

Gunnery Sergeant LAWRENCE C. SVESEY, sist Com-
pany, 5th Marines:

Although wounded himself, he assisted in taking care
of others while under heavy bombardment.

Private EDWARD C. TOMPSON, 45th Company, 5th
Marines:

During an attack went through extremely heavy bom-
bardment, to transmit important information that the
enemy were massing in the wood to the front.

36o APPENDIX

Sergeant WILLIAM R. CLEVELAND, 51st Company,
§th Marines:

Showed extraordinary heroism in looking after his sec-
tion during hea\^ bombardment during an attack, keep-
ing them together and cheering them on at all times.

Corporal DAVIS SEVERCOLL, 51st Company, sth Ma-
rines:

While a bombardment was still on, after being knocked
down and dazed by a bursting shell near him, he assisted
a wounded man of his squad to a safer place and returned.

Gunnery Sergeant RICHARD S, ROSS, ^ist Companv,
^th Marines:

While suffering from shell shock, he dressed wounds of
mem.bers of his platoon, while under heavy artillery bom-
bardment.

Sergeant LESTER L, HOGDON, jist Company, S^h Ma-
rines:

Private EDWARD DORSET, sist Company, 5th Marines:
Corporal EDWARD W. HALLER, sist Company, ^th

Marines:
Private ARTHUR ASH, jist Company, sth Marines:

Have shown extraordinary heroism in dressing wound-
ed and placing them in places of comparative safety, while
under heavy bombardment.

Sergeant DAVID A, R. THOMPSON, 51st Company,
£th Marines:

Went forward in the open, in plain vie^v^ of the enemy,
during an attack and carried water and food to a wound-
ed man, too severely wounded to be moved until dark.

APPENDIX 361

Gunnery Sergeant NICOLAS CLAUSONy 51 ^^ Company ,
^th Marines:

During the attack on June 6, under heavy machine gun
fire and not knowing how strongly the objective point was
held, he reached same with five men and opened fire on a
machine gun found there.

Sergeant EDWIN RUNQUIST, Headquarters Company,
^th Marines:

private BRUCE MERRY, Headquarters Company, ^th
Marines:

Private NORMAN DUBERVILLE, Headquarters Com-
pany, §th Marines:

Private WILLIAM M. FEIGLE, Headquarters Company,
^th Marines:

Private CHARLIE MITCHELL, Headquarters Company,
^th Marines:

Private CLIFFORD EVANS, Headquarters Company, ^th
Marines:

Private HARRY HOBBS, Headquarters Company, ^th
Marines:

Private FRED MILLER, Headquarters Company, ^th Ma-
rines:

All regimental runners and motorcycle orderlies who
have shown conspicuous bravery and heroism in carrying
messages at all times, day and night, during most trying
times.

Privau OWSE KAPARSTANSKI, 51st Company, sth
Marines:

Although severely wounded, carrying a heavy ammuni-
tion clipbag, continued to advance with his auto-rifle under
heavy machine gun fire, reached the objective and pro-
tested against being sent to the rear for treatment.

362 APPENDIX

Sergeant ANDREW M. PERISH, 51st Company, 5^/1
Marines:
While under heavy artillery bombardment, showed ex-
traordinary heroism and attended the wounded members
of his platoon until he himself was wounded

Sergeant JAMES W. SUTHERLANDy 5th Marines:

After the wounding of Gunnery Sergeant, he took
charge of platoon, displayed marked bravery and cool-
ness in handling platoon under heavy artillery fire and
very trying conditions.

Gunnery Sergeant CECIL A, WILLI AMS, 51st Com-
pany, 5th Marines:
Although wounded, ably assisted his platoon command-
er in conducting advance under extremely heavy machine
gun fire.

Privau JOSEPH F. WRUK, S^st Company, stk Marines:
Painfully wounded, carried a comrade to the rear on
his back.

Private LEO GLADSTONE, 51 st Company, sth Marines:

Although shot through the arm, cheerfully assisted in
the dressing of other wounded while under heavy fire.
Refused to go to the rear to have his own wound dressed.

Sergeant GEORGE LAMBETH, sist Company, 5^^ Ma-
rines:
Corporal FRED HIMMELBERGER, 51st Company, 5tk

Marines:
Corporal WALTER HAY BRIGHT, 51st Company, ^th

Marines:
Private CALVIDE W, SCHWA BE, 51st Company, S^

Marines:

APPENDIX 363

Private JOHN /. McCORMICK, ^ist Company y s^^ ^^-
rines:

Brought in wounded under heavy bombardment by ar-
tillery and machine guns.

Sergeant FRANK GREY, ^ist Company, Sih Marines:

Although detached on special duty, he volunteered for
duty with platoon when sergeants of that platoon were
all wounded, took charge of the men, carried on his duty
with marked coolness and bravery.

Sergeant J. H, PARONS, 5th Marines:

During a violent bombardment, one man of his group
was wounded. He with two other enlisted men removed
the wounded man through heavy shell-fire, during which
time the wounded man was killed, and the two men with
him were wounded. On June 5th he brought in two se-
verely wounded Germans under heavy shell-fire.

Private L, COOMBS, 43rd Company, ^th Marines:
Private WILLIAM T. HAY DEN, s^st Company, 5^A
Marines:

Assisted in carrying in wounded; both men were struck
by shrapnel bullets and both returned to duty after hav-
ing wounds dressed.

Sergeant VINCENT M. SCHWA BE, 8th Company, sth
Marines:

While in performance of his duty, while in charge of
section of machine guns, was killed.

Gunnery Sergeant CHARLES F, M cC A RTHY, 17th Com-
pany, sth Marines:

After his lieutenant had been wounded and evacuated
to the rear, he took charge of his platoon and continued

364 APPENDIX

to encourage and lead them into position, even after he
himself had been wounded.

Private W. T, B, GREERy iph Company, 5th Marines:

Conspicuous for his bravery and coolness under fire.
Has rendered invaluable service to his company com-
mander in delivery of messages under difficult circum-
stances.

Private P. W. DURR, 17th Company, 5th Marines:

Showed extraordinary devotion to duty and after being
wounded while acting as runner and gas sentry, called his
relief in person and remained on post until properly re-
lieved.

Sergeant JOHN G. O'LOUGHLIN, 17th Company, sth
Marines:

Showed bravery and coolness under fire. After his lieu-
tenant and gunnery sergeant had been wounded, he as-
sumed command of his platoon and led it throughout
the battle. He personally disposed of a great many
snipers who were shooting our men.

Sergeant A, E, RATCHFORD, 17th Company, 5th Ma-
rines:

Volunteered to complete liaison with the 51st Company
and did so, crossing a shell swept area without regard for
personal danger.

Sergeant PAUL J. ROBIN ETTE, 17th Company, 5th
Marines:

Displayed extraordinary courage and bravery under
fire, directing the digging in and consolidating of position
under heavy shelling, until wounded.

APPENDIX 365

Corporal W. A. MEYERSy 17th Company, jth Marines:

Displayed remarkable courage and disregard of per-
sonal danger by running a gauntlet of snipers to obtain
valuable information from another unit, on June 6.

Corporal HAROLD McL, MADY, 17th Company, 5^A
Marines:

Was wounded in the performance of his duty in deliver-
ing a message through a shell swept area and made con-
siderable part of the distance after having been wounded,
on June 6.

Private ERNEST E. BORAH, 17th Company, 5th Ma-
riTies:

Displayed great courage and devotion to duty in deliv-
ering messages upon numerous occasions through severe
shellfire and on June 6th volunteered to bring up ammu-
nition for a captured German gun and exposed himself to
machine gun fire.

Gunnery Sergeant W, HILLMAN, i8th Company, 5/A
Marines:

He displayed exceptional coolness and braveiy under
fire during enemy attacks on June 7-8-9. Disregard-
ing personal danger, he rescued a number of wounded
under severe shellfire.

Private HAROLD J, DEMARS, Headquarters Company,
^th Marines:

For coolness and bravery, after being wounded, refused
to go to the rear until after all the eneriiy were taken from
their machine gun nest which he with others were charg-
ing.

366 APPENDIX

Sergeant J. F, SEEWERKER, i8tk Company, 5th Ma-
rines:
Showed exceptional coolness and bravery under heavy
enemy bombardment and machine gun and rifle fire dur-
ing enemy attack of June 7-8, encouraging and inspiring
his men by his utter disregard for personal danger.

Corporal J. A. STOVER, 18 th Company, 5th Marines:

Showed exceptional bravery during the enemy attacks
of June 7-8-9, in conducting and encouraging the men in
his squad, displayed a disregard to personal danger which
was an inspiration to his men.

Private A. R. DAHL, iSth Company, Sth Marines:

Although himself wounded, he assisted in rescuing

others, more severely wounded near him, doing so under

a violent shellfire.

Sergeant F. P. MOVICK, iSth Company, Sth Marines:
Displayed great bravery in rescuing wounded during

the shelling of June 5th.

Hospital Apprentice GLENON, U, S. N., i8th Company,
5th Marines:
He displayed greatest zeal, bravery, and efficiency in at-
tending the wounded during the enemy attack of June
7-8-9 and when he worked continuously for two nights
and days under heavy shellfire.

TrumpeUr F, W. WATSON, j8th Company, sth Ma-

tines:
Private W. E, AUMAN, i8th Company, sth Marines:
Private R. C. LARKER, i8th Company, sth Marines:

These men displayed great bravery and devotion to
duty in delivering important messages through enemy

APPENDIX 367

shellfire and machine gun fire, making long and dangerous
trips through dense woods, the nights of June 7-8-9.

Gunnery Sergeant M, W. SCOTT, i8th Company, ^th
Marines:

He displayed exceptional bravery and coolness during
the enemy attack of June 7-8-9 in handling the men of his
platoon while exposed to severe shell and machine gun
fire.

Sergeant GUY C. STRICKNEY, i8th Company, 5th Ma-
rines:

Sergeant ELLSWORTH D. WORKMAN, i8th Company,
^th Marines:

Sergeant ANTHONY A. WOJCZYNSKI, iSth Com-
pany, 5th Marines:

Corporal LANGDON C, RICKETTS, iSth Company, 5th
Marines:

These men displayed exceptional coolness and bravery
during a heavy enemy bombardment of their company
sector, June 7-8. They continually and fearlessly exposed
themselves to heavy shelling, in order to maintain liaison
between scattered groups, under most difiicult and dan-
gerous circumstances.

Private RICHARD P, WILLETT, 18th Company, sth
Marines:

After being wounded, during enemy bombardment,
June 7-8, he showed great fortitude and continued in
action against the enemy until exhausted, cautioning the
men who went to his aid not to expose themselves to the
enemy fire.

368 APPENDIX

Private DORIS J EPSON, i8th Company y sth Marines:
Private WILLIAM F. FISHER, i8th Company , sth Ma-
rines:
Private LOUIS HILL, i8th Company, 5th Marines:
Private ALFRED P. HOLMES, iSth Company, sth Ma-
rines:
Bandsman STANLEY BURWELL, iSth Company, sth
Marines:

These men on the night of June 9-10 displayed excep-
tional bravery and devotion to duty in going the entire
length of three platoon sectors under severe bombard-
ment, part of the time while an enemy 77 was playing
along the top of the parapet. This in answer for calls for
stretcher bearers to evacuate wounded.

Private PAUL D. BROWN, iSth Company, sth Marines:

Private HENRY W, GREBBIEN, iSth Company, sth
Marines:

These men displayed great courage in carrying a mes-
sage of vital importance through a terrific enemy barrage
in rear of the front line trenches.

Gunnery Sergeant MIKE WODAREZYK, 43rd Company,
Sth Marines:

On June 5, while commanding the 4th platoon, he saw
about 200 of the enemy deployed on his front in a ravine.
He placed his platoon in fighting position and forced the
enemy to retire, although outnumbered about four to one.

Private WALTER COOK, 43rd Company, sth Marines: *'

On June 2nd, he was detailed as a sniper and crawled
out in front of our lines to this work and killed and wound-
ed twelve of the enemy at great danger to himself. He
showed remarkable courage and bravery.

APPENDIX 369

Dr. LYNN T. WHITE, Y. M. C. J, Secretary, at-
tached to the jth Marines:

His highly rendered service, during trying periods, work-
ing day and night, has made a place among the men that
would be hard to fill. He has shown extraordinary hero-
ism, going to the absolute front lines at all times, crawling
along under fire, reaching men on isolated positions, sup-
plying them with cigarettes and chocolate and cheering
them up. His services cannot be too highly praised.

Major F. E. EVANS, Adjutant, 6th Marines:

During the trying events of the early part of June, 1918,
this officer carried the administrative burdens of his regi-
ment with great efficiency. His untiring efforts, constant
diligence, and intelligent transmission of orders from the
Brigade Commander during a number of days when his
Regimental Commander was in an advanced headquarters
and not always in communication, contributed in no small
degree to the successful part played by this regiment in
the operations against the enemy from the 1st to the i6th
of June, 1918.

Captain EDWARD C. FULLER, Company B, 6th Ma-
rines:

Killed in action at his post of duty, after exposing him-
self fearlessly to a terrific artillery barrage in order to
superintend personally the assurance of shelter to his men.
In action he proved a leader and his cool demeanour under
fire and incessant labours for the comfort of his men con-
tributed in great measure to the successful operations of
his battalion. His action is supreme proof of that extraor-
dinary heroism which unhesitatingly exposes itself as an

370 APPENDIX

example to hitherto untried troops, and which has result-
ed in stemming the enemy's advance in this region and
thrusting it back from every position occupied by this
Brigade from the 2nd to the 14th of June. This on the
1 2th of June, 191 8.

Captain JOHN F. BURNSy Company A, 6th Marines:

Mortally wounded at his post of duty on the 12th of
June, 191 8. He was a tower of strength in his command.
An officer of more than fifteen years' experience, he was
assigned to important missions, and under terrific shell
fire completed the disposition of his platoons with the
coolness and courage that steadied his men while under
bombardment.

Captain DWIGHT F, SMITH, Company /, 6th Marines:

In the engagement with the enemy on the 8th of June
he was conspicuous for his gallantry and energy in con-
ducting the attack against strongly fortified machine gun
positions. Under terrific machine gun fire he held on un-
til he was wounded and evacuated. This on the 8th of
June, 1918.

Captain RANDOLPH T. ZANE, 6th Marines:

While in command of American forces in a captured
town at midnight, June 7-8, he was attacked by heavy
machine gun fire and by infantry. His successful han-
dling of the defence and his personal example of bravery
and coolness inspired the garrison to resist with such ef-
fect that, although the infantry were at one time within
30 feet of the town, the town was held and the enemy
repulsed with heavy losses. The garrison sustained com-
paratively few casualties.

APPENDIX 371

First Lieutenant CHARLES A. ETH BRIDGE, ist Bat--

talion Intelligence Officer, 6th Marines:

From the loth to the 13th of June, 1918, with com-
bined skill and disregard for danger, he repeatedly made
reconnaissance in the woods that proved invaluable in
our operations against the enemy. He carried out this
work in the face of artillery and machine gun fire, and on
one occasion, finding a gap in the lines on the night of
the 1 2th of June, posted himself with eight members of
the Second Engineers in this gap, and either killed or cap-
tured twelve of the enemy attempting to filter through to
our rear. As a scout officer, assuming the duties after his '
predecessor had been evacuated, he showed inborn abil-
ity, cool courage, and unerring judgment.

First Lieutenant JAMES McB, SELLERS, Company G,
6th Marines:

Carried a message through heavy artillery fire, with
gas shells, and delivered the same, although seriously
wounded, making a report of value at a critical stage of
the action, in our operation against the enemy. This on
the 6th of June, 1918.

First Lieutenant P. H. HURLEYy Infantry U, S. R., 6th
Marines:

During the engagement on the night of the 6th of June,
with coolness and excellent judgment, he advanced his
platoon to a position within 200 yards of the divisional
objective assigned his battalion. This officer showed utter
disregard of danger throughout the engagement and was
afterwards evacuated wounded.

372 APPENDIX

First Lieutenant ALFRED H. NOBEL, Company K, 6th
Marines:

Conspicuous for his gallantry and coolness in handling
his company in attack against strongly fortified machine
gun positions, and repeatedly showed rare judgment, his
ability to inspire his men to efforts against superior odds,
and personal courage. This on the 6th and 8th of June,
1918.

First Lieutenant CHARLES D, ROBERTS, Company /,
6tk Marines:

In the engagement against the enemy on the 6th and
8th of June he showed rare courage, and repeatedly led
his platoon to the attack against an impregnable machine
gun position. After losing the greater part of his men
and being severely wounded himself, he returned to the
action and pleaded with the battalion commander to give
him reinforcements which he proposed to lead in further
attack against the machine gun positions whose capture
was necessary to the safety of the command.

First Lieutenant JULIUS C. COGSWELL, Company G,
6th Marines:
Although wounded in a bombardment, he refused to be
evacuated but remained with his company and conducted
his platoon with marked bravery and skill in an assault
on a formidable machine gun position until seriously
wounded. This on the 6th of June, 1918.

First Lieutenant JAMES F. ROBERTSON, Company
H, 6th Marines:

Displayed marked courage and resourcefulness in the
capture of a town with one platoon of his company. He
entered the tow^n through a heavy machine gun barrage,

APPENDIX 373

organized it and withstood all attempts to dislodge him
until reinforcements arrived. His action while out of
touch with the rest of his command required prompt de-
cision, and his handling of the situation resulted in mate-
rially strengthening the lines on our front. This on the
night of the 6th of June, 191 8.

First Lieutenant CHARLES L MURRAY, Company F,
6th Marines:

Displayed conspicuous bravery and efficiency during
the attack upon a town on the night of June 6th. In ad-
vancing through the enemy's heavy machine gun barrage
he was shot through both arms, which were broken.
When no longer able to advance he walked to the rear
without assistance and with marked coolness.

First Lieutenant FREDERICK C. WHEELER, Com-
pany D, 6th Marines:

Displayed conspicuous bravery in remaining in action
after being twice wounded. He refused to be evacuated
until wounded a third time and then endeavoured to re-
turn to his command. This on the 5th of June, 1918.

Second Lieutenant JAMES S, TIMOTHY, W, S., at-
tached to 6th Marines:

Displayed the tenacity and fortitude which character-
ized his entire service with this regiment. Weakened by
gas poisoning while serving with the French in the VER-
DUN Sector, he resisted the advice of medical officers
and served two months in the trenches. Throughout the
operations against the enemy on our front from the ist
to the 15th of June he served with distinction until in-
stantly killed by a high explosive shell.

374 APPENDIX

Second Lieutenant WILLIAM A. EDDY, Regimental In-
telligence Officer, 6th Marines:
In charge of an observation post located in a tree from
which movements of enemy troops and our own artillery
fire could be observed, he transmitted information to
higher authorities which resulted in heavy punishment to
the enemy. His post was located between two batteries
and was not only in the line of heavy artillery fire but
had to be temporarily abandoned when the target of more
direct fire. Throughout the operations he proved to be
the medium of most accurate observation, although abso-
. lutely without cover from deadly fire. He also performed
conspicuous service daily in personally delivering and se-
curing from points in the front lines vital information
both to the Hnes and to our artillery. His conduct was
distinguished to a degree by unerring judgment, immedi-
ate action, and a remarkable sangfroid. This from the
6th to the i6th of June, 1918.

Again, on the night of June 4th, at a great personal
risk, he led a reconnoitring patrol of two men into the
enemy's lines and established the location of those lines.
At one time he and his patrol were between two bodies of
the enemy, remaining there for more than an hour. The
information which he brought back proved of great value
in determining the disposition of the enemy, and he was
in imminent risk of capture during the greater part of his
journey.

Second Lieutenant CLARENCE A. DENNIS, Company
G, 6th Marines:
Killed in action in the capture of a town from the en-
emy on June 6th, after displaying high courage in leading
his platoon through artillery and machine gun fire and
keeping his firing Hne supplied with ammunition.

APPENDIX 375

Second Lieutenant LOUIS F, TIMMERMAN, JR.,
Company Ky 6th Marines:
Having advanced his platoon beyond all other elements
of his battalion in an attack on enemy machine gun posi-
tions in the woods on the 6th of June, he led his men in a
bayonet charge against superior numbers at a critical mo-
ment and captured two enemy machine guns and seven-
teen prisoners. This young officer displayed remarkable
qualities of heroism and initiative, and by seizing his op-
portunity and attacking without hesitation against appar-
ently insurmountable odds, inflicted severe damage upon
the enemy. Wounded in the face by shrapnel, he re-
mained at his post inspiring his men, performing all du-
ties required of him, and also carrying on his duties for
twenty-four hours after his battalion had gone into re-
serve position before he would consent to be evacuated.

Second Lieutenant RALPH W. MARSH ALLy 3rd Bat-
talion Intelligence Officer, 6th Marines:
Demonstrated conspicuous bravery and coolness in con-
tinually risking his life to secure information as to the
changing situation of the engagement in the woods on
June 6th and 8th. He was fearless in his operations under
heavy fire from machine guns, rifles and hand grenades.
The accuracy of his information was of material advan-
tage in extricating Companies I and K from dangerous
situations.

Second Lieutenant WILLIAM B. MOORE, Company M,
6th Marines:
After the capture of a town by our forces on the night
of June 6th, he volunteered to take a truck load of am-
munition and material into the town, the trip being in
the darkness, over a road broken by shell holes, and under

376 APPENDIX

artillery and machine gun fire. When the ammunition
and material arrived it was of vital assistance in the con-
solidation of the town by its garrison. He also brought
back valuable information covering the situation.

Surgeon WREY G. FARWELLy U, S. iV., 6th Marines:

When his Regimental Commander was wounded by a
sniper's bullet he personally supervised his evacuation
across a field exposed to fire from machine guns and
snipers. Gas shells had exploded in the vicinity, further
endangering the life of this wounded Colonel. Successful
evacuation under these trying and dangerous conditions
proved his ability to meet an emergency quickly and com-
pletely. This on the 6th of June, 1918.

As Regimental Surgeon his work in caring for and evac-
uating many wounded between June 1st and June 8th,
demanded the qualities of self-sacrifice and fidelity to
duty, much of which was performed under heavy shell
fire.

Assistant Surgeon W. H. MICHAEL, U. S. iV., 6th

Marines:

Displayed unusual courage under heavy shell fire when
he established a dressing station in the open, exposed to
both shell and machine gun fire. Under these conditions
he worked for several hours evacuating a large number of
men from the 5th Marines, then attacking in the vicinity.
Major EDWARD B. COLE, commanding the 6th Ma-
chine Gun Battalion, subsequently mortally wounded, re-
ported these facts to the regimental surgeon and informed
him that he would report the conspicuous conduct of Sur-
geon MICHAEL. Throughout the operations this officer
rendered valuable service regardless of personal danger.
This on the morning of the 6th of June, 191 8.

APPENDIX 377

Dental Surgeon WEEDON C. OSBORNE, U, S. N.,

6th Marines:

Risked his life to aid the wounded when the advance
upon the enemy of June 6th was temporarily checked by
a hail of machine gun fire. He helped to carry Captain
DONALD F. DUNCAN to a place of safety, when that
officer was wounded, and had almost reached it when a
shell killed both. Having joined the regiment but a few
days before its entry into the line, and being new to the
service, he displayed a heroism worthy of its best tradi-
tions.

Assistant Surgeon JOEL T. BOONE, U. S. N,, 6th
Marines:

Throughout the period of operations against the enemy
from June ist to loth he rendered conspicuous service in
the treatment and evacuation of w^ounded. He was under
heavy shellfire for days, when the Regimental Aid Station
was struck and men were killed in the immediate vicin-
ity. He showed rare fidelity and devotion to duty and
through his shining example urged officers and men to
renewed efforts, and displayed a high type of executive
ability.

Assistant Surgeon 0. D. KING, U. S. N., 6th Machine
Gun Battalion:

Performed valuable service at the Regimental Aid Sta-
tion of the 6th Marines between the 6th and loth of June.
Without regard for personal risk he worked incessantly
under heavy shellfire and through his coolness and excel-
lent judgment in the care and evacuation of the wounded
set an example to his men in the performance of duty
under trying conditions.

378 APPENDIX

Sergeant Major JOHN H. QUICK, 11967Q, Headquar-
ters Company, 6th Marines:

Volunteered to assist Second Lieutenant WILLIAM
B. MOORE in taking a truck load of ammunition and
material into a town captured by our troops, to assist in
the consolidation and defence of that town, making the
trip in the darkness over a road broken by shell holes
and under heavy artillery and machine gun fire. Ser-
geant Major QUICK already holds a Medal of Honour.
This on the night of the 6th of June, 1918.

Pharmacist Mate 3rd Class OSCAR S. GOODWIN, U,

S. N., 6th Marines:
Sergeant SYDNEY COLFORD, JR., 6th Marines:

At the imminent risk of their lives, under shell and
machine gun fire, were instrumental in removing the Regi-
mental Commander when he was struck down by a
sniper's bullet early in the operations which resulted in
the capture and occupation of our objective on the 6th
of June, 1918. These men removed the Regimental Com-
mander from further danger regardless of the fire sweep-
ing the point where he fell, meeting a sudden crisis
promptly and completely.

Gunnery Sergeant JOHN F. KRAKER, Headquarters
Company, 6th Marines:

Corporal SHERMAN ROBERTS, Headquarters Com-
pany, 6th Marines:

Corporal GUY D. OLCHESKI, Headquarters Company^
6th Marines:

Private HOWARD M, PAINTER, Headquarters Com-
pany, 6th Marines:

Private PAUL F. MAHER, Headquarters Company, 6th
Marines:

APPENDIX 379

Private ADOLPH L. SCHLINKER, Headquarters Com-

panyy 6th Marines:
Private EVERRETT TOWN SEND, Headquarters Com-
pany, 6th Marines:
Private HARRY WALLACE, Headquarters Company, 6th

Marines:
Private HANSEN A. SMITH, Headquarters Company,

6th Marines:
Private JOHN R. WHEELER, Headquarters Company,

6th Marines:
Private CHARLES H, ZORN, Headquarters Company,

6th Marines:
Private JAMES W. HANNA, Headquarters Company,

6th Marines:
Private FAUREST F. WILSON, Headquarters Company,

6th Marines:
Private WILLIAM C, SADLER, Headquarters Company,

6th Marines:
Private DE WITT W, DAVIS, Headquarters Company,

6th Marines:
Private CHARLES I. GEORGE, Headquarters Company^

6th Marines:
Private LLOYD MAYFIELD, Headquarters Company,

6th Marines:

The seventeen men above named dfsplayed conspicuous
daring and gallantry under heavy fire in broad daylight,
supplying ammunition to troops on the line and rations
to the battalion whose supply was exhausted. On the
evening of the same day this carrying party continued
their work under fire with little sleep or rest for a con-
tinuous period of 36 hours until the needs of the troops
in line had been satisfied and a reserve supply of ammu-
nition and rations had been assured. No greater services

38o APPENDIX

could have been rendered to their comrades in line than
was given by these self-sacrificing and daring men. This
on the 7th and 8th of June, 191 8.

On the 6th of June, immediately after the capture of a
town by a small force of our men, in order that the posi-
tion might be consohdated and supplied with rations and
ammunition to hold it against imminent counter-attack
by a powerful enemy force, it was necessary to rush a
truck loaded with engineer tools and ammunition into the
town over a road swept by heavy shell and machine gun
fire and lighted by enemy flares. The men who volun-
, teered for this duty showed a fine disregard for personal
danger and a high sense of fidelity to their handful of
comrades who had performed the briUiant exploit in cap-
turing the town. They were Corporals ROBERTS and
OLCHESKI, Privates PAINTER, HANNA, SADLER,
ZORN and DAVIS, mentioned above, and the three fol-
lowing named men:
Sergeant WILLIAM H. PL ATT, Headquarters Com-

-pany, 6th Marines:
Corporal JAMES P. KANE, Headquarters Company,

6th Marines:
Primte EDWARD H. BUERKLE, Headquarters Com-
pany, 6th Marines.

Privau MORRIS F. FLEITZ, Headquarters Company,
6th Marines:
Showed extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty in
the face of great danger, at one time remaining on duty
for 36 hours without rest in order that he might supply
the battalions in line with rations and ammunition during
the operations of the 9th and loth of June. On the 9th
of June he made two trips with a Ford delivery car loaded
with ammunition for the battalions in line, in broad day-

APPENDIX 381

light, in plain view of the enemy and under their fire. He
made various other trips carrying ammunition to the
troops in line, in dayhght under enemy fire, completing
his tasks by carrying ammunition across the field under
shellfire, during the course of our attack upon the enemy.
On the night of June loth he recovered rations from the
carts that had been wrecked by enemy shellfire, and at all
times showed absolute daring and remarkable coolness in
bringing aid to his comrades when it seemed impossible to
aid them.

Private ALVIN H. HARRIS^ Headquarters Com^^av^^
6th Marines:

Was a member of the gun-crew with a one-pounder gun
on the 6th of June during the attack upon the enemj'^'s
positions which later fell into our hands, and stood by his
gun until entirely incapacitated by fourteen wounds from
a high explosive shell, keeping his gun in action with rare
courage that almost cost him his life.

Private RONALD T. CHISHOLM, Headquarters Com-
pany, 6th Marines:

Was a member of the one-pounder crew that partici-
pated in the capture of a town on the 6th of June, and
although wounded stuck to his gun until the capture of
the position was assured and reinforcements arrived be-
fore he would be evacuated.

Private HERBERT Z). DUNLAFY, 122898, Company
H, 6th Marines:

Showed conspicuous courage in capturing a machine
gun single handed during street-fighting when our forces

382 APPENDIX

captured a town on the night of the 6th of June. In the
repulse of a midnight attack by the enemy the following
night he was killed.

Private WILLET A, STAIR, iigSSSy Headquarters Com-
pany, 6th Marines:

Private MERL C. ROCKWELL, 119685, Headquarters
Company, 6th Marines:

These two men, led by Second Lieutenant WILLIAM
A. EDDY, formed a reconnoitring patrol which risked
imminent capture in a successful effort to determine the
exact location of the enemy's lines. At one time they
were between two parties of the enemy and remained
within the German lines for more than an hour, gathering
valuable information. This on the night of the 4th of
June, 1918.

Private EARL BELFRY, Company H, 6th Marines:

Displayed great courage in the capture of a town on
the 6th of June, entering the town after being wounded
and taking a leading part in causing the machine guns of
the enemy to evacuate.

Private JAMES W, CARTER, Company H, 6th Ma-
rines:

Private ALFRED EARLANDSON, Company H, 6th Ma-
rines:

The two men above named assisted in the capture of a
town on the 6th of June, after being wounded, and dis-
played remarkable energy and courage against superior
numbers of the enemy. They engaged in street-fighting
and were of material assistance in driving out the
enemy.

APPENDIX 383

Corporal JOSEPH A, GARGES, Company K, 6th Ma-
rines:

Corporal BENJAMIN TILGHMAN, Company AT, 6th
Marines:

Corporal HOWARD CHILDS, Company K, 6th Marines:

Private HERMAN McLEOD, Company AT, 6th Marines:

The four men above named were prominent in the at-
tack upon an enemy machine gun position in the woods
on the 6th and 8th of June, were foremost in their com-
pany at all times, and acquitted themselves with such
distinction that they were an example to the rest of the
command.

Hospital Apprentice 1st Class JOHN E, JUSTICE, U.

S. N.y Hospital Corps, 6th Marines:
Pharmacist Mate 3rd Class JOHN H. BALCH, U. S,

N., Hospital Corps, 6th Marines:

The two men above named were conspicuous for their
coolness and the value of their work under shellfire, evac-
uating wounded men at the risk of their lives, during our
attack upon the enemy on the night of the 6th of June.

Private MARTIN A, BENDER, Marine Corps Reserve,
Headquarters Company, 6th Marines:

Acting as stretcher bearer, displayed great coolness and
executed with great reliability the performance of many
difficult missions while under shellfire during operations
against the enemy. This on the 6th and 8th of June,

1918.

Gunnery Sergeant JOHN GROFF, 122041, Company K,
6th Marines:

In the operations against the enemy on the 6th and 8th
of June in the woods, charged an enemy of unknown num-

384 APPENDIX

bers at the head of six men, dispersed them, inflicted loss-
es upon them, and throughout the engagement showed
exceptional coolness and personal bravery.

Sergeant DAREL J. Mc KINNEY, 1 22061, Company K,
6th Marines:

Severely wounded in the engagement in the woods on
the 8th of June, he refused to go to the rear for treat-
ment, continuing to lead his platoon to the attack after
the officer in charge had been wounded. Through qual-
ities of remarkable tenacity and courage, despite his
wounds, he was a factor through which material losses
"were inflicted upon the enemy.

Corporal RAYMOND GIBSON, 12208 1, Company K,
6th Marines:

In an engagement against the enemy on the 8th of
June, he handled alone a Chauchat rifle with such accur-
acy, in the face of an extremely heavy fire, that his pla-
toon was thus enabled to move against the enemy ma-
chine gun positions.

Corporal CHARLES W. BROOKS, 122073, Company K,

6th Marines:

In an engagement against the enemy on the 8th of
June, he passed repeatedly through heavy machine gun
fire carrying messages with fine courage and absolute dis-
regard for personal danger.'

Private HUGH S. MILLER, 12211, Company K, 6th
Marines:

In the engagement with the enemy in the woods on the
6th of June, he captured single-handed two of their num-
ber. Ordered back to the rear three times by his com-

APPENDIX 385

manding officer, he immediately returned to his post, re-
fusing treatment while sick.

Private JOHN WORRELL^ 123274, Company M, 6th
Marines:

In the engagement of June 6th, carried wounded men
across a field swept by artillery and machine gun fire
until he himself was wounded.

Private LEON D. HUFFSTATER, 27146Q, Company M,
6th Marines:

In an engagement on the 6th of June, he carried
wounded men across a field swept by artillery and ma-
chine gun fire.

Private CLINTON S. LINDSEY, 12 1953, Company /,
6th Marines:

In an engagement on the 6th of June, carried a wound-
ed officer off the field to safety under heavy machine gun
fire. He was killed in action on the 8th of June, 191 8.

Corporal BEN CONE, 121817, Company /, 6th Marines:

Conspicuous for his bravery and coolness during the
engagement of the 6th of June, in attempting to advance
with automatic rifle on position which was defended by
enemy machine guns. He was killed in the performance
of this duty.

Private ANDREW K. AXTON, 121856, Company I, 6th
Marines:

Conspicuous for his bravery in the engagement of the
6th of June. While attempting to advance upon an en-
emy machine gun position with automatic rifle he was
killed.

386 APPENDIX

Sergeant GEORGE P. FRANK, Company /, 6th Ma-
fines:

With great bravery and coolness he took charge of a
platoon whose commander had been killed, and person-
ally led it in an attack upon a strongly fortified machine
gun nest which he reached and held. He captured one
machine gun and destroyed another before being ordered
to retire with his depleted force. This on the 8th of
June, 1918.

Corporal RAYMOND W. BOONEy Company F, 6th Ma-
rines:

After receiving three wounds he continued in the ad-
vance upon the enemy. He was sent to the rear but re-
turned close to the advance lines where he assisted in
bringing in the wounded. This on the 6th of June, 191 8.

Corporal HARRY B. FLETCHER, Company F, 6th
Marines:

After being severely wounded in the attainment of the
objective on the 6th of June, he refused to go to the rear
for treatment, remaining at his post and urging on his
men to renewed efforts.

Corporal DAVID L. SPAULDING, Company F, 6th
Marines:

After being sent to the rear with a severe wound, he
returned to the front lines and encouraged his men in the
advance. This on the 6th of June. 191 8.

Private ALBERT E. BROOKS, Company F, 6th Ma-
rines:

Conspicuous for his heroic action in placing his body
in front of his platoon leader, while under heavy machine

APPENDIX 387

gun fire, in order to dress the latter's wounds. He was
shot twice in the hip while shielding his platoon leader.

Private JOHN FLOCKEN, Company F, 6th Marines:

Twice hit in the leg during the capture of the objective
on the 6th of June, he dragged his automatic rifle 200
yards forward, opened fire on the enemy machine gun
and silenced it.

Private ERIA C. HUFFSTEDLER, Company F, 6th
Marines:
Severely wounded during the occupation of a town by
our forces, he refused to go to the rear, but remained and
assisted with the care of the wounded, giving his canteen
of water to one of them. This on the 6th of June, 191 8.

Corporal HAROLD /. RANDLES, Company G, 6th Ma-
rines:
Corporal DONALD R, SHEAFF, Company G, 6th Ma-
rines:
Voluntarily chose the most direct route, through a ma-
chine gun barrage, in order to deliver to the Artillery
Commander information which prevented the bombard-
ment of positions that had just been occupied by our
forces, choosing the path of danger in order to save their
comrades. This on the 6th of June, 191 8.

Sergeant GRAVER C. O'KELLEY, Company G, 6th Ma-
rines:
Proved himself a non-commissioned officer of sterling
worth in the operations against the enemy on the 6th and
8th of June. Cool and skilful under, fire, he was a tower
of strength to his command during the assaults on ma-
chine gun positions against great odds. This brave sol-
dier was killed in the performance of his duty.

388 APPENDIX

Corporal JOHN J. INGALLSy Company G, 6th Marines:

Wounded in an assault on machine gun positions, he
refused to be evacuated. He assisted in the rescue of the
wounded and rendered invaluable assistance to his bat-
talion commander. This on the 6th of June, 1918.

Corporal ROY W. CHASE, Company G, 6th Marines:

Assumed command of his platoon after it had been de-
pleted by losses in an attack on enemy machine gun posi-
tions. His men captured two machine guns and killed
their crews. He did not retire from action until all his
men had either been killed or wounded. This on the 8th
of June, 191 8.

Corporal FRANK A, VIAL, Company K, 6ih Marines:

Repeatedly carried messages between his battalion com-
mander and Regimental Command Post, although ex-
posed to fire from strongly fortified machine gun posi-
tions. In the face of heavy machine gun fire he volun-
teered and brought to its position a detachment which
had been left to hold a point while companies were being
reorganized. This on the 8th of June, 1918.

Corporal FRED W, HILL, Headquarters Company, 6th
Marines:

Regardless of personal danger he showed conspicuous
bravery in carrying ammunition from the battalion dump
into the actual fight in the face of a heavy machine gun
and rifle fire. When in charge of the dump he learned
the necessity for hand grenades in the assault against
strong enemy gun positions, and without waiting for or-
ders or assistance carried hand grenades to the point of
danger. This on the 8th of June, 1918.

APPENDIX 389

Sergeant ROBERT IL DONAGHUE, 12 17 94, Company
/, 6th Marines:

In the engagement of June 8th, he reorganized his men
and attacked an enemy machine gun position. He killed
or wounded seven of the enemy with his rifle, ran another
through with his bayonet, and only left the field after be-
ing exhausted from the loss of blood from his wounds.

Major JOHN A. HUGHES^ ist Battalion, 6th Marines:

In the operations of his battalion from the loth to the
13th of June, he showed himself a gallant, courageous,
and determined commander of men. Inflicting severe
losses on the enemy, capturing many prisoners, twenty
machine guns, six minnenwerfers and other booty, the
brilliant success of this battalion was in a great measure
due to his coolness in all crises, unfailing good humour, and
accurate judgment. He led his men superbly under most
trying conditions against the most distinguished elements
of the German Army, administering to those organiza-
tions their first defeat.

Major THOMAS HOLCOMB, 2nd Battalion, 6th Ma-
rines:

Commanded the battalion which captured a town on
the 6th of June, strengthened his position, and successful-
ly resisted strong counter-attacks by the enemy in an ef-
fort to retake the town the following night. He showed
rare ability as a leader of troops and inspired his officers
and men to unceasing efforts by his devotion to duty and
fearlessness in the face of heavy machine gun and artillery
fire. This on the 6th and 7th of June, 1918.

He led his men superbly under most trying conditions

390 APPENDIX

against the most distinguished elements of the German
Army, administering to those organizations their first de-
feat.

Major BERTON W. SIBLEY, 3rd Battalion, 6th Ma-
rines:

Commanded his battalion in its attack upon enemy
machine gun positions from June 6th to 8th, personally
leading the attack on June 8th at a critical time in the
engagement. Confronted by tremendous odds, his excel-
lent judgment and personal bravery inspired his men to
redoubled efforts. When all the officers of Company I
had been wounded he advanced with that company and
displayed fine courage and dash throughout the action.

He led his men superbly under most trying conditions
against the most distinguished elements of the German
Army, administering to those organizations their first de-
feat.

Captain ARTHUR H. TURNER, ist Battalion, Adju-
tant, 6th Marines:

He was at all times foremost in the operations against
the enemy from the loth to 13 th of June. Under terrific
shellfire, the insuring of liaison and the execution of or-
ders were carried out under his personal supervision, con-
tributing materially to the success of the attack upon a
strongly entrenched enemy.

Captain BAILEY M, COFFENBERG, Company G, 6th
Marines:

With but two of his officers left, he moved his company
out of a bombarded area with rare courage and efficiency.
This on the 8th of June, 191 8.

APPENDIX 391

Captain W. H. SITZy Headquarters Company y 6th Ma-

rines:

First Lieutenant WESLEY W, WALKER, Signal Officer,
6th Marines:

First Lieutenant WILLIAM RADCLIFFE, Supply Com-
pany, 6th Marines:

These three officers gave their services freely and un-
ceasingly, in many cases going outside of their line of
duty, labouring without rest in order that the fighting
men might function. Their untiring and efficient efforts
contributed in no small degree to the success of the oper-
ation of the 2nd Battalion during the early part of June,
1918.

First Lieutenant THOMAS S. WHITING, Company G,
6th Marines:

His absolute devotion to duty and courageous bearing
under fire was a splendid example to his men, and even
after receiving eight shrapnel wounds, he inspired his men
by his high courage.

First Lieutenant HAROLD D. SHANNON, Company G,
6th Marines:

Having recently returned to his regiment from the
TOUL Sector, where he was poisoned by gas, he distin-
guished himself by his coolness and initiative. Regardless
of his personal safety, he led men out of a bombarded
area, demonstrating qualities of great bravery and devo-
tioh to duty until wounded by enemy fire. This on the
4th of June, 1918.

392 APPENDIX

First Lieutenant W. LEONARD, Infantry, U. S, R,, 6th
Marines:

Displayed conspicuous bravery m handling his platoon
in the operations which resulted in the capture of his bat-
talion's objective. This on the night of the 6th of June,

1918.

First Lieutenant CLARENCE W. SMITH, Company Z),
. 6th Marines:

Assumed command of his company after the evacua-
tion of the Company Commander and next in command.
" His cool handling of the enemy*s attack upon his lines on
the night of the 2nd-3rd of June, was of such marked
value that his platoon voluntarily united in recommend-
ing him to his Regimental Commander for appropriate
reward. In the coolness with which he met the situation
in holding men in line and so controlling their fire that
the German advance upon that part of the line was
broken up, he demonstrated that he was able to meet a
great emergency, and exhibited qualities of coolness and
decision in a highly commendable manner.

First Lieutenant MACON C. OVERTON, Company C,
6th Marines:

With great brilliancy, led and carried out an assault
upon a supposedly impregnable machine gun nest which
had resisted the most determined attacks. The attack
was carried out under heavy fire from machine guns and
hand grenades, over a terrain which greatly favoured the
enemy, and its success against tremendous odds gave the
enemy the severest single blow that it suffered through-
out the operations in that vicinity. Assuming command
of the company on a moment's notice, he proved himself

APPENDIX 393

a soldier of distinguished ability, tenacity and fearless
courage.

First Lieutenant DAVID BELLAMY, 3rd Battalion Ad-
jutant, 6th Marines:

Rendered conspicuous service in assembling and reor-
ganizing Company I under terrific machine gun fire dur-
ing an engagement with the enemy, when all the officers
of that company had been wounded and evacuated. This
on the 6th and 8th of June, 1918.

First Lieutenant CHARLES B. MAYNARD, Company
L, 6th Marines:

Received severe wounds while leading his platoon
against the enemy. He showed rare gallantry in remain-
ing with his command and endeavouring to perform his
duties as its commander until relieved by another officer.
This on the 6th of June, 1918.

Second Lieutenant JAMES P. ADAMS, Company E,
6th Marines:

Suffering from gas-poisoning, he continued to command
his platoon with fine devotion to duty during the remain-
der of the operations. This on the 6th of June, 1918.

Second Lieutenant JOHN L CONROY, Headquarters
Company, 6th Marines:

Conspicuous in his services to the battalion in line, per-
formed his duties at a point which was a storm centre of
bombardment by high explosive, shrapnel, and gas shell.
He continued to supply the troops in line with ammuni-
tion, water, rations and engineer stores with tireless en-
ergy, marked executive ability, foresight, and absolute
fearlessness at all hours of the day and night. He never

394 APPENDIX

failed in a crisis and only bulldog tenacity and nerves of
steel made it possible for him to discharge his multifarious
duties. When an ammunition dump was exploded by
enemy fire, his energy and coolness confined the damage
to a minimum. This from the 6th of June to the i6th of
June, 1918.

Second Lieutenant WILLIAM M, RJDCLIFFE, Supply
Company, 6th Marines:

Organizing and perfecting the system of supply to the
battalions in line, he worked with an energy, judgment,
and fidelity to duty that contributed materially to the
efficiency of the fighting men. Through the driving force
of his personality he coordinated the services of supply
and infused his assistants with a zeal and determination
that surmounted difficulties and dangers.

Second Lieutenant CLIFTON B. GATES, Company H,
6th Marines:

Showed conspicuous bravery in handling his platoon
under heavy fire during the advance on the enemy on
the night of June 6th, 1918.

Second Lieutenant MORGAN P. MILLS, Company D,
6th Marines:

In the course of a determined enemy attack, his com-
pany being weakened by the loss of its Company Com-
mander and next in command, he controlled two platoons
with rare judgment and coolness. The attackers were
beaten back by the accurate rifle fire of the company and
splendid morale was maintained among the men during
this trying period through the untiring efforts of Lieuten-
ant MILLS. This on the night of the 2nd-3rd of June,
1918.

APPENDIX 395

Second Lieuunant JOHN G. SCHNEIDER, Company G,
6th Marines:

•

Conducted his platoon with conspicuous bravery and
absolute devotion to duty in an assault on machine gun
position under terrific machine gun fire. This on the 6th
and 8th of June, 1918.

He rendered great aid to his company commander in
leading volunteers to bring in officers and men wounded
during the shelling on the support position held by his
company, showing utter disregard for personal danger.
This on the 8th of June, 191 8.

Chaplain HARRIS F. DARCHE, U. S. N., 6th Ma-
rines:

In the operation against the enemy from the 1st to the
14th of June, 1918, he rendered service difficult to meas-
ure. His efforts in searching for and burying the dead, in
giving cheer and spiritual comfort to the fighting troops,
in handling working parties and in aiding surgeons, were
tireless and fruitful of fine results. His post, when not at
the front, was under heavy shellfire daily, and he per-
formed the last rites of the Church under enemy fire.

His undaunted and cheerful spirits were a daily boon
to the wounded and fatigued.

Chaplain JAMES D, McNAIR, U, S, N., 6th Ma-
rines:

In the operations against the enemy from the 6th to
the 14th of June, 191 8, he performed his services in daily
risk of death from enemy fire. His labour in locating and
burying the dead and in giving comfort to the wounded,
were given with fidelity to duty under all conditions.

396 APPENDIX

Second Lieutenant CHARLES H. ULMER, Company G,
6th Marines:

Rejoining his command while it was at the front, he
immediately brought his platoon into action with initia-
tive and bravery. He conducted himself as a brave lead-
er until he fell seriously wounded. This on the 8th of
June, 1918.

Second Lieutenant WILLIAM A. FORWARD, Infantry,
U. S. R.y Company K, 6th Marines:

Was prominent throughout the attack upon the enemy
on the 6th and 8th of June, contributing marked qualities
of courage and judgment to the work of his company. He
was wounded before the conclusion of the action on June
8th.

Second Lieutenant SAMUEL J, GILMORE, Infantry,
U. S. R., Company L, 6th Marines:

Showed conspicuous gallantry in the capture of a town
from the enemy on the 6th of June. After being severely
wounded by machine gun fire he remained with his pla-
toon and directed its fire until evacuated to the rear.

Gunnery Sergeant GEORGE W. HOPKE, Company £,
6th Marines:

Assumed command of his platoon upon the death of
the platoon leader and performed his added duties with
fidelity and efficiency under trying conditions. This on
the 4th of June, 1918.

Gunnery Sergeant FRED W. STOCKHAM, Company H,
6th Marines:

Displayed marked courage and ability as a leader dur-
ing the attack on the enemy on the 6th of June, 191 8.

APPENDIX 397

Gunnery Sergeant FORREST J. ASHWOOD, 122544^
Company Z), 6th Marines:
Was commanding his platoon at 3 145 A. M. while a re-
lief was in progress. The relief had been barely accom-
plished when a terrific machine and artillery barrage was
laid down on their position at the edge of the w^oods.
The enemy in small columns was seen advancing behind
the barrage 500 yards from the position. He immediate-
ly placed his platoon back on the Hne and by his ener-
getic efforts contributed materially to the repulse of the
attempted attack, which was so well frustrated that our
losses were held to a minimum. The relief was then ac-
complished in excellent order. At the time of this attack
the company had lost two officers and the duties of an of-
ficer then fell upon Gunnery Sergeant ASHWOOD, who
acquitted himself with great credit. This on the morning
of the 6th of June, 1918.

Gunnery Sergeant PETER MORGAN, i22S75y Company
Dy 6th Marines:
Conspicuous for his distinguished conduct on the night
of the 2nd-3rd of June while the French were withdrawing
from a position and passing through the American lines.
He controlled the fire of his platoon upon the advancing
enemy lines and upon patrols who approached within 200
yards of our lines. Through his energy and maintenance
of the morale of the men under these conditions, the at-
tack of the enemy was abandoned and they retired well
to the rear with their patrol activities completely stopped.

Sergeant JOHN J. NAGAZYNA, 122522, Company Z),
6th Marines:
Was in command of his platoon at 3 145 A. M. while a
relief was in progress. The rehef had been barely accom-

398 APPENDIX

plished when a terrific machine gun and artillery barrage
was laid down on their position at the edge of the woods.
The enemy was seen advancing behind the barrage in
small columns 500 yards from the position. He imme-
diately placed his platoon back on the line and by his
energetic efforts contributed materially to the repulse of
the attempted attack, which was so well frustrated that f
our losses were held to a minimum. The relief was then
accomplished in excellent order. This on the morning of
the 6th of June, 191 8.

Corporal HERBERT C. RICE, Company E, 6th Ma-
fines:

Made repeated trips between the front line and his bat-
talion headquarters under shellfire with great devotion to
duty. This between the 2nd and the 9th of June, 1918.

Pharmacist Mate 2nd Class CLIFFORD WHISTLER,
Hospital Corps, U. S. N., attached to Company E, 6th
Marines:

Repeatedly gave aid to the wounded while under artil-
lery fire. This between the 2nd and the 9th of June,
1918.

Sergeant MORRIS E. BARNETT, JR., Company H,
6th Marines:

Corporal JOHN L. DORRELL, Company H, 6th Ma-
rines:

Displayed quaUties of leadership and coolness under
fire in leading patrols to post through heavy machine gun
fire during a counter-attack by the enemy on a town
taken by our troops the night before. This on the 7th of
June, 1918.

APPENDIX 399

Sergeafit JOHN J. McAMIS, Compafiy C, 6th Marines:

Showed absolute fidelity to duty under especially heavy
shellfire during operations in the woods on June 12th, in
assuring liaison between his battalion headquarters and
the companies in line.

Sergeant J. A. BRODERICKy Headquarters Company^
6th Marines:

Corporal S. /. MADDENy Headquarters Company, 6th
Marines:

Corporal A. 0. TESTER, Headquarters Company, 6th
Marines:

Private J. P. ELWOOD, Headquarters Company, 6th Ma-
rines:

Private EUGENE H. LONG, Headquarters Company, 6th
Marines:

Private M. C. ROCKWELL, Headquarters Company, 6th
Marines:

The six men above named, of the Regimental Intelli-
gence Section, are deserving of high distinction for their
invaluable work in the course of the operation from the
6th to the 1 2th of June. They carried on their work from
an observation post located in a tree in an exposed comer
of the woods a short distance behind our lines. Located
between two batteries, it was frequently under fire and
six times appeared to be the target of enemy artillery.
Their task required continued exposure during bombard-
ment and attack when their comrades were enabled to
take advantage of cover. The observation secured under
these conditions proved many times indispensable to
the carrying on of operations and the protection of our
forces.

4CX) APPENDIX

Pharmacist Mate ist Class PERCY V. TEMPLETON,
U. S. N.J 6th Marines:

Hospital Apprentice ist Class JAMES L. WEDDING-
TON, U. S. N., 6th Marines:

During extremely heavy shellfire, these two men car-
ried wounded for several hours, loading them into ambu-
lances, assuring their safety at the risk of death to them-
selves. This on the loth of June, 1918.

Pharmacist Mate ist Class EMMETT C. SMITH, U.

S. N., 6th Marines:
Hospital Apprentice 1st Class ARTHUR L. FIFER, U.

S. N., 6th Marines:

In the course of operations which resulted in the cap-
ture of a town from the enemy, these two men dressed
and evacuated wounded from a wheat field swept by
heavy artillery and machine gun barrage. At a time
when the losses threatened to prevent the success of the
operation, the heroic conduct of these men steadied the
line and spurred the attacking platoons on through the
barrage fire. This on the 8th of June, 1918.

Sergeant Major CHARLES A. INGRAM, 2nd Battalion^
6th Marines:

Set a fine example to his men during the attack on a
town occupied by the enemy on June 6th, which fell into
our hands that night. He led volunteers to bring in the
wounded during the bombardment of a farm on the 8th
of June, showing fine coolness throughout.

Gunnery Sergeant JOSEPH C. GRAYSON, Company F,
6th Marines:

Rallied his men after their platoon leader was severely
wounded and displayed great courage and coolness under
heayj^ machine gun fire.

APPENDIX 401

Gunnery Sergeant AUGUST T. ZIOLKOWSKI, Com-
pany Fy 6th Marines:

Rendered conspicuous service in the advance on and
capture of a town by our forces, and through his personal
bravery gave efficient first-aid to the wounded when his
platoon was temporarily checked in the advance. This
on the 6th of June, 191 8.

Chief Pharmacist Mate GEORGE G. STROTT, U. S.
N., 6th Marines:

Rendered valuable services as chief aid at the Regi-
mental Aid Station in the care and evacuating of many
wounded from the ist to the loth of June. Although at
times under heavy bombardment he performed his labours
without faltering, and by rare fidelity to duty preserved
accurate record of all officers and men of the various or-
ganizations which passed through the aid station. He
showed himself a courageous and faithful man.

First Sergeant SIMON D. BARBER, Company F, 6th
Marines:

Conspicuous for his personal bravery throughout the
operations leading to the attack and capture of the town
on the 6th of June and its defence until relieved on June
9th.

Gunnery Sergeant WILLIAM J. KIRKPATRICKy Com-
pany F, 6th Marines:

Conspicuous in the operations of the 6th of June re-
sulting in the capture of the town from the enemy, rally-
ing his men under heavy machine gun fire and giving en-
couragement to the entire line.

402 APPENDIX

Sergeant ARTHUR T, GOETZ, Company F, 6th Ma-
rines:

Conspicuous for the manner in which he handled the
men of his platoon while advancing under heavy fire and
during the capture of a town from the enemy. This on
the 6th of June, 1918.

Sergeant JOHN P, MARTIN, Company F, 6th Marines:

The only remaining sergeant in his platoon during the
capture of the town from the enemy, although seriously
wounded, he performed valuable services and carried on
until properly relieved.

Sergeant ROMEYN P. BENJAMIN, Company F, 6th
Marines:

Conspicuous for his gallantry in action, wounded dur-
ing the capture of a town by our forces, he remained at
his post throughout the operation. This on the 6th of
June, 1918.

Sergeant VERNON M, GUYMON, Company F, 6th Ma-
rines:

Delivered a message through heavy machine gun fire
which resulted in the arrival of reinforcements and mate-
rially aided in holding a captured position against great
odds. This on the 6th of June, 1918.

Sergeant JAMES McCLELLAND, Company F, 6th Ma-
rines:

One of the most conspicuous figures in the capture of
the town from the enemy on the 6th of June, with his
battalion depleted by heavy losses, he conducted an auto-
rifle party through the line, placed his gun on the flank of
the town where he opened a deadly fire and entered the
town with the first troops.

APPENDIX 403

Sergeant GEORGE ERHJRDT, JR., Company G, 6th
Marines:

Sergeant ARTHUR H, KING, Company G, 6th Marines:

Corporal ALVIN W, POP PEN, Company G, 6th Ma-
rines:

Private EARL H, RECHERy Company G, 6th Marines:

The four men above named moved forward under
heavy fire in an engagement in the woods on the 6th of
June and killed four of the enemy who were searching the
bodies of dead comrades for identifications. Under guid-
ance of Sergeant ERHARDT these men later displayed
marked bravery and coolness in gathering information
from the Germans which determined the fact of the with-
drawal of the enemy.

Sergeant MOSS GILL, Company G, 6th Marines:

Assumed command of his platoon after his chief had
been shot, and with great gallantry and courage led his
men into action, handling them with skill until wounded
three times bv machine gun fire.

Sergeant FRANK A. LAUTERBACK, Company G, 6th
Marines:

Notable for his initiative and courage in leading his
men into action in the engagement in the woods on June
6th, rendering splendid service until seriously wounded.

Sergeant ROBERT D. JOHNSON, Company G, 6th Ma-
rines:

Led his men into action with great gallantry until
wounded by an enemy bomb, in the operations in the
woods on June 8th.

404 APPENDIX

Sergeant J. E. DONAHUE, 121057, Company Ey 6th
MariTies:

Sergeant H, P, KIDDER, 1213000, Company F, 6tk Ma-
rines:

Sergeant D. V, PARADIS, 121556, Company G, 6th Ma-
rines:

Sergeant H, W. ANDERSON, 122794, Company H, 6th
Marines:

Private JACK KELLEY, 121285, Company E, 6th Ma-
rines:

Private E, /. AUBER, 121101, Company E, 6th Ma-
rines:

Private H. S. BROWN, 121560, Company F, 6th Ma-
rines:

Private D. S. MALA BY, 121455, Company F, 6th Ma-
rines:

Private JOSEPH FANS, 121635, Company G, 6th Ma-
rines:

Private PRESTON SLACK, 121765, Company G, 6th
Marines:

Private A. T, ROMANS, 122978, Company H, 6th Ma-
rines:

Private L. B. MALUGEN, 122940, Company H, 6th Ma-
rines:

Private LE ROY HOLMES, 121 176, Company E, 6th
Marines:

Private H. C. CRONK, 122879, Company H, 6th Ma-
rines:

The fourteen men above named showed great courage
and daring in continuous carding of messages to ad-
vanced positions under artillery and machine gun fire for
nine days, and particularly so in the operations of the
6th of June. This from the ist to the 9th of June, 1918.

APPENDIX 405

Corporal HAROLD POWELL, Company H, 6th Marines:

Corporal G. R. PAWSON, Company G, 6th Marines:

Corporal RAY JOHNSON, Company F, 6th Marines:

Private B. L. TAYLOR, Company F, 6th Marines:

Private LAWRENCE A. MILLIGAN, Company F, 6th
Marines:

Private R. H. PAGE, Company G, 6th Marines:

Private ALFRED FRANK, Company G, 6th Marines:

Private V, J. HERMAN, Company E, 6th Marines:

Private C. B. HUSE, Company E, 6th Marines:

Private C. E. WHIPPIE, Company E, 6th Marines:

Private C. M. SELLARDS, Company H, 6th Marines:

Private R. G. PATTON, Co^npany H, 6th Marines:

Private 0, A. THORPE, Company H, 6th Marines:

Private W. W. AKEMAN, Company G, 6th Marines:

Private F, J. CALHOUN, Supply Company, 6th Ma-
rines:

Private F. J. BOWERS, Supply Company, 6th Marines:

Private W. B. KONTUR, Headquarters Company, 6th
Marines:

Private J, J, BOURKHALTZ, Headquarters Company,
6th Marines:

Private D. F. GRANT, Headquarters Co^npany, 6th Ma-
rines:

The nineteen men above named, attached to 2nd Bat-
talion Headquarters, runners, intelligence men, cooks and
orderlies, carried ammunition for a distance of over a
mile, under heavy fire, to a town which had been cap-
tured by our forces and was the objective of an enemy
<aounter-attack. This on the 8th of June, 1918,

4o6 APPENDIX

Gunnery Sergeant JACK CARLIN, 122040, Company Ky
6th Marines:

Displayed notable coolness and courage in the actions
against the enemy on June 6th and 8th. By his untiring
efforts, and constantly exposing himself to machine gun
fire, he manoeuvred his platoon into effective positions
from which they successfully fought against superior odds.

Gunnery Sergeant RALPH C. JUDD, i2i'/go, Company
/, 6th Marines:

Led his platoon against a strongly fortified machine
gun position. Assuming command temporarily at a time
when all the officers of his company were wounded, he
demonstrated marked qualities of leadership. This on
the 8th of June, 1918.

Corporal WALTER E. LUC AS, 121827, Company /, 6th
Marines:

Private JAMES Y, SIMPSON, 122003, Company I, 6th
Marines:

Corporal SETH D. ABBOTT, 121810, Company I, 6th
Marines:

Private LEROY SONGER, 122006, Cornpany I, 6th Ma-
rines:

Private ROY E. LILE, 121Q52, Company I, 6th Marines:

Private ELMER D. TAFF, 122014, Company I, 6th Ma-
rines:

Private RICHARD C. HAWKINS, 121924, Company I,
6th Marines:

Private GEORGE F. LEDGER, 121951, Company I, 6th
Marines:

The eight men above named took part in the attack on
a strongly fortified machine gun nest which was captured

APPENDIX 407

and held. The platoon was in charge of Sergeant
GEORGE P. FRANK, who assumed command when
the platoon commander had been wounded. One ma-
chine gun was captured and another was destroyed before
Sergeant FRANK was ordered to retire with his depleted
force.

Corporal LUCAS and Private SIMPSON were killed.
Corporal ABBOTT and Privates SONGER, LILE, LED-
GER, TAFF and HAWKINS were severely wounded.
This on the 8th of June, 1918.

Pharmacist Mate 3rd Class JOHN Q. WILLIAMS, Hos-
pital Corps, U. S. N., 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines:

Rendered conspicuous service in attending the wound-
ed on the field under heavy machine gun fire. This on
the 6th of June, 191 8.

Hospital Apprentice ist Class WILLIAM B. EFANS,
Hospital Corps U. S. N., Company M, 6th Marines:

Showed rare devotion to duty and courage in caring
for the wounded under fire in the capture of a town by
our forces. This on the 6th of June, 1918.

Corporal NEIL S. SHANNON, 123286, Company M,
6th Marines:

Showed rare coolness and heroism under heavy fire and
while badly wounded, in the capture of a town from the
enemy. This on the 6th day of June, 1918.

Private ARLA W. HARRISON, 122184, Company Ky
6th Marines:

Displayed unusual qualities of courage, steadiness, and
aggressiveness in the engagement with the enemy on June
8th. He was constantly active in placing comrades in

4o8 APPENDIX

positions where they could give sniping fire against enemy
machine gun positions, repeatedly exposing himself to
enemy fire.

Private PETER P. BYMERS, 122123, Company K, 6th
Marines:

In an engagement with the enemy in the woods, he
killed six of their number with his accurate rifle fire and
displayed remarkable courage and steadiness in a trying
situation. This on the 6th of June, 191 8.

Private EDWARD J. STEIN METZy 122267, Company
Ky 6tk Marines:

In an engagement with the enemy on the 6th of June,
he brought down two enemy snipers who were inflicting
losses upon his comrades. Throughout the engagement
he showed remarkable qualities of aggressiveness and abil-
ity to work himself into positions from which he could
successfully carry on his work of sniping.

Private CHARLES HENRY, 122174, Company K, 6th
Marines:

In an engagement with the enemy in the woods, in a
terrain where the enemy had located strong machine gun
positions, through his personal efforts and disregard of
danger, he located a machine gun emplacement which
was later captured. This on the 6th of June, 1918.

Private IRA 0. ARBUCKLE, 272110, Company K, 6th
Marines:

In an engagement with the enemy in the woods on the
6th of June he displayed noticeable courage and was con-
spicuous in the capture of two machine guns. He was
later wounded in action.

APPENDIX 409

Pfivau EARL HOYTy 122179, Company K, 6th Ma-
rines:

In an engagement with the enemy in the woods on the
8th of June he inspired his comrades Hke a veteran sol-
dier and handled his rifle with great skill, inflicting severe
damage upon the enemy

Privatf WALTER L. BURROUGHS, i23iS2y Company
My 6th Marines:

Rendered conspicuous service in attending wounded
m'^n on the field under heavy machine gun fire. This on
the 6th of June, 1918.

Private BENJAMIN Mc, THOMPSON, 123092, Com-
pany K, 6th Marines:

In an engagement with the enemy on the 6th of June,
he rendered aid to the wounded men in the field under
heavy machine gun fire, personally carrying a number of
wounded oflF the field.

Private WILLIAM R, CASSADY, 123155, Company M,
6th Marines:

During an engagement with the enemy on the 6th of
June, although wounded and suffering from shell shock,
he refused to leave the field and advanced with his pla-
toon.

Private WILLIAM T. N APPIER, 123237, Company M,
6th Marines:

During an engagement with the enemy on the 6th of
June, he showed especial coolness and heroism in his ser-
vices to the wounded on a field swept by enemy fire.

4IO APPENDIX

Private PAUL S. DREYER, 12307 1, Company M, 6th
Marines:

In the capture of a town from the enemy he showed
rare coolness and heroism under heav}'^ fire while caring
for the wounded. This on the 6th of June, 1918.

Corporal WINN I FIELD 0, BARRETT, Company F,
6th Marines:

Displayed great coolness in handling his auto-rifle sec-
tion under heavy machine gun fire during the advance
upon a town which later fell into our hands. This on the
6th of June, 191 8.

Corporal LLOYD E. PIKE, Company F, 6th Marines:

Stuck to his auto-rifle when all the men of his crew had
been wounded, and kept it in action until its withdrawal
was ordered by his platoon commander. He was conspic-
uous for his coolness under fire.

Corporal JOHN L. McSWEENEY, Company F, 6th Ma-
rines:

Corporal JOSEPH L. MOODY, JR., Company F, 6th
Marines:

Corporal CHAUNCEY 0, WIN TON, Company F, 6th
Marines:

Private LEWIS T, HUMPHRIES, Company F, 6th Ma-
rines:

Private NATHAN L. PIZER, Company F, 6th Marines:

Private JOSEPH S. WILKES, Company F, 6th Marines:

The six men above named delivered messages through
intense machine gun fire from the front line to their bat-
talion commanders, going and returning with important
messages at the risk of their lives, during the capture, oc-

APPENDIX 411

cupation, and defence of an enemy town. This on the
6th of June, 1918, and subsequent thereto.

Private LEO A, MILLAR, Company F, 6th Marines:

Severely wounded at the capture of a town from the
enemy on the 6th of June, he was evacuated to the dress-
ing station where he assisted in giving first-aid to the
wounded throughout the night with fine disregard of his
own condition.

Private GEORGE CAYGILL, Company F, 6th Marines:

Displayed great bravery under fire during the capture
of a town on the 6th of June, and when he was wounded
and put out of action he encouraged his comrades to ad-
vance.

Private WALLACE M. O'REILLY, Company F, 6th
Marines:

Conspicuous for his work of relaying messages under
heavy machine gun fire between a captured town and his
battalion post of command, continuing his duties after
being shot in the wrist. This on the 6th of June, 191 8.

Private JOHN TUSKIE, Company F, 6th Marines:

Conspicuous in the delivery of messages under heavy
machine gun fire between his company in possession of a
captured town, and his battalion post of command.

Private LUTHER A. ERFLAND, Company F, 6th Ma-
rines:

At constant risk of his life, he rendered first aid to the
wounded under heavy machine gun fire after the advance
of his platoon upon an enemy position had been checked.
This on the 6th of June, 1918.

412 APPENDIX

Private HJALMAR 0. SIMONSONy Company F, 6th
Marines:

Conspicuous for his utter disregard of heavy machine
gun fire, and for his constant encouragement of his com-
rades in the attack on and capture of an enemy position.
This on the 6th of June, 1918.

Private JOE B, WARREN, Company F, 6th Marines:

When his corporal and three men had been killed by
the explosion of a shell in a trench which they occupied,
he took charge of the remaining men of his squaJ, and
with great coolness held his position in spite of the bom-
bardment. This on the 8th of June, 1918

Corporal WILLIAM M. E. HESS, Company G, 6th
Marines:

Brave as a liaison messenger through heavy fire, skil-
ful in reconnaissance on enemy positions, he rendered in-
valuable assistance at all times in operations against the
enemy on the 6th and 8th of June.

Corporal GERALD E. GREENWOOD, Company G, 6th
Marines:

Showed rare fidelity to duty in the carrying of mes-
sages through heavy barrages in the operations against
the enemy on the 6th and 8th of June, 1918.

Private ELMER C. MAXSON, Company G, 6th Ma-
rines:

Performed his duties as company liaison agent in the
face of heavy fire after his two assistant agents had been
shot down by his side. By his rare quality of tenacity he
rendered invaluable assistance to his company at a most
critical time.

APPENDIX 413

Private STEWART L, II ART WELL, Company G, 6th
Marhies:

Conspicuous in the performance of his duty as liaison
agent in the operations against the enemy on the 6th and
8th of June, 191 8.

Private ERNEST J. COLLEY, Company G, 6th Ma-
rines:

Not only performed his duty as Haison agent under
heavy fire with fidehty and skill, but assisted to unload
bombs and ammunition for his company in the line under
artillery fire during operations against the enemy in the
woods on the 6th and 8th of June, 1918.

Private JOE W. EANES, Company G, 6th Marines:

Notable for his coolness and courage under fire in the
delivery of important messages during the operations
against the enemy in the woods on the 6th and 8th of
June, 1918.

Private PETER J. KRAMER, Company G, 6th Marines:

Wounded and rendered temporarily unconscious by
machine gun fire, he later rushed to the aid of his com-
rades and gave invaluable assistance in aiding the wound-
ed during operations against the enemy on the 8th of
June, 1918.

Private HAROLD E. DEWAR, Company G, 6th Marines:
Private ALBERT CAMPBELL, Company G. 6th Marines:

As platoon liaison agents they never faltered, and dis-
played great coolness under fire.

414 APPENDIX

Private JOHN PATRICK O'BRIEN, Company G, 6th
Marines:

Under heavy artillery fire, he gave first aid to his pla-
toon commander, before completing which task he was
seriously wounded, and although in an exhausted condi-
tion, persisted in giving aid to his wounded comrades, re-
fusing to have his own injuries attended to until he could
no longer work.

Private JAMES R, HOOFER, Company K, 6th Ma-
rines:

V While acting as battalion scout, he showed great cool-
ness under point blank fire of machine guns, also while
acting as guide and liaison agent in attack on machine
gun nest. This on the 8th of June, 1918.

Corporal WILLIAM 0. CAMPBELL, Company B, 6th
Marines:

In his duties as gas non-commissioned officer he was
conspicuous for his services during a bombardment of our
positions on the night of June 12th, fearlessly exposing
himself to their fire in order to secure information vital
to his comrades.

Private JAMES A. TUCKER, Headquarters Company,
6th Marines:

During a terrific bombardment of the ist Battalion
lines, he delivered messages between the battalion and
the Regimental Post of Command, his path lying over
terrain swept by enemy fire, risking his life on every trip.
This on the 12th of June, 191 8.

APPENDIX 41 5

Corporal WILLIAM J. BROWN, Company C, 6th Ma-

PriJaU WILLIAM M. RICHARDS, Company C, 6th
Marines:
Delivered messages in the course of terrific enemy bom-
bardment on the Unes of the 1st Battahon, performmg
their duties with dispatch and accuracy, at the risk ot
their Uves. This on the 12th of June, 1918.
Pripau WALTER E. GROSS, Headquarters Company,
6th Marines:
As a member of the one-pounder gun-crew that partici-
pated in the capture of a town from the enemy s forces on
the 6th of June, he showed conspicuous gallantry in
maintaining the supply of ammunition in the f^ce of heavy
machine gun fire and artillery fire directed upon his piece.
Corporal CARLOS E. STEWART, Headquarters Com-
pany, 6th Marines:
He was chiefly instrumental in placing a one-pounder
crew in such position that they inflicted severe damage on
stronply fortified enemy machine gun position from which
fire was being directed upon the platoons advancing to
the capture of the town that fell into our hands on the
6th of June. With great coolness and contempt for dan-
ger, he spurred on his crew to its work m the face of a
hail of fire.
Private WALTER E. RIDER, Headquarters Company,

6th Marines:
Private EDMUND T. SMITH, ^Headquarters Company,

6th Marines:
During the attack of our forces upon an enemy strong-
hold which culminated in its capture, these two men car-

41 6 APPENDIX

ried ammunition forward to their one-pounder guns
through heavy machine gun and shell fire, enabling the
gun-crew to destroy two machine gun emplacements.
This on the 6th of June, 191 8.

Private ALTON H. VANLANINGHAM, Headquarters
Company, 6th Marines:

Conspicuous for his coolness and gallantry in placing a
one-pounder gun, himself a member c^ the gun-crew, in
position in the face of heavy fire during the attack and
capture of an enemy position. This on the 6th of June,

1.918.

Private ALVA C, TOMPKINSy Headquarters Company y
6th Marines:

Conspicuous for his valour while placing a one-pounder
gun in position to inflict severe damage on enemy ma-
chine gun emplacements in the face of heavy machine gun
and shellfire. This on the 6th of June, 1918.

Private WALTER G. WOOD, Company E, 6th Marines:

Made repeated trips between the front line and his
Battalion Headquarters under shellfire, with great devo-
tion to duty. This between the 2nd and the 9th of June,
1918.

Private EDWARD C. SEVERANCE, Company £, 6th
Marines:

Performed valuable services as a sniper while a mem-
ber of an auto-rifle crew, and was constantly on the alert,
displaying great courage under fire. This on the 8th of
June, 1918.

APPENDIX 417

Private OGLE L. WAGGONERy Company E, 6th Ma-
rines:

Displayed his ability as a sniper, dislodging several
enemy snipers who were firing on our front line. This on
the 7th and 8th of June, 1918.

Private RAYMOND ROSS, Company H, 6th Marines:

After the capture of our objective on the 6th of June,
having been wounded three times, he remained on his
post for two and one-half hours until properly relieved.

Private MAX R. HOWARD, Company H, 6th Marines:
Private EDWARD K. CHAPIN, Company i/, 6th Ma-

Private JAMES L. GARFEY, Company H, 6th Ma-
rines:

Private PHILIP P. PARI! AM, Company H, 6th Ma-
rines:

Private JOHN H. GREGS, Company H, 6th Marines:

The five men above named continually carried mes-
sages through heavy artillery and machine gun fire in the
attack on an enemy stronghold on the 6th of June, 1918,
which our forces occupied that day.

Private WILLARD E. PAULEY^ 15th Company, 6th
Machine Gun Battalion:

During heavy shelling with high explosive shells, \\€ re-
mained at his post in an open field to keep visual signals
with the firing line. He was knocked down by shell ex-
plosions and showed utter disregard of all danger by re-
maining at his post. At this time visual signalling was
the only means of communication between headquarters

4i8 APPENDIX

and the company on the firing line. He remained at his
post for several hours under circumstances which called
for the greatest determination and courage.

Captain HARLAN E. MAJOR, i^th Company, 6th Ma-
chine Gun Battalion:

Captain AUGUSTUS B. HALE, 77th Company, 6th Ma-
chine Gun Battalion:

Captain JOHN P. McCANN, 23rd Company, 6th Ma-
chine Gun Battalion:

Captain ALLEN M. SUMNER, 8ist Company, 6th Ma-
chine Gun Battalion:

The four officers above named were untiring in energy
and continuous fortitude from the ist to the nth of June,
leading their companies through all the phases of the bat-
tle and showing undaunted courage and coolness under
heavy fire, both artillery and infantry.

Captain LOUIS R, DE ROODE, 77th Company, 6th
Machine Gun Battalion:

He was untiring in his energy and continuous fortitude
from the ist to the 6th of June, when he was wounded in
action. He led his company through all the phases of the
battle, showing undaunted courage and coolness under
shell and machine gun fire.

Captain MATTHEW H. KINGMAN, 15th Company,
6th Machiv-e Gun Battalion:

Untiring in his energy and continuous fortitude from
the 1st to the 6th of June, when he was wounded in ac-
tion. He led his company through all the phases of the
battle, showing undaunted courage and coolness under
shell and machine gun fire.

APPENDIX 419

Captain JOHN P. HARVIS, Headquarters, 6th Machine
Gun Battalion:

Through his untiring energy the troops of this battalion
were kept suppHed with rations and ammunition under
heavy shelling during the battle.

First Lieutenant LOTH A R R. LONG, Headquarters, 6th
Machine Gun Battalion.-

Through his untiring efforts the liaison, both telephone
and visual signal, was kept open during all the phases
of the battle. Day after day he made sketches of posi-
tions in the front line under heavy fire that proved in-
valuable to our success. His coolness, good judgment,
and courage were the admiration of the battalion.

First Sergeant OLIVER P. JACKSON, 304481, Head-
quarters Detachment, 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Sergeant EDGAR A. METLER, 10S006, 8ist Company,
6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Sergeant CHARLES H. SCHMACKEL, 108306, 77th
Company, 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Corporal HAROLD E. CURTIS, 108358, isth Company,
6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Corporal EDWARD R. KIVLIGHAN, 107975, Head-
quarters Detachment, 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Corporal WALTER W. LI ND BERG, 107973, Headquar-
ters Detachment, 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Corporal JOHN W. CUMMINS, 107984, Headquarters
Detachment, 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Corporal EARL L. ABBOT, 107958, Headquarters De-
tachment, 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Corporal CHARLES A. SMITH, 107968, Headquarters
Detachment, 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

420 APPENDIX

Corporal MANNING M. BOOTH, 107980, Headquarters
Detachment, 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Corporal WILLIAM A, WINSTON, 107962, Headquar-
ters Detachment, 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Corporal ALPHEUS R. APPENHEIMER, 107960,
Headquarters Detachment, 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Private ALLEN F. WYATT, 107961, Headquarters De-
tachment, 6th Machine Can Battalion:

Private GEORGE L. ZIMMERMAN, J07999, 8ist Com-
pany, 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

The fourteen men above named showed undaunted
"courage and disregard of danger to themselves night after
night dehvering rations and ammunition to the dumps of
the battahon from the 2nd to the nth of June under
heavy shell fire. On three occasions high explosive shells
destroyed a ration cart and two gun carts, killing three
animals and wounding the drivers.

Private THOMAS A. GARRETT, 108246, 77th Com-
pany, 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Private FRANK R. THORNTON, 108206, 77th Com-
pany, 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Private HAROLD B, SIMMONS, 108311, 77th Com-
pany, 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Private CHARLES B. FERGUSON, 108091, 8ist Com-
pany, 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Private JOHN R. SULLIVAN, 108137, 8ist Company,
6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Private ELLIOT H. WIGHT, 108160, 8ist Company, 6th
Machine Gun Battalion:

Private HOB ART L. CLARK, 108064, ^i^^ Company,
6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Private MARVIN R. BROWN, 108332, isth Company
6th Machine Gvn Battalion:

APPENDIX 421

Private DAVID A. DE LIMA, 108561, 23rd Company,

6th Machine Gun Battalion:
Private ULRIC D. ROBERTS, 108611, 23rd Company,

6th Machine Gun Battalion:
Private WILFRID WHITE, 107963, Headquarters Coin-

pany, 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

The eleven men above named were conspicuous for
their untiring energy and continual fortitude in keeping
open all communication and liaison the length of the sec-
tor covered by the battalion from the ist to the nth of
June, 191 8. Under heavy shell-fire they had to locate
and repair breaks in the telephone lines again and again in
plain view of the enemy.

First Sergeant JOHN McNULTY, 6th Machine Gun Bat-
talion:

Corporal CEBE W. DONALD, 6th Machine Gun Bat-
talion:

Private THOMAS B. WILKINSON, 6th Machine Gun
Battalion:

The three men above named showed especial bravery
under heavy shell-fire in leaving their shelter and dressing
the wounds of wounded comrades. This on the nth of
June, 1918.

Hospital Apprentice ist Class HERSHEL I. CON-
VERSE, U. S. N., 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Hospital Apprentice ist Class LLOYD H. FEN NO, U.
S. N., 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Hospital Apprentice ist Class CHARLES W, BATE-
MAN, U. S. N., 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Pharmacist Mate 3rd Class WILLIAM C. GRAHAMy
U, S. N., 6ih Machine Gun Battalion:

422 APPENDIX

Pharmacist Mate 3rd Class MILTON C, OLSON, U. S.

N., 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

The five men above named showed commendable brav-
ery and diligence under fire, particularly Private CON-
VERSE, who completed the first aid treatment of a
wounded man after being wounded himself.

Sergeant Major OSCAR A. SWANy loygsi. Headquar-
ters Detachment, 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Displayed undaunted courage in receiving and sending
messages day and night under severe shelling by high ex-
plosive, shrapnel, and gas shells, from June ist to nth,
1918.

Corporal WILLIAM H. FURY, loypsSy Headquarters
Detachment, 6th Machine Gun Battalion:

During heavy shelling with high explosive and shrap-
nel he remained at his post almost continuously night
and day for several days alone, making coffee for the
wounded being evacuated to the rear.

Corporal OSCAR A. VOLLRATH, 108026, Company Z),

6th Machine Gun Battalion:
Private HAW LEY WALDRON, 108151, Company D, 6th

Machine Gun Battalion:
Private JOHN W, WIN FORD, 107993, Company D, 6th

Machine Gun Battalion:
Private SAMUEL E. DOREMUS, 108083, Company D,

6th Machine Gun Battalion:
Private GEORGE C. VOORHEES, 108149, Company D,

6th Machine Gun Battalion:

The five men above named gallantly remained at their
gun in an unprotected position under heavy shell-fire

APPENDIX 423

after one member of the crew had been killed and three
wounded. This on the 3rd of June, 1918.

Corporal VOLLRATH was killed in action on June 9,
1918.

On the 9th of June, Privates WALDRON, WINFORD
and VOORHEES gallantly remained at their gun under
heavy shell-fire after three men, including their gun cap-
tain, had been killed and one wounded at their position.

PHvate EARL J. VREDENBERG, 108150, Company D,
6th Machine Gun Battalion:

Displayed gallantry in action and coolness under fire in
assisting the company commander to rally an ammuni-
tion party and lead it forward under shell-fire when all
others but one had taken cover after one of them had
been seriously wounded. This on the 6th of June, 191 8.

Sergeant NORMAN V. CLARK, ijth Company, 6th Ma-
chine Gun Battalion:

Corporal CO LB URN SHORE R, ijth Compa^iy, 6th Ma-
chine Gun Battalion:

Corporal STANLEY A. SMITH, 15th Company, 6th
Machine Gun Battalion:

Private AMBROSE J, BERTH, istk Company, 6th Ma-
chine Gjin Battalion:

Private GEORGE A. GUSTAFSON, 15th Company, 6th
Machine Gun Battalion:

Private JOSEPH W. PAULAK, 15th Company, 6th Ma-
chine Gun Battalion:

Private CECIL N, MAXIM, i^th Company, 6th Ma-
chine Gun Battalion:

Private HERBERT H. SANDERS, i^th Company, 6th
Machine Gun Battalion:

424 APPENDIX

Private FRED 0. BROWN, i^th Company, 6th Machine
Gun Battalion:

Private HENRY IL Y EPSON, J 5th Company, 6th Ma-
chine Gun Battalion:

Private BENTLEY A. MITCHELL, ijih Company, 6th
Machine Gun Battalion:

Private ALBERT S. HAMMOCK, i^th Company, 6th
Machine Gun Battalion:

Private EDWARD BISCHOFF, isth Company, 6th Ma-
chine Gun Battalion:

The thirteen men above named are worthy of the high-
,est commendation for the splendid manner in which they
conducted themselves under fire during the operations
against the enemy from June ist to nth, 1918.

First Lieutenant FRANCIS G. HENDRICK, M, R. C,

Ambulance Company No. i:

This officer was on duty at the ist Battalion Dressing
Station of the 5th Marines from the afternoon of June 6th
until reHeved on the night of June nth, during which
time, in spite of terrific bombardment by shrapnel and
high explosive shell from enemy batteries, he worked un-
ceasingly night and day, performing his duties in the care
of the wounded fearlessly and without regard for personal
safety or comfort.

Captain THIBOT LASPIERRE, ist Regiment, Tirail-
leurs:

This gallant French officer has been attached to the
6th Marines for many months, during which time he
gave it the best of his high talents and military experience
gained on the fields of Africa and France, contributing
largely to its success in recent actions against the enemy.

APPENDIX 425

He was at the side of Colonel CATLIN, 6th Marines,
in the action of the 6th of June when the latter was
wounded, and without regard for personal risk assisted in
carrying the wounded officer to a place of safety. On his
way across a bullet-swept field to report to the next senior
officer on the field he received shell shock from the explo-
sion of a large calibre shell in the immediate vicinity.
By Command of Major General Bundy:

PRESTON BROWN,
Colonely General Staff,

Chief oj Staff,

OFFICIAL:

William W. Bessell,
Adjutant General,
Adjutant.

The above is an extract copy of G. O. 40, Second Divi-
sion, A. E. F., insofar as it refers to Marine officers and
Marines, and is reprinted by authority of Headquarters,
Marine Corps.

THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS
GARDEN CITY, N. Y.

UMASS/BOSTON LIBRARIES

1001837044

D500.C3 W5 1 GC
With the help of God and

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