07/06/2017
99 YEARS AGO TODAY...
"Come on, you sons of bi***es, do you want to live forever?"
99 years ago today those words were spoken as GySgt. Dan Daly led Marines into battle. 2 days earlier, Marine Captain Lloyd Wiliams uttered the words, "Retreat? HELL, we just got here!" (a quote later attributed to MGen. Frederick Wise.
The first waves of Marines—advancing in well-disciplined lines—were slaughtered. Marines of 3/6 Battalion swept into the southern end and encountered heavy machine gun fire, sharpshooters and barbed wire. Marines and German infantrymen were soon engaged in heavy hand-to-hand fighting.
The casualties sustained on this day were the highest in Marine corps history up to that time. Some 31 officers and 1,056 men of the Marine brigade were casualties. However, the Marines now had a foothold.
Over the coming days the Germans used great quantities of mustard gas. Marines attacked from the west and south.
Marines were cut to pieces by heavy fire. Platoons were isolated and destroyed by interlocked machine gun fire. It was discovered that the a battalion had advanced in the wrong direction.
Overall, the Germans were attacked by the Marines a total of six times before they could successfully expel them.
The Marines fought with such ferocity that they were likened to "Dogs from Hell." History is still unclear about where and when this was uttered, but as far as anyone can tell the words "Sie waren Teufelshunde" were a description used to describe how the Marines bravely fought at Belleau Wood.
The battle went on until June 26th, but marked one of the bloodiest in Marine Corps history.
Later, after the battle, the French renamed the wood "Bois de la Brigade de Marine" ("Wood of the Marine Brigade") in honor of the Marines' tenacity. General Pershing—commander of the AEF—even said, "The deadliest weapon in the world is a United States Marine and his rifle."
A fountain representing a massif's head stands in the grounds of the old castle near the woods.
This bulldog fountain was installed a long time before the battle of Belleau Wood and provided water to the population, as some other springs in the village.
After the battle the Marines created a very strong symbolic link with this fountain. Indeed, in 1918 the US Marines were nicknamed "Devil Dogs" by the Germans, because of their determination in the battle.
Nowadays, every Marine wishes to come to Belleau and drink water from this fountain in remembrance of the Marines that fought so bravely those days in June 1918.
