The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-12-09
AMERICAN SEA FIGHTERS EXTOLLED BY SECRETARY DAME

ficers OF the Marines slept in the open,
many Of them in a field that was green
with unharvested wheat. awaiting the
time when they should be summoned
to battle. The next day at 5 o'clock,
the afternoon Of June Q. began the bat
tie OF Chateau Thierry. with the Amer
leans holding the line against the most
vicious wedge Of the German advance.
Battle Of Chateau Thierry.
The advance OF the Germans was
across a wheat field, driving at HUI
1855 and advancing in smooth columns.
The United States Marines, trained to
keen observation upon the rife range,
nearly every one Of them wearing a
marksman's medal or better, that Of
| the sharpshooter or expert rifieman,
did not wait for those gray clad hordes
to advance nearer. Calmly they set
their sights and aimed with the same
precision that they had shown upon
the rife ranges at Paris Island. Mare
Island and Qusntico. necessarily their
rifles cracked. and with their fire came
the support OF the artillery. The ma
chine gun fire, incessant also, began
to make its inroads upon the advanc-
ing forces. Closer and closer the
shrapnei burst to it's targets.
| Caught in a seething wave Of ma
chine gun fire, OF scattering shrapnel.
OF accurate rife FIRE, the Germans
found themselves In a position in
which further advance could only
mean absolute suicide. The lines hes
itated. They stopped. They broke for
cover, while the Marines raked the
woods and ravines in which they had
| taken refuge with machine gun and
rife to prevent them making an
other attempt to advance by infiltrat-
ing through. Above, a French air
plane was checking up on the artillery
fire. Surprised by the fact that mel.
should deliberately Get their sights, ad
just their range and then FIRE de-
liberately at an advancing foe, each
man picking his target instead Of FIR
ing merely in the direction Of the en-
envy. the aviator signaned below
Bravo In the rear that word was
echoed again and again. The German
drive on Paris had been stopped.
Fighting in Belleau Wood.
| For the next few days the lighting
took on the character OF pushing forth
outposts and determining the strength
Of the enemy. Now. the fighting had
| changed. The Germans, mystified that
they should have run against a stone
wall OF defence Just when they be-
lieved that their advance would lie
easiest, had halted, amazed; then pre-
pared to defend the positions they had
won with all the stubbornness posi-
| BILE, In the black recesses OF Belleau
Wood the Germans had established
| nest after nest Of machine guns
There In the jungle of matted under
| brush, Of vines, OF heavy foliage. they
had placed themselves In positions
they believed impregnable. And this
| meant that unless they could be
| routed. unless they could be thrown
back. the breaking of the attack of
| June 2 would mean nothing. There
would come another drive and an
other. The battle Of Chateau Thierry
was therefore not won and could not
be won until Belleau Wood had been
cleared Of the enemy.
ut was June that the attack of
the American troops began against
ings, with the wood itself and the
towns of Torcy and Bouresches form
| ing the detectives. At o'clock the
attack came. and there began the
| tremendous sacrifices which the Ma
rine Corps gladly suffered that the
German fighters might be thrown
| back.
Fought American Fashion.
THE Marines fought strictly ac-
| cording to American Methods rush,
halt. rush again, in four wave
formation the rear waves taking over
the work Of those who had fallen be-
fore them, passing over the bodies OF
their dead comrades and plunginE
| ahead, until they too should be torn
to bits. But behind those waves were
more waves. and the attack went on.
Men fell like fiies'; the expression
Is that Of an officer writing from the
field. Companies that had entered the
battle 200 strong dwindled to fifty and
sixty, with sergeant in command.
but the attack did not falter. Al 9;45
o'clock that night Bouresches was
taken by Lieut.. James +. Robertson
and twenty-odd men of his platoon:
| these soon were Joined by two re-
| enforcing platoons. Then came the
enemy counter attacks, but the Ma
rines hell
Charging Machine Gun Nests.
an Belleau Wood the fighting had
been literally from tree to tree
stronghold to stronghold and II was
fight which must last for weeks
Before Its accomplishment in victory
belleau Wood was a Jungle. It's every
rocky formation forming a German
machine gun nest, almost impossible
to reach by artillery or grenade fire
There was only one way to wipe ont
these nests-by the bayonet. And nv
this method were they wiped out for
United States Marines, bare chested
shouting their battle cry OF 'E-e-e-s-e
y-a-a-h-h-h yip'' charged straight
into the murderous fire from those
guns, and won.
out OF the number that charged
In more than one instance, only one
would reach the stronghold. There
with his baMnet as his only weapon.
he would either kill or capture the
defenders of the nest, and then swing
ing the gun about In its position, turn
1t against the remaining German no.
sitions in the forest. Such was the
character of the fighting in Belleau
Wood; fighting which continued until
July 8. when after a short relief the