The Watertown news. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1917-1919, 1919-01-03
How Marines Fought at Belleau Wood

| EXTRACT from a report of Secretary
Of the Navy Daniels made to congress
concerning the work of the American
marines.]
The efficient fighting, building, and
landing force of the navy (the marine
corps) has won imperishable glory
in the fulfllment of it's latest duties
upon the battlefields of France,
where the marines, fighting for the
time under Gen. Pershing as part
Of the victorious American army, have
written a story of valor and sacrifice
that will live in the brightest annals
Of the war.
With heroism that nothing could
daunt, the marine corps played a
vital role in stemming the German
| rush on Paris, and in later days aided
in the beginning of the great offensive,
the freeing of Reims, and participated
in the hard fighting in Champagne,
| back of the Prussian armies in the
vicinity of Cambria and St. Quentin
With only 5000 men engaged in the
| fiercest battles, the marine corps cas-
ualties numbered 60 officers and 1881
enlisted men dead and 70 officers and
2435 enlisted men wounded seriously
enough to be officially reported by
cablegram, to which number should
be added not a few whose wounds
did not incapacitate them for further
| fighting. However, with a casualty
list that numbers nearly half the orig
inal 5000 men who entered battle, the
official reports account for only 81
United States marines who have been
captured by the enemy. This includes
those who were wounded far in ad-
vance of their lines and who fell into
the hands of Germans while unable
to resist.
Memorial day shall henceforth have
a greater, deeper significance fol
America, for it was on that day, May
80, 1918, that our country really re-
ceived it's first call to battle-the bat
tie in which American troops had the
honor of stopping the German drive
on Paris, throwing back the Prussiar
hordes in attack after attack, and be-
ginning the retreat which lasted un.
til imperial Germany was beaten tt
it's knees and it's emissaries appealing
for an armistice under the flag Of
truce.
And to the United States marines
fighting side by side with equally
brave and equally courageous men il
the American army, to that faithful
sea and land force of the navy, fel
the honor of taking over the line.
where the blow of the Prussian would
strike the hardest, the line that wa.
nearest Paris and where, should {
breach occur, all would be lost.
The world knows today that the
United States marines held that line
that they blocked the advance tina
was rolling on toward Paris at a rate
of six or seven miles a day; that they
met the attack in American fashion
and with American heroism; tha
marines and soldiers of the American
army threw back the crack guart
divisions of Germany, broke their ad
vance, and then, attacking, drove then
back in the, beginning of a retreat
that was not to end until the "cease
firing" signal sounded for the end o.
the worlds greatest war.
1t was on the evening of May 80
after a day dedicated to the memory
of their comrades who had fallen il
| tho fra iDinO dave nd in ho
sector that the Fifth and Sixth regi
ments and the Sixth machine gu1
battalion, United States marines, eacl
received the following orders:
Advance information officially re
ceived that this regiment will NOV,
at 10 p. m. 80 May by bus to new
tarea. ALI trains shall be loaded a
once and arrangements fastened
Wagons, when loaded, will move tt
Serans to form train
All through the night there was fe
vered activity among the marines
Then, the next morning, the long
trains of camions, buses, and trucks
each carrying it's full complement O
United States marines, went forward
on road which at one place wount
within less than ten miles of Paris
toward Meaux and the fighting line.
! Through the town of Meaux wen
the long line of camions and to tn,
village of Manifestations less
than four miles from the rapidly ad
vancing German line. On this trip thu
camions containing the Americans
were the only traffic travelling in thu
direction Of the Germans; everything
else was going the other way-refug
ees, old men and women, small chill
pren, riding on every conceivable con
veyance, many trudging along the
side of the road driving a COW or cal
before them all of them covered with
the white dust which the camior
caravan was whirling up as it rolled
along; along that road only one or.
ganization was advancing, the United
States marines.
At last, their destination reached
early on the morning of June 2, they
disembarked, stiff and tired after q
journey of more than seventy-twc
miles, but as they formed their lines
and marched onward in the direction
OF the line they were to hold thew