CHAPTER L
A DRIVE BY THE MARINES
American operations in the salient now took a more active turn to the northwest of Château-Thierry in the vicinity of Neuilly, where the Germans had already clashed with their new antagonists. There the Americans were linked with the French on a line that rested on Neuilly-la-Poterie, and ran through Champillon, Lucy-le-Bocage, and to the south of Triangle, and then meandered in an irregular course to Château-Thierry. From this line came a forward movement on June 6, 1918, directed east of Neuilly toward Torcy, Belleau, and Bouresches. The next day the line stood south of the village of Torcy, south of the village of Belleau, with the wood of Belleau partly in American possession, and through Bouresches, then south to the highway east of Thiolet, and thence to Château-Thierry. This advance represented an extension of the American line over a front of about six miles to a depth of nearly two and a half miles.
The brunt of the fighting was borne by United States Marines. It was a sustained action, extending for thirty-six hours. It held the center of the war stage; on no other part of the fighting fronts were there any measurable activities that produced like successes against German arms. The movement, which aimed to drive the German lines farther back from their Paris objective also had its significance in that its second stage was directed by American commanders and undertaken solely by American troops. Most of the fighting by Americans on the western front had been carried out under French commanders. The American units detailed to the Somme, for example, reported to the French command, who assigned them with French soldiers where they were most needed. The commander of the unit to which the marines belonged wanted full control of his own sector in the Château-Thierry region. The request was granted, and the result showed that an American unit, acting on its own initiative, could acquit itself equal to the best-trained German unit.
The first assault on the enemy lines was made at dawn, when the American marines swept forward, with the French attacking on their left, and gained over a mile on a four-mile front. By 8 o'clock they had gained all their first objectives and held all the important high ground northwest of Château-Thierry. They captured 100 prisoners, among them thirty-five mounted Uhlans, and ten machine guns.
The enemy had augmented his line recently, the Americans having pressed him so hard that he was forced to throw three new divisions of his best troops into the breach. Against them the Americans advanced in a solid phalanx, singing and whistling "Yankee Doodle," and cheering. No barrage preceded them, although there had been some advance artillery preparations. On certain parts of the line the resistance was weak; but in other instances our marines ran into German machine-gun nests which, in some cases, succeeded in inflicting considerable casualties. But they did not stop the Americans. Marines with hand grenades and rifles charged the machine guns, wiping out the nests, and in one instance capturing a gun and its crew.
Where the American marines stopped the German advance on the Marne.
From the new line gained by the first attack, a second American advance was made at five in the evening, and by night it reached Torcy and Bouresches. The next morning, June 7, 1918, the Americans were holding Torcy in the face of repeated counterattacks and pushing back the Germans through the streets of Bouresches. Torcy was not part of the American objective, but the eager marines swept into the village by their own momentum.
The hardest fighting took place in the wood of Belleau, to the east of Torcy and between that village and Bouresches.
The wood of Belleau into which the marines penetrated with such ardor proved a hornets' nest. It was ambushed with machine guns, which hampered the American advance and caused many casualties. There were about twenty of them in the plateau formed by the wood. The Americans vainly tried to demolish them by rifles, mortars, and hand grenades. Finally, despite the streams of bullets, they surrounded the plateau, cut off the Germans in it, and went ahead, capturing a hill beyond the wood and inflicting heavy losses on the Germans as they withdrew.
The tireless and undaunted marines then moved on Bouresches. It was a night attack, marked by volleys of machine-gun fire which they poured into the enemy stationed in the village. Bayonets were freely used whenever the Germans attempted to make a stand in the streets. The path of the Americans was not easy. They drove the Germans out in the face of heavy artillery fire, including gas shells, but several times they were balked by machine guns operated by Germans from house roofs. At last a lieutenant, with what was left of a platoon, penetrated into the town under heavy German fire and cleared it of infantry. He held it for thirty minutes, until two companies of Americans came to his aid. They spent an hour routing out the German machine gunners with rifles and hand grenades, when the ammunition began to run low. A runner was dispatched for supplies and another lieutenant hastened to the rescue with a truck load of ammunition. On the road to Bouresches he was the target of a heavy fire from Germans who had hidden behind the advancing Americans; but he succeeded in getting the truck into the town and distributing the sorely needed ammunition.
The American position created by the capture of Bouresches ran from that village to Le Thiolet and guarded the highway from Château-Thierry to Paris. On June 8, 1918, the Germans vainly attacked this position. They also tried to retake Bouresches without success. They could not advance beyond the railroad tracks to the north of the town, where they had intrenched themselves after being driven out by the marines.
The Germans started a night bombardment on the position, to which the Americans did not respond until the enemy's movements revealed that an attack on Le Thiolet was intended. A heavy American barrage was thereupon laid down, which cut the communications of the attacking force and hampered its reenforcements. The Americans were in shallow trenches, hastily prepared, but well equipped with machine guns, which poured a concentrated fire on the enemy when he advanced within 600 yards. Under that fire he continued for 200 yards and then stopped. Undismayed by this repulse, the enemy sent another body of troops to attack the American positions south of the highway, where, on the edge of a wood, the Americans had posted many machine guns. The gunners allowed the Germans to advance a certain distance and then rained their fire upon them. More than a hundred German dead covered one small field swept by the American bullets. The enemy was halted and driven back by a rush of Americans from their trenches in the face of a hail of bullets showered upon them from behind the German lines. This rear fire marked both the attack and repulse, but did not deter the Americans.
It now came the turn of the marines occupying Bouresches to beat off a German attack aiming at its recapture. The trio of counterassaults appeared to have been designed so that the third should be the grand finale, or a culminating surprise for the Americans. The latter were alert, having been forewarned, and were reenforced by a number of machine guns. These they placed on the top of the embankment along which the railroad track ran. The slaughter of the Germans was ruthless when they ventured to cross the track. None returned who got past the embankment; they were either killed or captured. The attack was repeated, but each attempt to retake Bouresches failed.
The Americans with their machine guns paid the Germans back in their own coin. One of the chief obstacles to the Americans' progress was the German fire from such guns. Bouresches when taken was found dotted with positions for them in strong locations and they had to be demolished by mortars. The Germans appeared to rely more on their machine guns to arrest the American advance than on any other weapon of offense. When not fixed in locations they were portable, being mounted on carriages and pushed along by their operators. The Germans also used a light field mortar, mounted on a two-wheel truck, in the same way.
The three days' fighting produced the usual crop of striking incidents. One marine who was taking back a prisoner ran into two German officers and ten men. He fought them single-handed with his rifle and bayonet, killed both the officers and wounded seven of the men. Another sergeant was about to take a prisoner when the German threw himself on the ground and discharged his revolver at the American after calling "comrade," the sergeant shot him, as he did four others who also had surrendered, but refused to put up their hands. In Torcy twenty-five Americans engaged and drove out 200 Germans, and then withdrew to the main line on the outskirts of the town. A corporal in a company of marines, all of whose officers, including the sergeants, had been killed or wounded, took the command and led his men to their objective.
The élan of the Americans in the whole adventure was expressed by a private who was among the first to rush into Torcy:
"I never saw such wonderful spirit. Not one of our fellows hesitated in the face of the rain of the machine-gun fire, which it seemed impossible to get through. Every German seemed to have a machine gun. They fought like wild cats, but the Americans were too much for them."
CHAPTER LI
BELLEAU WOOD
There was a dangerous bulge in the new American line formed by Belleau Wood. In their advance the Americans had been unable to take this forested little stronghold perched on a hill among rocks, and had swept past it, after capturing a near-by elevation, and rushed on to Bouresches. The wood concealed ambushes of German infantry and machine guns, which were a thorn in the side of the Americans on the outskirts. They had made several raids in the wood, expelling groups of Germans here and there; but the next day the enemy would reappear and pour a harassing fire on the American lines. Notwithstanding searching shelling from American guns, the Germans seemed to retain a firm hold.
A German attack on June 8, 1918, to oust the Americans from the positions they held on the borders of the wood precipitated an energetic counterassault to clear the enemy completely out. The Americans had already matured plans for riddling the entire woody plateau with a deluge of shells. This artillery scheme was carried out on mathematical lines, the area of the wood being marked off into checkerboard squares, a square to each battery. Every part of the wood therefore had established targets for the American gunners to play upon. The artillery preparation lasted all of Sunday and Monday, June 9 and 10, 1918. It was the most expansive exhibition of ordnance in action that the Americans had undertaken. The wood was raked with more than 5,000 high explosive and gas shells. At 3 o'clock on Monday morning the marines, who had been in conflict with the Germans in their attack of Saturday, proceeded to advance into the wood and penetrated it for two-thirds of a mile on a 66-yard front.
The operations were tersely reported by General Pershing to the War Department as follows:
"June 11.—Northwest of Château-Thierry we were again successful in advancing our positions in the Belleau Wood. We captured 250 prisoners, of whom three were officers, and considerable material, including a number of machine guns and trench mortars."
"June 13—Yesterday afternoon our troops northwest of Château-Thierry captured the last of the German positions in the Belleau Wood, taking fifty prisoners and a number of machine guns and trench mortars, in addition to those taken on the preceding day."
The Germans now became a menace on the borders of the wood, where they impinged on a number of awkward pockets or little salients. The Americans in the wood enjoyed no sinecure, but were engaged in continuous skirmishes against groups of the enemy. One small pocket the Germans found too untenable under American fire on the northern side of the wood and hastily vacated it on June 19, 1918, enabling the Americans to advance five-eighths of a mile without resistance. A short and sharp artillery fire on the position presaged an infantry attack, which the Germans elected not to face. They carried their material with them in their retreat, and the Americans, therefore, did not take any machine guns nor prisoners. On the morning of June 21, 1918, the Americans straightened their line further on the northern and eastern side by a series of small but effective attacks. They rushed the positions held by the enemy without the customary artillery opening. The Germans for the most part fired a few shots and retired. Members of one post alone held their ground, only to be annihilated. To the east a thin line of American skirmishers obtained the objective in view there by merely firing as they advanced.
Still the borders of the wood were not clear of the Germans. On June 23, 1918, the Americans directed their attention to the northwestern corner, where the Germans held positions that appeared impregnable. The Americans, in a night attack, started a heavy barrage, after which they went forward and drove out the Germans. The operation lasted only half an hour.
Another engagement that took place in the same quarter on the same day was more extensive in scope though local in object. It resulted in the Americans advancing their lines a distance of 200 to 400 yards on a front of one kilometer, routing the Germans out of several hidden gun nests, and the capture of five machine guns. The fighting was marked by certain features, described by Edwin L. James:
"This fight, which lasted four hours, was not accompanied by artillery or gas fire, and was mostly close hand fighting, the kind which Americans most prefer. It was a fight such as seldom occurs in this war, where usually trench positions are so well defined that barrages can be laid safely by both sides down to a matter of inches.
"Germans and Americans got so mixed up in the north end of the Bois de Belleau that neither side risked using artillery for fear of killing its own men.
"The Americans began to advance at 6 o'clock in broad daylight. In the extreme north wood the Germans had been able to establish some machine guns, which were firing against us. Our men advanced against these positions and discovered that to the north of the wood the Germans had established a strong line position."
As to the ubiquitous machine guns, the Americans found that the Germans had organized such posts with great ingenuity:
"At one point the nature of the terrain prevented machine guns on the ground from commanding the surrounding area. Here a dead German gunner was found seated in the crotch of a tree, his hand still resting on a machine gun slung from a pulley and carefully counterbalanced down so that it could be pointed in every direction. This German stayed at his post until an American shot him.
"Another machine gun was found on a cleverly concealed platform in a tree, while in another tree a one-pounder was mounted until we put it out of commission.
"Preceding the advance of our infantry, American artillery had put down a heavy bombardment of German positions in the woods, but large trees impaired the effectiveness of the shells."
The retention by the Germans of positions abutting on the wood had been reduced to a single point on the north. This remaining menace was subjected to a dashing attack by the Americans on the night of June 25, 1918. In their various forays they had cleared the enemy out of the wood several days ago; but the discovery was made that under cover of darkness the Germans had planted machine guns behind huge bowlders, in sunken roadways, in shell holes, and in trees in a narrow area on the edge of the wood. It was most difficult to reach them in these positions, and some fierce hand-to-hand fighting occurred in the clearing process.
The attack involved an artillery bombardment lasting thirteen hours. Only a small strip of underbrush, behind which the Germans had raised their defensive works, remained to be cleared; but the importance of the American advance was not to be measured by the extent of territory taken. Though it only amounted to some 500 yards, it gave them possession of virtually all of Belleau Wood, and enabled them to dominate the ridge beyond, held by the Germans, besides straightening their lines for more effective resistance to counterattacks as well as for offensive operations. Over twenty machine guns were captured, with a number of automatic rifles, small arms and ammunition, and 311 prisoners.
It was a surprise attack, in which the American artillery played a brilliant part, throwing the whole German line in confusion and making it such an inferno that prisoners said they were glad to get out of it alive. In advancing, the Americans went one way and the German officers tried to force their men forward the other way. One prisoner was shot in the leg by his own officer because he hesitated confusedly between the American guns and bayonets and the pistols in the hands of the German officers.
An American private, who was in the first line of the advance, gave this glimpse of the operation:
"We took up a position in the open wood; there were no trenches. The Germans opened a heavy fire and shells fell around us like rain. We charged over the rocky hill, our fellows laughing and yelling a war whoop. We then came upon a wheat field and crossed in the face of a withering shell and machine-gun fire, and drove back the Germans at the point of the bayonet."
Interposing between the attacks around Belleau Wood were skirmishes for the possession of Bouresches. This town, being only a mile or so to the south of the wood, constituted a menace to the Americans if retaken by the Germans, and consequently the latter made several determined efforts to regain it. Two hours after the Americans made their first attack on Belleau Wood on June 10, 1918, the Germans launched heavy forces against the Americans holding Bouresches. A dark and cloudy night aided their preparations for the rush, but the Americans, expecting an assault, had the northern side of the town lined with machine guns, and had artillery trained on the railroad embankment over which the Germans had to come. When, at 5 o'clock, the Germans came they met a terrific machine-gun fire, while a heavy barrage behind the attacking party, and gradually lowered on it, not only cut off reenforcements, but killed many in it.
Two fresh divisions were thrown against the American center. Trusting to the deep woods northeast of the village and the twisted spur of a hill to conceal them, the leading divisions advanced in mass formation. They, however, were observed from the Bois de Belleau and were brought under a destructive hail of shrapnel before they could deploy. The fire was so severe that the attack was disorganized and no progress could be made for some time.
When the Germans did succeed in penetrating the defenses, they were met with such enthusiasm in cold steel that their only choice was death or surrender.
Another violent attack on the town came on the morning of June 13, 1918. The Germans succeeded in entering the town after raking the American positions by a furious bombardment. The Americans promptly darted out of their shelters and engaged the invaders in a hand-to-hand conflict, in which the latter were all killed or captured.
A moonlight sortie across the Marne east of Château-Thierry provided a diversion for the American forces at that point while the marines were busy on the Belleau-Bouresches line. Once over the river, they established contact with hostile forces, killed a considerable number, and brought back prisoners, mainly from Landwehr units. The following description of the raid was furnished by an Associated Press correspondent:
"Heavy clouds obscured the moon and a light drizzle had just begun to fall when the two parties of Americans embarked in small boats and rowed across the river from two points of the wooded bank. They crossed without detection. One party entered the woodside held by the Germans and penetrated cautiously under the dripping trees for a few hundred feet.
"A break in the clouds suddenly let the moonlight through, and the Americans saw Germans near by. The Americans immediately opened fire from a little rise in the ground, and the Germans threw themselves flat. Rifles cracked, and then the automatics got into action. Those of the enemy who remained alive were taken prisoners. Twelve enemy dead were counted before the patrol made its way back to the boats and rowed to its own side of the river.
"The other patrol met another enemy party, apparently sentries, going on guard. Several of the Germans were killed or wounded and one was taken prisoner."
A previous diversion at midnight was directed at a wood, also to the east of Château-Thierry. Aerial photographs had revealed a host of enemy troops and much material concealed there, and upon them the American guns poured an avalanche of projectiles, sending 1,200 shells of all calibers into one small area in ten minutes. To the west of the town, a fight occurred round a commanding hill whose northern, or unimportant side, was held by the Germans. The latter sent forces around both sides and over the top to expel the American and French troops, who held the crest and the other flanks of the hill, without gaining an advantage.
CHAPTER LII
THEIR PRESENCE FELT
The exploits of American forces during the month of June, 1918, in the Château-Thierry region of the Soissons-Rheims salient had a significance of their own, which was not lost on their admiring Allies, nor on their German foes. A new combatant, stripped and eager for action, had plunged into tasks which would have taxed the hardened and more experienced troops of France and Great Britain. Though confined to a small area, the American achievements were sufficiently notable to prove that the Americans had speedily become the equals of any other warriors on the fighting fronts. In the numerous fights centering on Belleau Wood their captures of Germans reached 1,000. A number of them belonged to the crack Fifth German Guard Division, which includes the Queen Elizabeth Regiment. There had been 1,200 Germans in the wood. With the exception of the prisoners nearly all the rest were slain. The guard division named was regarded as one of the kaiser's best body of fighters; but the Americans were surprised to find their morale very low and that they were no match for American vigor and audacity.
At the beginning of June, 1918, American troops stepped into a seven-mile sector northwest of Château-Thierry and stopped the Germans, at the very tip of their salient, from getting any nearer to Paris. More than that, on a front of ten kilometers they hurled almost constant blows, which advanced their line from two to four kilometers, all the way inflicting heavy losses on the enemy, and taking some 1,500 prisoners. Of eleven distinct engagements the Americans won ten. They kept eleven picked German divisions occupied, which might otherwise have been used with telling effect elsewhere. There was no doubt at all that the quality of the American fighters had proved a source of considerable concern to the German High Command. An oft-repeated canard current in France was to the effect that the Germans did not wish to punish the Americans by sending their best troops against them, preferring not to arouse the American spirit. Nevertheless, the kaiser had sent his most famous battalions to try conclusions with the Americans, and they had been beaten. Learning of the Americans' presence on the Marne, two crack German divisions, the Fifth Guard and the Twenty-eighth, which had been ordered elsewhere, were suddenly swung south to face the Americans. Their arrival caused some wonderment among the French and American officers. The Americans were a feared foe. A captured German officer said these two divisions were on their way to the rear for a four weeks' rest, to take part in another offensive, when suddenly they were ordered to the front northwest of Château-Thierry, "in order to prevent at all costs the Americans from being able to achieve success."
The examination of other prisoners, from the Twenty-eighth German Division, elicited information which formed the subject of a French army report.
"American assistance," this report observed, "which was underestimated in Germany, because they doubted its value and its opportunity, worries the German High Command more than it will admit. The officers themselves recognize that among other causes it is the principal reason for which Germany hastens to try to end the war and impose peace.
"In addition, the prisoners did not conceal their great surprise at the training and quickness that the Americans have shown against them, nor for the good work accomplished by the artillery, which for three days engaged them, cutting off all food supplies and all reenforcements and causing them very heavy losses—practically all of the officers and twenty-five of the men were killed or wounded in a single infantry company and twelve in a machine-gun section, of which the full quota was seventeen men."
Testimony of a similar tenor was found in a letter taken from the dead body of a German killed in Belleau Wood. It was written to his home people and dated June 21, 1918.
"We are now in the battle front," it said, "and canteens dare not come to us on account of the enemy, for the Americans are bombarding villages fifteen kilometers behind the present front with long-range guns, and you will know that canteen outfits and others who are lying in reserve do not venture very far, for it is not pleasant to 'eat cherries' with Americans. The reason for that is that they have not yet had much experience. American divisions are still too fiery.
"We will also show the Americans how good we are, for day before yesterday we bombarded them heavily with our gas. This had caused them already great losses, for they are not yet sufficiently experienced with gas bombardment. About 400 of us are lying around here.
"We have one corner of the wood and the Americans have the other corner. That is not nice, for all of a sudden he rushes forward and one does not know it beforehand. Therefore one must shoot at every little noise, for one cannot trust them."
In the fighting round Château-Thierry a number of drafted men were thrown into action to replace other units of the established army forces. The latter were men of the regular army, the marine corps, and the old national guard. All these had previous training under arms; and many had been in actual combat in the Philippines, Haiti, Nicaragua, at Vera Cruz, or on the trek into Mexico after Villa. But the drafted men had had no such hardening prior to going into cantonments, where the training, although severe and thorough, was not acquired under conditions of actual warfare with an enemy at hand. The drafted men of the new national army nevertheless went under fire before the kaiser's picked hosts, not as raw recruits, but capable soldiers of mettle and valor. They were more undisciplined, owing to the easy nature of American life, than the young men of other nations; yet they readily accustomed themselves to discipline. They were unfamiliar with war, because of their country's immunity from its terrors; yet they were equal to the emergency when it came.
The exploits of the marine corps in their swing from the original American position to the Torcy-Bouresches-Château-Thierry line stand out in strong relief. The massed efficiency of the rest of the American forces was not the less conspicuous because of the marines' achievements. That the latter acquired a certain prominence was perhaps due to the fact that their daring and resourcefulness was never without an element of the picturesque. They were stationed at the point nearest to Paris to protect it; but they did not wait to be attacked. They chose to take their offensive, which continued on their own initiative, advancing beyond the object in view, and gained ground against determined opposition. Their bravery was tempered by judgment, and their steady progress and small losses showed that it was not marred by recklessness.