Marine detachments served on board all the American battleships attached to the British Grand Fleet and also on the American battleships which based at Castletown Berehaven, Bantry Bay, Ireland. Marines also served on board many of the cruisers which escorted the vessels transporting Army troops to Europe. They were also attached to many other naval vessels such as the Brooklyn, Helena, and Wilmington, in China and Siberian waters, at one time landing at Vladivostok in conjunction with other naval forces; on the Galveston on the Murman Coast; and on the Pittsburgh in South American waters. Marines were also on the San Diego when that vessel was sunk, and the Minnesota when that ship was damaged by German mines. Marines were in intimate contact with the Germans in Guam and Philadelphia in conjunction with the Navy in the first hours of the war.
One brigade of Marines was held in readiness in Texas for possible trouble in Mexico which might endanger the Allies’ oil supply. Another was scattered throughout the island of Cuba. Large detachments of Marines were stationed in the Azores and Virgin Islands in the nature of advanced base forces, while an advanced base force at Philadelphia was available at all times for naval needs.
Marine forces were also stationed in Guam, Philippine Islands, Peking, Pearl Harbor, and Nicaragua and they assisted materially, under the limited conditions, in the war.
Active operations were conducted in Haiti and Santo Domingo against bandits during the period of the war by Marine forces, the Haitian Gendarmerie and the Guardia Nacional Dominicana, the two latter organizations being composed of natives and administered and officered by the Marine and Navy personnel. Casualties were suffered by Marines in the operations in Santo Domingo, 4 Marines being killed, 13 wounded, and 1 officer wounded, between April 6, 1917, and November 11, 1918.
Chapter IX.
UNITS COMPOSING, AND THE COMMANDING GENERALS OF, THE SECOND DIVISION—VERDUN OPERATIONS.
THE SECOND DIVISION OF REGULARS.
The first unit which ultimately formed a part of the Second Division arriving in France was the Fifth Regiment of Marines which landed in France with the first expedition of American troops in June, 1917. One Marine lieutenant colonel, who afterwards was the first chief of staff of the Second Division, and another Marine lieutenant colonel, who later commanded the Seventeenth Field Artillery of the Second Division, accompanied Gen. Pershing and his staff when they sailed from the United States late in May, 1917.
The Second Division was composed of the following units: