(Signed) G. Lugol,
President of the Committee.
Meaux, June 25, 1918.
During the first attack on Belleau Wood on June 6, 1918, Col. Albertus W. Catlin was severely wounded and was relieved in command of the Sixth Regiment by Lieut. Col. Harry Lee, who continued in command until the regiment was demobilized in August, 1919.
When Maj. Edward B. Cole was mortally wounded on June 10, 1918, he was relieved in command of the Sixth Machine Gun Battalion of Marines by Capt. Harlan E. Major. On June 11, 1918, Captain Major was relieved by Capt. George H. Osterhout, who retained command until relieved by Maj. Littleton W. T. Waller, jr., on June 21, 1918.
During the fighting in the Chateau-Thierry sector the headquarters of the Fourth Brigade was successively at Montreuil-aux-Lions, (in an automobile for one-half hour on the way to the front lines), Issonge farmhouse, and La Loge farmhouse. After being relieved by elements of the Twenty-sixth Division during the night of July 5-6, 1918, the brigade moved to an area in rear of the lines and occupied what was known as the Line of Defense or Army Line, with headquarters at Nanteuil-sur-Marne. The brigade remained there until July 16, 1918.
During the time the above-described fighting was going on the Germans were frustrated in their fourth 1918 drive (Noyon-Montdidier defensive) between June 9 and 15, 1918, and of course being busy in the vicinity of Bois de Belleau, the Marines had no opportunity of engaging in it.
Having been blocked in the Marne salient, the Germans attacked for the fifth time in 1918 on July 15, and as events turned out it was the last, for from the time of its failure they were on the defensive. The Allied troops including many Americans held this attack, called by the Americans the Champagne-Marne defensive, which was on a large scale, and the grand initiative passed from the Germans to the Allies on July 18, 1918, when Marshal Foch launched his initial major offensive, termed by the Americans the Aisne-Marne. In this magnificent and gigantic operation the Marine Brigade and other elements of the Second Division played leading parts in the vicinity of Soissons.
General headquarters, American Expeditionary Forces, on May 28, 1919, credited the Second Division units with participation in the major operation of Champagne-Marne defensive, but on June 2, 1919, rescinded this credit.