When they arrived, June 1st, the Marines were told to "dig in." As tools they used bayonets and the lids of their mess-gear. "Say, you'd be surprised to know just how much digging you can do under those circumstances," remarked Private Geiger afterwards as he lay wounded in a hospital. "Bullets and shrapnel came from everywhere. You'd work until it seemed you couldn't budge another inch, when a shell would hit right close and then you'd start digging with as much energy as if you had just begun."
At ten o'clock, on June 2nd, they were ordered to back up the overtaxed French. It was the second battalion of the Fifth Marines, and particularly the 55th Company, which bore the brunt of the assault at Les Mares Ferme, the point where the Germans came nearest Paris.
The 55th Company had orders to take position one and a half kilometers northeast of Marigny. The French, a few kilometers ahead, were reported falling back, and soon began filtering through. The enemy attack was launched at 5 p. m. against the French who had remained in front of Wise's battalion at Hill 165. The Germans swept down the wide wheat fields. The French, pressed back, fought as they retreated.
Neville's Fifth Marines opened up with a slashing barrage, mowing down the Germans. Trained marksmen, sharp-shooters, they calmly set their sights and aimed with the same precision they had shown upon the rifle ranges at Parris Island and Quantico. The French said they had never seen such marksmanship in the heat of battle. Incessantly their rifles cracked, and with their fire came the support of the artillery. The machine-guns, pouring forth a hail of bullets, also began to make inroads in the advancing lines. Caught in a seething wave of scattering shrapnel, machine-gun and rifle fire, the Germans found further advance would be suicide. The lines hesitated, then stopped. The enemy broke for cover, while the Marines raked the woods and ravines in which they had taken refuge.
Above, a French airplane was checking up on the artillery fire. Surprised at seeing men set their sights, adjust their range, and fire deliberately at an advancing foe, each man picking his target, not firing merely in the direction of the enemy, the aviator signaled "Bravo!" In the rear that word was echoed again and again. The German drive on Paris had been stopped.
The next few days were devoted to pushing forth outposts and testing the strength of the enemy. The fighting had changed. Mystified at running against a stone wall of defense just when they believed that their advance would be easiest, the Germans had halted, amazed. Put on the defensive, they strove desperately to hold their lines. Belleau Wood had been planted thickly with nest after nest of machine-guns. In that jungle of trees, matted underbrush, of rocks, of vines and heavy foliage, the Germans had placed themselves in positions they believed impregnable. Unless they could be routed and thrown back the breaking of the attack of June 2 would mean nothing. There would come another drive and another. The battle of Chateau-Thierry was not won and could not be won until Belleau Wood had been cleared of the enemy.
LEADERS OF THE MARINES
Upper row: Major General John A. Lejeune, Brigadier Generals Wendell C. Neville, and Logan Feland.
Lower row: Brigadier Generals Smedley D. Butler, A. W. Catlin, Harry Lee.