Our Navy at war

by Josephus Daniels

You stood like a stone wall against the enemy advance on Paris.... You have engaged and defeated with great loss three German divisions, and have occupied the important strong-points of the Belleau Woods, Bouresches, and Vaux. You have taken about 1,400 prisoners, many machine guns and much other material.

General Petain, Commander-in-Chief of the French Armies of the North and Northeast, issued a general order citing and commending the Marines, mentioning by name Brigadier General James G. Harbord, commanding the Fourth Brigade; Colonel Wendell C. Neville, commanding the Fifth Regiment; Colonel A. W. Catlin, commanding the Sixth Regiment, and Major Edward B. Cole, commanding the Sixth Machine Gun Battalion. Colonel Neville commanded the Fifth through all these operations, fighting with his men in Belleau Wood. When Colonel Catlin was wounded, he was, as I have stated, succeeded in command of the Sixth by Lieutenant Colonel Harry Lee, who continued to command that regiment to the end of the war. When, leading his machine-gunners, Major Edward B. Cole fell, mortally wounded, on June 10th, Captain Harlan E. Major took charge. A day or two later he was relieved by Captain George H. Osterhout, and on June 21st Major Littleton W. T. Waller, Jr., took command of the Sixth Machine-Gun Battalion.

The real beginning of the great series of offensives which finally routed the German armies and brought complete victory to the Allies, was when Marshal Foch, on July 18, with picked troops made a vigorous thrust at the Germans near Soissons, with overwhelming success. The First and Second U. S. Divisions and the French Moroccan Division were employed as the spearhead of the main attack.

At a single bound they broke through the enemy's infantry defenses, overran his artillery, and cut the German communications. The Second Division took Beaurepaire Farm and Vierzy in a rapid advance, and at the end of the second day was in front of Tigny, having captured 3,000 prisoners and 66 field-guns. "The story of your achievements," said General Harbord, "will be told in millions of homes in all Allied lands tonight."

"Due to the magnificent dash and power displayed by our First and Second Divisions, the tide of war was definitely turned in favor of the Allies," said General Pershing. Soissons was relieved, and the Germans began a general withdrawal from the Marne. General Harbord was in command of the Second Division, Colonel Neville of the Marine Brigade; Colonel Logan Feland of the Fifth Regiment, Colonel Lee of the Sixth, and Major Waller of the Machine-Gun Battalion in this operation, known as the "Aisne-Marne offensive."

General John A. Lejeune, U. S. Marine Corps, on July 29, assumed command of the Second Division, which he commanded with marked distinction to the end of hostilities, during its service with the Army of Occupation in Germany, and until the Division, on its return to America in August, 1919, was demobilized.

Of the six Allied offensives designated as major operations on the Western Front in 1918, the Marines, with the other units of the Second Division, took part in three. In the battle for the St. Mihiel salient, the division on September 11th took up a line running from Remenauville to Limey, and on the morning of the 12th attacked. Overcoming the enemy resistance, they romped through to the Rupt de Mad, a small river, crossed it on stone bridges, occupied Thiaucourt, scaled the heights beyond and pushed on to a line running from the Xammes-Jaulny ridges to Bonvaux Forest. Then they rested, having occupied two days' objectives before 3 p. m. of the first day. The Division's casualties were about 1,000 men, 134 killed. It had captured eighty German officers, 3,200 men, 120 cannon and a vast amount of stores.

The taking of Blanc Mont Ridge, the key to Rheims, was one of the most effective blows struck by the Allies. Determined to break through the powerful German defenses in the Champagne, Marshal Foch asked for an American division. The Second was selected, and General Lejeune, on September 27th, was summoned to French headquarters.

Pointing to a large relief map of the battlefield, General Gouraud, who directed the operations, said to General Lejeune: "General, this position is the key of all the German defenses of this sector including the whole Rheims Massif. If this ridge can be taken the Germans will be obliged to retreat along the whole front 30 kilometers to the river Aisne. Do you think your division could effect its capture?"

Studying the map closely, General Lejeune said with quiet assurance that he was certain the Second Division could take it. He was directed to propose a plan for the assault, which would be begun in a few days. He did so. The battle of Blanc Mont Ridge was fought and won by the Second Division as a part of the French Fourth Army, and that signal victory was due largely to the military genius of Lejeune.