The enemy had been stopped but not driven. They had fallen back to strong positions, the names of which must go down in history as scenes of terrific fighting—Bouresches and Bois de Belleau—the latter a wooded, rocky parcel of land on which German machine guns were hidden—hundreds of them—while more than a thousand of the enemy's best men were concealed in the thicket and underbrush and in the rocky fissures.
The Americans drove into the wood and charged the stronghold. Sacrifice! Yes, hundreds of brave young Americans died fighting, but not in vain. American artillery swept the woods; little companies of men charged the enemy machine-gun nests, silencing the guns and killing the operators or taking them prisoners. There was no going forward in mass formation under barrage or protecting curtain of fire, but out in the open the Marines and infantrymen rushed on facing terrific fire.
Bois de Belleau was cleared of the Boche. Bouresches fell to the Americans. The capture of the town was a repetition of the taking of the first position. Machine guns protected the town everywhere. In cellar windows, doorways and on roofs the Germans had set up their weapons. But it was the old story—no hail of shot could stop the Americans. Almost without sleep, unable to bring up supplies, the Americans had fought four days with only canned foodstuffs to sustain them.
Stories of the fights are reminiscent of those in which American troops engaged the Indians on the plains in the frontier days. Indeed American Indians—children of the famous old Sioux and Chippewa tribes of Red Men—acted as scouts for Uncle Sam in many of his troops' activities in France, and the methods of the old Indian fighters proved too much for the Germans.
It is estimated that 7000 were killed or wounded by the Americans in this action, and that their prisoners numbered more than 1000. How privates took command of squads and continued to outbattle the enemy when officers were killed; how lone Americans or small groups of them captured squads of Huns or annihilated them, are common stories of heroism written into the official war records of the American Expeditionary Forces in France, and sealed by medals of honor presented to young Americans or confirmed by official words of commendation.
Let the words of General Pershing in an official order to his troops on August 27, stand as part of the record:
"It fills me with pride to record in General Orders a tribute to the service achievements of the First and Third Corps, comprising the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Twenty-sixth, Twenty-eighth, Thirty-second and Forty-second Divisions of the American Expeditionary Forces.
"You came to the battlefield at a crucial hour for the Allied cause. For almost four years the most formidable army the world has yet seen had pressed its invasion of France and stood threatening its capital. At no time has that army been more powerful and menacing than when, on July 15, it struck again to destroy in one great battle the brave men opposed to it and to enforce its brutal will upon the world and civilization.
"Three days later, in conjunction with our Allies, you counter-attacked. The Allied armies gained a brilliant victory that marks the turning point of the war. You did more than to give the Allies the support to which as a nation our faith was pledged.
"You proved that our altruism, our pacific spirit and our sense of justice have not blunted our virility or our courage.