World War I battle of Belleau Wood was a big turning point for the U.S.
BELLEAU, France—It was the spring of 1918, and the German army was making a final push toward Paris. The only thing in their way was a contingent of Allied troops, including untested U.S. forces near the Marne River in northern France.
Among them: U.S. Army 1st Lt. Gordon Kaemmerling, a precocious and athletic Harvard graduate who had jumped at the opportunity to help the United States leave its shell of isolationism and join the war.
On June 6, 1918, the U.S. forces attacked, storming across the open fields near Belleau Wood. Germans sprayed them with shells and machine-gun fire from a densely forested hill. Without proper artillery cover, the Americans were mowed down easily at first.
In the chaos, the 26-year-old Kaemmerling rushed to help his comrades, and was nearly torn in two by shrapnel and bullets.
The bravery of Kaemmerling and others helped the Americans chase the German forces out of Belleau Wood by the end of the month. The battle became a defining moment in World War I, not just containing the German push along the Western Front but proving the Americans’ military mettle for all to see.
Victory bonded the Allies, and that friendship became the cornerstone of global diplomacy for most of the last 100 years.
That partnership is being celebrated during the centennial of the battle of Belleau Wood as the U.S. marks the Memorial Day holiday, even amid some trans-Atlantic strains.
NO RETREAT
Germany acknowledged the arrival of the U.S. forces on the Western Front would be a burden, but peace with the Bolsheviks in Soviet Russia meant that German troops could reinforce another onslaught on France.
It was a unique window of opportunity for the Germans, and when it came, they got within a week’s march from Paris. Victory after four years of fighting seemed possible. The initial plan was to give many of the U.S. forces more time to train before being thrown into battle, but Germany had other ideas.
In desperation, the French asked U.S. Gen. John J. “Black Jack” Pershing for the immediate deployment of his some of his troops to stop the gap near the Marne, northeast of Paris. U.S. soldiers and Marines were soon sent off to Belleau. The combination of inexperience and gung-ho enthusiasm became the stuff of legend. The battle is one of the first things taught to any U.S. Marine, said Owen Gardner Finnegan, a Marine who served in Afghanistan and was visiting the Belleau Wood cemetery.
Because of their ferocity, the Americans “stopped the most advanced army in the world at the time in savage fighting,” Finnegan said.