New England in France, 1917-1919

1–26 June 1918

Battle of Belleau Wood

CHAMPAGNE-MARNE DEFENSIVE 159

At dawn one descends from the train; the billeting parties are there to show the way, and the troops move out, to establish themselves by the night of July 2 in the area Tancrou-Germigny - Mareuil-les-Meaux - Quincy - Villemareuil-Changis. Division Headquarters opened in Nanteuil-les-Meaux. Not a Fourth-of-July celebration was in store, nor yet a jaunt to Italy. To anybody able to read a map, to anybody who had followed the daily sweep of the German hosts down from the heights of the Aisne since May 27, between Rheims and Compiegne, the work in store for the Division was evident enough. No longer the garrison of a Lorraine sector still learning war by raid, patrol, and local bombardment, but trusted with a part in the scene of greatest activity was now the Divi- sion's fortune. Wliat its other American comrades had done it was expected to accomplish. The brilliant success of the First Division at Cantigny (May 9) ; the steady courage of the Third, on the Marne at Chateau-Thierry (June 4), by which the German was refused a foothold on the south- ern bank; the valorous charges of the Marines in Belleau Wood, the work of the 9th and 23d Infantry in the neigh- boring Vaux and Bouresches (June 11-13) — all these feats of arms were for the Twenty-Sixth to emulate, before the eyes of the world. Two of its fellow National Guard

CHAMPAGNE-MARNE DEFENSIVE 159

By July 4 the Division began to move up to the line. Ad- vantage was taken of a temporary lull in the fighting on the sector of front just to the northwest of Chateau- Thierry, where the Second Division ^ had been heavily en- gaged, to effect the gradual relief of its weary, battered units. The artillery first went into position and began firing on July 8. The infantry followed, one regiment at a time, as the situation warranted risking a change in the front-hne dispositions. The 52d Infantry Brigade took over from the gallant Marine Brigade the ground the latter had won and held so splendidly in Belleau Wood and in front of Torcy, as far to the left (northwest) as Bussiares; the 51st Infantry Brigade relieved the 9th Infantry in the vicinity of Vaux, and the 23d Infantry at Bouresches. Division Headquarters moved up to Chamigny, then to Genevrois Farm, where also was the artillery, the infantry Brigade Headquarters being established at Domptin (51st) and La Loge Farm (52d). By July 9 the relief was com- pleted, and the Division was on the battle front.

CHAMPAGNE-MARNE DEFENSIVE 161

The German intentions were well known. Apparently the enemy was so confident of success that he took no pains to insure the effect of surprise. For five or six weeks, during most of June and the first of July, he attempted no important move, collecting his forces for one final on- slaught— the so-called " Friedensturm" — which was to bring about the AUies' final downfall. An "army of pur- suit " (IX Army, under Von Carlowitz) was brought from the Eastern Front and collected near Soissons, to follow up initial successes. The French fine was to be broken by Von Boehn on the Marne, who should cut the great Paris- Nancy railway; the armies of Von Below (I) and Von Einem (III) were to effect another breach east of Rheims; and at the same time Von Hutier and Von der Marwitz were to separate for good the French and British on the front between Amiens and Montdidier. These tasks ac- complished, the combined forces would move toward Paris down the Marne Valley and from the north — a grandiose plan, indeed, to which the German successes of the past weeks gave a semblance of feasibility. How Foch, by a counter-stroke of supreme audacity, brought the plan to naught; how the Twenty-Sixth Division shared daily in the first week of that fighting between Aisne and INIarne which definitely turned the tide of war, will be told in its place. First we have to look at the Division, crouched for the spring, along the line of Vaux, Bouresches, and Bel- leau Wood, just above Chateau-Thierry.

THE MARNE-CHAMPAGNE DEFENSIVE 165

But the incident, like all movements or actions in war, must be considered only in connection with other activ- ities of the moment. No action is isolated, unrelated, with- out bearing on a general plan ; there is no minor enterprise, no troop movement by any unit of a large force which does not receive its impetus and derive its character as merely a link in the great chain of events being forged by the master-smiths. To the 101st Infantry, snarling and snap- ping at the troublesome foe in front of it, the Vaux affair seemed at the time entirely localized; but actually this display of German energy, such as it was, must be con- sidered as intended to attain a definite object as part of the renewed attacks of Von Boehn on a large scale along the Marne, which were fully developed on the following day.