December 27, 1918. The Collapse of the German Empire. The Rise of Poland. A League of Nations.

Polish soldiers digging trenches in their 1918-1919 war against Imperial Germany.

The final stages of the collapse of Imperial Russia saw huge numbers of Polish troops join forces with any Russian rebels and the establishment of a defacto Polish state from Polish lands that had been under the crown.  Indeed, not only did this occur, but Polish forces and rebels soon were engaged in combat with Ukrainian forces and rebels over what was Polish and what was not.

On this day, in 1918, that spread to Germany.

The collapse of the German war effort in World War One is such an important historical event that most histories of World War One simply end with that and treat the German Revolution as a bit of an epilogue.  Histories of World War Two tend to treat it as a prologue.  But what should be evident from reading these posts is that Imperial Germany didn't really end on November 11, 1918, or even before that when the Kaiser abdicated shortly before, but rather Imperial Germany sloppily turned the reins of government over to a provisional socialist government that found itself with a major domestic revolution on its hands from the hard left and the old Imperial Army with which to put it down.  It was trying desperately to do so.  

Contrary to what occurred after World War Two, the allied occupation following the Armistice of November 11 was quite limited in scope. This is also sometimes misunderstood. The occupation following the Second World War was intended to totally demilitarize and remake Germany.  The 1918 one was not, but instead was intended merely to prevent a resumption of the war with the West.  It was quite limited, but strategic, in scope.

Occupation zones following November 11, 1918.  'Armistice and occupation of Germany map', URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/armistice-and-occupation-germany-map, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 15-Jun-2017

Indeed, the occupation zones were actually frankly anemic and basically were simply sufficient for the Allies to create a strong defense on the south bank of the Rhine with bridgeheads over it, in case of a resumption of the war.  That this was highly unlikely was obvious by the behavior of the Allies themselves, who immediately began to repatriate their soldiers and sailors to their homes and discharge them.  While I disagree with those who insist on the Versailles Treaty being the date that ended all doubt, this map gives them a point.

Cheyenne readers on this learned that Wyoming Guardsmen would definitely be overseas for awhile.

Wyomingites in the 91st Division would be remaining overseas as well.  On the positive side, it seemed that American troops were getting along well with German civilians.

As does the behavior of Germany itself, within its borders.  The German Army was very active, where it could be, but it couldn't be everywhere, and it was effective everywhere it was.

On December 24, the German Army had been defeated in a street battle with Berlin by Red Sailors and Kreigsmarine and soldiers who had gone over to the Reds.  Lots of significant towns were in the hands of Red revolutionaries who intended to form a communist government.  The provisional socialist government Weimar was struggling to retain power and not go down in a Red revolution.

On this day, the Poles added to their troubles.

The Posen region of Imperial Germany, a major coal producing region of the state, had always really been Polish. The German Empire had been just that, and like the Austrian Empire it included people who were not German by ethnicity within its borders, although not nearly to the same extent that was the case in the Austro Hungarian Empire.  Included in that were regions of what had been Poland and which were among its oldest possessions.

Prussian province of Posen, Polish regions in yellow.

The Poles had been subjects of conquest by neighboring Prussia back into Medieval times. In more recent times the Germans had participated in the dismemberment of what remained of Poland.  The Poles, in spite of a late German effort, had never been absorbed by the Germans who had always looked down upon them.   With the Poles reforming their country out of the Polish regions of Russia, it was inevitable that Poles in Posen would attempt to break away and joint them.

What wasn't inevitable was that it would work, but it did.  The Polish rebels were largely successful in a two month long war with Germany which saw them seize control of most of the region.  On February 16, 1919 with a renewed armistice involving the Poles and the Germans imposed by the Allies.  The Versailles Treaty would settle the territorial question in favor of Poland.

Cartoon in the New York Herald, December 27, 1918.  This cartoon is only quasi clear.  It was celebrating the concept of a League of Nations, but are the little dachshunds republics made up of a dismembered German state?

On that treaty, the British were very strongly backing a League of Nations, and that was starting to get some press, and some discussion in the United States, where views were initially quite favorable.

Training in the US kept on in other places, exploring the newly learned and newly acquired.

December 23, 1918. Wyoming Guardsmen of the 148th Field Artillery at the Château-Thierry and beyond.

The DI of the 148th Field Artillery.  Many of the Wyoming Guardsmen who served as infantry on the border were reassigned to this Field Artillery unit made up of Rocky Mountain Region and Northwestern Guardsmen during World War One.

If you'd been wondering what became of the men of the Wyoming National Guard, whom we started following with their first muster into service with the Punitive Expedition, the Wyoming State Tribune gave us a clue.

As readers will recall, quite a few of those men were put in to the 148th Field Artillery.  None of them deployed as infantry, which is what they had been when first mustered for border service with Mexico and then again when first recalled for the Great War.  Not all of them ended up in the 148th, but quite a few did, which was a heavy artillery unit of the field artillery.  Indeed, a quite modern one as it used truck, rather than equine, transport.  

Here we learned that the 148th was at Château-Thierry.

Another version of the distinctive insignia for the unit with additional elements for the western nature of the composite elements.

To flesh it out just a bit, the 148th at that time was made up of elements of the 3d Rgt of the Wyoming National Guard, the 1st Separate Battalion Colorado Field Artillery, and the 1st Separate Troop (Cavalry) Oregon National Guard. They were part of the 66th FA Bde.  They'd arrived in France on February 10, 1918, just prior to the German's massive Spring 1918 Offensive.  They were equipped in France with 155 GPF Guns and Renault Artillery tractors.

155 GPF in use by American artillerymen.

They went to the front on July 4, 1918 and were emplaced directly sought of Château-Thierry and began firing missions on July 9.  After that engagement, they'd continue on to participate in the St. Mihiel Offensive and the Meuse Argonne Offensive.  By the wars end, they'd fired 67,590 shells.

American Army Renault EG Artillery tractor with a GPF in tow.  Note the wood blocks for chalks.

The unit went on to be part of the Army of Occupation in Germany following the war, a mission with which it was occupied until June 3, 1919, when it boarded the USS Peerless for New York.  It was mustered out of service at Camp Mills, New York, on June 19, 1919, with Wyoming's members sent on to Ft. D. A. Russell for discharge from their World War One service.

We'll pick this story up again as we reach those dates, but as we made a dedicated effort to follow these men early on, we didn't want to omit their story later.  Wyomingites reading the papers in 1918 learned of their service, accepting censored soldier mail, for the first time on this day in 1918.  While news reporting done by the U.S. and foreign press during World War One was often remarkably accurate, one set of details that was kept generally well hidden was the service, and even the fate, of individual American servicemen and units.  Wyomingites now learned what role many of their Guardsmen had played in the war for the first time.

And it was a significant one.

American Troops under British and French Command in the Great War.

Yesterday I noted that the US 32nd Division was, at this point, advancing under French command.

They weren't alone.

It's really popular to imagine that General Pershing insisted that the US have its own Army in the field and that he was universally successful. So when Americans marched into battle in France, they did so exclusively under overall U.S. command.

That's a myth.

Indeed, we've already seen here recently that the U.S. First Army was only formed in August and that it only took over the St. Michel Sector on August 30.  But Americans had already been in heavy combat for weeks prior to that as individual divisions were placed under higher foreign commands by necessity.

And that hadn't stopped due to the First Army being formed.

The U.S. 33d and 80th Divisions were part of the British Fourth Army and had been fighting with the British as part of the Second Battle of the Somme, which we've read about here a bit.  The American II Corps was also part of the British Fourth Army and would be up until late October, 1918, by which time it had suffered 11,500 casualties under British command.  

In other words, the II Corps fought under the British Fourth Army until the end of the war as a practical matter with one final U.S. Division remaining under official British command at the war's end.

The 92nd and 93d Divisions, which were made up of black enlisted men, fought the entire war under French command.  The American III Corps was part of the French Sixth Army until mid September, when its two divisions became part of the U.S. First Army. 

In October the 37th and 91st Divisions were attached, by Pershing, to French Army of Belgium, at Foch's request.

All of this is significant in that the role of the U.S. Army is subject to a double set of myths, one being that the U.S. Army fought the whole war under American command and the other being that the US role was minimal.  In fact, while there did come to become a U.S. First Army, U.S. divisions served under French and British command in numbers that became significant during the German 1918 Spring Offensive and throughout the 100 Days Offensive.  While after the formation of the U.S. First Army, American command of its troops in the field became extensive, there was never a day when there were not U.S. soldiers under British and French command, and they were needed.

The 100 Days. The Battle of Amiens. August 8-13, 1918. The Black Day of the German Army.

On this day in 1918 the beginning of the final campaign of World War One began with the commencement of the Battle of Amiens.

"August 8, 1918", showing German troops marching into captivity.

Readers here have been reading about the combined Allied attack at Soissons.  That counteroffensive could be regarded in some ways as the commencement of the Allied advances that would result in the November 1918 termination of the war, but it was in truth a local counteroffensive, on a massive scale, designed to reduce a salient that had been created by the German advances in their 1918 Spring Offensive. This was distinctly different in that it was the commencement of a large scale Allied campaign designed to do the very thing the German 1918 Spring; bring the war to a successful conclusion.

The plan to attack at Amiens was first proposed on July 23 after the successful initial stages of the Franco American assault of Soissons.  Unlike Soissons, which had been a Franco American effort with British support, this effort would be a combined British Empire (Canadian, British and Australian) and French effort.

The initial assault plan followed on lessons that had been learned by the Australian assault at Hamel, which featured American combat troops as well, and which is regarded as the first real combined arms assault of the modern type.  The assault featured large-scale use of armor and no pre assault bombardment, but instead immediate artillery support at the time of the attack.  That attack commenced at 0420 in dense fog.

On this day, seven British divisions, supported in the north by the American 33d Division, launched that attack and achieved complete surprise.  German reaction was quite slow as a result.  By the end of the day Empire forces and French forces were both engaged and the Germans sustained 30,000 losses of all types.  The losses were so severe that Eric Ludendorff later characterized the day as the "the Black Day the German Army."

Hindenburg, on left as viewed, and Ludendorff.

Ludendorff's observation came not because of his lamenting the fate of the German's on the field, but because huge numbers of German soldiers simply gave up and surrendered.  It was a Black Day, as the honor of the army, in his viewed, was tainted.  And indeed, German moral was simply destroyed, although not just by this day alone.  German troops refused to rally and yelled back to their officers that they were "prolonging the war".  They also yelled at reserves coming into the line that they were "Blacklegs" (strike breakers).  The German army had simply broken.

The attack continued the next two days, but without the spectacular successes of the first day.  Allied advances continued but support problems developed with contested roads and with infantry units outrunning their artillery support.  Marshall Foch, given the advances, requested that British Field Marshall Haig continue the offensive but Haig declined, given the problems he was facing of this type, and the operation halted on August 13.

By the end of the attack the German lines had significantly contracted and they had sustained a loss of 75,000 men which they could ill afford to lose. Tellingly, 50,000 of those losses were due to men surrendering.  The Allies had lost 44,000 men, of which approximately half were British Empire forces and half French.  The offensive didn't end the war, but it did indicate that something new was going on. The German Army, which had nearly won the war a few weeks over, has so strained its own soldiers that they were basically done.  Only the extraordinary discipline present in the German military overall kept the war from concluding in the summer of 1918, not that the Allies were expecting that to occur.

The Kaiserschlach Fails

The results

While it would theoretically go on to August 7, it was really this day in 1918 on which the Kaiserschlacht came to an end.

The Kaiserschlacht was a remarkable series of offensives that took place over six months, an amazing achievement for an Army facing the challenges that the Germans were in 1918.  This is all the more remarkable if it is considered that the Germans had just concluded a massive offensive, against much less daunting odds, in the East, prior to Russia quitting the war.  The German spring 1918 offensive destroyed the Portuguese commitment to the Allied cause and rocked back the British gains in the war completely.  The Germans nearly took Parish as part of a diversion. Everywhere the Allies lost significant amounts of ground and every German action took ground, including the famous battlefields that had been gained by the Allies in 1916 and 1917.  

And yet it failed, an in a way that the Germans could not recover from.

The offensive reduced the fighting strength of the German Army by 1,000,000 men.  By the end of the offensive German losses meant that the Germans had 207 division to the Allied 203, a near match but one which was evaporating in terms of parity as American troops came on line.  Many of those men lost by the Germans were elite German Storm troops who could not be replaced.  The German offensive itself ground down in large part through sheer exhausting of the German soldier who had to make up for the complete lack of German cavalry through extreme physical exertion on foot.

American combat units deployed in a major way for the first time, sending them to fill the gap that the French appeared unable to wholly fill. The Germans were defeated by the British fighting man's remarkable resolve, the commitment of French and American troops to a gap, the unexpectedly stout resistance of French troops, but most particularly by the horse.  The horse the that the Germans lacked.  Franklin's proverb proved true, although not quite because of the nail.

For the want of a nail the shoe was lost,
For the want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For the want of a horse the rider was lost,
For the want of a rider the battle was lost,
For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe-nail.

It was for the want of the horse that the German Empire was lost.

The Kaiserschlacht Ends. July 15, 1918. Operation Friedensturm

Not very cheery news for a Monday.  Wyoming State Tribune for Monday, July 15, 1918.

Monday, July 15, 1918, brought discouraging, if not unexpected, news.

 

The map one final time, with the final German fifth drive.  This time the Germans attempted to exploit the earlier success of their drive on Paris with a new front to the east.  Over two days the effort gained ground, but the effort was rapidly halted and by this point the French were able to regain the initiative and counter.  The Germans were effectively blocked and gave up offensive efforts on August 7.

On July 15 the Germans resumed offensive operations, but not the Operation Hagen that was designed to be a final blow. Rather, they launched Friedensturm to exploit the earlier  Blücher–Yorck gains. While the offensive, like every other German offensive in this series of operations gained ground, the French were able to ultimately counterattack successfully and the German offensive operations came to an end on August 7.

Laramie residents not only read about the fierce fighting in France. . . they also got to read about how coal shortages were looking to bring an end to beer.

The final effort would see, as with the earlier efforts, some hard fighting.  The Second Battle of the Marne was part of the offensive, which would run from this day until August 6.  The Fourth Battle of Champaigne also started on this day. Both were launched against the French Fourth Army, the Germans having switched attention to them, of which the US 42nd Division was a part.  The 42nd was a division made up of National Guardsmen.  The French forces, moreover, were rapidly reinforced by British and American troops.  The US 3d Division would be back in action on this day and earn the nickname "The Rock of the Marine".  By the battles end eight American divisions would participate and the US would sustain 12,000 casualties.  The number of divisions contributed to the defense would be twice that of the British, with American divisions being twice as large, but even embattled Italy contributed two divisions and sustained 9,000 casualties.  Forty-four French divisions would fight in the battle and fifty-two German divisions.

Allied battlefield loses would be roughly equal to German ones in the campaign, but by this point the Germans did not have the troops to lose.

Quentin Roosevelt shot down and killed in combat, July 14, 1918

Quentin Roosevelt, age 20, one of Theodore and Edith Roosevelt's son, was killed in aerial combat over France.

Quentin was the youngest of the Roosevelt boys, all of whom were serving in World War One (Kermit was serving in the British Army).  His death came as a terrible shock to his parents and his father never really recovered.  T.R.'s decline into death himself accelerated rapidly after Quentin's death and his fiery nature evaporated.

2nd Lt. Roosevelt was buried with full military honors but they were not above making a postcard out of the photograph of his dead body and wrecked airplane, a site that was sufficiently grisly that the German populace, which remained fond of Roosevelt, was shocked.

Quentin was by all accounts highly intelligent and very well liked.  He was engaged at the time of his death to the wealthy Flora Payne Whitney who was treated by the Roosevelt family in the immediate aftermath of his death as if she was one of the family.   She would go on to marry a fellow member of Roosevelt's squadron in 1920, although the marriage would be brief (she remarried in 1927).

Quentin as a boy at Sagamore Hill.

2nd Division Captures Vaux, July 1, 1918.

The 9th and 23d Infantry Regiments of the U.S. Army, elements of the 2nd Division, captured Vaux on this day in 1918.

The battle isn't one that you hear a great deal about, perhaps because it was so perfectly executed.  The Army carefully studied the ground and planned and executed a late afternoon assault supported by artillery. The Germans were caught off guard and lost 500 men as prisoners and an additional 500 as casualties.  Losses to the U.S. Army were 300 casualties.

The town itself was a ruin, having been devastated by the fighting in the region.

Again? The Laramie Boomerang, June 28, 1918

Residents of Laramie woke up to news that the German offensive was about to start up once again.  Would the Spring Offensive become a Summer one?

The same issue was reporting the Bolsheviks in Russia overthrown while reporting that the president of the University of Michigan was warning that immigration was bringing the red peril to our shores.

The Laramie Boomerang for June 26, 1918. Belleau Wood Taken.

Tides beginning to turn.

The Battle of Belleau Wood. June 10 to the conclusion.

On June 10 the Marines resumed the assault in the Belleau Wood, but without success.  The Germans resorted to using massive amounts of mustard gas to blunt the Marine attack as well as devastating fire.  That didn't keep the US from resuming the attack the next day very early in the morning, however, to greater success. That June 11 attack also incorporated U.S. Army units of the 2nd Division.

Over the next few days the Marines attacked again and again, until finally on June 26 the Wood was reported as being in U.S. hands.

US casualties had been severe, with over 1800 killed and 7900 wounded.  German losses remain unknown but 1600 Germans surrendered over the course of the battle.

The battle was a significant one for a variety of reasons.  For one thing, it was the first really large scale American operation of the war in France.  It was not the first time Americans had been in action by any means, but this action involved two US divisions and a French division under American command, although most of the fighting fell to the Marines in the 2nd Division.  Five German divisions were engaged at various points during the battle.  And it was the successful test of the American theory of combat which varied enormously from that which was being applied in the British and French ranks.  American troops had successfully turned and reacted to a German assault and then they had declined to retreat and declined to entrench.  This reflected the views of American leadership which was critical of the way that the Western Allies had fought the war to date.  Instead the Americans fought a modified large scale version of war the way they had practiced it since prior to the American Civil War.

Moreover, the Americans, while green, proved to be a tenacious enemy to the Germans which the Germans themselves noted.  By this stage in the war few units on either side were willing to engage in risks to the degree to which the Americans were, to the German's surprise.  American rifle file, moreover, proved to be highly accurate, reflecting American marksmanship in general and also the fact that most of the troops engaged in this battle on the American side were Marines.  Indeed, while the American forces were green in general, the unusual use of Marines as regular infantry changed the way that they'd be ever after used in the American military and pitted the Germans against a force whose NCO corps was incredibly gruff and in fact experienced.

Whether the US would have been able to continue fighting this way indefinitely has often been questioned.  Pershing's theories about fighting in France were vindicated in this battle, but that does not mean they were proven. They certainly took the Germans very much off guard.  But as troops became more experienced it is questionable if they would have been willing to continue to fight so recklessly.  On the other hand, American troops were now flooding into France with fresh divisions and they'd continue to be fresh for quite some time.

At any rate, Belleau Wood was a seminal American victory.  An American division had stopped the advance of more numerous Germans, and then a second American division had driven them back.  While the Germans continued on with their Spring offensive, the offensive advanced no further here.  The German Spring offensive was, in fact, reaching an end just as American troops were arriving in large numbers and engaging in action very effectively.

The Kaiserschlacht Repeats. June 9, 1918. Operation Gneisenau

Operation Gneisenau

 

The map again. The fourth German drive again attempted to exploit the gap beetween the British and the French. As it would turn out, it also ended up pitting the Germans against the newly arrived American Army.  The offensive was sucessful to a degree in that it gained ground, but the ground gained was much smaller than prior German drives.

Operation Blucher-Yorck was followed by a new German offensive, Operation Gneisenau which was designed to exploit the successes of the earlier offensive operations.  The French, however, anticipated the June 9 assault and launched a massive counterattack two days into it, on June 11.  While the Germans had advanced nine miles in that two days, the French counterattack caused them to call off further operations on June 12.  This resulted in a month long German pause while they postponed a large operation that was supposed to have exploited the May 27 through June 5 advances.

The Battle of Belleau Wood. June 7-9, 1918 Stalemate

The Marines now held a foothold in the Belleau Wood.  The Germans were in the Wood as well.

At midnight on June 7, the Germans launched as assault on the Marines and were completely stopped.  The Marines, in turn, launched an assault on the Germans on June 8 and it was likewise halted, taking so many casualties by this point that the Marine battalion that participated in it had to be relieved and replaced by a more fully manned one.

On June 9 French and U.S. artillery virtually destroyed the Wood, a former pristine hunting ground.  The Germans, in turn, fired artillery into Lucy and Bouresches and reorganized inside the Wood.

But note what wasn't happening.  The Americans had not fought this battle according to script at all. . . and the Germans were not advancing.

The news of the Marine Corp's actions of a day ago hit the front page back home, with dramatic results. This was likely the first time Americans had really thought of the Marine Corps in this fashion.

What was missed in these accounts is a significant factor.  American troops of the 1st, 2nd and 3d Divisions were in action, and as American divisions. But they were not in the overall command of an American Army.

Rather, these divisions had been supplied by the U.S. command, somewhat reluctantly, after it became convinced that the Germans might break the French and British lines.  So, while the divisions fought under their U.S. commanders, these three divisions, made up all of regulars, were above that level now in the French sector under French command, albeit temporarily.

On a local note, the school district in Casper (there was more than one in the county at the time) had purchased property that would become Roosevelt School in 1922.  The school was, rather obviously, named after the recently departed President  Theodore Roosevelt.  It was in use for decades, having completed its service as an alternative high school, and was recently closed and transferred to another entity for a veteran's facility.

This is a situation the US had hoped earnestly to avoid.  Indeed, while the German 1918 Spring Offensive was no surprise whatsoever, the US high command in France had studied it under Gen. Fox Connor and determined that the Allies could resist it successfully without U.S. help, and this would leave the Americans ready to go into action in the Fall and Winter, bringing the war to a conclusion in 1919.

Whether the US was right about that or not can be debated. There was good reason to feel that the Americans were flatly wrong about the French ability to hold out without US assistance by this point in 1918.  And in fairness by this point the American high command was convinced and the three US divisions made up of regulars did in fact start fighting, but not under an overall US command like the Americans had planned on. This would develop into a inter allied spat of a rather serious nature as the summer rolled on.

The Battle of Belleau Wood. The Allies strike. June 6, 1918. "Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?"

Bain News Service photograph of U.S. Marines in France, June 6, 1918.  Note that these "Soldiers of the Sea", assigned to the U.S. 2nd Division, are wearing a stripped down uniform and are marching without their service coats, something that in June 1918 you will would not be likely to find in regards to soldiers of the U.S. Army.  The Marine Corps expanded for World War One, but even more than the Army it contained a high percentage of pre war enlistees, many who were rather salty.

At 0345 on this day in 1918, the Allies went on the offensive at Belleau Wood.  Once again, the battle was featuring nighttime fighting.

The Marines Brigade assaulted Hill 142 with the French supporting their left flank.  The Marines unfortunately had not scouted Hill 142 and accordingly a German infantry regiment was present that was not expected.  Marine Corps looses were massive but as tended to be the case for fresh American troops entering action for the first time, they advanced anyhow in spite of nearly a complete loss of their officer corps.  By the end of the day they had repelled a German counterattack and held Hill 142.

During the German counterattack Marine Gunnery Sergeant Ernest A. Janson won the Congressional Medal of Honor.  His citation reads:

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor (Army Award) to Gunnery Sergeant Charles F. Hoffman, United States Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism while serving with the 49th Company, 5th Regiment (Marines), 2d Division, A.E.F. in action at Chateau-Thierry, France, 6 June 1918. Immediately after the company to which he belonged had reached its objective on Hill 142, several hostile counterattacks were launched against the line before the new position had been consolidated. Gunnery Sergeant Hoffman was attempting to organize a position on the north slope of the hill when he saw 12 of the enemy, armed with five light machineguns, crawling toward his group. Giving the alarm, he rushed the hostile detachment, bayoneted the two leaders, and forced the others to flee, abandoning their guns. His quick action, initiative, and courage drove the enemy from a position from which they could have swept the hill with machinegun fire and forced the withdrawal of our troops.

 Ernest A. Janson.

On the same day the Marines entered the Wood itself and took it in a late day assault.  Again, the advance was made under massive fire and resulted in massive casualties.  During the advance Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daily, a recipient of a prior Congressional Medals of Honor for action in the Boxer Rebellion, urged his men forward with the memorable question  "Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?"  He won his second Medal of Honor for this engagement.

 Dan Daly

Fighting in the Wood became hand to hand.  By the end of the day both the Germans and the Marines held positions in the woods.

Occupation of Chateau Thierry Sector, June 6-July 14, 1918, Second Division

Getting the news of the American victory on the Marne and having a giant overreaction in Sheridan. June 6, 1918.

On June 6 the American victory at Château-Thierry was beginning to become a little more clear, although the newspapers anticipated more action.  That action was ongoing in the Belleau Wood, which was just next door and which really is part of the same battle.

In Sheridan the town in engaged in an absurd overreaction and the schools burned German books.  Learning German certainly didn't make a person some sort of German sympathizer and indeed, learning the language of your enemy is a good idea.

A Natrona County resident measuring 6'7", very tall for any age, enlisted in the Army.  I'm somewhat surprised that his height didn't disqualify him for service.  You can be too tall to join.

Did we miss the Battle of Château-Thierry?

Yes.

Um, no.

Well, it depends.

Actually, we did catch the first day of a battle at Château-Thierry, in our post here:

The Battle of Belleau Wood Commences. June 1, 1918.

Following the first major offensive action by the U.S. just a few days prior, a much more major battle commenced on this day in 1918, following the successful defense of Château-Thierry the prior day.  The Battle of Belleau Wood.  It would continue on until June 26, making it a much more protracted battle than Cantigny.  It would also be one that would result in lasting fame for the 2nd Division and its Marine contingent.

On May 31 the U.S. 3d Division held the German advance at Château-Thierry and the German offensive turned right to outflank it, as we have seen..  On 1 June, Château-Thierry and Vaux then fell, and German troops moved into Belleau Wood.  The 2nd Division, a composite Army and Marine Corps Division, was brought up on the Paris Metz Highway to counter the German effort.  The night of June 1 the Americans were flanked again when the Germans moved to the left and breached a French held line.  The German advance, however, was stopped by a night march and the following action by the 2nd Division, resulting in a successful parry in an all night time action.  The net result was not only the halt of the German flanking action but the U.S. ended up holding an extended line as a result.

This wouldn't be the end of the fight. . .

That post noted that  the U.S. 3d Division had become engaged at Château-Thierry on May 31.  We treated, and properly, as the opening phase of the Battle of Belleau Wood.

But if you look up the battle of Château-Thierry you might see, rightly, ongoing fighting there on June 1 through 4, which we didn't cover.  We likely should have.

But that probably isn't the Battle of Château-Thierry you are thinking of.

Be that as it may, the 3d Division stayed engaged at Château-Thierry after June 1 and on June 3-4 it pushed the Germans back across the Marine at Jaulgonne.  This was the second significant American offensive action, if taken as a single action, of the war. 

Belleau Wood. The news hits home. June 5, 1918.

On June 5 all the newspapers were full of the early news from Bealleau Wood, although the battle had not yet acquired that name.

The death of Charles Fairbanks, Theodore Roosevelt's Vice President, was also on the front page.  Fairbanks hadn't been the Vice President all that long ago, but already the major figures of the early Progressive Era were starting to pass on.

It what might have been the first news of it's type to hit US newspapers (maybe), the press was also starting to worry about seaborne air raids, at this time in the form of aircraft transported by submarines.  As absurd as that may sound, the Japanese did in fact do that during World War Two, having perfected the ability between the wars, and used them in at least one small raid off of the Pacific Northwest.

Early summer weather was significant enough to make the front page in Laramie, and as any Laramie resident can attest, early Summer weather in Laramie can in fact be "unsettled."  Summers in Laramie are beautiful, but they feature some spectacular storms.

Battle of Belleau Wood. General Bundy takes command and the French arrive. June 4, 1918.

On this day in 1918, Omar Bundy, U.S. Army, 2nd Division, took command of the entire Belleau Wood front thereby giving it a consolidated leadership. On the same day the French 167th Division arrived, which was placed under Bundy's command.

Omar Bundy, U.S. Army.

And the news of what would come to be known as the Battle of Belleau Wood began to hit the front page back in the US.

The Battle of Belleau Wood Commences. The German assault at Marigny and Lucy. June 3, 1918.

 Pvt Lee Roy Todd, USMC, of Pike County, Georgia who was killed in action on June 3, 1918.  One of the Many Marine Corps casualties of the Battle of Belleau Wood.   Note Pvt. Todd's distinctive Marine Corps cut service coat, which was a darker green (and more of a true green) than the Army's, and the globe and anchor device on his M1911 campaign hate which show him to be a Marine.  He's wearing a highly faded set of canvas leggings.

On this day, the Germans having taken Belleau Wood, but having been arrested in their advance by the 2nd and 3d U.S. Divisions, launched an assault on the towns of Marigny and Lucy from the Wood.

 James Harbord, U.S. Army.  He wasn't impressed with his French instructions.

This event made it plane that the US did not intend to fight in France the same way that the Western Allies had.  The advance took the Germans through farm fields occupied by the Marine Corps Brigade assigned to the 2nd Division. The French had ordered the brigade to withdraw from this position and dig a trench line to their rear.  General James Harbord, U.S. Army, flat out disregarded the order and in fact countermanded it, ordering the Marines to hold in place. They accordingly dug shallow fighting pits, a long established U.S. practice.

The Germans advanced through the Marine held grain fields on this day. The Marines did not open fire until the Germans were within 100 yards and basically mowed the Germans down.  The survivors withdrew back to the Wood and then dug defensive positions at Hill 204 running just east of Vaux to Le Thiolet on the Paris-Metz Highway and north through Belleau Wood to Torcy.

At this point the Marines positioned themselves to attack the German positions.  French retreating forces urged (but not ordered) them to withdraw.  Upon hearing the request, Marine Captain Lloyd Williams uttered the famous words "Retreat, hell!  We just got here."