It was also here that the Marine Corps’ “Devil Dog” nickname was supposedly born. As the story goes, German officers, in their battle reports, referred to the Marines as “Teufel Hunden” (German for “Devil Dogs”) as a result of the ferocity with which the Marines fought, and the name stuck.
After the battle, the French Army renamed Belleau Wood in honor of the Marines, changing the name to “Bois de la Brigade de Marine”–“The Wood of the Marine Brigade.” Furthermore, the 5th and 6th Marine Regiments received the Croix de Guerre, an award for distinction and heroism in combat with the enemy, three times during the First World War–the only regiments in the American Expeditionary Force to do so. As a result, The 5th and 6th Marine Regiments are authorized to wear the French fourragère, a military award that distinguishes military units as a whole and that is shaped like a braided cord, on their dress uniforms.
Belleau Wood was also the setting for two of the most famous quotes in Marine Corps history. On June 2, 1918, as the Marines were arriving at Belleau Wood to support the French Army, they found the French retreating. A French officer ordered the Marines to do the same. Captain Lloyd Williams, of the 5th Marine Regiment, refused to do so, replying, “Retreat, Hell! We just got here.” Four days later, on June 6, First Sergeant Dan Daly is said to have rallied his men by yelling, “Come on you sons of b******! Do you want to live forever!” as they charged into battle.
Uncommon Valor
While it would be another quarter century before Admiral Chester Nimitz would famously say “Uncommon valor was a common virtue,” about the sacrifices made by Marines on Iwo Jima in WWII, it could just as easily have been said about the Marines at Belleau Wood. Exhausted, outnumbered, and outgunned, the Marines refused to yield.
Against all odds and expectations, they absorbed everything the Germans could throw at them and, in true Marine fashion, persevered. Perhaps the character and courage displayed by the Marines at Belleau Wood is best reflected in the battle account of U.S. Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniel’s, who wrote:
“In all the history of the Marine Corps there is no such battle as that one in Belleau Wood. Fighting day and night without relief, without sleep, often without water, and for days without hot rations, the marines met and defeated the best divisions that Germany could throw into the line.
The heroism and doggedness of that battle are unparalleled. Time after time officers seeing their lines cut to pieces, seeing their men so dog tired that they even fell asleep under shellfire, hearing their wounded calling for the water they were unable to supply, seeing men fight on after they had been wounded and until they dropped unconscious; time after time officers seeing these things, believing that the very limit of human endurance had been reached, would send back messages to their post command that their men were exhausted.
But in answer to this would come the word that the line must hold, and, if possible, those lines must attack. And the lines obeyed. Without water, without food, without rest, they went forward – and forward every time to victory.”
Courtesy of MarineParents.com Inc
Image: “La Brigade Marine Americain Au Bois de Belleau” or “The American Marines in Belleau Wood” by French war correspondant Georges Scott
