WITH THE HELP OF GOD NDAFEW ff R E3 ENSE PETIT P LAC I DAM SUB LIBE > < m From the Library of c RALPH EMERSON FORBES 1866-1937 o n > ;;.SACHUSETTS BOSTON LIBRARY "WITH THE HELP OF GOD AND A FEW ]\/[ARINES" "WITH THE HELP OF GOD AND A FEW MARINES" BY BRIGADIER GENERAL A. W. CATLIN, U. S. M. C. WITH THE COLLABORATION OF WALTER A. DYER AUTHOR OF "HERROT, DOG OF BELGIUM," ETC ILLUSTRATED Gaeden City New York DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1919 » m Copyright, 1918, 1919, by DOUBLEDAY, PaGE & COMPANY All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages including the Scandinavian UNIV. OF MASSACHUSETTS - LIBRARY { AT BOSTON CONTENTS PAGE ix Introduction , , . PART I ' MARINES TO THE FRONT I CHAPTER I. What Is A Marine? 3 II. To France! ^5 III. In the Trenches 29 IV. Over the Top 44 V. The Drive That Menaced Paris 61 PART II fighting to save PARIS VI. Going In 79 VIL Carrying On 9i VIII. "Give 'Em Hell, Boys!" 106 IX. In Belleau Wood and Bouresches 123 X. Pushing Through ^3^ XI. "They Fought Like Fiends'* ........ 161 XII. "Le Bois de LA Brigade de Marine" 171 XIII. At Soissons and After 183 PART III soldiers of the sea XIV. The Story of the Marine Corps 237 XV. Vera Cruz AND THE Outbreak of War 251 XVI. The Making of a Marine 267 XVII. Some Reflections on the War 293 APPENDIX I. Historical Sketch 3^9 II. The Marines' Hymn .323 III. Major Evans's Letter 324 IV. Cited for Valour in Action 34^ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS HALF-TONE Belleau Wood . • • ... • . ."•• . Fronttspiec/ FACING PAGE The Gas Alarm ". • 48 Six Seconds Later 4^ "Out there in No Man's Land the Hun took bloody toll of our Marines, but he paid the price" S^ This section of a French war map General Catlin carried in his map book during the first stages of the Battle of Belleau Wood 84 " Berry's men started through that wheat, but they met with stub- born resistance" IH "There were guns at the street corners, behind barricades, and even on the housetops, but the Marines kept on" 124 «< There were machine gun nests everywhere" . 128 « They picked the German gunners out of the trees like squirrels" 128 Soldiers of the Sea 246 LIST OF DIAGRAMS IN THE TEXT PAGE This map shows the western side and southern extremity of the salient created by the German drive of May, 1918 ..... 69 The territory between the two heavy lines was won back in June, 1918 71 Showing the line from which the French fell back and the first posi- tion taken up by the Marines before Belleau Wood .... 88 Showing the second position taken by the American forces before Belleau Wood on the night of June 4th 102 Showing the Allied line as advanced to the north on the morning of Junesth I03 The final position ©f the line after the Battle of Belleau Wood • 178 • • Vll INTRODUCTION When the Crown Prince of Germany started his drive down across the Chemin des Dames in the latter days of May, 191 8, and penetrated as far as the Marne at Chateau-Thierry, Paris itself, only thirty-five miles away, was threatened as it had not been since Von Kluck was checked by JofFre in the first Battle of the Marne. The Allies had weakened their lines in this sector to stop the earher drive in the Somme country to the northwest and the Ger- mans took the weary French completely by surprise. With a tremendous weight of men, machine guns, and gas shells, they hacked their way through in a blunt, irresistible wedge, till the French, outnum- bered, spent, demoralized, and with their resisting power diminished to the vanishing point, were forced to give way before the terrific onrush of force. At the point nearest Paris the danger was acute. It seemed as though nothings human could prevent the German from attaining his objective. A cry for help arose. An American division was rushed to the front and thrown into the fray. Half of this division was composed of Marines, who were given IX X INTRODUCTION the post of honour and danger at the centre. Most of them, though serving under seasoned officers, had seen but little of the action of battle. Could they stem the tide that threatened to engulf the capital of France? They were virtually untried, and they were called upon to whip the flower of the Kaiser^s army, flushed with victory and enjoying all the advantage of momentum. When the history of the Great War is written, it will be no easy task to assign to each of the titanic battles its proper place in the scale of importance, but if justice is done, the Battle of Belleau Wood will take its place beside that of Thermopylae and the other crucial battles of world history. Here a mere handful of determined, devoted men, as num- bers are reckoned to-day, turned the awful tide, and they were soldiers and Marines of the United States of America. We shall need the perspective of time to judge of these things aright, but in the light of the present it is not too much to say that this melee in the woods, this bitter struggle for a bit of ground smaller than Central Park, marked the turning point of this whole war. For if the Marines had not driven the Germans out of Belleau Wood it must have gone hard with the Allies in that sector. The Germans would, in all probability, have been enabled in an- other day or two to bring up their reserves and their heavier guns, and nothing but a miracle could have saved Paris. It was the American who held that Metz-to-Paris road, and no less a personage than INTRODUCTION xi Premier Clemenceau is authority for the statement that the United States Marines were unquestionably the saviours of the city. When the engagement was over and the Germans had been driven back, General Degoutte, commanding the Sixth Army of France, signed a special order changing the name of the Bois de Belleau to the Bois de la Brigade de Marine. The Marines were called upon to do the impos- sible, and because there is no such word in their code, they did it. They left in that w^ood some of the best blood of America, but, outnumbered and in- experienced as they were, they fought that last- stand fight to a finish and they stopped the Hun. There is a reason for all this, and the people back home ought to know something about it. Time was when the Marine was looked upon as a mere handy man for the Navy, a sort of web-footed policeman who was neither soldier nor sailor. That time has long since passed, but even to-day the average American has but a vague idea of what a Marine is. Something has made the U. S. Marine a name to conjure with in the four quarters of the globe, has won for him the soubriquet of Teufelhund from the Boche himself. Personnel, training, tradition, and experience have all had a part in it, and that im- ponderable but all-powerful quality which we call esprit de corps. The Marine is a trained athlete, a picked man, a he creature with muscles and a jaw, whose motto is "kill or be killed," and who believes with all his soul that no man on earth can lick him. And it comes pretty near to being so. He is own : — — xii INTRODUCTION brother to the British Marine, of whom Kiphng wrote "An' after I met 'im all over the world, a-doin' all kinds of things, Like landin' 'isself with a Gatlin' gun to talk to them 'eathen kings; 'E sleeps in an 'ammick instead of a cot, an' 'e drills with the deck on a slew, — An' 'e sweats like a Jolly 'Er Majesty's Jolly—soldier ^an' sailor too! For there isn't a job on the top o' the earth the beggar don't knov7, nor do You can leave 'im at night on a bald man's 'ead, to paddle 'is own canoe 'E's a sort of a bloomin' cosmopolouse—soldier an' sailor too." General Catlin has told a graphic, eye-witness story of the Battle of Belleau Wood, but he has done much more than this. He has given us an in- sight into the making of a Marine, and the Amer- ican who can read the whole story of it without a soul-searching thrill of patriotic pride is no American at all. Of General Catlin himself, who, as Colonel of the Sixth Regiment of Marines, commanded the forces at Belleau Wood, I feel that something should be said, though it would be the worst of taste to tack a fulsome eulogy to the narrative of a man so thor- oughly straightforward and modest as he. His men idolize him, and perhaps that tells the whole story. Brif^adier General Albertus Wright Cathn is a INTRODUCTION xVn Marine of the Marines. Born in Gowanda, N. Y., December i, 1868, he was appointed to the Naval Academy from Minnesota in May, 1886. He grad- uated from Annapolis with the Class of 1890. His two-years* cruise as midshipman followed. The Marines seemed to offer the best chance for active service at that time and upon his return from the cruise he applied for a commission in the Corps. On July I, 1892, he was made a Second Lieutenant of Marines.