American Expeditionary Forces at Belleau Wood

Map showing Belleau Wood on SW edge of Chateau-Thierry sector

The successful March 1918 German offensives had created a massive bulges in the Western Front. One of the bulges was where the front line now dropped southwest in between Rheims and Soissons. At the bottom of the bulge was the city of Chateau-Thierry. The salient had been partially created by the German offensives starting March 21, 1918. The Germans launched their follow on operations Blucher and York starting on May 27, 1918. The Germans quickly advanced nearly 25 miles in places and were threatening Paris. The French government starting talking about evacuating the capital and even suggested that there might be a complete collapse of the nation. It was a bad time for the French. The situation was nightmarishly reminiscent of 1914.

Belleau Wood today.

Belleau Wood was a small forested plateau about three miles northwest of Chateau-Thierry. The Germans felt that this was a good place to launch an attack against the untested Americans. From June 4th to July 10th, four German divisions attacked. They ran into the US Marine Brigade of the US 2nd Infantry Division. It was an incredibly bloody battle, and the Americans threw waves of soldiers into the attack. In fact, on the first day of Belleau Wood, the Marines suffered more casualties than over their entire previous combat history.

Remnants of trenches at Belleau Wood today.

Visitors like Hiram Bingham who visited afterwards described the battlefield as one where:

"the dead were still lying as they had fallen, and where one could not fail to be impressed with the enormous waste of men and material which spells the modern battlefield. It was amazing to see the thousands of hand grenades and hundreds of thousands of rounds of small arms ammunition that had been left on the field without being used."

Chapel at Belleau Wood

American Cemetery at Belleau Wood

Still, the German offensive was checked, the German flank threatened and their offensive stalled out for the time being. The Marines held the line and history was made.

Read Visiting Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood.

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