Also on this day in history
Last edited Fri Jun 6, 2025, 04:00 PM - Edit history (1)
D-Day It is perhaps the most famous battle in American history (it's either that or Gettysburg). However, another crucially important battle began that day - arguably when the tide turned in the First World War.
The German Army was on the move in the Spring of 1918, advancing their furthest on the Western Front since the early days of the war. They seemingly were about to knock out France. The French asked General John Pershing for help and Black Jack sent the 2nd Division, which was made up of one Army Brigade and one Marine, to attack the tip of the spear...a little forest called Bois de Belleau. Belleau Wood as we call it is about 40 miles from Paris, the German's closest advance to France's capital. Maybe a mile or two in size, it is still thick with trees a century later and the battle must have been nigh impossible.
The Marine Brigade of the 2nd Division charged through this wheat field into the woods on June 6th and for the next three weeks Americans and Germans would trade parts of it back and forth many times. My wife and I travelled there a few years ago. Walking through the woods was very humbling...it is still pock marked with shell holes, fox holes, and trench lines. But maybe the most moving experience is standing at the spot where the Second Division charged into. You can see the trench line where the Germans fired at the oncoming Americans....killing many. It's simply amazing any made it to the woods at all, much less got a foothold...much less fought and clawed their way though.
Casualties would mount on both sides...the Marines lost more men in the battle than they had in their entire history prior and had to be pulled out for a few days (the men of the 3rd Division would be thrown in during their absence). However the Marine Brigade eventually took the forest on the 26th.
Americans fought all around the area in those fateful days of late May through mid-July where the tide of war was turned. But Belleau Wood was a tremendous boost psychologically, as France's morale had cracked almost beyond repair and one could reasonably say stiffened their resolve at the most crucial moment of the war. Within five months the Allies would be triumphant.
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WWI was the original debt payment....WWII was the interest. 
Know your BFEE: Nazis couldn’t win WWII, so they backed Bushes.
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