Battle of Belleau Wood

And, um, in one battle, she made, um, 51 trips up to the guns, most of the time by herself.

This was the Battle of Outpost Vegas in March of '53, which at that time, it was said to be one of the most fierce battles the Marine Corps had, had been through, and if you look at Belleau Wood and you look at all of these, um, um, uh, Iwo Jima, you just see at that time there was so much incoming and outgoing firepower that the rounds were colliding in midair and raining down on the troops.

The rounds were coming in at 500 rounds a minute.

The men were getting hit with shrapnel and everything.

But, um, yeah, all sorts of stuff.

Belleau Wood, all sorts of stuff the Americans did right at the end of, of World War I.

Fascinating, fascinating stuff.

Right, the next one, last one from Acid Helm says, "On this day in 451 AD, the Fourth Ecumenical Council began at Chalcedon", n- near Istanbul or, uh, Constantinople.

He saw considerable action in the war.

He was wounded twice at Belleau Wood, and after recovering from his wounds and rejoining his regiment for the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives, he was wounded for a third time in the latter.

Shepherd served in the Army of Occupation in Germany and on his return home, became aide to the commandant and at the White House.

During the interwar period, he had a mix of school, staff, and command assignments.

He saw considerable action in the war.

He was wounded twice at Belleau Wood, and after recovering from his wounds and rejoining his regiment for the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives, he was wounded for a third time in the latter.

Shepherd served in the Army of Occupation in Germany and on his return home, became aide to the commandant and at the White House.

During the interwar period, he had a mix of school, staff, and command assignments.

Um, and by the time the American Third and Second Divisions arrived, including the Marine Corps Brigade, which, uh, was the, the schwerpunkt of American forces, they arrived on June 4th, and that's really what halted the offensive.

That was the Battle of Belleau Wood as we-- I mean, the Belle- Belleau Wood was contested for a minute, but what we think of as the Battle of Belleau Wood is when these, uh, American reinforcements arrived.

Um, again, the, uh, the lead element was Marine Corps infantry and, um, and, uh, and that, um, and the, and the, and the, the race to Paris was no more.

Um, and by that point, I mean, it was, uh, there was no m- there wasn't the...

They made holding the village of Cantigny a test for the staying powers of troops of the First Division.

The desperation with which they held on to Belleau Wood can only be interpreted as meaning their intent to show the Americans that when it came to a knock-down, drag-out fight, the Germans were their masters.

Not that the wood was without local tactical importance.

Like Cantigny, it was important both as an observatory and as a strong point in the German line.

The important Etriplel plateau a few weeks later, during the Second Battle of the Marne, was to give a great deal of trouble to our Twenty-sixth New England Infantry Division and the French divisions on either side when they attacked it, because its fall meant the German evacuation of Chateau-Thierry and all the southwest portion of their Marne salient.

On June sixth, the Marine Brigade attacked.

Despite heavy losses and desperate resistance on the part of the Germans, they captured the village of Bouresches and got well into Belleau Wood.

From then until June sixteen, the Marines stubbornly continued their advance, though the Germans with equal stubbornness literally contested every foot of the broken rocky ground covered with trees and thick underbrush.

So yeah, they would've been very old, but it wasn't like, like today where it's ancient history, you know?

No. There's a very famous scene in The Big Parade that takes place in Belleau Woods, and it's when the young soldiers, anxious for war, are going through, are marching through the woods, and they're getting picked off one by one by German snipers.

Now, this is devastating, tragic.

So you juxtapose that with the scene in The General where Buster Keaton is trying to help them load the cannons, and one by one, that sniper is killing his, his comrades, and we're supposed to think it's funny.