General Pershing as a part of the victorious American army, have
written a story of valor and sacrifice that will live in the brightest
annals of the war. With heroism that nothing could daunt, the Marine
Corps played a vital role in stemming the German rush on Paris, and in
later days aided in the beginning of the great offensive, the freeing
of Rheims, and participated in the hard fighting in Champagne, which
had as its object the throwing back of the Prussian armies in the
vicinity of Cambrai and St. Quentin.

With only 8000 men engaged in the fiercest battles, the Marine Corps
casualties numbered 69 officers and 1531 enlisted men dead and 78
officers and 2435 enlisted men wounded seriously enough to be
officially reported by cablegram, to which number should be added not a
few whose wounds did not incapacitate them for further fighting.
However, with a casualty list that numbers nearly half the original
8000 men who entered battle, the official reports account for only 57
United States marines who have been captured by the enemy. This
includes those who were wounded far in advance of their lines and who
fell into the hands of Germans while unable to resist.

Memorial Day shall henceforth have a greater, deeper significance for
America, for it was on that day, May 30, 1918, that our country really
received its first call to battle--the battle in which American troops
had the honor of stopping the German drive on Paris, throwing back the
Prussian hordes in attack after attack, and beginning the retreat which
lasted until Imperial Germany was beaten to its knees and its
emissaries appealing for an armistice under the flag of truce. And to
the United States marines, fighting side by side with equally brave and
equally courageous men in the American army, to that faithful sea and
land force of the navy, fell the honor of taking over the lines where
the blow of the Prussian would strike the hardest, the line that was
nearest Paris, and where, should a breach occur, all would be lost.

The world knows today that the United States marines held that line;
that they blocked the advance that was rolling on toward Paris at a
rate of six or seven miles a day; that they met the attack in American
fashion and with American heroism; that marines and soldiers of the
American army threw back the crack guard divisions of Germany, broke
their advance, and then, attacking, drove them back in the beginning of
a retreat that was no