s position. That night the men
and officers of the marines slept in the open, many of them in a field
that was green with unharvested wheat, awaiting the time when they
should be summoned to battle. The next day at 5 o'clock, the afternoon
of June 2, began the battle of Chateau-Thierry, with the Americans
holding the line against the most vicious wedge of the German advance.

The advance of the Germans was across a wheat field, driving at Hill
165 and advancing in smooth columns. The United States marines,
trained to keen observation upon the rifle range, nearly every one of
them wearing a marksman's medal or better, that of the sharpshooter or
expert rifleman, did not wait for those gray-clad hordes to advance
nearer.

Calmly they set their sights and aimed with the same precision that
they had shown upon the rifle ranges at Paris Island, Mare Island, and
Quantico. Incessantly their rifles cracked, and with their fire came
the support of the artillery. The machine-gun fire, incessant also,
began to make its inroads upon the advancing forces. Closer and closer
the shrapnel burst to its targets. Caught in a seething wave of
machine-gun fire, of scattering shrapnel, of accurate rifle fire, the
Germans found themselves in a position in which further advance could
only mean absolute suicide. The lines hesitated. They stopped. They
broke for cover, while the marines raked the woods and ravines in which
they had taken refuge with machine gun and rifle to prevent them making
another attempt to advance by infiltrating through.

Above, a French airplane was checking up on the artillery fire.
Surprised by the fact that men should deliberately set their sights,
adjust their range, and then fire deliberately at an advancing foe,
each man picking his target, instead of firing merely in the direction
of the enemy, the aviator signaled below "Bravo!" In the rear that
word was echoed again and again. The German drive on Paris had been
stopped.

For the next few days the fighting took on the character of pushing
forth outposts and determining the strength of the enemy. Now, the
fighting had changed. The Germans, mystified that they should have run
against a stone wall of defense just when they believed that their
advance would be easiest, had halted, amazed; then prepared to defend
the positions they had won with all the stubbornness possible. In the
black recesses of Belleau Wood the Germans had established nest afte